Pieces for soloist with or without ensemble, keyboards in the broad sense of the term or voice and instruments: eclecticism is at the heart of the homage concocted by the Ensemble Intercontemporain and conductor Pascal Rophé on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Italian composer.
Luca Francesconi works and reworks, composes and recomposes: written in confinement, “Secousse-Action” for cello alone (2020) testifies from the beginning of the evening. The piece takes up, synthesizing it, a part of the material from “Unexpected End of Formula” (2008). From “shakes” to “actions”, sounds are elaborated little by little, smooth or rough, “perforated” or threadlike — echoes assumed from Lachenmann’s thought. Several sections exploiting successively various modes of play converge to a point of no return where the voice of Éric-Maria Couturier cries musical notes, his huskiness echoing the crushed sounds of the strings before returning to the original breath.
Sense of Gesture
The reworking is also at the center of “Daedalus II” for flute (Sophie Cherrier) and ensemble — in an almost identical line-up to that of Schönberg’s “Pierrot Lunaire” and Boulez’s “Dérive 1”. This avatar of “Dedalus I”, presented here in creation, plays on the deconstruction of phrases, their breaking apart, their suspension by resonance. Slow sequences based on insistent motifs (disjointed lines, biting) are interspersed with lively gestures, always with a clear sense of musical gesture. This same sense of gesture governs the articulation of the various sections of “Moscow-Run” (2019) for vibraphone, marimba, and two pianos. The fortissimo cluster chord of the two pianists (Hideki Nagano and Sébastien Guichard) is followed, slightly shifted, by its rhythmic “multiplication” by the percussionists (Aurélien Gignoux and Samuel Favre). Between these irregularly recurrent punctuations, obstinate perpetual movements and more suspended times play on the entire tessitura.
At the heart of this eclectic evening, the striking “Etymo” (1994), for soprano, chamber orchestra, and electronics. Born of its initial breath — like “Secousse-Action” after which it fits in, extending the miniature with a new “action,” its music gradually elaborates from low tones. Treated instrumentally, the voice (spoken, sung, shouted) of soprano Yeree Suh constructs and deconstructs in turn, sometimes phoneme after phoneme, texts borrowed from “Voyage”, “L’Albatros”, and “Journaux intimes” by Baudelaire. It is an absolute work on all parameters of sound (emission, production, end, sustain, duration) that this unique work offers, marked as much by the remarkable thought of its orchestration as by the perfect and rare homogeneity between orchestra, voice, and electronics — ensured by Serge Lemouton, with Luca Bagnoli in charge of sound diffusion. Violent chords, torn arpeggios, violent gestures evoke here, without ever seeking to imitate them, the instrumental density of a Lachenmann, the vocal virtuosity of a Berio. Besides “the wind from the wing of the imbecility” of Baudelaire, March 26, 2026 brought upon the audience at the City of Music the breath of an uncompromising beauty, served with commitment and cohesion.
Portrait – Luca Francesconi. Yeree Suh (soprano), Sophie Cherrier (flute), Éric-Maria Couturier (cello), Serge Lemouton (Ircam electronic), Luca Bagnoli (Ircam sound diffusion), Ensemble Intercontemporain and Pascal Rophé. City of Music, March 26.
