Cœur à cœur

As recitalist, I like to begin a programme with ‘Für Alina’ by Arvo Pärt and then continue straight into the next piece without a break. This little musical ritual enables me to create a first contact with the audience. For me it is important to put myself in the position of the listener because the pianist must listen very carefully to ‘Für Alina’ to be able to play the piece the way it is intended. I then reconnect with my instrument so that I now feel able to contain or even overcome the ‘bad’ stage fright that prevents me from finding in myself the resources I need to convey the emotions of the piece to my audience. A fellow pianist once suggested to me that the calming effect of Arvo Pärt’s work was perhaps due to the first notes, which the pianist has to make ‘vibrate’ very strongly in order to release a lot of tension. This gave me the idea of composing a piece of my own that would help me make the kind of contact with the audience that I search for at the beginning of a recital and to establish a heart-to-heart relationship. The title, of course, describes the contact that musicians must make with their audience. The first notes, simulating an agitated heartbeat, become progressively calmer and subsequently establish a constant and even hypnotic acoustic base on which the musician places mysterious, floating chords.

Extract «Cœur à cœur»