Amaury Coeytaux and Laurent Marfaing are two of the members of the French group, one of the luxury guests at the Cartagena XVI Music Festival.
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Amaury Coeytaux and Laurent Marfaing, two of the members of the Modigliani quartet in the Cloister of La Merced, in Cartagena. / Pedro Mendoza
They walk calmly, they have left their instruments to come to the Cloister of La Merced in the walled Center in Cartagena. They are Amaury Coeytaux, who plays a Guadagnini violin from 1773 and his partner Laurent Marfaing, the proud owner of a viola Luigi Mariani from 1660.
The two belong to the French string quartet Modigliani, considered one of the best in the world in its format. Their headquarters are in Paris and they are constantly invited to the best stages on the planet. It is his first time in Cartagena participating in the 16th edition of the Music Festival, which this year focuses on the “Color of sound”, with chamber instrumental works from the 19th century.
Four students from the National Conservatory of Music and Dance in Paris: Philippe Bernhard and Loïc Rio, on the violins; Laurent Marfaing, on viola, and Francois Kieffer, on cello, created the quartet in 2003.
The group has recorded eight albums with the Mirare label since 2008. Their most recent recording is dedicated to the Schumann quartets. In 2014, the collective was in charge of leading the Rencontres Musicales d’Évian, one of the main summer music events in Europe. In 2017, it was the first string quartet to perform in the Main Hall of the Hamburg Philharmonic.
Their lives are spent on tours in the United States, South America, Japan, and most of Europe. Its members have played with the Cologne Philharmonic and performed scores on stages such as London’s Wigmore Hall; the Auditorium du Musée du Louvre, in Paris; The Morgan Library & Museum, in New York, and the Brussel Flagey, in Belgium, among other emblematic places … and this week their platforms are in Cartagena.
Cartagena and inspiration
The Cloister of La Merced has a large central patio where the musicians of the Guadagnini quartet walk. In the center, a bust of Gabriel García Márquez holds the Nobel’s ashes. Laurent Marfaing looks at him and says to The viewer: “It is one of the most shocking things that have happened to us. When one arrives and sees the Nobel, after having read it and knowing that he is such an important writer, one begins to see the characters in his work, the color and freedom of a place where he traveled. That brings us many images ”.
We sat in a corner of the patio. Amaury Coeytaux is generous and warm with his words. This violinist performed live for Radio France the Sonata Ysaÿe when I was only eleven years old. After long time and study, he became principal violin of the Orchester d’Auvergne in 2008. In 2017, he joined the Modigliani quartet.
Laurent Marfaing, founder of the quartet, says that Cartagena is wonderful. We talk about the city, what it’s like to be a teacher and, of course, the music they play. Before the questions asked, the musicians complement their answers; it seems that they are always connected in the same movement and beat.
It is his first time in Cartagena. How do they feel in the city?
Very comfortable, everyone told us that Cartagena is the most touristic city in Colombia and I think it is true, we feel welcome by the people, being possible to walk through the beautiful streets where everything is incredible.
They are a quartet of young people. Why choose chamber music in an age when people listen to other genres?
“I think we all started with different music. I started when I was very young, I was four years old and my passion for classical music has never left me “, says Amaury.
“It is very personal. The beauty of classical music impacted us from childhood. It’s so incredible that you don’t want to leave her and always stay with her ”, complements Laurent.
When the artists come to this Festival, they take great care of their voices due to the changes in temperature. How much does the Caribbean climate influence the instruments?
The climate is not the best, the humidity affects the arches and the wood. We have to adjust the way we play the instrument, which is sometimes okay and sometimes not. It’s a lottery to see what will happen to this humidity level. Basically, these instruments that we are using were created in Italy according to the humidity there, so when we came to Cartagena, we changed the curves and the whole instrument itself. We must find the balance here.
We are at the site where the ashes of García Márquez are. What do you know about the Nobel and the magic of the Caribbean?
He is one of the most important writers in this country. I was looking at her bust and thinking about the characters that we find in her books, so funny and with so much freedom in their stories. You see that he lived next to the Caribbean Sea. I’m sure this is part of what he was projecting and feeding into his imagination.
They are both teachers. How do you complement teaching with your activities in the quartet?
It is a great privilege to teach younger generations what we learned in the past and we try to give them key tools to be excellent musicians, and the Paris Conservatoire is a great place for that.