In the Cité des Congrès in Nantes, where we wander around this year in complete fluidity, we hear contrary opinions. Such deplores the effervescence of normal years, without sanitary constraints, the crowds which hardly cross each other on weekends, the exhilarating hubbub of the large hall where music resounds constantly.
→ TESTIMONIALS. Crazy day in Nantes, the tempo found
Another, in reverse, is delighted with the calm, appreciates the easy circulation, the rooms less crowded than usual. “I feel calmer to welcome the music, to listen to it with concentration. This particularly suits Schubert”, says a regular at the Folle Journée de Nantes even if, moreover, she regrets the festive spirit of the event: “It’s true that unexpected meetings and exchanges are more difficult, especially on the record and book stands which, this year, had to be set up outside the Cité. »
A complete set of “String Quartets”
There, one will find in good place the very recent integral of the String quartets by Schubert recorded by the Modigliani under the Mirare label (1). The French band is one of the guests of honor at this 28th edition of La Folle Journée. The 15 quartets, written between 1813 (Schubert was born in 1797!) and 1826, will have been one of the red threads, allowing the public to measure the path traveled by the meteor composer between his first scores, still imbued with the classicism of a Haydn or a Mozart, and the ultimate works of which The Maiden and Death (the penultimate). Or, even more perhaps, the 15th, of a depth of inspiration, a harmonic boldness and an emotional intensity rarely equalled.
The cohesion of the Modigliani quartet, reinforced by the common crossing of this integral Schubert, will have legitimately seduced the audience. If, sometimes, we would like more abandon and effusion in the slow movements with the ineffable lyrical palpitations, the four accomplices work wonders in the more tumultuous pages, in joy as in anxiety: they shape sonic roughness , launch frank attacks and cultivate popular accents evoking images of the Viennese forest and friendly celebrations under the arbor.
Particularly convincing under the Modigliani bows, the Joke from Quartet No. 10 will encourage the most facetious to recognize – perhaps – the braying of a donkey introducing an old-fashioned musette, perfectly irresistible… How can we imagine that this easy-drinking and figurative episode will give way, in the following movement, to an almost religious aria of an admirable sobriety, bathed in mystery? ” In his String quartets, Schubert constantly takes us between waking dreams and the tragic reality of death to come., summarizes the musicologist Bernard Fournier, one of the speakers invited to La Folle Journée.
Confidences at the piano
Among the other magical musical moments of La Folle Journée 2022, pianist Selim Mazari’s recital delighted the audience with a Sonata No. 15 of a whimsical poetry, singing and dancing, served by a luminous, shimmering touch. Note that the artist born in 1992 is scheduled by the summer, in several cities in France (2).
In Nantes, followed Trois Piano Pieces D. 946 feverish, panting, navigating from tumults to tenderness, from bucolic visions to phantasmagoric anguish. Selim Mazari seems to improvise the sinuous lines and the inimitable melodies, emphasizing – without highlighting them – the modulations and the metaphysical silences. It is rare to hear intelligence and spontaneity so closely linked.
