George Benjamin: Three Miniatures (2001)
Luciano Berio: Sequenza VIII (1976)
Pierre Boulez: Anthèmes I (1991)
Thierry Escaich: Nun komm (2001)
Helmut Lachenmann: Toccatina (1986)
Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst: Grand Caprice on Schubert's Erlkönig, Op. 26
Charles Kwong: Imaginary beings 1 for Jeanne-Marie Conquer (2020)
Why do you select these composers and what’s special in them?
Jeanne-Marie Conquer: After 35 years at the Ensemble intercontemporain (EIC), I have had many experiences working with different composers. For this project, I selected the ones I played the most in concerts, on CD’s, those I gave for practice to my students, and the ones I worked on in details with the composers themselves. It seems to me that I know them upside down! So, it is the moment to make a mature version!
How’s your experience in working with living composers? And how does it compare to working a piece by a composer from history?
First of all, they are alive! As a performer, it is interesting to get to know the composer’s ideas of the pieces and their comprehension of the musical form. It is also constructive to listen to their advice and suggestions, and to listen to their knowledge! I did not include any Georgy Kurtag’s works in this project. Yet, I was lucky to have worked with him. He is a great teacher: he talked very naturally about Bartók, giving examples at the piano with a lot of excerpts, especially the string quartets, playing the reduction at the piano. He searched together with musicians for the best of your sound, and looked for ways to link two sounds together with fierce passion!
Can you share with us your own experience of Pierre Boulez?
He shaped me!I spent hours in rehearsals and concerts under his direction. I worked on Anthèmes and Anthèmes 2, the two pieces he wrote for solo violin and electronics. Over the years, he constantly reminded musicians: always give priority to the form! For him, the musical narrative must be obvious and crystal clear. There must be no nonsense, nor false or fake rubato. There is no hideout.
How about the other composers featured in this series?
Thierry Escaich is a great French organist. As a performer, he insists on rhythm and tempo, just like a jazz musician. He does not share the artistic approach of EIC. To me, he belongs rather to a classical movement in contemporary music. I like this trend as well. I appreciate to play different musical styles.
I met George Benjamin at his début at the EIC. He conducted his own work Antara, a piece for ensemble and electronics. He has a delicate personality - very cultured and sweet! He is a great composer. I am impressed by his opera Written on the Skin with the libretto written by Martin Crimp.
Helmut Lachenmann is prodigious! Without knowing how to play the violin, he can play his Toccatina! He has a fine mathematical understanding of the violin’s fingerboard, and I am very jealous of that! He knows exactly where to place the fingers or the bow button. Toccatina’s score looks like a painting. It is written on two pentagrams, one for each hand. The hand’s roles are interchangeable. It is well explained in his own terms. It is tricky for the brain!
I witnessed the development of Charles Kwong’s Imaginary beings I. Together we worked on a few excerpts at a time. Some of them are inspired by Paganini’s Caprice No.6 and the double flageolets passages in Elliott Carter or Paganini’s I Palpipti. We were in my small office, during Winter, experimenting with music just like in a laboratory. Then I made audio recordings on the violin, and we exchanged musical imaginations. The music feels like an impressionist painting. I often thought of it as Monet’s Nymphéas (Water Lilies). Charles, through his piece, sublimed the shared aspects of Asian and European cultures; especially during this time when travelling is rather restricted. Living with Charles’s piece longer than expected allowed me to take possession of it fully with tranquillity. It remains written in my mind, and in physical memory as well. I hope to play it again soon.
All composers featured in this series have two features in common: their intelligence and their generosity!
How’s your experience with the young composers participated in the Composer Workshop with you and Johannes Schöllhorn?
Since I got in the EIC in 1985, I am used to interact with students and young composers. I have always enjoyed this kind of relationship. Usually, I go along with them very well. I am fully committed in revealing the best of their scores. It is very important to have a professional and human relationship, and sometimes humour!
What is like to be part of the EIC, an ensemble which basically shapes a huge part of the history of contemporary music?
Being part of the EIC is very prestigious, it is the historical ONE! Messiaen, Maderna, Berio, Ligeti, Kurtag, Dutilleux and Boulez…… I met all these composers in person and the Ensemble worked very hard with them during rehearsals! Whether performing in Paris or on tour, I always felt that the audiences knew who Pierre Boulez was! It is electrifying!
How do you balance your career as a violinist and as an ensemble member?
Apart from EIC, I work in another contemporary ensemble, the Ensemble Alternance, which is 30 years old. The composers that it collaborates with are different from the EIC’s ones. I have also been playing in a piano trio and a string quartet for many years. Occasionally, I play as a guest solo violinist or as a tutti violinist in orchestras because I love orchestra’s classic repertoire. I believe it is important for one’s professional life to practice with different types of repertoires. Although juggling among different styles of music, I remain the same dedicated interpreter nevertheless!
Has this pandemic changed anything in you as a musician and an artist, and how? And what’s your thoughts on more and more artistic activities moving to online platform nowadays?
Concerts in video without public is not a good experience, especially for our repertoire. Contemporary concerts are designed for live experience. In France, all cultural institutes receive subsidies from the state. During the pandemic, the French government continued to pay our wages even when it was forbidden to give concerts in public. Therefore, we tried our best to maintain several projects online.
I wish this Hong Kong project is brought to a complete finish; even when at the beginning we did not exactly know where the project would lead us to. We worked with the composers via Zoom or Skype, and then I sent them recordings of the trials of their works. Finally, I made videos of the pieces as if in a live concert. Because of the prolonged pandemic, we were given an unexpected amount of time to work on the project. This allowed me go step by step deeper into the project’s execution.
