The appointment is carefully noted in the diaries. The venerable grain market of Blois will be the scene, Sunday, December 22, of the Christmas concert of the no less venerable harmony of Blois, born in the 19e century.
After putting the clarinet in the spotlight last year, this year it will welcome Ensemble orchestral 41. The latter will perform pieces by Offenbach, Weber, Gounod, Gershwin and a Christmas Festivalsigned Leroy Anderson, of circumstance. For its part, the harmony will perform Symphony No. 1 The Archangels by Franco Cesarini, a Swiss musician.
Between 60 and 70 musicians from this harmony orchestra (1), mainly composed of amateur musicians “at a good level”aged 14 to 80, will take the stage. A symbolic moment for Vincent Riès, clarinetist and musical director of the harmony for 30 years now. “I’m going to have 60 broomsticks in February: that’s half my life, which is not nothing and not very common! »
“We play things that are demanding but accessible”
His history with this historic band from Blois goes back even further, since Vincent Riès joined it in 1976 at the age of 11, as a third clarinetist. Before climbing the ranks and taking over as director in September 1994.
“There is an emotional side: it’s the harmony in which I started”smiles the man who has also been solo bass clarinet for 38 years at the Musique de l’air de Paris, a prestigious army unit based in Villacoublay.
The harmony of Blois is therefore “a family” where he has “lots of close friends”. “I was also lucky to have great presidents and boards of directors, and a great team of volunteers, who ensured that the association lived well, he specifies. What wears out chefs is that they have to do everything, that’s not the case for me. »
His role is to direct the harmony during concerts and during various patriotic ceremonies, to give lessons at the orchestra’s music school, to find programs to play, to check their feasibility and to put them in place. The trademark of this “ambitious and slightly crazy chef” is from “playing things that are demanding but accessible to an audience that is not necessarily initiated: everyone must find what they are looking for and have a good time.”
A requirement that musicians are accustomed to: “When I suggest simple things, they tell me it’s rubbish or I don’t see them rehearsing anymore! » Among the notable pieces played by the band, the director cites Symphonic Dances of West Side Story, in 2009: “It’s not really a piece designed to be played by concert bands and amateurs and I was very happy with the result. »
“I won’t make it until I’m 70”
From his 30 years spent at the head of the harmony, Vincent Riès also remembers “the arrival of great artists”, such as trombonist Fabrice Millischer, in 2012, who will return with his quartet for the orchestra’s spring concert on March 16, 2025.
If he plans to continue “as long as[il en a] want and it goes well »Vincent Riès is however sure of it: “I will not make it to my 70th birthday and we will not celebrate my 40the birthday at the head of the harmony. » Time will tell.
Sunday, December 22, at 4 p.m., at the Blois grain market. Prices: €8, free for children under 12. Tickets on www.harmoniedeblois.fr
(1) Formation composed solely of wind instruments and percussion.
