In my thirty years as a working musician, I recognize this project as the most beautiful in which I have been involved to date. Whisper of a Shadow, completed in 2016 and recorded in 2017, is the conception of French composer, Yohan Giaume. It celebrates the contributions of Louis Moreau Gottschalk. My friend Yohan didn't simply arrange the composer's work. He started with Gottschalk's own inspirations, then let new pieces flower from the seeds of Gottschalk's works and arranged them in ways that translate the composer's Romantic aesthetic through the lens of contemporary New Orleans.
It's much easier to explain with the music. This clip is from the last time we performed the work near Perigueux, France. It pairs two sensuous pieces from a "Creole Opera" that debuted in New Orleans in March, 1807, a couple decades before Gottschalk was even born. The second part, in a major key is a plaintive aria called "Lisette" that Gottschalk included in his concert programs and likely heard in his childhood.
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