Quatuor Ravel Gilles Colliard, 1* violon d`avoir accueilli les s6ances

Quatuor Ravel
Gilles Colliard, 1* violon
Reiko Kitahama, 2"d violon
Pierre Franck, alto
Christophe Beau, violoncelle
Enregistrement : novembre 1999
Prise de son : Roger Lenoir
Direction artistique et montage :Jean-Pierre Ferey
Couverture d'aprds une photo de G6rard Neuvecelle
Texte : Xavier Deletang
Maquette , Editions Salachas
Nous remercions
la Ville de Thonon-les-Bains
et la Maison des Arts de Thonon-Evian
d'avoir accueilli les s6ances d'enregistrement.
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Jean Martinon
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Ne a Lyon en 1910 dans une famille cl'artistes, Jean Martinon com-
au Conservatoire de Lyon, puis au Conservatoire de Paris oi il remporte un Premier
Prix. Il y 6tu die €galement la composition avec Vincent d'Indy et Albert Roussel et la
direction d'orchestre avec Charles Munch et Roger D6sormidre.
Sa caridre d6bute en 1934 lorsqu'il est nomme Violon solo ) la Radio et commence
ainsi une s6rie de tourn,6es en province et A, l'€tranger. Il a 24 ans et a dejd 6crit 3 sonatines, une symphonie, et une symphoniette. Il dirige pour la premidre fois un concert
consacr6 d ses propres muvres, puis lors d'un voyage d Londres remplace au pied leve
Charles Munch. C'est la ftn de sa camidre de violoniste. D6sormais il va se consacrer simultanCment d.la direction d'orchestre et ) la composition, domaines qui trouveront leur plein
6panouissement quand il dirigera ses propres Guvres en concert ou en enregistrement.
Prisonnier de guerre, il compose. Son PsaLtme 136* - Chant des captifs, op.33, oratorio pour solistes, chmur, r1cttant et orchestre - obtient en 1945 le Grand Prix de la
Ville de Paris et le fait connaitre comme compositeur. Il est nomm6 chef d'orchestre cle
la Radio klandatse. Son s6jour lui insprrera sa 3e*" symphonie . Irisb,, op.45. Il est aussi
invit6 par les orchestres parisiens, Colonne, Lamoureux, Pasdeloup, les Concerts
clu
Conservatotre, ainsi qu'en Angleterre, ItaIie, Japon, Australie et Am6rique du Sud. l)0s
1949, il devient chef associ6 au London Philharmonic Orchestra. Il compose un opera
Hecube, un ballet Ambobimanga ou La CilA Bbue, des pidces pour piano.
De l'957 d 1957 il est Pr6sident Chef d'Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux, puis directeur artistique de I'Orchestre d'Isra€l pendant deux ans. Il compose l)-bas un oratorio Le
Lis de Saron ou le Cantique des Cantiques. Pendant cette p6riode il dirige beaucoul'r
d'orchestres europ6ens, le London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, I'Orchestre Natignll
de I'ORTF, le Philharmonique de Vienne, I'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, ceux clc
Madrid, Bruxelles, Rome ainsi que le Concertgebouw d'Amste rdam. Les ann6es suivantes
consacrent sa stature de chef international : d, partn de 7957 , chef invite de I'orchestre dc
Boston, il se produit avec ceux de Chicsgo, St Louis, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Rochester et
Montr6al. En 1959, il est nomm6 Generalmusikdirecktor de I'orchestre de Dtisseldorf,
poste occupe autrefois par Schumann et Mendelssohn, et confi6 pour la premidre fois d
un frangais. Sa renommde de chef ne cessera plus de grandir.
