“La Roque” is not just a place of pleasure, it is also a place of pilgrimage. You come here to refresh your soul, surrounded by nature, among the chattering cicadas and hungry mosquitoes. With its white cap that wants to convert the green of the trees, its holy water font without frogs and its bleachers kneeling in front of the stage, the Parc de Florans is the Saint Peter’s Basilica of the festival.
Further on, other chapels invite to ecumenical encounters, to the baptism of young talents or to the return of prodigal stars, but the park with 365 plane trees that Paul Onoratini and René Martin consecrated in 1981 represents the holy of holies where the great -evening masses introduce a large audience to musical communion.
In forty-three years we have seen the altar boy grow and his flock grow. Or how a piano placed in front of a basin in a lost hole in the South has become a cathedral of the world keyboard. In forty-three years, we have seen the birth of stars like Hélène Grimaud and the disappearance of great masters. Their memory mingles with the scent of the flowers and, in the silence, their presence envelops us according to the beautiful expression “an angel passes”.
Poignant exhibition of portraits – Nicholas Angelich, Brigitte Engerer, Nelson Freire – resurrected among the living – Martha Argerich, Yevgueni Kissine, Maria-Joao Pires – like a bouquet of immortelles which, in the ground or closer to the sun, never fade .
The 43rd edition opens with a complete set of five Beethoven concertos over three evenings. First the last of the series, “The Emperor”, the most famous. As an aperitif, the Orchester de chambre de Paris plays an overture by Emilie Mayer, a prolific German composer, under the fine and supple direction of Lionel Bringuier, which sounds like Rossini.
At 42, pianist Bertrand Chamayou still looks like a student who got into the wrong classroom. No doubt, to give himself countenance, he kisses the first violin. Would he if it wasn’t a woman? Why diminish the function by emphasizing a genre? Is it modern to make a difference or is it more respecting equality? And then is a schoolboy kiss appropriate before “The Emperor”? While we’re at it, let’s dance the caterpillar to the latest quartets!
Two days later, pianist Kadouch played the first two concertos with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta conducted by Yip Wing-sie. In these times of wise deprivation, let’s think about calculating the carbon footprint of such a concert… The pianist begins with the second – composed before and published after. Often, we prefer the first, better done, then we come to adore the second with its youthful flaws, its moments of grace, its incredible pace.
A week later, Bruce Liu, the last winner of the Warsaw Chopin Competition, was invited to play Chopin’s two concertos. Born in Paris to Chinese parents, he grew up in Montreal with his father. A warm temperament, an infallible technique and the hurt of having been separated from his mother form an ideal combination to unlock the secrets of the young Chopin.
The same evening, the Japanese Mao Fujita is back. His pure-hearted Mozart enchanted the Parc Florans last year, his Polonaises by Chopin thrill us this year. This 24-year-old boy is a godsend. He smiles, sits and plays, drawing treasures of color, warmth and spontaneity from the instrument. In the second part, Liszt’s Sonata convinces us less. Martha Argerich claims that when she was playing Chopin and Liszt at the same concert, they were jealous of each other (especially Chopin) and something was wrong. Could this be the repeating curse?
