2024-01-11 11:15:09
The cross : The Modigliani Quartet was formed in 2003. How, more than twenty years later, do you reread this four-person musical adventure?
Laurent Marfaing : When, still young, we form a quartet out of friendship and musical affinities, we don’t think of future hazards but of the immensity and beauty of the repertoire. This is the enthusiasm that guided us then, the one that we find today in the young instrumentalists we support, particularly in our quartet class at the École Normale de Musique de Paris.
Francois Kieffer: A quartet will work and thrive if it is based on mutual respect and the idea that we will always learn from others. The reward is expressed physically when, during a rehearsal or a concert, we feel the extraordinary vibrations of this great 16-string instrument that we collectively form.
It is often said that composers bring the most intimate and elevated parts of themselves into their works for string quartet…
F. K. : It’s true and this creative intensity nourishes an incomparable emotional dynamic in the performers. It rewards the hours and hours of work essential to create a specific sound, enrich our vision of the scores, while preserving, as the pianist Menahem Pressler (founder of the Beaux-Arts Trio) said, the sensations of the early years, the wonder of the beginnings.
L. M. : Each of us is the listener of the three others – during our work sessions, we take turns leaving the circle to listen from a little further away to the quality of tone, overall cohesion, phrasing, dynamic… It is precious to have different personalities, each bringing their artistic and human singularity to the group.
F. K. : Indeed, one will be more sensitive to the architecture of the work; another to the sound “dough”, a third to contrasts. Not to mention our particular affinities with a particular composer or a particular score: the one who feels closest to it obviously takes an essential part in the musical impulse and the overall work.
Playing in a quartet means stepping aside as a solo musician. Is it sometimes difficult?
F. K. : It’s true, the string quartet is the anti-star if we compare it in particular to the public and media exposure of a great soloist whose performance is more openly spectacular.
L. M. : Often considered demanding, the repertoire is not one that will shine in a huge hall in front of 2,000 people. The quest of the performer, like that of the public, is different, more secret perhaps, more “essential”. However, we must not give up on winning over a large audience, particularly on attracting new generations of listeners. This is why the international competition entitled Vibre! that we organize in Bordeaux offers a prize for young audiences.
Tomorrow opens 11th Quartet Biennial at the Philharmonie de Paris. You will play there, in particular during the very festive closing concert, on Sunday January 21…
F. K. : This event allows you to discover string quartets from all countries and all styles, and to hear the persistence of diverse schools depending on the country and heritage. As for the last concert, it will bring together four different quartets to which members of other groups will be added to celebrate the excitement of string music. We will hear in particular the dazzling Eight composed by Felix Mendelssohn at the age of… 16 and a version for chamber orchestra of the Grieg Quartet (1), an extraordinarily endearing autobiographical page.
(1) Listen to the latest recording by the Modigliani quartet dedicated to Grieg and Smetana at Mirare
#string #quartet #bit #antistar