The passion flower (Flor da Paxao in Portuguese) is an exuberant exotic plant, a sinuous and unpredictable liana, as is the melodic line of this piece. It grows freely on the solid rhythmic support of the tango, and is strengthened by the mordents that form its tendrils. Highly modulated, it evokes the passion of love that is constantly evolving, from happiness sometimes tinged with melancholy to the most lyrical enthusiasm or, suddenly, to discord, thus changing but always alive with the passionate feelings that follow one another.

Encouraged by Jean Françaix, who hailed him as ‘an excellent musician and tireless arranger’, Frédéric Cellier wrote a number of pieces of light music and a considerable number of arrangements in all styles and for all instruments acclaimed by numerous personalities in the music world. Along his university studies (DEA in musicology, University of Paris IV-Sorbonne), Frédéric Cellier was awarded three first prizes and a development prize at the CNR of Nice and won first prize at the International Competition of Musical Execution - soloist category – of Stresa (Italy). He is the laureate of the Fondation de France and the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation and accredited teacher at the CNR of Nice, the CNR of Marseille, and at the CRR Olivier Messiaen of Avignon (France). Frédéric Cellier is the interpreter of Francis Poulenc’s Sonata for clarinet Bb and piano with Jean-Michel Damase, Jean Françaix or Gabriel Tacchino, but also performs his own version for clarinet, piano and string orchestra of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in blue for Wynton Marsalis or under the baton of Adrian Gershwin, grandson of the composer.