[ PORTUGUÊS ]
Christophe Desjardins, or the inventive interpreter
Interview conducted by Diana Ferreira in November 2005; translated by Catarina Martins
photography: Aymeric Wamé - Janville 2005
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You also make concerts with artists from different artistic fields. Do you believe the audience will listen better to the music or is it a way to easily attract bigger audiences?
Some concerts are didactic, like Il était une fois l’alto, where I tried to present all viola repertoire in a continuum perspective: from Baroque to Romantic, from early XXth century and Contemporary Music to Berio and Feldman, which was the most contemporary point of that programme.
I've conceived one film to each work, not to explain music through films, but to get that continuum throughout the eras.
... But is it abstract films or...?
We use all kind of graphic techniques, animation, video...
It’s not films about the viola?
No! I've worked with a video artist and I told him what I imagine and what I want to express when I play. How the music is build, how it evolves, what it expresses.... A very simple example of this is the Sonata for flute, viola and harp by Debussy: on the first movement, the Pastorale, I believe that Debussy created precisely a pastoral scene! It's a scene by the water, we see the nature, the water flowing, the wind blowing, very simple things...
So the films are a way of translating what you imagine about the music.
Precisely. It's a way to highlight what I want to express through music. And, for the people that are not used to listen to music, these films are a friendly help to understand a given musical expression....
I believe I've heard you for the first time at the Botanique, in Brussels, and you played Einspielung III by Emmanuel Nunes. It isn't exactly an easy piece, but I can't imagine it accompanied by a film.
No... He, himself, attended the concert and told me “to me this isn't the least interesting”. Well, the truth is if the audience is used to listen to music, they don't need any help.
I don't think Einspielung III is an easy piece to listen to, even to someone used to listen to Contemporary Music. I do think it's difficult. Personally, I had to listen to it several times before I could actually start to listen to it. It's a very complex piece.
That's right! Even for the interpreter. It's not a walk in the park. We can imagine several ways to grasp it, but you need to listen to it several times. And it’s not only for its complexity. Not all complex pieces are interesting. It's not complexity that makes them interesting. I believe a piece like Einspielung III is difficult to listen to but has an impressive writing. There’s a massive gesture pointing in a direction that we can't immediately apprehend. It's true that it requires listening to several times. And that it doesn't need other artistic forms to be listen to.
Is it possible to bring the audience closer to the piece before it listens to it for the first time? ...Some explanation... Christophe, you write your own remarks on the programme, but do you think it's enough? Or is it better to let the audience discover the music on their own?
I believe we must let the audience discover the music on their own. The only advice I should give to the audience is to be willing to listen and not seeking to understand. I noted several times that if you try to understand Emmanuel [Nunes]’s music you're not in the right mood. You must give in to perception, to the senses, and accept to be lost in a labyrinth piece.... We are dealing with something other than understanding. It's about inner experience. And I believe this is also what happens with Beethoven, Monteverdi...
With all the major composers?
Yes. Perhaps even with Felman, in a very different way. It has to do with abandoning yourself, with travelling and intellectually building your way inside the piece... Letting the piece come to you. [>]