Sylvain Teutsch has the ambition to make the Gouvy villa a House of Illustrious People – ©La Semaine
The ambition is to make Villa Gouvy a House of Illustrious People. Explanations with Sylvain Teutsch.
The Gouvy Institute has become a world reference in the field of music in that it has allowed the work of Théodore Gouvy, who is one of the great composers of the 19th century, to regain the aura it had at a time when the musician shared his fame with Liszt, Berlioz, Mendelssohn and others.
“The problem with Théodore Gouvy is that he was a well-known musician, recognized but not claimed,” says Sylvain Teutsch, president of the Gouvy Institute, to explain the oblivion suffered by this composer caught between German and French cultures. And if he is now played throughout the world, it is undoubtedly thanks to the determination of the man who, as a child, discovered his tomb in the cemetery of Hombourg-Haut and was intrigued by this character about whom little was known except that he was a musician, that he had stayed for years in the Gouvy villa, home of his brother, director of the Forges located in the Hombourg city.
“Promote research work”
Sylvain Teutsch, passionate about singing and music, will then never stop going back in time to discover the composer who knew glory, played in the high places of music that were then Paris but also Leipzig, Berlin, Cologne bringing his fame as far as Italy… The first stage of this rehabilitation was the performance of works within the framework of the Rencontres musicales de Hombourg-Haut Festival International Théodore Gouvy.
Then came the creation of the eponymous Institute. “I wanted to go beyond an association to open up to the collection of handwritten works, their edition or re-edition, that of the composer’s letters, of all archival documents concerning him to promote research work”, explains the president who regularly welcomes musicologists, musicians, conductors, also opening partnerships with international musical bodies.
Restoring the Villa’s “period charm”
Housed in the Villa Gouvy, owned by the city, the Institute then set itself the goal of rehabilitating the premises of this stylish building frequented by the greatest musicians of the time. “The archives having been entrusted to the Departmental Archives which digitized them, the idea was to restore the villa to its period character and to make it a place of memory in the form of a museum. A first phase of work was carried out by the City with on the one hand an interior renovation attached to rediscover the original and authentic 19th century style of this house and its winter garden. The parquet floors were renovated or for some changed, the tapestries and ceilings redone with a concern for authenticity. The Institute looked for Louis-Philippe style furniture, which was, according to the documents, omnipresent in the villa.
Work has been carried out to welcome the public and make the premises accessible to people with reduced mobility” comments Sylvain Teutsch. Before opening to the public, other work is planned on the roof, but also the exteriors and outbuildings, exhibition spaces must be created upstairs to evoke the life and history of Théodore Gouvy. The ambition of the Institute with the City, the Directorate of Cultural Affairs, the Department, and also the European funds that are mobilized and to ensure that the city obtains the Maisons des Illustres label.
Open house Sunday September 22 from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. with musical interludes.
