Souvenirs de bal

by Thibault Perrine

for accordion and symphony orchestra

First performance in April 2019 – with the Orchestre de Cannes-Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur conducted by Benjamin Lévy

« An old, almost faded memory. Snippets of a forgotten melody.

It was at the ball, a long time ago. There was an accordion.

Memory and melody are intimately linked; memory can no longer separate them…

A few notes, and reminiscences arise. An image of the past, and the fragments of a song resound, always incomplete, always different.

Depending on the turn the melody takes, the memory changes: never precise, always changing.

Only in dreams does everything come back to me clearly, as if it were yesterday: the song is finally complete.

But when I wake up, I can’t remember it… »

Souvenirs de bal is a work for accordion and orchestra, lasting about 9 minutes. This piece is built around a single theme, borrowed from the popular repertoire; this theme permeates the whole work but is only quoted in a complete and clearly recognisable way at the moment of the ‘dream’, in a sort of climax of softness and expressive blur.