I1 continue pourtant ) 6crire et ) fafte jouer ses propres cuvres : Le Lis de Saron d,
Dusseldorf, son ?"" concerto pour uiolon avec Henryk Szeryng au Festival de Prague, au
Th€dtre des Champs-elys6es et ) Chicago. En 1963 il devient le directeur music al de
I'Orchestre de Chicago qui lui commande une cuvre pour le 75u" anniversaire de
l'orchestre, sa 4u'" symphonie . Altitudes, op,53. En 1964 c'est la premidre am6ricaine de
son Concerto pour quatuor ) cordes et orchestre de chambre, puis la premidre ) Hambourg de son Concerto pour uioloncelle sous la direction de Hans Schmidt Isserstedt
avec Pierre Fournier en soliste. L'cuvre est rejou6e plusieurs fois, notamment ) Chicago
avecJanos Starker sous la direction de Seiji Ozawa.
Toujours sollicite pour diriger, il regoit 6galement la m6daille Gustav Mahler pour ses
interprCtations de la musique du compositeur autrichien encore peu connue ) ceffe 6poque.
1968 cofi]mence une avenlure de six ann6es ) la t6te de I'Orchestre National de France dont rl va faire l'un des meilleurs orchestres du monde cette p6riode malgr€
la concuffence allemande. Connu pour sa pr6cision et la qualit6 de sa sonoritd, I'Orchestre
sous la direction de Martinon se voit r6compens6 pour plusieurs de ses enregistrements
l'Enfance du Christ de Berlioz, puis IaTrag6die de Salom6 de Schmitt obtiennent deux
Grands Prix du Disque, et son intdgrale dela musique d'orchestre de Debussy obtient le Prix
du Pr6sident de la Republique. L'Orchestre connait des heures de gloire et voyage en URSS,
auJapon, en Amerique du Sud, en lran... En 74 il est nomm€ dla t6te de I'Orchestre de La
Haye avec lequel il triomphe aux Etats-Unis quelques mois avantsa mort en7976 ) l'Age de
66 ans.Il venait d'accepter d'enseigner la direction d'orchestre au Conservatoire de Paris.
Outre les auvres dejd citees, notons dans le catalogue de Jean Martinon plusieurs
concertos (fl0te, quatuor de saxophones, alto et piano), des auvres d'orchestre comme
Musique d'exil, Prelude et Toccata, d6di6e et cr66e par Charles Munch d Boston en
1950, Vigintuor (1969, B vartations sur un thdme de Haendel) et de nombreuses muvres
de chambre et instrumentales dont les 2 quatuors enregistr6s ici.
A partir de mars
i
:
Les Quatuors
i
Cordes
Les 2 quatuors correspondent ) deux p6riodes de composition distinctes. Le 1.,,
op. 43, 6crit en 7946 d Dublin et r6vis6 en 1951, obtint le Prix Barrok en 7948. Il fut
cr€€ par le Quatuor Parrenin Paris en 7949, rejou6 peu aprds par le quatuor Loewen-
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guth et en Allemagne par le quatuor Kruschek. Les caract€ristiques principales de
1'6criture de Martinon furent d'embl6e pergues : richesse de I'invention m6lodique,
fantaisie rythmique, vari6t6 des sonorit6s, 6quilibre de la composition, chacun des 4
mouvements apportant un climat diffdrent. Dans " Les Nouvelles Litt6raires ,, Marc Pincherle y notait ainsi .l'€Lan g6n6reux, le lyrisme qui ne craint pas de s'avouer,... et
qualit6 rarissime dans la production contemporaine , la parfaite homog6n6it6 qui rdgne
entre les hardiesses de la m6lodie, de la rythmique et de I'harmonie, qu'une m€me
logique gouverne ,. Cette homo g€n€It6 semble bien avoir €t€ d la base du langage de
Martinon, si I'on en juge par les analyses parues lors des cr6ations de ses Guvres.
