Mistral gagnant

Here is a little (33 bars with repeat) French song that I personally didn't know arranged by Jean-Marie Raymond, who is becoming known in the guitar world for his tuneful, slightly old-fashioned compositions for guitar. It flows along in quavers for the opening idea, and then in triplet quavers for the longer second idea, that repeats, and then a swift coda and it is all over. It is a little short, but interestingly there is a performance on YouTube by Cyrloud, who has done a couple of CDs of Raymond's music that is longer with varied repeats that works a little better. It made me wonder whether this is Cyrloud adding to the original (quite possible), or that the published version is a slightly watered down version (also possible). Whatever the answer it is a melodic piece that lovers of real tunes will enjoy, for it is only moderately difficult, and quite pleasantly done.

Chris Dumigan (Classical Guitar Magazine)