Suzie LeBlanc

ATMA celebrates the centenary of French composer Olivier Messiaen, one of the most important composers of the mid to late-20th century. These wonderful pieces are performed by a superb line up of artists led by Suzie LeBlanc, best-known for her performances of Baroque music and ATMA’s most prolific recording artist. Her famous purity of tone and impeccable musicianship make her a superb interpreter of Messiaen’s austerely beautiful work.

Soprano Suzie LeBlanc personifies the old saying that Acadians are born with songs in their veins and music in their fingertips. Known primarily for her interpretations of renaissance and baroque music, she returns to her Acadian roots with Chants d’Acadie: Tout passe , the sequel to her hugely successful 2004 recording Chants d’Acadie: La Mer jolie (ACD2 2330). Tout passe brings together the same uniquely talented performers to interpret what LeBlanc describes as “an authentic pilgrimage that pays homage to the richness of the Acadian musical heritage.”

The myth of springtime is a brilliant metaphor for love, an ever-inspiring subject for pœts and musicians. This recording assembles a tapestry of tiny pœtic and musical gems from sixteenth- to eighteenth-century Italy, England, and France. Youth, beauty, and love are their inspiration. Some are well-known, some rescued from dusty library volumes, and others remain part of our folk culture and are reborn in this collection in new forms. Perhaps music, as the most temporal of the arts, is the most appropriate medium to express the transience of the subject at hand