New Album Feature: BADINERIE from Julien Beaudiment and Marie-Pierre Langlamet
Named after the 18th-century dance-style movement ‘Badinerie’, this beautiful new album from flautist Julien Beaudiment and harpist Marie Pierre Langlamet offers a diverse span of repertoire, with a rich collection of works from across the centuries.
At the heart of the album lies Francis Poulenc’s Sonata FP 164, with its three emotive movements, each painting a vivid musical picture. The wistful Allegro malinconico and the playful Presto giocoso show Poulenc’s stylistic intricacies, while Mozart’s soul-stirring Adagio from K 285 transports listeners to a realm of serene beauty. Johann Sebastian Bach’s iconic Badinerie infuses the collection with Baroque charm.
The album further includes Carl Maria von Weber’s enchanting Danse des Champs Elysées, Claude Debussy’s evocative Beau Soir, and Maurice Ravel’s mesmerizing Hindu-Lied, aus “Sadko”. Highlighting the virtuosity of both artists, the album also features selections from Béla Bartók’s Suite Paysanne Hongroise, Camille Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre, and the stirring tango character of Astor Piazzolla.
Julien Beaudiment’s career spans prestigious stages worldwide, while Marie Pierre Langlamet has been the principal harp of the Berlin Philharmonic since 1993.
Interview with Julien Beaudiment
What inspired you to name your album "Badinerie," and how does the 18th-century dance style influence the overall theme of the album?
We wanted to find a short name, first, as the album is making us travel through different countries, we thought about « voyage », but finally, as the repertoire was kind of surprising we thought that badinerie was more appropriate. Badinerie in French means something you do while having fun, and this was actually what it was all about. Have fun by playing a new repertoire and pieces that are exciting, with different tastes and characters.
Could you share the process behind selecting the repertoire for this album? What was your vision for creating a diverse span of works from different centuries?
There were 3 big pieces to record. The Poulenc, Bartok and Piazzolla. First I wanted to include some « heavy repertoire » which was rarely recorded. For the Poulenc for example, no one was crazy enough except Marie Pierre to play it on the harp and she was the only to take this challenge. Then I think the Bartok and Piazzolla were only recorded once, and I am not even sure of that. Anyway, for the Poulenc I think it works wonderfully on the harp. Especially the first movement. But it was also challenging for me to play with the harp as I had to change the sound approach, the tempo in the finale. It was like starting from the beginning and it took me out of my comfort zone. For example, you can’t play as loud as you want with a harpist, even with the best ones. There is a texture to find and I hope the listeners will like it. And to travel between those 3 big pieces we decided to incorporate small pieces that were never played and recorded with the flute and the harp, like the badinerie, the slow movement of the Mozart DM quartet, the danse macabre, the De Falla popular songs, etc…. So all of this makes an interesting flute and harp recital which changes from the usual repertoire you always hear.
How did your collaboration with harpist Marie Pierre Langlametcome about? What makes this partnership unique in the realm of classical music?
I have been playing with Marie Pierre for 20 years now. I think our first concert was the Mozart flute and harp concerto in China with the Beijing Opera Orchestra and Lawrence Foster who was conducting. Since then we played a lot, in many countries, and we have this very special connection. She is unpredictable when she plays and so I am, which makes every concert we make a pleasure and a surprise. I can’t see myself going to play one way in a concert. She knows exactly musically what I don’t know, and vice versa, she can read in my mind. She is my mentalist musical partner and this is unique.
At the end of each concert we were doing we were like: ok let’s do a cd… bla-bla-bla, and then the years passed, and one evening I said: ok. Yes, let’s do it. I really mean it. Let’s do it now. It was complicated to find a label for this recording, for some reasons which were out of our control. We were extremely lucky and honored to find Orchid Classics which is a treat to work with, and we are very happy to present our album under their label. They are wonderful, creative, and very professional. And working with a London company, a city where I did a good part of my musical studies means a lot.
The album spans a rich collection of works from various composers and eras. How did you approach interpreting pieces from such a wide historical range?
The range is our luck in a way. The only problem is to choose what to play. This is the hardest. The question as a flute player, or at least my question is: what can I bring as a flute player in this recording industry? Everything has been recorded, hundreds of times. What can I bring? Why should I bring to the discography a new Poulenc sonata? So my choice is to bring something now only if it has a story or to make it differently while still respecting the music and the text. Today, more and more people record and fewer and fewer people listen. So what can I offer? This is my mantra. So, the question is not historical but more like a philosophical approach to the music industry. My first album was called California Dreaming, and I wanted to tell in this album my life in California and also the life of composers who went to California. Two stories in one. This would have been not interesting at all if I had never lived there. But because there is a meaning, there is a story to bring to the audience. The story of badinerie is in fact how to wake up the traditional flute and harp recital, how to add a new repertoire to this kind of “retired” concept.
Are there any particular pieces on the album that hold special significance for you or that presented unique challenges during recording?
Again, the Poulenc was I think super challenging. I had to clean my ears, and brain and start from the beginning. To relearn the piece, to be patient with the harp as the transcription is horribly hard for a harpist.
