French pianist Cédric Tiberghien will open the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's "Reveries and Passions" festival of French music with a solo recital of music by Debussy, Ravel and Szymanowski at Symphony Center on Sunday, May 3 at 3:00 p.m.
This Symphony Center Presents program, inspired by the Festival's overall themes of beauty, fantasy and the darkness of night, will open with one of the most challenging solo piano pieces in the repertoire: Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit, a three-movement work based on the French poem by Aloysius Bertrand.
The program also holds 20th-century Polish composer Karol Szymanowski's Masques, Op. 34, a triptych influenced by three major literary figures (Sheherazade, Tristan and Don Juan). A selection of Debussy Préludes from Books 1 and 2 and an Impressionistic trilogy including Debussy's Masques, D'un cahier d'esquisses and L'isle joyeuse complete the program.
I recently had the opportunity to talk with Tiberghien while he relaxed between practice sessions in Symphony Center on his second day in Chicago.
Classicalite: I understand this is your first time in Chicago. Are you looking forward to making your Symphony Center debut?
Cédric Tiberghien: Yes, of course! Just being in the building, just seeing the hall--it's such a historical place. I have so many recordings of the Chicago Symphony, early ones and recent ones. There are many good orchestras in America, but for me, the Chicago Symphony is something different. Being in the building of this orchestra really means a lot to me, and I really hope that I will come [back] to play with the orchestra one day.
CL: On your Symphony Center program, you will play two works with the same title: Masques. Are there any similarities or connections between these pieces?
CT: Not direct connections, but of course, I put them together on the program because they have the same title, just to make people think. The Debussy piece called Masques, he said they are not real masks, like the masks you have in the masquerade or Carnival, but it's more like the masks you have in real life, to just hide your face from people, to make them believe you're happy.
I always felt it was quite a dark piece--there is something like a shadow over the whole piece that is very interesting. If you compare this to the Szymanowski Masques, it's very different. The Szymanowski masks, actually, I think are more like stories that you can tell through whatever face you put over your real face. All the different pieces in this fantastic [work] are based on myth--the first one is Sheherazade, the second is Tristan and the last one is about Don Juan.
CL: Szymanowski is a 20th-century composer whose music is not played very often in the U.S. these days. What drew you to his music?
CT: When I discovered Szymanowski 's music, I was completely amazed by the beauty of it, and I really thought, well, I can't understand why he's not played more often, and why audiences don't know him as they know Maurice Ravel or Claude Debussy. He's truly an extraordinary composer, he really invites the performer and the audience on an incredible journey through new harmonies, new textures. It stimulates the imagination very much. It really brings you to a different world made of dreams, or colors, or perfumes.
This [piece] I'm playing, he composed it when he came back from a long journey, a long trip through North Africa and the entire Mediterranean area, and he had a real need to express the very strong impressions he had during the trip: the colors, the heat, the dust...everything that was so different. The perfumes, of course, very different from what you have in Europe.
I really feel this very much, from the very first note of the piece. It's like a welcome to this journey. And, actually, he keeps the interest and this fascination until the very last note of the piece. I'm really in love with this music. I've recorded a complete Szymanowski CD and recorded his music for violin and piano, as well. His music is still to be discovered, and I really hope I can help a little bit.
CL: What challenges do the major works on this program present for you, musically or technically?
CT: The challenge is just to create very different atmospheres for each piece. I want to be a storyteller, and each piece has a title, which is just an indication for people's imaginations.
Especially with the Szymanowski, the texture of the writing is so dense that it could easily be written for a complete orchestra. You have to make people forget it's just one piano, but instead, it's like a super-instrument, with many different colors. This is actually the real challenge, more than just being able to play the crazy technical things in the piece.
More information about Tiberghien's solo recital, part of the SCP Piano Series, is available at cso.org.
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