L'Esprit Français - A Certain French Culture - 1900-1940 (neo classical)

The first half of the XXth. century saw the flourishing of a very particular aesthetic born of the Age of Reason, an "esprit nouveau" and a pervading sense of the cosmopolitan which infused all aspects of French culture. Paris had become the artistic capital of the world. The orchestral muscle of Austria and Germany were now worlds away from the harmonic filigree and melodic finesse of Debussy, Ravel and Fauré. Pierre-André Athané's compositions are steeped in the heady atmosphere of this movement and vividly capture an unique moment in the cultural history of France.