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At the beginning of his career, Jean Langlais was as interested in the piano as he was in the organ, an example of this being the Suite Armoricaine. Evoking Brittany, with its title and subtitles (Epitaph for sailors who had no tomb, The old ?sherman out at sea, Breton Dance, Solitary shellfish, Seagull confab), this work breathes deeply of the Breton air.
At the time, a critic said of Langlais: "There are always artichokes in his music" - artichokes, surely, but also the sea, fishermen, seashells and seagulls, in a succession of tableaux in which sadness and melancholy are occasionally tinged with solid, rustic good humour (Danse bretonne). The work's minor modal harmonic fabric evokes Brittany, a land of poetry and myths.
Marie-Louise Langlais
Extract from CD booklet Musique de Chambre avec Piano (March 2001)
