Boxe Boxe Brasil (Musique originale du spectacle de Mourad Merzouki) Quatuor Debussy

• Jaques Morelenbaum (b. 1954), Antonio Pinto (b. 1967): A Carta de Dora (Extract):
• 1 Morelenbaum, Pinto: A Carta de Dora (Extract) 02:04
• Giuseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901): Luisa Miller, Act II, Overture (Transcription for String Quartet by Emanuele Muzio):
• 2 Verdi: Luisa Miller, Act II, Overture (Transcription for String Quartet by Emanuele Muzio) 02:28
• Marc Mellits (b. 1966): String Quartet No. 4, Prometheus:
• 3 Mellits: String Quartet No. 4, Prometheus: VII. Allegro Groove 01:59
• 4 Mellits: String Quartet No. 4, Prometheus: VI. Tempo rubato 03:38
• Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887 - 1959): String Quartet No. 1, Brincadeira:
• 5 Villa-Lobos: String Quartet No. 1, Brincadeira: Allegretto scherzando 01:17
• Luiz Bonfa (1922 - 2001), Antonio Carlos Jobim (1927 - 1994): Manha de Carnaval:
• 6 Bonfa, Jobim: Manha de Carnaval 03:03
• Rolfe Kent (b. 1963): Dexter Theme:
• 7 Kent: Dexter Theme 02:18
• Leo Brouwer (b. 1939): Un día de noviembre:
• 8 Brouwer: Un día de noviembre 03:09
• Astor Piazzolla (1921 - 1992): Escualo:
• 9 Piazzolla: Escualo 03:27
• Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809): String Quartet, Op. 33 No. 5:
• 10 Haydn: String Quartet, Op. 33 No. 5: Largo cantabile 04:05
• Astor Piazzolla: Chador:
• 11 Piazzolla: Chador 02:51
• AS'N: Création originale:
• 12 AS'N: Création originale 04:03
• Marc Mellits: String Quartet No. 4, Prometheus:
• 13 Mellits: String Quartet No. 4, Prometheus: V. Andantino 03:08
• Dorian Lamotte, AS'N: Flamenco:
• 14 Lamotte, AS'N: Flamenco 05:26
• Antonín Dvořák (1841 - 1904): String Quartet, Op. 96, American:
• 15 Dvořák: String Quartet, Op. 96, American: Lento 07:18
• Jaques Morelenbaum, Antonio Pinto: A Carta de Dora:
• 16 Morelenbaum, Pinto: A Carta de Dora 03:10
• Total Runtime 53:24

Info for Boxe Boxe Brasil (Musique originale du spectacle de Mourad Merzouki)

In 2010 Mourad Merzouki invited the Debussy string quartet to share the stage with hip-hop dancers. Boxe Boxe has since been performed in front of nearly 130,000 spectators. The choreographer puts the gloves back on to rethink the writing of this piece and associates the Carioca dancers he revealed in Agwa nearly ten years ago, to create a Boxe Boxe with the colours of Brazil, in a new and explosive version. This project is emblematic of the Käfig signature, through the crossing of artistic universes and the opening up to the world.

"I met these young Brazilian dancers during the Lyon Dance Biennial in 2006. Their way of expressing themselves had both marked and seduced me. Dancing is their way of existing, of getting out of the difficulties of everyday life. Their journey touched me because it echoed my own path, when as a teenager I realised that dance was the key to finding my place in society. The desire to create for them quickly became apparent. This is how Agwa was born in 2008. Since then, an artistic and human adventure has been written: so many years travelling the world and sharing dance with unconditional energy.

Today I want to launch a new challenge, to take them further in their exploration of movement and the blending of genres. It is also a choreographic challenge for me to combine the gestures of the Brazilian dancers with the piece Boxe Boxe (created in 2010), written for other bodies, and to adapt their dance to a new musical score, redesigned with the help of the Debussy Quartet. Revisiting a creation is an exciting exercise: resisting the ephemeral, proving that dance is a living art that adapts to bodies as well as to energies allows the pleasure of a performance to be prolonged. It is a motivating gift and I am happy to present it with these faithful companions.

