2016.08.02

MENTON MUSIC FESTIVAL

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TUE 02 AUGUST 2016, 9:30 P.M.
LA BASILIQUE SAINT MICHEL ARCHANGE

Michiyoshi Inoue Conductor
Jan Lisieck Piano

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466
and more

1Série€52- 2Série€40- 3Série€30- 4Série€15-

【Message】

It was a concert in a fantastic environment that could only happen in France. When I turned left during my performance, I saw Italy across the sea.
Marking already its 67th edition this year, the festival holds concerts in the parvis of the Saint-Michel-Archange Basilica that Jean Cocteau wrote about.

There was a large audience for our concert and I even saw some people standing. That means, before our performance, an answer was already made to the courageous artistic director (Paul-Emmanuel Thomas) who had dared to invite an Asian orchestra for the first time in the festival’s history.

First, the Coriolan overture took five minutes. It was a sunny day and even though the concert started at 9pm, I felt humidity distinctive of French Riviera.

The twenty-one year old pianist Jan Lisiecki served as soloist for us to give his natural, moderate version of Mozart’s concerto in D minor.
Every time I conduct this piece, it reminds me of a nearly possessed performance by Martha Argerich and Claudio Abbado that I had chance to listen to at the Mozarteum. I was twenty-four years old at the time, and the two young musicians were probably in love with each other. A musician’s performance reflects their mental state in each moment.
Then this time, did our version reflect a worn out old codger’s admiration for a young innocent pianist??? Hehehe. It’s just like a Luchino Visconti’s movie…!

For the last half, we played, within a stone's throw of Italy, the 4th Symphony “Italian” including the 4th movement “Saltarello”, that young Mendelssohn wrote when he was twenty-three year old, I believe.
I myself was also twenty-three year old when I started my career as conductor in Milan. I remember as vividly as if it was just yesterday that I stayed for a week in Alassio, about 100 kilometers away from Milan, after the competition. Then I suddenly got a surprising phone call (I discovered later that he was talking big!), saying: “My name is Markus Mizne. Are you interested in a recording session with the London Symphony Orchestra?” This Jewish guy became my first manager but he is no more.

By the way, we had tight security this time, indeed. I feel that Europe is now having revenge enacted upon it for their former colonies and for conflicts caused by its monotheistic religion, and by that I mean Christianity.
I didn’t see any Chinese tourists in Menton as expected. However, in Paris where there were only a few Japanese, I saw a flood of people coming from India, Bangladesh and China, countries with an immense population.

Almost all the French people were away for their summer vacation, and the empty cities looked to me like a huge Disney Land. On the other hand, art festivals were active, I guess, as a place which makes us feel people’s hope.

Music, especially orchestral music, becomes hard to be performed once something tiny breaks the balance of the world. The culture resides in gathering of people who try to protect beautiful, but fragile things.