Pierre-Arnaud Dablemont, pianist » Musical life

French classical pianist Genevieve Joy has died

Pierre-Arnaud — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 11:00:50 +0000

Genevieve Joy died Friday night in her sleep at the age of 90 years old. Key figure in contemporary music, she played an important role in the spread of contemporary piano repertoire, creating works of her husband, Henri Dutilleux to whom my thoughts are, but also other leading composers like Pierre Boulez and Andre Jolivet. She has highlighted in her work the composers much more than herself.

She was born in Bernaville in the Somme department in Northern France region of Picardy on October 4, 1919. Accepted to the Paris Conservatory in 1932, she had studied piano, harmony and collaborative piano. Vocal coach at the orchestre National de France during the mid 1940′s, she taught sight-reading before becoming piano professor at the Paris Conservatoire.

She has served the music of her time with dedication and gusto.

Thank you Genevieve Joy, you will remain immortal in our hearts.

How to choose a new piano

Pierre-Arnaud — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 06:00:31 +0000

So here it is, you are close to your dream: owning you own new piano. You get the impression to reach a stage, but I tell you, the adventure has only just begun. You will see that choosing a piano isn’t that easy. What range of price, which size? It is not that easy to find one’s way around as each manufacturer has very convincing argument points.

Having played hundreds of pianos, I can tell you how they can be different. The brand plays a crucial role for certain standards, but the piano preparation is essential. If the quality of the used materials, the finishing or the manufacturing are very important parameters, the technician who performed the tuning and harmonization operations is just as important. Of course, many other components are involved, but the harmonization is really the step that gives its own identity to the piano. The harmonization can even affect our perception of mechanics, for example, a smooth or soft sound can gives us the impression of a “lazy” and heavy keyboard.

As for the pianos of a same brand and same model, there is an infinite number of shades, caused by factors outside the production itself. Let’s take the example of the environment: according to different rooms, the piano will not sound at all alike. Similarly, the size of the piano is to adapt to the volume of the available room. The Steinway D is a mythical instrument, but placed in a 30 square meters room, the myth shatters… Designed for rooms of large volume, it needs plenty of space to express itself!

Finally, choosing a piano is quite like choosing a car. It is necessary to define your needs in advance, as well as your budget. Just as a formula 1 requires a professional driver, some exceptional pianos require experienced pianists to deliver the best of themselves. I met some people, who were mistakenly thinking that buying a Steinway would automatically enable them to have Lipatti’s sound. Moreover, just as a formula 1 (again), these pianos require a very expensive and very frequent maintenance to stay on top of their performance. It is therefore necessary to not only consider the purchase but also maintenance costs, which can be fairly high.

But the most important in all this is to choose a piano that you really like. Whatever the brand, or what’s being said, if you have a crush on it, do not hesitate. Once identified, ask to be delivered the precise instrument you have tried. As I told you, two pianos of the same model and same brand may be very different. Write down the serial number and leave your mark on the piano (sign the underside, for example) and check on delivery that it is the piano you have chosen, and if all goes well, then you will enjoy many happy years with your instrument!

Is the debate over piracy a “false” debate?

Pierre-Arnaud — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 21:12:47 +0000

Artistic licenses and protection of creations are a current concern. Illegal downloading, free music distributed by artists themselves; the world of music recording and distribution is changing. Today, many governments are adopting new laws to protect artists’ rights. But, does the artist really need it? I mean, is this protection really intended for artists or is there anyone else interested?

Because here is the point: who has an interest in protecting artists? Let’s imagine you are a professional musician and your project of album comes true: you get signed to a record label. What are you going to get next? An advance payment against royalties from the label. And, as you will not sell millions of discs, it will certainly take a long time before you get something more, or even maybe this will never happen again…

For a classical artist, recording is not a major source of income, but is rather a marketing tool, which helps us to sell concerts. A kind of visit card, which promotes our work to the public, concerts organizers and the press. Its purpose is therefore to be propagated as much as possible, no matter if its distribution is free, as long as it is not a substantial source of income.

Finally, the record label is the main interested party in this business. The company wants to cover its production expenses, which is laudable, but will survive only if it sells enough discs. The fight against piracy benefits mainly the record company but not its artist.

Whether this fight against piracy fails or free downloading wins the battle, record companies in their present form will cease to exist. (as well as all the organisations for protection of artists’ “rights”). The artist, as for him, will always be there and will be able to adapt to the new market rules.