In the continuity of the artistic project that I have been carrying out for 20 years, this re-creation is part of a dynamic of openness to the world, demonstrating once again the strength of dance to transcend borders." (Mourad Merzouki)

Boxe Boxe Brasil is a strange and fascinating encounter: four string musicians on stage and ten dancers playing boxers. All this little world shares the stage with a fabulous décor: a wall with ochre colours and baroque ornamentation, moving seats with the same interlacing for the musicians, and a changing boxing ring. The mix between classical and contemporary is daring. And yet this audacity works from the very first scene where faceless boxing gloves move to the rhythm of the music. Nothing escapes Mourad Merzouki's notice: the set design is perfectly mastered throughout the show.

Boxe Boxe Brasil is a dance show about the world of boxing with a classical music background. French boxing, English boxing, full-contact or capoeira, all the worlds of boxing are approached, and Mourad Merzouki captures the essence of it each time in breathtaking choreography. Training and combat, the two facets of boxing, also find their place, as do the associated accessories: bag, ball, pear, gloves, bandages, bathrobe, helmet. Each element consciously finds its place in a brilliantly orchestrated show. This can only magnify the incredible talent of the dancers, which continues to reveal itself throughout their performance.

Quatuor Debussy

The Debussy Quartet
Through its passionate commitment to speak in a unique voice, eschewing the creation of an international quartet sound, the Debussy Quartet has established its reputation as one of the finest quartets touring and recording today. Formed in 1990 by a group of young musicians studying at the Conservatoire de Lyon, France, the quartet has gained international renown for its exciting performances and award-winning recordings. In major concert halls from New York to Tokyo they perform a wide range of works, and are perhaps most well known for their devotion to the French repertoire. The quartet’s performances of the Ravel, Debussy and Fauré quartets are legendary, and these four musicians continue to create new audiences for works of their countrymen such as Lalo, Lekeu, Milhaud and the late romantic composer Ermand Bonnal.

Winners of the Evian International String Quartet Competition, the Debussy Quartet performs about 80 concerts a year in Europe, Asia, and North America. They are regular guests at distinguished concert halls (Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Auditorio Nacional de Musica in Madrid, Grand Theatre in Geneva, Konzerthaus in Berlin, Théâtre du Châtelet, Musée du Louvre in Paris) and are also heard at many of Europe’s finest festivals.

In addition to mixed chamber music with renowned colleagues, the quartet has embarked on an adventurous collaboration with the famed modern dance ensemble, Compagnie Käfig (choreographer Mourad Merzouki), for a new project in which they are incorporated as choreographed elements while performing on their respective instruments in concert with the dancers.

The Debussy Quartet’s extensive discography includes the acclaimed Decca label release of the landmark Mozart Requiem recording, in the 1802 transcription by Peter Lichtenthal (about which a documentary film has also been made). The Arion label produced several volumes in the “French Music” collection (Bonnal, Ravel, Fauré, Witkowski, Lekeu) and the complete Shostakovich Quartets, among other works. The quartet’s mixed chamber music repertoire includes its highly regarded CD of the Brahms and Weber clarinet quintets with clarinetist Jean Francois Verdier and a highly acclaimed collaboration with the pianist François Chaplin in several Mozart piano concertos. In addition, their discography includes the complete works of Webern for string quartet (for Harmonia Mundi), which received the coveted « Choc » award of Le Monde de la Musique.

The Debussy Quartet is based in Lyon, France. Its members are the founders of “Les Cordes en Ballade” a chamber music festival and an academy of chamber music in the South of France, where they perform and teach each summer.

Booklet for Boxe Boxe Brasil (Musique originale du spectacle de Mourad Merzouki)