To the notion of hedonism, which he finds very overused, Bruno Manto vani, when asked to characterize his work as artistic director of the Printemps des arts, a festival which will take place in Monte-Carlo from March 13 to April 7, prefers that of jubilation.
Jubilations in the plural, even, that this gourmand of life - composer, conductor, pianist, conservatory director but also self-confessed smart mouth - has organized into a scholarly and open program covering seven centuries of music, from Ockeghem to Berio, through Schumann, Bach or jazz, and stretching to the meeting of gastronomy (with chef Yannick Alléno and violinist David Haroutunian), photography and image (with a focus on work of Sebastião Salgado) or conceptual art (around the work of composer Pier Paolo Calzolari).
Stylistic evolution
“Programming is the opportunity to build an object, like Lego. And I am formatted to build”,
confides to us the one who only sees this seasonal meeting as part of a cycle, governed by a strong idea, that of stylistic evolution:
“Three years ago, when I was Arriving
in Monaco
, I took Guillaume de Machaut's rondeau as a reference,
My end is my beginning,
to question the composers in their youth and in their maturity.
After Armenia and the United States, and faced with
the climate crisis
and the revival of an extremely concrete form of ecology, I also wanted to pay tribute to the whole world and thought that the time had come to see how musicians and artists position themselves in relation to these questions.
Also read “When I grow up, I will be a conductor…”: women at the helm
What other work than
The Song of the Earth
by Gustav Mahler, which will be questioned several times, can make them resonate better?
“What is remarkable in Monte-Carlo is that there is confidence given to artists.
When we ask a creator to come, it is not for the museum,
continues the composer.
And then, the Printemps des arts is not a festival of performers but of repertoire.
I also have this principle of not taking a touring schedule.
It has to start at home.”
I tried to make the festival that I would have liked to see as a spectator.
But also a cutting-edge and scientifically speaking festival
Bruno Mantovani
This is how the cellist Henri Demarquette will question Bach, Beethoven and Britten, the Modigliani Quartet will do the same with Schubert and Mendelssohn, and Laurence Equilbey with Schubert again and Mozart.
“I tried to make the festival that I would have liked to see as a spectator.
But also a cutting-edge and scientifically speaking festival.
With
befores
in the form of conferences and afters
in
the form of impromptu sessions in cozy places.
I wanted something clear, reassuring.
But above all who elevates us.”
Requirement
Jubilations, therefore, of the intellect and the senses, but to better surpass oneself:
“Music will not save the world but it enters into resistance to the ambient mediocrity.
As long as you give yourself the means.
Elitism, effort, is growing together, it has nothing to do with exclusion.
I am calling for strong public policies, which embody the pleasure of excellence, not the prevailing societal demagoguery.
In sports, kids train hard.
As soon as you get into art, it should be easy.
Do not lower the level of the object to please as many people as possible: that’s my fight.”
With this third edition of Printemps des arts under his brand, Bruno Mantovani takes nothing away from the demands of the disciple of Pierre Boulez and Peter Eötvös that he has remained.
But he in no way refutes his pleasure.
No more that of an audience who can feel respected by a program that is as ambitious as it is generous.
Monte-Carlo Spring Arts Festival, until April 7
(
Printempsdesarts.mc
)
.