Lyonel Schmit, violin
Henri Demarquette, cello
Fabrice Bourlet, piano
Véronique Bourlet, cello

Sonate de Concert pour violon op.19
Corail, Dédale et Passacaille sur le nom de Bach
Lyonel Schmit, violin

1st movement: Corail
2nd movement: Dédale
3rd movement: Passacaille

Sonate pour piano et violon en un mouvement op.21
Lyonel Schmit, violin and Fabrice Bourlet, piano

Trio pour piano, violon, violoncelle
en 3 mouvements op.23
Lyonel Schmit, violin, Fabrice Bourlet, piano and
Véronique Bourlet, cello

1st movement
2nd movement
3rd movement

Sonate pour violoncelle en 3 mouvements op.27
Henri Demarquette, cello

1st movement: Très expressif
2nd movement: Vif, mordant
3rd movement: Tiento

Total playing time: 77'18

Art Director: Frédéric Briant, Musica Numeris
Sound Engineer: Frédéric Briant
Mastering: Frédéric Briant and Lyonel Schmit
The first three works of the CD recorded at Chapelle des Carmes, Vannes, France, July 2004.
The "Sonate pour violoncelle" recorded at Studio Right Place, Brussels, Belgium, 18 February 2006.

Commentary: Michel Rigoni.

Florentine Mulsant would like to thank The Hippocrène Foundation and his President Mr. Jean Guyot (1922-2006), Éric Tanguy, Paul Gagnaire, André Furno.

AR RE-SE 2007-0

Florentine Mulsant
Chamber Music

Ouest-France
7th May 2007
Gérard Pernon

After taking part in a CD featuring French Music from Women (Musique française au féminin) published by Triton, Florentine Mulsant is releasing a record with only her own chamber music: Concert Sonata for violin op. 19, Sonata for violin and piano op. 21, Trio for piano, violin and cello op. 23 and Cello Sonata op. 27. Why not start with the most difficult part? In this demanding exercise, the composer, whose work is worth discovering, displays a rigorous construction, an intensive idiom and a taste for refined tones. Here is a sharp, sometimes dazzling spirit! This record takes hold of the listener and does not let go. There is no superfluous note in Florentine Mulsant’s writing. Her works are wonderfully performed by Lyonel Schmit (violin), Henri Demarquette (cello), Fabrice Bourlet (piano) and Véronique Bourlet (cello).

ResMusica.com
4th April 2007
Maxime Kaprielian

Florentine Mulsant : a tortuous inner life

Every work featured on this monographic CD captures a different aspect of Florentine Mulsant’s creativity. The Concert Sonata for Violin takes expressionism to its heights. This work made of inner turmoil is fiercely (there is no other word) rendered by Lyonel Schmit, who purposely goes to the lowest moans of his instrument. The idiom becomes more lyrical, with a tinge of neoclassicism, in the Sonata for violin and piano which is made up of short melodic-rhythmic motifs that run into each other without really finding each other. A dramatic and even heartrending spirit is to be found again in the ascetic central cadenza, before a finale which alternates slow and agitated moments, all wonderfully interpreted by the Schmit/Bourlet duo.
The same atmosphere is conjured up again in the Trio for piano, violin and cello which bears the same pattern of short, very lyrical phrases interspersed with dissonant chords and rhythmic contrasts. Ethereal sections come after violent episodes, without any continuity save the one provided by the constant work on the motifs. The idiom, while very personal, may remind of Olivier Greif (especially in his War Sonata).
A more recent work, the Cello Sonata features a more homogenous discourse while displaying the same emotional intensity. It is of course remarkably carried out by Henri Demarquette, who knows how to explore different tones to adapt to the score’s demands and does not limit himself to sounding the notes, but really inhabits this work.
Although oppressive, restive and tormented, Florentine Mulsant’s musical universe is never negative or pessimistic. Through this CD, new horizons open up.