Search - Saint-Preux :: Concerto para uma voz

Wonderful!

Claudette L. Crow | AZ | 02/07/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I heard this work from Saint-Preux during the 80s when they were still the old records. I still have it actually. Recently I wanted to give as a gift for a friend and that is when I came to find the CD on the Amazon site. Well, I already knew the work, which I love! But my friend never heard about before, and she just loved it also. There are some extra songs that were not included on the old record that are from another of his work, I'm not sure about the title of the other work, Confidence I think. But I can say it's a very worthy purchase. Now I have to get his other works which I never heard about before, because I'm sure they must be also very good."

Vox Angelicus

Golovanov Alexey | Limassol, Cyprus | 01/18/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Actually, this is the first album of Saint-Preux - "Concerto pour une voix" (Concerto for one voice), recorded and released in 1969, and since than sold in over 15 million copies...



Saint-Preux is a contemporary French composer, musician, multi-instrumentalist, whose legacy covers extremely wide range: from chamber baroque music to vocal concertos, from symphonies to pieces for piano and progressive rock.

The music is a happy one without being too sweet (there is always a bit of sadness or sorrow about it) and it has spiritual link with the great masters of the past. Its particular "trademarks" are f i n e s s e and c l a s s e...

Not to know Saint-Preux is a disgrace, and not to have his music means to deprive youself.



Saint-Preux (real name Christian Langlade)was born in 1950 in the small village of Mervent - in the heart of Vendee, where die-hard Chouan farmers fought against French revolutionaries until the last drop of blood... There, at the tender age of 6, he composed his first piece (by the way, for the organ). At 19 (in 1969) he presented his first serious work (conducting a symphony orchestra) - "La valse de l'enfance" - at the prestigeous Internation Song Festival in Sopot (Poland), which was back than famous for its tough criteria and extremely demanding Polish audience. Apart from it, it was not easy to "make it" behind the Iron Curtain.

"Concerto pour une voix" was composed in Poland, and followed by second album - "Le piano sous la mer" (The piano under the sea), 1972 - that was his first bestseller (over 3 million copies sold) Le Piano Sous La Mer V. 2.

Saint-Preux keeps on working at the same suicidal rate:

1973 - "La Passion" (The Passion); 1974 - "La fete triste" (The sad celebration/festival); 1975 - "Your Hair & Missa Amoris"; 1975 - "Concerto pour une piano"; 1977 - "Symphonie pour la Pologne" (Symphony for Poland)...

1980 - the next majot breakthrough - "To Be Or Not", which became perhaps the most known album of the composer (the music at least) and quite unexpectedly introduced Saint-Preux as an iconoclastic figure of progressive rock (or baroque-rock) - or whatever you call it. A friend of mine (an editor of underground=forbidden cultural review behind Iron Curtain) called him "divine Saint-Preux" for this album. Saint-Preux proved mind-breaking musicianship and out-of-the world musicians: Patrice Tison (guitar); Patrice Mondon (violin); Barnard Paganotti (bass); Alain Legoff (percussion) and himself - on piano, synth, vocoder. Mega-rarity, the most highly demanded album by Saint-Preux.

1983 - "Le piano d'Abigail" and concept album "Atlantis"

1989 - "Les cries de la liberte" (The Cries For Liberty) - charity live performance (for UNICEF) of a hymn to peace and human rights; dedicated and blessed by Pope John Paul II

1991 - "Phytandros" - another concept album inspired and based on the Lyric Manifesto of Etienne Rebaudengo. Recorded with New World Philarmonic Orchestra conducted by Iain Sutherland

1994: "The Last Opera" (again Iain Sutherland with London Symphonic World, Hagai Shaham on violin and Catherine Bott singing)

1999 - "Free Yourself" - maestro introduces three younf singers (Rosemary Phillips, Monelle & Alice de Selys)

2005: "Concerto pour deux voix" - this Concerto for one voice was reworked for two - Clemence (daughter of Saint-Preux, her first appearance in public) and Jean-Baptiste Mannier Concerto Pour Deux Voix.

2007 - "Jeanne la Romantique" (Jeanne the Romantic).



I am an old narrow-minded fan of hard'n'heavy, but Saint-Preux is above everything."

Great CD

Luiz Lopes | Madison, WI | 05/18/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Great CD! If you have ever listened to these songs and liked them, you should definitely get this CD. If you haven't, listen to the music sampler here at Amazon and I hope you'll enjoy them."