Classic becomes classic and timeless with new contemporary twist, and this is what Hong Kong audience will experience another new classic moment with French classical pianist Anne Queffélec in this coming May. Queffélec, unanimously considered as one of the most remarkable pianists of our time in not only France but also abroad, enjoys international fame as well as an exceptional influence over her musical life.
Long-time learning serves Queffélec justice as she started playing piano at the age of five. She scooped the first prize at the Munich competition in 1968. Since then she continued her career playing globally. Queffélec is not only famous as a solo concert pianist, but also for her chamber music playing in collaboration with artists such as Catherine Collard, Pierre Amoyal, Fréderic Lodéon, and Imogen Cooper -- to name just a few.
Inherited talent may be the case for Queffélec, while being the daughter of Henri and sister of Yann Queffélec, who were both noted writers. She received her initial training at the Paris Conservatoire with Lélia Gousseau (premier prix in piano, 1965) and Jan Hubeau (premier prix in chamber music performance, 1966). Subsequently she pursued studies with Alfred Brendel, Jorg Demus, and Paul Badura-Skoda in Vienna where she was exposed to growth opportunities. She captured 1st prize at the Munich International Competition in 1968 and 5th prize at the Leeds International Competition in 1969.
These prizes steered her career a more international turn. Since then Anne Queffélec toured widely at home and abroad. She appeared as a soloist at the biggest halls of Europe, in Japan, in Hong-Kong, in Canada, and in the USA. She was a soloist with major orchestras of the world, such as the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Tonhalle de Zürich, Lausanne, Tokyo NHK Orchestra, Hong-Kong Philharmonic, Orchestre National and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, under the baton of conductors as Pierre Boulez, John Eliot Gardiner, Jordan, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Casadesus, Lombard, Guschlbauer, and Carlo Zecchi. In England, where she is one of the most esteemed French interpreters, she has played on several famous “Proms” of the Albert Hall in London, at the Festivals of Bath, Swansea, King's Lynn and Cheltenham. She has also been active as a chamber music player.
These collaborations have inevitably positioned Anne Queffélec as one of the most popular pianists of her generation, appreciated for the diversity of her repertoire, as her impressive discography testifies. In addition to the French repertoire, she became particularly known for her performance of works by Mozart and Scarlatti.
She has before and still continues in running several French and foreign festivals. She took part in the soundtrack of Amadeus, under the baton of Neville Marriner. She performed Mozart’s complete Piano Sonatas live on France Musique at the festival of La Roque d’Anthéron, thus confirming her passionate similarity with the world of Mozart.
On stage and in her recordings, Anne Queffélec maintains a selective repertoire. She has recorded more than thirty recordings respectively cut out at Erato’s, Virgin Classics’ and Mirare’s.
However Queffélec has always had a connection with Satie since her debut album Erik Satie in 1988, followed by “Satie: Works for solo piano & piano 4 hands” in 2000, “Satie, Ravel: Piano Works” and “Satie: Gnossiennes; Gymnopédies”; Piano Works in 2004 among others in subsequent years.
Nobody does chillout like the French, and no Frenchman does it better than Erik Satie. A crackpot in many ways, dressed in green velvet in all seasons and never without an umbrella, Satie invented the idea of background music, which he called ‘musique d’ameublement’ (furniture music). And along with its soporific qualities, the music of Satie possesses an intensity that shuts out the busy world and envelops you in its shimmers.
Bringing to Le French May in Hong Kong, she will play a programme called “Voyage”, inspired by her previous album “ Satie & Compagnie” released in 2013, detailing the humour of Erik Satie to the insouciance of Francis Poulenc. You will hear the French music of the early decades of the 20th century created by fine minds capable of grasping delicate nuances, infinite variations of light and the human soul, yet fueled with Anne's contemporary touches.
What the marvelous Anne Quéffélec contrives on this unmedicated compilation of the program in Hong Kong is a panoply of sounds by Satie and his contemporaries, of whom the best known are Debussy, Ravel, Poulenc and Reynaldo Hahn. The flaw with performance of this kind is that the best is ever the enemy of the merely good. A Reverie of Debussy is worth ten little pieces by Déodat de Séverac. A fanfare of Ravel’s stands out a Mont Blanc higher than any morceau of Gabriel Dupont.
Twin peaks above them all stands Satie, who is the veritable master of the piano miniature, his genius confirmed by repeated comparison. Your ears will tell you that Anne Quéffélec delivers smoothly hypnotic, almost static readings of those. She has less to offer those who value the quirky Satie, represented in the repertoire most fully by the Valse du mystérieux baiser dans l'oeil (Waltz of the Mysterious Kiss in the Eye).
You will but have no choice to hear and linger with this evening's performance. The piano sound on stage, by the by, is celestial and Madam Quéffélec plays like an angel in a film noir. So renowned for her diverse repertoire and impressive discography, Queffelec has a special affinity for this repertoire, for she achieves a consistency of tone throughout that's a remarkable technical achievement in itself, damping down the jazzier accents of all these composers to a point where you barely notice them. Whether that's the way it ought to be done, however, is purely a matter of individual taste.
On this delightful evening, Queffelec leads us down the varied and colorful pathways of some of the most fascinating French music for piano ever written, and you will take away some inspirations.
