Details: Part 1 has already attracted a lot of attention worldwide because of it's extraordinary musical design and blend of sounds. It has received top marks in the media, achieved remarkable chart placings, and also attracted attention on a cultural level because of it's authentic, completely uncoloured factual content. In order to bring the listener very close to all the details and avoid romanticising the story, the author describes the events without comment from the perspective of Jean de Metz, the faithful companion in arms and confidant of the heroine. There are therefore no individual interpretations of the historical events in the sung texts and spoken contributions. Next to the music, it was important to the author to create a work based exclusively on proven real events, and therefore as close as possible to the truth. It was also important to him not only to boldly illustrate the well-known passages and stages of the fate of the Virgin of Orleans in words and music, but to capture all the events within their entire context and reproduce them unabridged in sequence. Although many years of research have made Bornemann profoundly knowledgeable about the story, he has attempted to get even closer to the core of the truth by studying the sources intensively in order to decipher details of the events in the Middle Ages, which remain puzzling to this day and controversial among experts. Olivier Bouzy, the director of the Centre Jeanne d´Arc in Orleans, who helped to clarify some of the background issues thrown up by the complicated questions, supported him in his research. With Part 2 of his opus, Frank Bornemann has certainly come closer to his goal of creating a very special work, which is not only musically impressive, but also emotionally profound and moving. It will take the listener and surely, later, as a stage version, the audience on a moving a journey to a fascinating historical event.

Eloy de Jong - Vision, The Sword And The Pyre Part Ii (Vinyl)