“The public is back, but otherwise. » René Martin, the artistic director of La Folle Journée de Nantes, whose 29e edition stands from 1is to February 5, notes: there is no longer any question for spectators to take their places, as before the Covid-19, months in advance. Reservations are now made on the last few days, without affecting attendance figures. Witness the 230,000 tickets sold to date (out of 240,000) for some 270 concerts, after a Mad Day in the region which attracted more than 60,000 people in three days.
To welcome this “rebirth” after two black years, theA musical man de Nantes has chosen to celebrate an “Ode to the night”, “just to go further and take advantage of the crisis to go in a new direction”. This is how classical music (European and Indian) and popular traditions (gypsy, flamenco, fado) rub shoulders, without forgetting jazz – René Martin evokes the spirit of the mythical Round Midnight, of Thelonious Monk, but also lessons of Darkness that once accompanied the period of Lent.
The demonstration began at 2 p.m. in the middle of the street. Or rather on line 1 of the tram. On a duly stowed upright piano, the four hands of Guillaume Coppola and Hervé Billaut unfolded their Hispanic journey over the stations: extract from short life, de Falla, the « Habanera » from New Spanish Dances, by Moritz Moszkowski, while their young saxophonist colleagues from the Ellipsos Quartet took over line 3.
Joy and exuberance
Much more collected atmosphere, two hours later, in the Alfred-de-Musset room of the Cité des Congrès, which hosts the “Story Before Dark” of the violist Salomé Gasselin and the organist Emmanuel Arakélian. An anthology of French pieces from the beginning of the 17th centurye century, some of which, initially for organ and “arranged” for the viol, appear in the very beautiful disc which has just been released by Mirare. It will take the young woman some time to overcome a certain nervousness and impose the sensual rhetoric of her Simon Bongars viol of 1653.
The crowd gathered around the Pleyel kiosk. On the bill for the free events in the hall of the Cité des Congrès, the Motion Trio, a trio of Polish accordionists in a tail coat. They’ll make short work of it Little Night Music, of Mozart, before waltzing the Dance of Death, of Saint-Saens. Joy and exuberance too, Antoine-de-Saint-Exupéry room, with the Janoska gypsy ensemble, a Slovak family of musicians for seven generations, the three brothers, Frantisek, Ondrej and Roman (pianist and violinists respectively) welcoming their brother-in-law, bassist Julius Darvas. After seasoning the opening of the Marriage of Figaro, of Mozart, with Janoska sauce – jazzy passages and Yiddish wedding song –, the four men in black sequined shoes will unveil a Moonlight, of Debussy, intoxicated with virtuosity and czardas (Hungarian dances), before convening the Yesterday, de John Lennon, version ultra-sentimentale.
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