Quoique atonal, ce premier quatuor reste traditionnel dans son 6criture, et on peut y
remarquer fugitivement Qa et ld quelques influences : Bartok et Prokofiev, sans doute,
qui furent aussi d l'orchestre parmt ses compositeurs pr6f6r6s, mais aussi Roussel pour
1'6criture, Honegger ou Strawinsky. La critique remarqua lgalement I'ampleur de
l'ensemble (plus d'une demi-heure) et de chacun des mouvements, la rehant ) son
activit6 de chef et sa propension aux cuvres d6velopp6es : Martinon ne craint pas de
r6utiliser chaque thdme plusieurs fois, varrant les instrumentations ou l'accompagnement, mais sans jamats r€p6ter, sauf la r€exposition h€rit6e des formes classiques du
d6but du schefio aprds le trio.
Le 2d^" quatuor op. 54 fut compos6 en 1966 et cr66 ) Chicago par le Fine Arts
Quartet, d6dicatarce de I'cuvre. Dans une interview au Chicago Daily News de
7957 , Martinon expliquait avoir utilis6 pour sa composition une ecriture a 12 sons
" trartle librement et associ6e a une technique harmonique d'instrumentation,
quoique totalement atonale, dans une sorte de synthdse d'6criture ,. Beaucoup plus
dense et plus contrapunctique que le 1"' quatuor, on y retrouve les qualit6s d1jil
not6es d'€quilibre, de parfaite homog6n€rt€, de fantaisie rythmique et de richesse
) I'intdrieur
des mouvements, comme par exemple dans le monumental Graue e Scberzo,
I'ensemble est cependant plus int6rieur que le premier quatuor. Aprds la cr€atton,
le Chicago Sun Times, pourtant r6servd quant au dodEcaphonisme, notait toutefois
que les dissonances harmoniques ne . heurtaient , iamars, et que I'ensemble avait
par-dessus tout une sdduction certaine.
mClodique. Alternant passages lents et rapides, y compris parfois m6me
Le Quatuor Ravel
Le Quatuor Ravel, constitu6 en 1986, a remport6 en 89 au Concours International
d'Evian le Prix du Ministdre de la Culture et le Prix Tortelier. En 7993,1a sortie de son
premier disque consacr6 e Faur6, Debussy et Dutilleux lui vaut d'€tre nominC
meilleure formation de musique de chambre aux Victoires de la Musique Classique.
L'arrl€e de Gilles Colliard en 98 comme premier violon et de pierre Franck i I'alto
coincide avec la volont6 du quatuor de pr6ciser ses options : soo attachement au
r6pertotre frangais, notamment des 19a.. et 20c*. sidcles, mais aussi d, travers le nom de
Ravel, le quatuor se reconnait dans sa propre fascination pour le rythme et pour tout
ce qui touche au temps.
Jean Martinon
into a family of artists in Lyons in
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1910 , Jean Martinon began
his musical studies by learning the violin, first at the Lyons Conservatory, then at the Paris Conservatory where he won a First Prtze. There he also studied
composition with Vincent d'Indy and Albert Roussel , and conducting with Charles
Munch and Roger D6sormidre.
His career began in 1934 when he was appointed violin solo with the French Radio
orchestra and thus began a series of tours throughout France and abroad. By then, he
had akeady written 3 sonatinas, a symphony and a symphoniette. During a ffip to London, he conducted a concert devoted to his own works for the first tim e and Iater repla-
ced Charles Munch at a moment's notice. That marked the end of his cateer as a
violinist, and he would henceforth devote himself simultaneously to conducting and
composition, areas which would fully bloom when he conducted his own works in
concerts or recordings.
As a prisoner of war, he continued to compose, and in 1945 his Psalm 136 'Song
of tbe Captiues'op.33,, an oratorio for soprano and tenor soloists, choir, narrator and
orchestra, won the Grand Prrze of the City of Paris and established his reputation as
a composer. He was named conductor of the Irish Radio orchestra, and his stay
there would inspire his Third Symphony 'Irisb', op.45, He was also invited to
conduct in Paris-the Colonne, Lamoureux, Pasdeloup, Les Concerts du Conservatoire orchestras-as well as in England, Italy, Japan, Australia and Latrn America. As
of 1949, he became associate conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In
addition, he composed an opera, Hecube, a ballet, Ambobimanga ou La Cite bleue,
and piano pieces.