Who does benefit from law?

Music scene: the crisis is here

Pierre-Arnaud — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 07:00:14 +0000

For some weeks now, we hear a lot about the financial crisis. A bank goes bankrupt, another one loses hundreds of millions, some big companies considered solid falter. The media go on and on about the consequences on the world economy, but we hear almost nothing about the effects on the art scene. Yet its consequences promise to be disastrous.

More recently, announcements are succeeding one another: Yamaha has reduced its piano production and suppressed jobs, two big monthly magazines on culture merged to face up to the crisis, General Motors withdrawed as the lead sponsor of the Montreal International Jazz Festival… The examples are numerous, showing that the crisis is affecting the arts.

The fact is that classical music is essentially subsidized by private sponsoring and/or state funds. States are now drawing huge sums to bail out banks and companies in difficulty, leading to savings in less “visible” budgets (culture, for example), and the private sponsoring to tick over, the said companies having less liquid assets for sponsoring.

Now a question which concerns me: who will then subsidize festivals, which are necessary for musicians to make a living? Who will fund municipal or national cultural policies? Will we have to radically change our work habits in order to still be able to make a living from our art? To go in for something new?

Not that easy to see through this mess, and even less easy to know what’s going to be cooked up for us!

Happy birthday Mister Lachenmann!

Pierre-Arnaud — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 07:00:40 +0000

Yesterday, 27th of november, was the birthday of the German composer Helmut Lachenmann, born in 1935. Luigi Nono’s disciple, he is considered as a major composer of our time and as the most representative of the “klangkomposition”.

Lachenmann often talked about his compositions as musique concrète instrumentale. Continuously inventing playing techniques, he creates a totally new sound world, but also, in his pieces, puts performers to a severe test.

His works are regularly performed in all the big contemporary music festivals: Holland Festival, Ars Musica Brussels, Festival d’Automne (Paris), Steiericher Herbst (Graz), Huddersfield, Tage für Neue Musik (Stuttgart), Tage für Neue Kammermusik (Witten), Musik der Zeit (Cologne), Chicago, Zurich, Ultima (Oslo), Viitasaari, Sarrebruck, Reggio Emilia…

Listen to Wiegenmusic by Helmut Lachenmann.

Once again, happy birthday Mister Lachenmann!

On selling concerts

Pierre-Arnaud — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 07:00:45 +0000

Helene Grimaud’s wolves, Kennedy’s faux hawk, Lang Lang’s facial expression, etc, the image of classical music is progressively changing. Democratization or simple marketing tool?

From Gramophone to The Sun, there’s only a short step… The free artist, making his own choices disappeared beneath marketing. To reach a new public and sell more than ever is one of our leaders’ main ideas. In our world of image, the most important is not the contents anymore but the container. In their race, the labels do not bet anymore on musician’s quality of interpretation but on his appearance, and his actor’s skills.

Anna Netrebko in a famous quizz show is, according to Deutsche Grammophon, a success: the head of international marketing points out that 70.000 discs were sold in the two months following the broadcasting. But is this really a place for Anna Netrebko?

They now sell us Grimaud’s lovely face, the lips of Renee Fleming, the plunging neckline of Angela Gheorghiu, and so on… Arièle Butaux, producer for France Musique, stated: “at equal talent, a pretty girl with blue eyes will prevail over an ugly oily-haired girl.“ And went on: “And what is certain is that in the 21st century, Clara Haskil would not pursue a career!”. This proves that with higher talent, a chubby person does not have any career opportunity.

In our perfect world, the box-office diktat gained the upper hand on musical thought. It’s now essential to sell discs. The time when the record label bet on an artist and let him progress fifteen or twenty years is behind us. People need stars. A young singer enters the marketplace, O.k., but he must sing all the repertoire immediately. Producers make him believe that he can do it, and finally he looses his voice.

Today, there is no time to wait. Everything is going faster and faster, but towards where? We need time to build and grow a repertoire, but nobody wants to wait anymore. “It becomes difficult to think about the meaning of a music when reigns the race for contracts and planes. But perhaps we cannot mix anymore the current life style with the internal rhythm of the serious music.” said Rostropovitch. But who wants to know the meaning of a music? Who wants to understand music? Surely not a large majority of professionals, who only see in it one simple product which can bring them glory as well as money.

