2023-09-24 05:30:08
Jean-Claude Casadesus still lives in the apartment where his grandfather and his parents lived and in which he was born. At 87 years old, he currently works Requiem, by Fauré, which he will perform in Bucharest on October 26 and 27. He will then direct The Marseillaise in front of the tomb of the unknown soldier before flying to Riga, Aix-en-Provence and Japan, always with the same greed.
I wouldn’t have gotten here if…
…if my grandfather, in this room where we are, had not put a violin in my hands at the age of 4 and if he had not pretended that, as I seemed to have the sense rhythm, I was going to become a conductor. It was here that my grandfather received some of the greatest composers of the last century, where he designed his chamber orchestra with his brothers and sisters. This is where I first heard Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major BWV 1068, by Bach, which he played on his viola d’amore in a sublime way. He passed on to me a passion for sound through Bach then Mozart, Beethoven, Rameau, Couperin, Debussy, a channel that has stayed with me all my life.
Your grandfather composed, your uncle too, the piano was in the center of the living room, you grew up surrounded by music…
I was immersed in a magical environment very early on. My grandfather rehearsed with his brothers and sisters, some on the spinet, some on the harpsichord, some on the viola da gamba, and I became aware very early on of what could transport us to another universe. I was surrounded by sonic pleasures and I understood later that it is impossible to keep for yourself the indescribable treasures that are musical emotions.
You are a pure product of social determinism!
Everything was born from a passion. My great-grandfather Luis, of Catalan origin, was a chartered accountant, but he loved music. An amateur guitarist and violinist, he supplemented his income by playing in the evenings in nightclubs. He had decided that his fourteen children would all be musicians. When he came home late at night, he would wake them up in their beds and ask them: “What is this note? » If they were wrong, it was a slap. He gave them all absolute pitch. Of the fourteen, two were composers, Henri and Marius – they composed “in the manner of”, as was done then -, one became a wonderful cellist, all were taken by music.
Your parents were also artists…
Mom, Gisèle Casadesus, was a member actress at the Comédie-Française. My father was also an actor, at the Odéon, then he became stage director of the Comédie-Française, because he wanted to leave my mother as little as possible and their tours separated them. They were a close couple. I was lucky enough to be bathed in the music of words and the poetry of notes. Racine, Molière, Corneille, Beaumarchais thrilled me as much as my grandfather’s music.
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