Can you take us through the recording process of this album? Were there any memorable moments or unexpected challenges you faced?
First, there are hundreds of phone calls to make, to decide the repertoire, and even when you decide you will change. Then, the challenge was to find for Marie Pierre and me a period of free time for both of us and that was the hardest!!! We did it in July last year in Berlin. I remember that it was very intense physically but extremely rich humanely and musically. Working with Marie Pierre is unique. You need to be 1000% yourself otherwise it doesn’t work. She is herself, this is what I love. We talk to each other freely with a lot of respect.
For me, the memorable moment is still here. I remember I was a teenager when she recorded the Mozart concerto with Emmanuel. I had bought the CD, and had listened to it 1000 times. I couldn’t imagine at that time I could record with her one day in my life. I am always the first surprised when something amazing happens to me and this will last forever. This is what keeps the child inside me.
How has working on "Badinerie" influenced your growth as a flutist and musician? Did you discover any new aspects of your artistry through this project?
Every time I do a project, a recording, a recital, concerto, it feeds me. As I am greedy musically (and the other way round unfortunately for my weight…) I need to grow with the things I do. I will be 46 in July, and as I am getting older now, I want to do things that feed me. One day if the orchestra for example doesn’t feed me anymore, I will leave. There is no way to spend the second part of my life doing things I don’t like. This has never been so clear since I got my transplant 5 years ago. I have the luck to be able to choose what I want to do today and this is for me my real freedom, choosing.
What do you hope listeners will take away from this album? Is there a particular message or feeling you aim to convey through the music?
I hope first that they will like the transcriptions, I hope they will find a new way to listen to the Poulenc or Bartok, or the badinerie or the Mozart adagio. But I also hope it will bring happiness, as we need it so much right now. Times are hard, and the purpose of a musician has never been so clear: to bring beauty and joy. This is another mantra. Someone who goes to the concert or listens to you wants beauty, hope, fun…. That person doesn’t want to criticize you (at least I hope!), I can’t see someone buying a CD to hate you, or someone going to a concert by metro, car, train, or hiring a babysitter to be able to assist to your concert just to kill and hate you. So let’s try to take people out of everyday drama.
With the release of "Badinerie," what are your next artistic goals or upcoming projects? Are there any collaborations or new directions you're excited to explore?
There will be another album in November called Mozart's the women of his life. I let the suspense here, it is going to be a very interesting story to tell! There will be another recording next year in April, about a composer who is important to me, again, I leave the suspense here. I always love to have projects in mind, even if not half of them will be doable, but this is like dopamine to me. Always forward, I never want to stay in my comfort zone. I allow myself that my life professionally can change, I mean, still a flute player, teacher, and orchestra but maybe not in the same place. I let destiny choose for me, and knowing that it can change makes me happy. Maybe it won’t, but I love the feeling that it can.
How do you feel about live performances versus studio recordings? Do you have a preference, and if so, why?
I will always go for the live performance. Because there are people. Without people, you can not do this « job ». We are made to bring music alive and live. I love this sentence by Louis Jouvet who used to say: «You don’t play for an audience, you play with an audience ».
And I think this is very true. The recording process is a link to bring music to you, to your home, car, earphones, in the bus, train, or street. And this is wonderful. But nothing will be as good as listening live. Like opera for example. Of course, watching an opera on TV where you don’t have access to the real experience is amazing. But the live experience is unique. So the difficulty for me, in a studio, is to recreate the magic moment of music sharing. But the problem is that the number of hours on a studio, the thousand takes can kill this process. This is challenging. How can you share a musical story behind a microphone, with a sound engineer who is in the other room and who listens to you as a surgeon operates on you? So different but exciting. I waited years to make recordings. I always thought I was not ready, and after a transplant and 5 years of therapy, I still feel I am not ready. The only difference now is, thanks to the therapy and the transplant, I don’t care anymore not to be ready. And I will never be!!
BADINERIE
Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
Sonata for Flute and Piano, FP 164
1. I Allegretto malinconico
2. II Cantilena: Assez lent
3. III Presto giocoso
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
4. Adagio from Flute Quartet in D major, KV 285
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
5. Badinerie from Orchestral Suite No.2 in B minor, BWV 1067
Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787)
6. Dance of the Blessed Spirits from Orpheus and Eurydice
Béla Bartók (1881-1945)
Suite Paysanne Hongroise
7. Rubato
8. Andante poco sostenuto
9. Poco rubato
10. Andante
11. Allegro
12. Vielles danses
13. Allegretto
14. Allegretto
15. L’istesso Tempo
16. Assai moderato
17. Allegretto
18. Poco più vivo
19. Allegro
20. Allegro
Arranged by Paul Arma
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
21. Danse macabre
Arranged by Giuseppe Gariboldi
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
22. Beau soir
Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)
23. Hindu lied
Manuel de Falla (1876-1946)
24. Nana
25. Polo
26. Asturiana
Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992)
L’Histoire du tango
27. Bordel 1900
28. Café 1930
29. Nightclub 1960
30. Concert d’aujourd’hui
Arranged by Fabrice Pierre
Julien Beaudiment, flute
Marie-Pierre Langlamet, harp