For Pierre-Yves Macé, writing is often a palimpsest, a constant rewriting of what has already been written, for the pleasure of crossing forms anew and disturbing their lines, to arrange their sequences differently. This concert invites us to a few miniatures, a tribute to brevity even in the traditional genres of opera and cantata.

The chamber cantata Maintenant, de toutes nos forces, essayons de ne rien comprendre, with libretto by Pierre Senges, is based on Bach's cantatas BWW94 and BWW110, and draws on both literary and altered musical quotations. The tenor and countertenor carve out a new, tiny path through these illustrious models, embodying the age-old struggle between materialism and idealism. Kind des Faust was part of the 2016 show Angelus Novus. Anti-Faust by Sylvain Creuzevault, in which a composer took part. It was an opera within a theatre, revisiting Goethe's magnum opus and the forgotten figure of Faust and Marguerite's child, who was drowned by his parents and returns from the realm of the dead to seek revenge. The concert opens with a fluid, coherent sequence of two books of radio Virgules, conceived ten years ago for a programme by Gérard Pesson, Boudoir & autres. Developed and instrumented for the occasion, now in the concert hall, these virgules revisit the initial pencil sketch, giving life to other paths.