This Wednesday, August 18, the curtain falls on the last recital of the International piano Festival of La Roque d´Anthéron 2021
As in 2020, the final clap is in the company of the prodigious Adam Laloum and the composers Schubert and Brahms. We are all up there, up there, in the stars!
A starY night with Plamena Mangova and Adam Laloum
What wonders: the Fantasies op.116, and the 3 Intermezzi op. 117 !
The fantasies are majestic and sober at the same time. Adam Laloum’s technique is admirable, and as we know, the 30-year-old pianist appropriates everything he plays with brilliance, but also a lot of humility. This score, nicely mastered, delivers a discreet, reserved poetry, just enough, and suddenly, the speech is lively. Under the fingers of our Toulouse, the music gains in intensity, and its playing is admirably precise. A virtuoso, he is, and yet he does not seek to make a demonstration of virtuosity. He is completely in his world but lets us enter his bubble.
Certainly this Brahms-there is adorned with an unusual light. He knows it well to play it often and you can hear it from the first notes.
We have often heard the first movement, Capriccio very “presto energico”. The pianist delivers it to us without force, but not without character. He does not betray Brahms. Just as he does not betray F. Schubert when he plays his Sonata No. 23 very different from what we usually hear. We think of Michel Dalberto who interpreted it this Friday the 13th, and we liked it a lot too. There was more force and sometimes more harshness in these same movements last Friday. It’s not better, it’s different.
There are endless expressions and it is wonderful to see the personalities of musicians expressing themselves. This is all the magic of music, this brilliant, spiritual art. It is a matter of heart too, of feeling, and Adam’s heart beats very hard to reveal all that is beautiful.
How he knows how to enter into the suffering of Brahms! He makes this pain of existing his own, which he reluctantly delivers to us. It is very intimate, lively, and enveloping music. You could say, sensual even, and which can sometimes be very virile and powerful.
Thus in the 3 intermezzi op. 117 Adam Laloum is as convincing as ever. This musician gives the impression that what he is talking about is very simple. We hear everything under his fingers which slide and brush the keyboard, gestures to the millimeter, a fluid touch, light which allows a sound released as in a dream. Undoubtedly we have a particular tenderness for this work and this music turned inward and which moves us. We cannot remain indifferent to this climate of introspection. It is intimate and painful at the same time and we like that Adam Laloum takes us by the feelings and makes us enter into the confidence.
“Aimez-vous Brahms »Yes, absolutely!
As much as we love Schubert ! So interpreted, how could it be otherwise? We are at the top, at the very top, and the dream continues. The interpretation of this sonata n ° 23 is generous and gives us a wealth of affect and changing atmospheres. We love those silences that say a lot and leave room for the imagination. We are in front of a canvas. It is painted before our eyes, precise and abstract at the same time. There is this je ne sais quoi that is unreal in this deeply touching recital. Respect Monsieur Laloum! The audience gives a standing ovation, stamps their feet with… happiness!
The young man returns to the stage with Brahms!
The cicadas will find themselves alone in the next few days to play their part! We hope to see you next year, without a variant!
Deux bis superbes :
Brahms : Intermezzo op. 118 n°2
Brahms : Sonate pour piano n°3 en fa mineur op. 5, II Andante
Programme : Brahms : Sept fantaisies opus 116
Brahms : Trois Intermezzi opus 117
Schubert : Sonate n°23 en si bémol majeur D 960
Illustration de l’entête: photo Valentine Chauvin