The keyword now is : marketing. You have to sell. Tickets for example: so you’re frequently asked to play a program with only classical hits, and pay attention to communication: Your career depends on it. A new spirit was born, art is becoming a huge company adapted to the customer. I hope that all is not lost and art is not a company. Should it be otherwise, then art would be dead.

The end of classical music?

Pierre-Arnaud — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 06:00:45 +0000

This topic has already been discussed extensively: classical music is a thing of the past and is thus doomed to extinction. Don’t you see all those “white hairs” in concert halls?

Thanks to a post in muse affiliée, I’ve recently discovered an article by conductor Leon Bolstein, music director of the American Symphony Orchestra and of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.

Against all expectation, this article was published in the Wall Street Journal and confirmed what I was thinking: no, classical music isn’t dead, but quite the opposite, concerts are going well. The number of concerts has exponentially increased during the last forty years, the number of professional orchestras too. More and more young people learn to play an instrument. “An ageing public” you’d say? Classical music has never been a young people’s affair until now, and efforts made to rejuvenate the image of classical music and get new audience have just begun to bear fruit.

Would the sound reproduction be an impediment to the live concert? Would the multimedia change the culture consumer’s behavior by allowing him to do his own home-concert? Though conceivable, this trend won’t grow and won’t be harmful to the concert, but quite the opposite. No hi-fi system will replace the unique experience of the live performance. On the contrary, discs and mp3s can make a new audience go to concerts.

These days, live performance is going well, even if we’d have to find a more flexible concept of concert allowing an audience less accustomed to the concert ritual to swell the ranks of classical music lovers. Hard to please a potential audience without dissatisfying the existing one, but with time we will make it.

And now a question for you, dear readers: how should we improve classical music concerts?

Beaux Arts Trio retires

Pierre-Arnaud — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 07:00:44 +0000

The Beaux Arts Trio, after a dazzling 53-year career, has retired this month. Menahem Pressler, 84 years old and last trio’s founding member didn’t wish to continue the adventure and form a new violonist. Indeed, Daniel Hope announced, because of his growing solo career, that he couldn’t ensure anymore the yearly 75-80 trio’s concerts.

The Beaux Arts Trio started in 1955 during the Festival of Tanglewood, Massachussets, with Menahem Pressler at the piano, Daniel Guilet on the violin and Bernard Greenhouse on the cello. At the time, the trio couldn’t manage to sign for a major label and recorded for a minor one, in only 3 hours, for free, their first record “Mendelssohn Dvorak”. 8 months later, the trio learnt that this record was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque. The trio signed a few months later with Philips and was launched.

The NPR “podcasts” the Beaux Arts Trio’s farewell concert at Tanglewood, where all began. I also suggest you the following two links, thanks to which you can listen to the 2 Schubert’s trios opus 99 and 100, by the famous Trio. At the piano Menahem Pressler, on the violin Daniel Hope and on the cello Antonio Meneses.

First part of the concert

Second part

Goodbye Beaux Arts Trio and thank you for all this musical happiness!

Glenn Gould

Pierre-Arnaud — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:23:52 +0000

Among fascinating pianists, Glenn Gould holds for me a special place. By his play and his personality, the Canadian pianist captivated me.

I first heard him in his goldberg variations in the 1981 version. I say “his” because Gould has been able to make them his while respecting the text of Bach. Then, I progressively fell in love with his vision of things and music. Multi-faceted character , he made documentaries for radio, television, moderated programs, and of course recorded for CBS a huge repertoire.

Lone, Gould prefered the atmosphere of the studio to the stages which he totaly left after 1964. Perfectionist, the concert could not fit him, with its imperfect nature and its obligations to compromise. In the studio he could think, redo, choose options and deliver a perfect product without compromise.

Also composer, his works are not so famous. These include the fugue for choir and four mixed voices entitled So You Want to Write a Fugue? and his String Quartet Opus 1, inspiration close to the music of Arnold Schoenberg. He also wrote several transcriptions for solo piano from works by Wagner and Ravel.

He suffered a stroke on 27 September 1982. He was admitted to hospital and his condition rapidly deteriorated. He was taken off life support on October 4. He is buried in Toronto’s Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

Let’s listen to music with this video of the master interpreting the aria of the Golberg Variations in 1981.

Death of Karlheinz Stockhausen

Pierre-Arnaud — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 20:01:12 +0000

Deeply shocked by the German composer’s death on Wednesday, I think there’s no need to revisit the extraordinary career of one of the most important personality of the music scene after World War II.

To learn more about him, please go to www.stockhausen.org