I Giardini is a collective of inspired and committed artists united around a common sensibility, an unusually strong unity of purpose, and a shared joy in onstage performance. They were nominee for the 2021 Victoires de la musique Classique Award. Giving priority to the musical excellence, the Group’s two co-founders and artistic directors, cellist Pauline Buet and pianist David Violi have made a space for freedom and for the exploration of a unique romantic world, inspired by the past, from Fauré and Bonis to Chausson, Poulenc and Schumann, but also rooted in the present through their collaboration with leading international women composers, such as the American Caroline Shaw and Anglo-French Josephine Stephenson.

Concerts, operatic projects, dance, new forms of language such as Virtual reality... music is first and foremost a constant exchange, to be shared among themselves and with the audience.

Since its foundation, i Giardini has appeared in all major Venues in France (at the Museé d’Orsay, theatre des bouffes du Nord, Auditorium – Orchestre National de Lyon, Arsenal de Metz, theatre du chatelet, le Lieu unique de Nantes, TAP Poitiers, and the opera houses of Lille, Avignon, Montpellier and Bordeaux, etc.) as well as abroad: in Belgium at la Monnaie de mount, Canada (salle Borgie, festival Classica), China (NCPA Beijing, Forbidden city concert hall, Shanghai oriental art center), Germany (Beethoven fest, Heidelberg Frühling) and Italy (Bologna festival, and the Palazzetto bru Zane in Venice, with which they maintain a steady partnership).

Their recent recordings Nuits with Veronique Genes and Bleu – both for Alpha classics – have been hailed by the critics, with distinctions such as a diapason d’or for 2020, a choc Classica, and a ffff rating on Télérama.

Their new album released by Alpha Classics this fall features a monograph by American composer Caroline Shaw (Pulitzer Prize for Music & multi-Grammy Award winner) including a world premiere, "The wheel", sponsored by the ensemble with the support of Musica Strasbourg, the Opéra de Montpellier, the Lieu Unique de Nantes, the Festival Musique(s) Rive Gauche Paris and the Face Foundation of New York.

I Giardini would like to thank its major sponsors: the Société Général Foundation and La Caisse des dépôt et consignations.

Pauline Buet, cellist, Artistic Director

David Violi, pianist, Artistic Director

Fauré: Après un rêve & Les berceux
Production i giardini & Pentatone

I Giardini commemorates the 100th death anniversary of Gabriel Fauré with his atmospheric songs Après un rêve and Les berceaux in arrangements for cello and piano, performed by their artistic directors Pauline Buet and David Violi. This EP also serves as an appetizer to their upcoming full album Le temps de lilas, containing chamber music pieces by Ernest Chausson and chansonnière Barbara.

Although the core of I Giardini's repertoire is chamber music, mainly with piano, the voice, singing and texts have always held a special place in our hearts.

Gabriel Fauré has always used his music to embellish existing poems, so here we have chosen to replace the texts with the voice of the cello, which is said to be so close to the human voice.

Pauline & David

The Wheel
Caroline Shaw & i giardini
Production i giardini & Alpha Classics

I giardini presents here the first chamber music monograph in Europe, devoted to the American composer Caroline Shaw. This album is the result of a meeting between the composer and the two artistic directors of the ensemble (David Violi & Pauline Buet) and their partners from I Giardini. The album notably features a world premiere recording, The Wheel, commissioned by the ensemble, Caroline's first composition for cello and piano.

The youngest winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music and multi-award winner at the Grammy Awards, Caroline unleashes her creativity and eclecticism as a producer, composer, violinist and singer in a wide variety of musical worlds, from classical to pop (Kanye West, Rosalia... ) through the soundtrack of films and series.

From the very first notes we were carried away by Caroline’s music: moved by its sincerity, irresistably drawn to her harmonies, and intoxicated by the poetic repetition of her melodies. This is a journey along seemingly familiar paths, but with the promise of constant new discoveries en route. Despite its apparent simplicity, Caroline’s chamber music reveals density, intelligence and feeling.

The Wheel was commissioned with the support of the festival Musica Strasbourg, also of Montpellier Opera, the Lieu Unique of Nantes, and the Musique(s) Rive Gauche Paris: its first world performance, and this CD album, are the result of the past months of work, including all the ideas exchanged between us.

Many thanks to Caroline for her confidence, and for all her tact!

Pauline & David

Bleu
i giardini - Pauline Buet & David Violi
Production i giardini & Alpha Classics

The poetic universe that emanates from the color blue fascinates Pauline Buet and David Violi: the blue note, the blues to the soul ... When the Yves Saint Laurent Museum proposed them to make this recording at the Villa Majorelle in Marrakech, the magnificent resonance between the Majorelle Blue and this program was natural: Chopin, the romantic lover and Poulenc, the eccentric tormented.

As a conclusion, the piano blends with Pauline's voice, as it often does at the end of their concerts, and the touching and nostalgic words of Barbara's song Septembre - "Quel joli temps pour se dire au revoir" - are yet another illustration of the spirit of the program, like a delicious madeleine.

The poetic universe that emanates from the color blue has always spoken to both of us in a rather instinctive way. Nostalgia, spleen, the blue note, the blues in the soul; as artists, we do not escape this powerful emotional field - marked by a certain suffering - which nourishes so much creativity.

However, it is not quite suffering, nor quite sadness, but rather a certain sweet melancholy, a happy nostalgia.

Pauline & David

Publication February 2022 / On tour for 2021 - 2025

Nuits
Véronique Gens et i giardini
Production Palazzetto Bru Zane & Alpha Classics

Symbiosis between the art of the poet and that of the composer, the French melody became the jewel of the salons of the Belle Époque. Gathering string quartet and piano around the singer, Chausson's Chanson perpétuelle, Lekeu's Nocturne and Fauré's La Bonne Chanson oscillate between chamber music intimacy and orchestral ambitions. Beyond these pioneering and famous pages, the program claims a return to the art of transcription so dear to the 19th century and wishes to broaden the repertoire for voice, strings and piano in order to bring to light some forgotten nuggets. We thus find Hahn, Berlioz, Saint-Saëns, Massenet, La Tombelle, Ropartz, Louiguy and Messager, with as a common thread the emotions of nocturnal abandonment: the charms of twilight, the journey of dreams, the terror of nightmares or the intoxication of the party... The arrangements were made by Alexandre Dratwicki of the Palazetto Bru Zane in the style of the 19th century. If the program ends with La Vie en rose, it is indeed a kaleidoscope of all the colors of human feelings that is proposed here. With the strings and piano of i giardini in quintet formation, it presents in a new light the incomparable art of Véronique Gens as a singer.

I Giardini providing exquisitely subtle gradations of light and shade; this feels on repeated listening like the real heart of the programme, and certainly one of its highlights. From first note to last, this is an hour of pure pleasure, thoughtfully planned and arranged, and resplendently sung and played throughout. Another triumph!

Europadisc.co.uk

Publication January 2020 / On Tour 2020 - 2025