'Sounds French' invades New York 

Concert spaces around New York are already bracing themselves for a French invasion when 'Sounds French', a festival of French music from the last half century, moves into more than a dozen venues next spring. 

Opening on March 1 with Ensemble Sospeso paying tribute to the late composer Gérard Grisey at Columbia University’s Miller Theatre, the festival also includes a portrait of Marc-André Dalbavie at the Guggenheim Museum (March 15-16 ) as well as Pierre Boulez conducting his own works with the Ensemble Intercontemporain at Carnegie Hall (March 22-23 ). More than 30 events, performed by both French and American musicians, will involve the Lincoln Center and centres for new music such as The Kitchen, as well as longtime devotees of French culture, the French Institute/Alliance Francaise... 

'New Yorkers know about Messiaen, Boulez and Dutilleux,' says festival artistic advisor Eric de Visscher, 'and some have more recently discovered the music of Murail and Grisey. But [this] draws a line connecting those composers with the past, to the influence of Debussy and Fauré, and in another sense to the future, with younger or lesser-known composers like Dalbavie or Dusapin.' 

As in other countries, he adds, the younger generation is quick to adapt compositional traditions to popular music, particularly looping and sampling techniques. Is it becoming less French? 'My guess is probably not,' he observes, 'since French music has always been subjected to foreign influences, as has the country itself. There is no "purity" in the concept of French music. It remains an open door - a dialogue on shared aethestic values.'

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