Tristesse

Tristesse means "sadness." This neo-classical album by French composer Paul Sauvanet can follow proudly in the footsteps of the great requiems and the classic Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber), the Third Symphony: Symphony of Sorrowful Songs by Henryk Gorecki, or Shadow, Light by Franco Battiato. As the subtitle of Sauvanet's work notes, all movements are adagio, languid with weeping, heavy with grief, yet buoyant with innate hope. Sauvanet does not argue and rail against death as some requiems do, but he proceeds with a dramatic tension that leads the listener along that exquisite border between despair and redemption.