François Couturier / Dominique Pifarély and Bob Bralove / Patti Weiss: Intimacy Writ Large

The intimacy of a given musical setting does not necessarily translate to accessibility. And duo performances can be among the most thought-provoking of any instrumental combination, revealing not only the fundamental difficulty of not just playing music with skill, but doing so via interaction with other musicians. Besides that particular enlightenment, these coincidental releases further illuminate the formidable task of transposing the respective textural capabilities of the acoustic piano and the violin: ever-so-careful etchings emanate from the former as often as ringing notes arise from the latter. These listening experiences thus absorb and inspire equally, serving as aural guidelines for finding and hearing larger ensembles of comparable or greater detail.

François Couturier and Dominique Pifarély
Preludes and Songs
ECM Records
2025

Moving at a deceptively brisk pace through the early selections here like "La Chanson des vieux amants,' Francois Couturier and Dominique Pifarély's instrumental suggestions evolve in something of a bob and weave on the way to climax. In that sense, "A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square" is a natural progression from its two predecessors in this near fifty minutes: these two musicians become increasingly closer in both tone and execution as the sequence of tracks unfolds. But in doing so, the pair nevertheless allow room for more than a little extemporaneous action: Couturier's excursion on the ivories in the aforementioned cut effectively opens up space (and time) for his counterpart to explore with his strings. Guarded and taut to a purpose as these conversations are, the participants circle with great deliberation around the potential points of resolution, so the suspense increases exponentially with each successive cut like "Song For Harrison." When a denouement equally authoritative and understated appears in the form of one of the five cover songs here (of the nine selections total), Pifarély and Couturier elicit a pleasing familiarity in keeping with the revered status of George Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy." Abstract as is much of the music to this point, movement up to and including this conclusion becomes all the more striking given the utter tranquility the principals have conjured.

Bob Bralove and Patti Weiss
Acoustic Conversations
Blove Music
2025

As stated in their album title, Acoustic Conversations, Bralove and Weiss render explicit what their counterparts only intimate. Yet from the first strike of piano notes on "Lights In The Fog," a deep air of drama still pervades these eleven selections. Alongside seven co-authored by Bralove and Weiss (and one the former's alone), "Peace Piece" was composed by the late jazz icon Bill Evans and its inclusion renders "Improvisation On A Theme Of Erik Satie" a fitting conclusion. Recorded and mixed by the keyboardist—who was a technical advisor to the Grateful Dead for a near ten-year period—restful interludes are sagely interpolated with the brisk likes of "Little Sunflower" during the forty-three some minutes. Yet there is a playful spirit pervading much of this musicianship too, no more evident (appropriately) than during "Devil's Bar Blues." Meanwhile, the sense of purpose emanating from the Bralove and Weiss' interplay is no less deliberate for their corresponding light touches: the pair avoid over-speaking instrumentally and thus avoid the latent bombast in "Urban Bounce." In a progression of cuts timing in anywhere from just over two minutes (the theatrical overtones of "Thunder On The Plains") to just shy of seven (the exotic strains of "Dance of the Magic Spice"), the resonance of sound throughout carries a visceral presence rendering all the more memorable the sweetest of moments here like "November Sky."

Tracks and Personnel

Preludes and Songs Tracks: Le surcroît I; La chanson des vieux amants; A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley / Les ombres II; Les ombres I / Lament; Le surcroît II; Song for Harrison / Solitude; Vague; What us; I Loves You Porgy.

Personnel: François Couturier: piano; Dominique Pifarély: violin.

Acoustic Conversations Tracks: Lights in the Fog; Little Sunflower; Peace Piece; Devils' Bar Blues; Thunder on the Plains; Urban Bounce; Flowers in the Color Field; Dance of the Magic Spice; November Sky; Riding the Rails; Improvisation on a Theme by Erik Satie.

Personnel: Bob Bralove: piano; Patti Weiss: violin.

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