Today, we’ll speak about another track of my upcoming album: Ravel’s Le gibet. Le gibet, second movement of Gaspard de la nuit, put the audience in a sort of cataleptic state. Ravel really challenged himself and the output is fantastic: a very slow and mesmerizing piece completely fitting Bertrand’s poem.
I used to enjoy reading news about classical music right, it used to bring me pleasure and positiveness compared to the uninterrupted flow of negativity we can hear in the traditional news. Brilliant articles on wonderful people and projects, critics defending and promoting the artists they like, all of this used to accompany my breakfast. Until I fled classical music news. Let me explain why.
In my last post, we talked about Ondine, the first movement of Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit. Today, we are going deeper in the magic of Ondine’s world and also talk about the German physicist Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz. Do you know him? He discovered several important things but what makes him interesting to me is his strong interest in physics of perception, and especially his book On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music published in 1863. What’s in it? Roughly, he discovered harmonics and why they are so important to our ears.
Today, We will pursue the exploration of my album’s Track list with Ravel. Not that we’re done with Janáček yet, believe me, but let’s take a little detour by one of my favorite pieces ever, Gaspard de la nuit. For those who know me close enough, they know how I adore this piece and that I could speak about it for hours.
One year ago, one of my readers asked me how I feel about competitions and if I could write something about this hot topic. I really had to think about it (one year!) and find the right time to publish this. But, wait, aren’t we in the middle of a series of posts dedicated to Janáček? Yes, absolutely, but you’ll soon understand the connection. As you can notice in my biography, I didn’t “win” any prize in any competition. Not that I never attended one, I did join one but I decided right after that I will never do it again. But don’t worry, I won’t bother you here with the traditional music-competitions-are-evil. Things are not that simple.
BRUSSELS, Belgium, October 4th, 2011 Pianist Pierre-Arnaud Dablemont launches a $4000 online fundraising campaign for his first solo album, dedicated to Janáček and Ravel, on GoFundMe (www.gofundme.com).
In my previous post, Leoš Janáček: On an overgrown path, we spoke about the work’s background and its genesis. Today, it’s time to dive into the music itself and talk about one of the biggest issue when it comes to Janáček : the overgrown path to the original text.
As my recording sessions are getting closer, I’m completely focused on Janáček and Ravel’s work featured on the CD, namely On an overgrown path, In the mists and Gaspard de la nuit. This is a Czech/French program I choose for my first solo CD, really expressing who I am : despite the obvious Frenchness of my name, I feel equally close to each composer. Before hitting the studio in December, I wanted to write and share with you about the works I’ll be recording in two months and something. Allons-y! First post: Leoš Janáček’s On an overgrown path.
People usually don’t believe me when I say I spend much more time finding a suitable sitting than a piano before a performance. However, this is perfectly true. But that said, I’m not the only pianist claiming the bench is more important than the piano. When I was 14, I heard Samson François saying “I’d rather sit well at a bad piano, than sit poorly at a good one.” Of course he said this in a documentary film, I’m not old enough to have known him. I share his point of view now, but at this time, I just said to myself “What is this crazy guy talking about?”. Well, 16 years later, I deeply apologize to Samson Francois : he was not crazy, just much more experienced than me. What a surprise, isn’t it? But we all know how teenagers are, and I was not an exception!
Both Janáček and Ravel have a particular resonance with Pierre-Arnaud Dablemont and reflect his path in the music world. He therefore naturally chose to feature these two composers in his first album. Date of public release : July 15th 2012 .
