Chabrier

The biography of Emmanuel Chabrier by François Hudry , illustrated by Catherine Faure and accompanied by 2 compact discs.

"In my country there are only brutes,
at most good for making water carriers,
or people of spirit... I chose."

Emmanuel Chabrier

A composer of dazzling verve, an art lover, a tasty letter writer, here is an authentic creator in love with art and life who passed for a long time as an amateur musician. He is the exact representative of a Paris that has now disappeared, that of the village of Montmartre at the end of the 19th century, where his friends the impressionist painters who almost all lived there worked. A brilliant precursor, admired by Debussy , Ravel and Poulenc who were inspired by the novelty of his harmonies, snubbed by others, Emmanuel Chabrier has perhaps not yet found his rightful place, even if authentic interpreters quickly believed in him.

His music ? A clever mix of daring in the face of the heavy ambient academicism, an inimitable way of giving gravity to frivolity, a casual and tender way of laughing at time and the people who pass by...