From 1951 to 7957 , he was President-Conductor of the Orchestre des Concerts
Lamoureux, then artistic director of the Israel Philharmonic for two years. There, he
compos ed an oratorio , Le Lis de Saron ou le Cantique des Cantiques ('The Lily of Sbaron
or Tbe Song of Songs). During that period, he directed a large number of European
orchestras, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre National de
I'OIITF, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and those of
Mrrclricl, Ilrussels, Rome and the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam. The following years
ct>nf'it'tttccl his stature as an internatronal
conductor:beginning in 1957, as guest conduc-
tol' ot' thc lloston Symphony, he also conducted the orchestras of Chicago, Saint Louis,
Los Angclcs, tsaltimore, Rochester and Montreal. In 7959, he was appointed Generalmusikclircc'l<tor of the Orchestn of Drisseldorf, a post previously held by Schumann and
Mc'trclclssoltn, and entrusted for the first time to a Frenchman. His renown as a conducIor continuecl to grow.
At tlrc same time, he pursued his writing and performed his works : The Liljt of Shantn in l)iisseldorf, his Second Violin Concerto with Henryk Szeryng at the Festival of
Pntguc, at the ThdAtre des Champs-Elys6es in Paris, and in Chicago. In 7963, he became
mu.sic'al clirector of the Chicago Symphony which commissioned a work from him for
thc rrrclrestra's 75th anniversary; this would be his Symphony No.4 'Altitudes' op.53.
1964 .saw the first American performance of his Concerto for String Quartet and Chamber Orche stra (1944), then the world premidre in Hamburg of his Cello Concerto with
Pierre F<>r:rnier under the direction of Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt. The work was played
agatn a number of times, notably in Chicago with Janos Starker under the direction of
Seiji Ozawa.
FIc continued to conduct nearly ever)rwhere and was honoured with the Gustav
Mahlcr Medal for his interpretations of the Austrian composer's music, still little known
rrt tlrc time. In March of 1958, he began a six-year adventure at the head of the
Orc'hcstre National de France which he transformed into one of the finest orchestras in
tltc worlcl at that time, despite the German competition. Under Martinon, the orchestra
lrccrttttc known for its precision and the quality of its sound and received awards for a
nrrtttlrcr of its recordings : l'Enfance du Christ by Rerhoz, then La Tragedie de Salom6 by
Fl<rrcnt Schmitt both won the Grand Prix du Disque, and his complete recording of
I)cl-rtrs.sy's orchestral music received the Pnze of the President of the Republic. During
this gkrrious period, the orchestra undertook concert tours in the USSR, Japan, Latin
Anrerica, Iran... In 1974, he was appointed to the head of the Residentie Orchestra rn
The Hague with which he made a triumphal trip to the U.S. a few months before his
death in 7976 at the age of 66. We had just accepted a teachrng position in conducting at
the Paris Consewatory,
In addition to the aforementioned works, Jean Martinon's catalogue includes
several concertos (for flute, saxophone quartet, viola, piano), orchestral scores such
as the Musique d'exil ('Exile Music), Prelude and Toccata, dedicated to and premiered by Charles Munch in Boston in 7960, Vigintuor (7959 , 8 vartations on a theme by
Handel) and numerous chamber and instrumental works including the two quartets
recorded here.
The String Quartets
The two quartets correspond to two distinct composition periods" The Quartet
No.1, op. 43, written in Dublin in 1946 and revised five years later, obtained the
Bart6k Prrze rn 1948. It was first performed by the Parrenin Quartet in Paris in 7949,
and played agarn shortly thereafter by the Loewenguth Quartet and in Germany by the
Kruschek Quartet. Martinon's principal writing charucteristics are immediately evident
richness of melodic invention, rhythmrc fantasy, variety of sonorities, balance of the
composition, each of its four movements creating a different atmosphere. In Les Nouvelles Litt&ates, Marc Pincherle also noted 'the generous €lan, the lyricism which is
:
not afraid to speak its name,... and that extremely rare quality in contemporary
music : the perfect homogeneity which reigns between the boldness of the melody,
rhythms and harmony, governed by the same logic'. This homogeneity indeed seems
to have been at the base of Martinon's language, if one is to judge from the analyses
that accompanied the first performances of his works. Although atonal, this First Quartet remains traditional in its writirg, and one can fleetingly remark therein a few
influences : doubtless Bart6k and Prokofiev, who were also, in the orchestra, some of
his favourite composers, but also Roussel for the writing, Honegger and Stravinsky.