常言道经典就是永恒经典与新时代的结合。今年五月，法国著名钢琴家安妮‧奎佛莱克将给香港观众带来另一个经典体验。安妮是近年一位非常出色的钢琴家，她的音乐生涯丰富兼具独有优势，更获法国及海外观众一致好评，斐声国际。
安妮五岁便开始学习弹奏钢琴，培养出热爱及欣赏钢琴的兴趣。她于1968年在慕尼黑的比赛中赢得第一名。此后她巡回全球演出，继续发展她的音乐事业。她不单在钢琴独奏方面享负盛名，与多位音乐人，包括Catherine Collard、Pierre Amoyal、Fréderic Lodéon及Imogen Cooper合作的室乐演奏，皆备受赞赏。
安妮遗传了家人的艺术细胞，她的爸爸Henri及姊姊Yann都是著名作家。一开始安妮在巴黎音乐学院跟Lélia Gousseau (1965年钢琴大奖得主) 及 Jan Hubeau (1966年室乐大奖得主) 学习初级钢琴。其后，她在维也纳跟随 Alfred Brendel、Jorg Demus及Paul Badura-Skoda 研究音乐，还接触到不少发展机会。 1968年，安妮在慕尼黑的比赛中赢得第一名，更于1969年利兹国际比赛得第五名。
这些奖项打开安妮‧奎佛莱克迈向国际的康庄大道。自此以后，她便于海外不同地方举行巡回音乐会。她先以独奏家身分，于欧洲、日本、香港、加拿大和美国的著名会堂中演奏，后来更成为不少世界著名管弦乐团的独奏家，包括伦敦交响乐团、伦敦爱乐乐团、苏黎世音乐厅管弦乐团（Tonhalle de Zürich）、洛桑、东京NHK乐团、香港管弦乐团、国家管弦乐团及法国广播爱乐乐团，跟随指挥家Pierre Boulez、John Eliot Gardiner、Jordan、Stanislaw Skrowaczewski、Casadesus、Lombard、Guschlbauer及Carlo Zecchi的带领。
安妮在英国也很受欢迎，是位备受尊重的法国演奏家。她擅长演奏伦敦阿尔伯特音乐厅《逍遥音乐会》中几首著名乐曲，并曾于巴兹、斯温席 、金斯林及卓特咸等的艺术节表演。另外，她也是室乐的活跃份子。
安妮‧奎佛莱克与不同单位的合作，让更多人欣赏她的音乐，其曲目题材广阔，作品目录优秀，是那个年代一位非常受欢迎的钢琴家。除了法国剧目，她表演莫扎特和斯卡拉蒂的作品更为人所知。
她至今仍举办多个法国及海外的音乐节，并在Neville Marriner的指挥下，于Amadeus（《莫扎特传》）的原声大碟中演奏。在拉罗克当泰龙的France Musique音乐节中，安妮完整地弹奏莫扎特的钢琴奏鸣曲，充分表演出莫扎特世界的那份激情。
无论在舞台上表演或是录制专辑，安妮‧奎佛莱克对演出曲目都非常讲究，与唱片公司Erato’s、Virgin Classics’及Mirare’s一起共录制超过三十只唱片。
后来，奎佛莱克一直觉得自己与已故法国作曲家艾瑞克‧萨提（Erik Satie）有着一种联系，并曾发行几张相关专辑，包括在1988年发行的首张专辑Erik Satie，2000年的“Satie: Works for solo piano & piano 4 hands”。随后，她于2004年发行”Satie, Ravel: Piano Works”，以及”Satie: Gnossiennes; Gymnopédies; Piano Works”。
法国人最会创作chillout，而艾瑞克‧萨提的作品更是其中的表表者。他一年四季都是穿着绿色天鹅绒衣物，又从来不带雨伞，但就是这个怪人创作背景音乐的理念，他称之为《musique d’ameublement》(家具音乐furniture music)。萨提的音乐好像可以催眠似的，用强烈的音乐把你锁住，远离繁嚣世界。
今年法国五月，她将为香港观众演出名为《旅程》的节目，灵感来自她在2013年推出的专辑《Satie & Compagnie》，细诉了萨提的幽默感，以及已故法国钢琴家弗朗西斯‧普朗克的自由奔放。你将可以欣赏到20世纪早期的法国音乐，这些音乐都由卓越音乐人创作，他们都能够捕捉微妙细致的分别，以及光与人性的无尽变化；再加上奎佛莱克的现代风格，绝对精彩绝伦。
安妮‧奎佛莱克精心编制乐谱，弹奏出萨提及其他当代音乐家的乐章，包括Claude Debussy、Maurice Ravel、Francis Poulenc及Reynaldo Hahn，为香港观众演奏动人的音乐。可是这类表演的唯一瑕疵，就是会听得出「不错」跟「最好」的分别。 Déodat de Séverac作十首才是Debussy一首狂想曲；Gabriel Dupon任何一首作品跟Ravel的号曲比都只是天渊之别。
萨提比以上的作家还要好，他是钢琴缩影的真正大师，反覆比较证明他是真材实料。今次的表演，安妮‧奎佛莱克曲风却偏向平稳顺畅，同样带有催眠作用，几乎进入静止状态。钟情怪人萨提的听众不要失望，留意作品Valse du mystérieux baiser dans l'oeil (Waltz of the Mysterious Kiss in the Eye) 便可品尝箇中味道。
你将会花整个下午沉醉于奎佛莱克的钢琴音乐中，她好像法国黑色电影的天使一样在台上表演。奎佛莱克的曲目题材广阔，作品目录优秀。而今次的表演，她却有特别方向。奎佛莱克将减弱其他作曲家的重音，仿佛他们根本不存在。她取得技术成功，以一致风格演绎作品。作风不管对错，纯粹展示其个人风格。
安妮‧奎佛莱克将以钢琴弹奏迷人的法国音乐，带领大家走过精彩的音阶，渡过一个既快乐又振奋人心的晚上。
