Melville’s short story presents a young and handsome sailor, Billy Budd, an angelic type who exerts a fascination over all the other characters, and to whom Claggart, the master at arms, has a strong aversion precisely because of his beauty and innate goodness, to the point of accusing him of fomenting a mutiny. Billy, who has been nicknamed “baby” by his crewmates ends up by accidentally killing Claggart and is sentenced to death under the indecisive regard of the ship’s captain, who is nonetheless convinced of the young man’s innocence. Without a doubt, it was primarily the story’s homosexual dimension that fascinated both Forster and Britten, who were both homosexual themselves along with their friends Auden and Isherwood. For in Melville’s text, if Claggart nurses such a hatred for Billy, it is, of course, because he feels irresistibly attracted by his beauty. As for the intellectual Vere, if he experiences less violent passions, he dreams of Billy “nude (…) as if posing for a statue of a young Adam”.

As such, Forster, Britten and Crozier picked up on this dimension and reflected it as far as it was possible to do so at the time. But for obvious reasons of censorship and because they did not want their work to be reduced to a single level of interpretation, they anchored it in the philosophical and moral parable depicted by Melville and which echoed the preoccupations of the composer since it enriched his entire body of work from Peter Grimes until Death in Venice: the notion of innocence battling against a hostile environment, the forces of Good corrupted by the forces of Evil (with the wholly platonic notion that Beauty could only be on the side of Good, and that a beautiful body could but reflect a beautiful soul). As such, the ship on which the story unfurls becomes a microcosm of society in which powerful antagonisms clash. The life of Billy, who when he feels accused suffers from a stammering fit that prevents him from defending himself, even resembles that of Christ taking on the sins of humanity and accepting his execution to save the world and mankind.

From a musical point of view, Billy Budd requires one of the largest orchestral ensembles ever employed by Benjamin Britten, with the exception of War Requiem. Given the subject, it has the distinctive characteristic of relying only on male voices, which could have engendered a certain monotony were it not for Britten's infinitely sensitive and subtle composition that constantly modifies the work's mood and feelings. Life on the ship and the claustrophobic atmosphere that reigns there, in particular, are depicted magnificently. Yet Britten, whose highly personal composition was enriched with references to Purcell and English folklore, as well as Verdi or Debussy, knew how to find the musical solution adapted to each situation. In this respect, the aria “Billy in irons”, just before his execution is incredibly apt and simple and is one of the most moving moments of the score.

PATRICK SCEMAMA

"It is no accident that An Alpine symphony by Strauss appeared on the programme of my first concert as Musical Director of the Paris Opera Orchestra: this musical adaptation of a day spent in the mountains marks the start of a journey. And that was exactly my feeling while we were preparing this concert: a sense that it was a first. This grandiose work summarizes all the art of the Western orchestra: we could have chosen it as a culmination but we preferred to use it as an opening, and I am delighted to share such boldness and enthusiasm with the Orchestra. It also provides us with an ideal introduction to the Ring of the Nibelung by Richard Wagner, which is our first opera project together. I am delighted that this inaugural document, recorded live in front of an audience and spontaneous testimony to a first encounter, could be published by Naïve."

Né en 1980, Romain Descharmes étudie le piano, la musique de chambre et l'accompagnement vocal au Conservatoire de Paris. En 2006, il remporte le Premier Prix du Concours International de Dublin. Il se produit en récital sur les scènes prestigieuses du Carnegie Hall à New York, du Wigmore Hall à Londres, du National Concert Hall à Dublin, du Minato Mirai Hall à Yokohama et du Tsuda Hall à Tokyo. Il accompagne le Midland Symphony Orchestra, le National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, l’Orchestra del Lazio ainsi que le Shanghai Philarmonic Orchestra, le Berliner Philarmoniker Quintett et l'Ensemble Court-Circuit. Il a enregistré des disques consacrés à Brahms, à  Ravel, et aux compositeurs du début du XXème siècle, pour lequel il a bénéficié des conseils de Pierre Boulez.

Lors de ce récital, la Sonate n°5 de Scriabine, Quatre Pièces pittoresques de Chabrier et La Valse de Ravel feront escorte au Calme des puissances, la pièce de Philippe Fénelon donnée en écho à son Faust actuellement à l'affiche du Palais Garnier. "Le Calme des puissances, pour piano, est composé d’un seul grand mouvement où l’on remarque avant tout la succession de fragments très diversifiés qui développe la dramaturgie de l’œuvre. Si la matière musicale semble saisissable, car elle procède par association historique, le potentiel technique du piano permet de dépasser cette simple évocation. L’enchaînement rapide des opérations de l’écriture - répétitions, inversions, quadrillage, brouillages de mesures, mouvements entrecroisés… - en est l’élément principal. De la plus petite unité à la plus grande, l’angle selon lequel l’œuvre est agencée donne le sujet de la pièce qui voyage selon une logique provoquée par le premier geste musical sous forme de deux accords. La diversité de l’agencement des motifs reliés entre eux par des constructions symétriques, apparemment semblables, donnent ainsi l’essor à des dynamiques et des chants extrêmes pour styliser les traces des puissances harmonieuses." (PHILIPPE FENELON)