The critics also noted the scope of the whole (lasting more than a half-hour) and of
each of its movements, linking it to his activity as conductor and his propensity for
developed works : Martinon was not afraid to reuse each theme several times over,
varying the instrumentation or the accompaniment, but without ever repeating, except
fc>r the recapitulation-inherited from the classical forms-of the beginning of the
Sc'hcrz<t after the trio,
]'lre Second Quartet, op. 54 was composed in 1965 and premiered in Chicago by
tlrc F'inc Arts Quartet, to whom the work is dedicated. In an interview with the Chicrr!{o I)aily News in 7967, Martinon explained having used for his composition l2-tone
writirrg 'treated freely and mixed with a technique of harmonic balance, although
r'('rlrrrining completely atonal and attemptLng a sort of synthesis of musical technique'.
!illrik'rtruch denser and more contrapuntal than the First Quartet, the aforementioned
r;urtlilics of balance, perfect homogeneity, rhythmic fantasy and melodic richness are
rrgrritr in evidence. Alternating slow and fast passages, sometimes even within a moverrte nt as, for example, in the monumental Graue e Scberzo, the work as a whole is,
Itt>wcvcr, more inward than its predecessor. Following the first performance, the Chi('rrgo Sun Times, in spite of a few interrogations regarding the language, nonetheless
tr<rlccl that the 'harmonic dissonances never jar', and that the overall work had 'above
lull, u scnse
of grace'.
The Ravel Quartet
In
the Ravel Quartet, formed three years earher, won the French Culture
Minister's Pnze and the Tortelier Prrze at the International Competition in Evian,
lrrance. In 1993, the release of their first recording resulted in their being nominated
'licst Chamber Music Group'at the Victoires de la Musique Classique awards. The
rrrrival of Gilles Colliard as first violin in 1998, and of violist Pierre Franck coincided
witlt llrc c;uartet's wish to specify its choices by affirming its attachment to the
lrlcnt'lr rr'ltcrtoire, particularly that of the 19th and 20th centuries, but also through
lltc' ttunl('of'Ravel, the Quartet admits its own fascination with rhythm and with evelytlring touching time.
1'989,
Translated by John Tyler Tuttle
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Extrait du catalogue
LEMEIAND
FLIITE PAIIoRAMA I,
Omaha
Songs for the Dead Soldiers
Une collection Michel Debost
5 CD consacrEs
au r6pertoire de la fl0te
Carole Farlejt - Soprano
Michel Debost -.flfitc
C'hristian htaldi - piano
Marc Tardue - Conductor
Francine Bessac Cboir
Ensemble Instrumental de Grenoble
CRAS
I CEuvres pour
D SK 1993
violon et piano
Marie-Annick Nicolas - uiolon
Jean-Piterre Ferejt - piano
II
CEuvres pour piano
Jean-Pi:erce Ferey - piano
2CD
D sK 4963-4
KOECHLII{
SONATES
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"W*.
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F4
KOECHLIN
Sonates
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MARIE VIAIJD violc in
CLILLAL ME piano
MIREILLE
MICHtL MICHALAk{KOS dllo
MARTINt C{C\EPAIN pidno
FATIRE . FRANCK
Marie Viaud, - Violon
Sonates
Mireille Guillaurne - Piano
Micbel Micbalakakos - Alto
Martine Gagnepain - Piano
Emmanuel Pahud - flfite
Eric Le Sage - piano
I et III