)
Words exchanged, text spoken and sung, and good humor on stage. This is the theatrical as well as participatory aspect of the concert-portrait devoted to British composer Philip Venables at the Musica festival in Strasbourg.
He likes to define himself as a "collaborative" composer, loving words and theater as much as music. Both of these operas have been performed in France, but little is known about the music-theater-oriented works on the evening's program. Invited to the Cité de la Musique stage are the lovemusic collective , a versatile ensemble from Strasbourg (the flutist and clarinetist are also narrators), and Danish accordionist Andreas Borregaard, all keen to break down the boundaries between genres and artistic disciplines.
Without warning, the musicians on stage begin the first movement of Beethoven's Trio "Les Esprits", a "curtain raiser" that makes the ears perk up (the excerpt is short) before the master of ceremonies, Romain Pageard, hoisted on his white heeled boots, makes the introductions. Banquettes and armchairs are available in the courtyard, to welcome the artists (composers and performers) and chat with them, in English or French, as the case may be.
The exception that proves the rule, Klaviertrio im Geist, an early piece (2010) is strictly instrumental, a rereading/epure of Beethoven's Piano Trio op.70 no.1, whose spirit (der Geist) Venables wanted to capture, if not the letter: just three movements (adagio, scherzo and rondo) and as many Beethovenian "gestures" (declamation, introversion, obstinacy) rendered with an extreme economy of means. More recently, My Favorite Piece is the Goldberg variations (2021) for accordion looks towards storytelling, the idea of telling stories through text and music. In fact, Andreas Borregaard speaks as much as he plays, weaving words and music in a very fusional relationship and an emotion on the lips, for it is of his father that he speaks to us through the words of his mother. "This piece belongs to me", says the performer, who also lends his singing voice with a naturalness and talent that astound. The English text - by Ted Huffman, full of finesse and humor - is projected on the back wall in its French translation. As for the Goldberg Variations - the composer's subjective part - they gradually infiltrate the musical texture until the theme is quoted in full at the end.
Even before Frederic Rzewski 's death last June, Venables had included the American composer's Coming Together in tonight's program. Rzewski based his work on a text by Sam Melville, an inmate at Attica prison who died at the hands of the police during a mutiny of which he was the main instigator. The work leaves the choice of instrumentation up to the performers, who also engage in improvisation within a "semi-open" score. All the violence is contained in the lightly processed voice of the narrator (the implacable Emiliano Gavito), echoed or doubled by that of the performers. The text is unfurled in snatches of sentences, set to music with a repetitive feel and powerful rhythmic veins, whose process of amplification brings the tension to a climax.
Philip Venables is planning to set to music the 100 stanzas (divided into groups of five) of the long experimental poem by Englishman Simon Hawards, so inspired is he by its direct, sensitive and powerful language. Themes include time, memory, political discourse and love. For the time being, two new blocks of five verses, Numbers 81-85 and Numbers 96-100, are given their world premiere, in which the composer returns to the sung voice. Grace Durham 's voice is invocative, mysterious, rebellious or nonchalant in the first block, supported by refined instrumental textures. The stanza 96-100 is more homogeneous, set in the stretched temporality of a collective meditation. From cries to murmurs, the powerful yet velvety voice of the English mezzo-soprano proceeds in snatches of phrases and silent spacing over the bewitching circular movement of the instruments. Equally striking, Block 91-95 (2011) requires the talent of lovemusic's two narrators, Emiliano Gravito and Adam Starkie. Voice-overs from cassette players intermittently open up other sonic perspectives, while the text spares explosive passages (screamed voice, instrumental stridency and aggressive piano) exposing the listener to hot-cold temperatures of unheard-of violence.
Defiant, provocative, raging and unapologetic, this is the voice and performance of David Hoyle, who appears on screen as a drag queen in the Illusions video show that closes the concert and for which Philip Venables conceived the music and images. In 2015, the work celebrated the 50th anniversary of the recognition of homosexuality in England. Democracy, gender, sodomy, war, revolution, etc. are all hard-hitting chapters (and themes dear to the composer's heart) tackled head-on by David Hoyle (whose voice and image Venables gives a patina), while maintaining elegance and distance, frivolity and humor thanks to irresistible editing. One almost forgets the hyperactive participation of the lovemusic performers, whose quality and commitment are to be commended.
The show, co-produced by Musica, lovemusic and Festival d'Automne, will be in Paris on October 26 at Théâtre de la Ville-Espace Cardin.
Michèle Tosi
