2023-11-15 17:00:05
Conductor Maxime Pascal conducts the “Turangalîla-Symphonie” by Olivier Messiaen, at the Auditorium in Milan (Italy), on March 31, 2023. ANGELICA CONCARI / ORCHESTRA SINFONICA DI MILANO
The studio of the Philharmonie de Paris welcomes an unusual group, at the end of a November followingnoon: three horn players face three bassoonists under the gaze of someone, seated like them in front of a large score, who lavishes on them advice, sometimes technical but often expressive, using very colorful sentences. “It really has to be a village party but in a parallel universe. » Thus Maxime Pascal summarizes scene 5 of Sunday (“Sunday”), the final part of the opera Licht (” Light “) by Karlheinz Stockhausen, whose performance he will conduct in two stages on November 16, 17 and 20.
“This passage corresponds to a ceremony, the marriage of Eve and Michaël, two of the three protagonists of the work,” specifies the conductor following a rehearsal during which his role consisted of accompanying the musicians, redirecting them or encouraging them, but not directing them. This final scene, not only Sunday but also of Licht, will transcend the principle of union at all levels, of time and space. It will, in fact, take place simultaneously in two rooms. One, devoted to the instrumental forces, the other, to the choral mass. And the public present on one side (Pierre Boulez room of the Philharmonie) will be entitled at the same time to what is happening in the other (Cité de la musique) via a video.
Not simple, the interpretation of Licht… Not trivial either, the writing, extended from 1977 to 2003, of this opera dedicated to the seven days of the week with a total duration of around twenty-nine hours! In 2018, Maxime Pascal undertook the complete restitution, never before achieved, with Thursday (” THURSDAY “). Five years later, following having already produced four parts of the cycle, what essential has he learned regarding this extraordinary music? “May it reveal to us what the act of listening is. » With an almost mystical dimension.
“For Stockhausen, music transforms human beings; when the sound phenomenon resonates within us, it transforms us, physically, chemically,” assures Maxime Pascal, who, following having studied at the Paris Conservatory the works of the 1950s and 1960s which made the reputation of the avant-garde composer, discovered in 2009 an aspect of his production that had gone completely silent in France, without doubt for its unrealistic nature.
Read the interview: Maxime Pascal, the amp maestro, winner in Salzburg
“I came across the score ofExamination (one of the first scenes of Licht, dating from 1979) which mobilized not only instrumentalists and singers but also mime dancers and two magnetic tapes. » And, even more edifying for the young chef, “everything was noted in the score”. From choreography to costumes to the amplification of musical sources. A godsend for the man who had just founded, in 2008, a multidisciplinary ensemble, Le Balcon, with the desire to provide music that always has sound. “I told myself that we had a work here that perfectly corresponded to our intentions, including its “happening” aspect bringing together very different artists. »
You have 45% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
1700071278
#Maxime #Pascal #conductor #search #connections #Philharmonie #Paris