at the La Roque-d’Anthéron Festival, a masterful set between Schubert, Messiaen and Schumann

Along with the piano recital, chamber music is also a major event at La Roque-d’Anthéron. Thus the first August concert at the Parc de Florans, which mixes the keyboard of Bertrand Chamayou with the four bows of the Modigliani Quartet. The evening began with the Variations in F minor, by Haydn, a score without fuss, which flatters the elegant fluidity of the pianist and his acute sense of detail, each variation deploying in turn ornaments and chromaticisms, virtuoso scales, dotted rhythm, without forgetting a last more whimsical part, with the improvised paces of toccata.

Mastery, refinement, cohesion, violence and passion, the Modigliani dazzle and captivate

the Quintet for piano and strings op.44, by Schumann, is instead a monument. The 1842 work is the first ever written for this instrumental ensemble, a path that Brahms, Dvorak and César Franck, among others, would follow. Sometimes considered a kind of chamber concerto, it indeed bears the predominant mark of the piano, which introduces the first movement. Brilliant allegro. But Chamayou is too much of a musician to take advantage of the situation: it is like a good shepherd that he leads, gathers, encourages and makes the enduring string animals trot, cello and viola melting into the same sonorous fleece.

More bereaved than tragic, the second movement In modo d’un marcia is shrouded in the frosted light of the strings without vibrato. A “white” march in a way, before the central development summons the great Schumannian lyricism. The return of the walk will be embodied this time in the fullness of the bows, suddenly chained to the A poco largamente, much more dramatic. The theme, faster and as if panting, will be chanted by Laurent Marfaing’s viola, feverishly accompanied by violins and cello in tremolo. Resumption of the lyrical episode melancholy undulated by the piano in arpeggios, before the ultimate appearance of the theme in the stripping of the pizzicatos.

Surge of Virtuoso Energy

It’s a hectic Scherzo, a rollercoaster of rising and falling ranges, which then tumbles. A surge of virtuoso energy, intoxicated with itself, giving way here and there to some more lyrical melody, some dance episode with accents go ungarese (Schumann was returning from a stay in Bohemia when he composed the quintet). The finale, masterfully arranged, will brilliantly demonstrate the contrapuntal science of Schumann, who will not hesitate to deploy the impressive arsenal of a double fugue while ingeniously breaking down its scholastic locks.

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