Four concerts, four precious moments, in a living room in Prague from the 19e century: it is the invitation of the Musical Evenings, little autumn sisters of the Musical Festivals. Four concerts to let your heart and mind dream, dance, sing while listening to works by Janáček, Smetana and Dvorák. A music where folklore, lyrical melodies and harmonic daring combine, “capturing the very essence of Central European culture and landscape”, et sometimes also, those from much more distant horizons.
Like these themes gleaned by Dvorák, the traveler in America and which haunt the New World Symphony that the pianist Gabriel Durliat will play on Wednesday; or those of American Quartet. “It’s a work that we love to play, music teeming with melodic inspiration, very changing harmonic landscapes, constantly passing from one light to another”confides Yan Levionnois, the cellist of the Hermès Quartet.
The Hermès Quartet, aptly named!
Under the tutelage of the famous messenger god, the four bows of the Hermès Quartet aim to be the “passengers between the composer’s text and the public’s sensitivity”. And for this, these musicians, who also have a solo career, “try to be devoted to the quartet which requires total involvement to be able to offer the most convincing interpretations possible”, adds Yan, with humility.
A work, a commitment most often daily, which bears fruits of excellence praised from Carnegie Hall in New York to the Forbidden City, from Wigmore Hall in London to the Folles Journes of Nantes and Tokyo, from Italy to Morocco.
First lessons with his father on the hills of the Loire
What a wonderful journey for this young musician, since the first lessons with his father Éric, the great cellist, on the slopes of the Loire, near Amboise. It will then be the Tours Conservatory, with Xavier Richard, before Philippe Muller at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris and the courses in Oslo with Truls Mørk.
Despite the laurels of competitions and the success of concerts, Yan Levionnois knew how to preserve the taste for ensemble music, discovered very early with his mother and his brother, thanks to transcriptions by Eric for two cellos and two violas. This ensemble music which requires from everyone as much commitment to find their place as listening to respect the voice of the other, with this radiant modesty, this flamboyant simplicity which are the signature of true musicians, of great quartets.
Festival hall of Tours town hall. Single concerts: €25. Two concerts on the same evening: €40. Reduced: €10 and €8. PCE: €8 (one place purchased = one place offered). Reservation: www.festival-la-grange-de-meslay.fr or 07.88.99.21.44. Catering between concerts. Possibility of booking to limit waiting time. www.helloasso.com/associations/fetes-musicales-en-touraine/boutiques/
The program
> Tuesday 26 November, at 7 p.m.: Trio Hélios, Dvořák, “Trio No. 4 for piano and strings”, “Opus 90 Dumky”; Smetana: “Trio for piano, violin and cello, in G minor opus 15”. At 9 p.m.: Novak Defrance and Quatuor Hermès. Dvorák, “Piano Quartet in E-flat major opus 87”; Janáček, “Piano Sonata, 1is October 1905”; Dvořák, “Poetic impressions for piano opus 85” (extracts).
> Wednesday November 27, at 7 p.m.: Hermès Quartet, Dvorák, “The cypresses” (extracts); Quartet No. 12 “American”. At 9 p.m., Gabriel Durliat (piano) and Hermès quartet, Dvořák – Durliat, “Symphony No. 9 from the New World” (first two movements transcribed for solo piano); Dvořák, “quintet for piano and strings in A major, opus 81”.
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