Alexis Patri 2:00 p.m., February 20, 2022
Harpsichordist and conductor Emmanuelle Haïm is Isabelle Morizet's guest on Sunday on her show "There is not just one life in life".
The opportunity for her to answer, in particular, a question that many people ask themselves without daring to say it: what do conductors really do.
INTERVIEW
They have a baton, wave it in front of musicians who have a score and know the piece, they give the starting signal and beat the beat… But can we really sum up the work of conductors in this?
Unknown, their task is more complex than it seems, as explained on Sunday at the microphone of Isabelle Morizet the harpsichordist and conductor Emmanuelle Haïm, on the occasion of her invitation to the program
Il n' there is only one life in life
.
>> Find Isabelle Morizet's shows every weekend from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Europe 1 as well as in podcast and replay here
Emmanuelle Haîm explains that the same work (with the same musicians and the same singers) will differ if it is conducted by two conductors.
“All the tempo indications are just verbal indications,” she explains.
"For example: 'Allegro moderato', that is to say 'cheerfully, but not too much', how does everyone hear it? You can hear this tempo indication in one way or another , in baroque music, but also in the rest. And this until very late."
A question of feeling and interpreting the music
According to Emmanuelle Haïm, the same goes for phrasing indications on the scores.
"In music, we cannot write absolutely everything", specifies the chef.
"So everything will depend on how a conductor will feel a phrasing. Is it a momentum towards that moment? Or is it a renunciation? For any song, there are not two people who are going to hear a text the same way. People are going to feel things completely differently."
These differences in results with the same subject almost border on the concept of rewriting.
"And that's the interpretation. That's precisely what makes the interest", sums up Emmanuelle Haïm.
"Otherwise, what's the point of replaying, if there was only one version (and always the same) that we would have to reproduce? We can also balance things, decide that it's the oboe that we will underline there, because it is more fragile and that one wants to hear that. Or that, all of a sudden, the cords will be sparkling. Or, on the contrary, spicy and a little nasty.
"It's a bit like a multiplayer game"
As many interpretation choices as the talent of the conductor consists in making the musicians understand with a simple movement of his baton.
And these choices can go so far as to modify the emotion transmitted to the public.
"Such an air, which one might think very tragic, we will say to ourselves that no, in the end, it will have a little perspective and a note of hope. Or else it is ambiguous. That is to say that 'He is tragic, but he does not believe in it,' illustrates Emmanuelle Haïm again.
"And it all depends on the person you have in front of you: all of a sudden, there will be a proposal from one of the soloists of the orchestra. It's a bit like a multiplayer game. And thankfully! Because if it was just an imposed thing all the time and only that, it wouldn't be fun."