This unusual program brings together instruments as rare as they are unusual: the glass harmonica with Thomas Bloch and the Cristal Baschet with Michel Deneuve.
The glass armonica is a mechanized version of the “musical glass”, consisting of crystal bowls stacked on a horizontal rotating axis powered by an electric motor. After wetting his fingers, Thomas Bloch, a renowned performer of rare instruments, rubs the edges of the glasses, which emit a crystal-clear sound. Nino Rota, Debussy, Donizetti or Mozart. The glass armonica has seduced many prestigious composers.
It’s a very similar-sounding instrument to the Cristal Baschet. Made of crystal rods rubbed with water, the Cristal Baschet is a rare instrument, on a par with the glass harmonica. In this musical experience, the Quatuor Debussy joins forces with Michel Deneuve to present works he himself composed for Cristal, as well as pieces by the famous French composers Claude Debussy and Eric Satie. Michel Deneuve has been a world-renowned Cristal maestro since 1977. He explores its possibilities by playing alongside musicians of different styles on his concert tours of other countries, sharing his music with these musicians and their instruments of every stripe and nationality. The elegant technique of glass mallets is admired by audiences at every concert.
These concerts are therefore surprising encounters with musical instruments that are more than singular. The elegance of these two rarely-exploited techniques is admired by audiences at every concert, which encourages the Quatuor Debussy to pursue this democratization.