Night Songs

Stories told in the twilight, in the soft moonlight, in the silence, from which sounds of the night sometimes emerge. Romantic tales once told in a lyrical and intimate way, such as Frédéric Chopin’s Nocturnes, other times epic, such as John Field’s Nocturne in C major, and sometimes dramatic and operatic, such as Rudolph Willmers’ Nocturne melodique. Finally, some of the night stories re- main unsaid, but only sketched with a careless lines through which resignation, melancholy and helplessness pierce-as in the Nocturne No. 4 (Bal fantôme) by Francis Poulenc.

The Night Songsalbum is a musical journey through the world shrouded in dark- ness. While wandering through the night landscape, we visit Poland, Germany, Ireland, France, Norway and Brazil, among others. The inspiration for the album was a nocturne, a musical form derived from the early Romantic period, whose name in French means ‘night’. Initially, a nocturne was a calm, lyrical and atmos- pheric piece, although in later periods nocturnes with a turbulent middle part were also composed, and even those that differed significantly from the original. The album that I am presenting to you shows the richness and diversity of this musical form-apart from classical, songful nocturnes it includes works, in which rhythm is significant (Nocturne No. I by Francis Poulenc) to pieces containing quasi-choral elements (Nocturne No. 8 by Francis Poulenc).