Thierry Pécou

Three orchestral works by the French composer Thierry Pécou, played by the Orchestre National de France under Jonathan Stockhammer. All three are first recordings. Pécou's music draws on the nearly extinct pre-Columbian cultures of Central and South America and on Afro-Cuban ritual, and sets them in the full colours of a symphony orchestra.

Pécou was born on 20 August 1965 in Boulogne-Billancourt and studied orchestration and composition at the Paris Conservatoire. He was resident at the Villa Medici in 1994-95 and at the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid in 1997-98. He founded the ensembles Zellig in 1999 and Variances in 2009, and plays piano with both. He grew up in a Paris suburb and has Caribbean ancestors, so his search for these roots is also personal. The disc is a coproduction with Radio France, recorded on 27-29 November 2013 in the Salle Liebermann of the Opéra Bastille.

Orquoy (2012) is inspired by ancient Andean music. Pécou casts himself as a shaman who coaxes melodies out of the gods, with ostinato rhythms, glowing woodwinds and a wide range of percussion. It was premiered in Metz in April 2013. Changó (1992/93), for three flutes and orchestra, grew from the Santería rituals the composer attended in Havana in December 1992. It was commissioned by and dedicated to the Trio d'Argent, who gave the premiere at the Flâneries Musicales de Reims in August 1993. Its first part, Rezó a Elegua, sets the flutes against sparse orchestration. The second, Cantó a Changó, brings in maracas, guiro, hand bells and congas. Marcha de la Humanidad (1997-2003) opens with bird-like chatter, grows dark and sombre, and adds a teponaztli (an Aztec wooden drum), gongs and rain sticks before the march finally appears.

Pécou describes his position as ambiguous: a European with roots in these places, who wants to understand the Mexican people and their history better. The music works with ritualistic repetitive structures, mysterious depths and strongly physical sounds, often in unusual constellations of orchestral colour. Writing in MusicWeb International, Stephen Greenbank praised "virtuosic playing of the highest order" and called the disc "a terrific sonic spectacle".

CD, Wergo WER 7318 2, released in 2016.