A piece for jazzband and orchestra commissioned by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Faubourg 23 premiered at Cardiff’s Hoddinot Hall and was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 on October 18, 2023, it will tour in the UK, Ireland, Germany and Portugal for the 2024-2025 season.
This piece revolves very much around the piano. I wrote it for Auxane Cartigny, a magnificent jazz pianist capable of great freedom in all styles, but also in the waltz musette style. The piano unfurls like a continuous thread of thought, until the violin disrupts the tranquil course of things.
The work begins in old Paris and its Faubourg atmosphere, conjured by waltzes and references to Edith Piaf and Joséphine Baker. A ‘faubourg’ also refers to what lies beyond the city’s walls, beyond its boundaries, and thus the writing changes, taking us elsewhere and bringing together very different worlds, or worlds yet to be invented.
My focus was on writing the transitions between the different musical worlds found throughout the piece, the idea being that you can make huge leaps in style or mood as long as you approach it subtly. It alternates between a sort of concerto form and a more orchestral jazz atmosphere.
In the back of my mind, while working on transition and transformation, was the question of heritage, and what we can do with ours today.
Fiona Monbet violin/director
Auxane Cartigny piano
Zacharie Abraham double bass
Philippe Maniez drum kit
Critique
New concerto for jazz quartet and orchestra a triumph in Cardiff, Seen and Heard International, 20/10/2023
What we were actually presented with was a full-scale single-movement concerto for jazz quartet (including solo violin) and orchestra. It lasted some half an hour, and covered a wide range of moods and episodes. And it worked superbly.
Paul Corfield Godfrey
We began with an almost filmic opening, an impressionist wash of violin colour verging on the realm of Mantovani. That led into a pianistic rhapsody. Pianist Auxane Cartigny was joined slowly by the double-bassist Zacharie Abraham and the percussionist Philippe Maniez. The three men were isolated at the front of the stage. It was only after a considerable time that Fiona Monbet laid down her baton, picked up her amplified violin and bow, and joined the other three to make up a full jazz quartet. The orchestra participated in the development of the material in a series of episodes both lyrical and rhythmic, and even the police whistle made a reappearance.
Towards the end, the original trio had an extended and largely unaccompanied cadenza, with some particularly subtle combinations of colours. Next, the orchestra emerged with a Sibelius-like sunrise followed by a gloriously off-beat dance with a panache that reminded me of the giddy waltz from Khachaturian’s Masquerade. With yet another side-slip, this moved into the field of Irish dance.
The concerto – for that is clearly what it is – came to a cheeky conclusion in which Monbet’s amplified violin competed in duet with the orchestral leader Lesley Hatfield. The sizeable audience greeted this conclusion with a roar of acclamation and a standing ovation, both fully deserved.
