Two new works by Philippe Hersant have their premieres this summer. On July 3, Alice Ader and Jonas Vitaud performed Hurlevent for 2 pianos at Festival des forêts in France. Another work for 2 pianos called Onze haïkus will be performed in a new version on July 18 in Cordes-sur-Ciel by Nicolas Kruger and Mara Dobresco.

Hurlevent
“Hurlevent is a suite for two pianos taken from the music of Kader Belarbi’s ballet Wuthering Heights. Premiered at Opéra de Paris in 2002, this ballet takes its inspiration from Emily Brontë’s novel of the same name.

I composed the music for this great narrative ballet (which is placed in the tradition of romantic ballets) as though it was an opera without words, or an epic symphonic poem. Wuthering Heights is a circular novel, marked by the destructive return of the same situations, where we see all the characters suffocating one by one.

I used the circularity of Emily Brontë’s story - as did the others, Kader Belarbi and Agathe Berman. These circumstances and these characters are musically personified by the motifs which reappear frequently, in an obsessive, nearly compulsive way. Among these motifs, we notice:

•    A lyrical and convulsing theme, symbolising the passion which devours Catherine and Heathcliff,
•    A sad and resigned theme, linked to the character of Edgar,
•    A rhythmic and eruptive motif, assigned to the brass, representing the violence of Heathcliff,
•    A small and slightly morbid waltz for Linton, the sickly son of Heathcliff,
•    Tubular bells of all sorts: clocks, music box or death knell, from the epilogue.

The majority of the episodes that I kept in this transcription for two pianos, come from the second act of the ballet. They represent, one by one, the character of Linton, the death of Edgar, the melancholy of Heathcliff (which became inconsolable after the death of Catherine), and finally the deadly vengeance to which he surrendered. The very last section, Death of Heathcliff, is the only part that has been performed in its version for two pianos. This transcription was commissioned by Festival Pianoscope de Beauvais, whilst the entire version of Hurlevent is the result of a commission by Festival des Forêts.”

Onze haïkus
“This suite of pieces for piano for four hands is part of the direct extension of my Ephémères for piano. The two collections have the same source of inspiration: the art of Japanese haiku through two of its greatest representatives: Bashô, for Ephémères and Buson for the Onze haïkus.

These pieces were written at very different times and under very different circumstances. The oldest, L’Oiseau dans la nasse (2006), is dedicated to Henri Dutilleux, from whom I borrowed a short motif, taken from Figures de resonance. Others, like Rossignol d’hiver – which concludes the cycle – were created during my residence at Conservatoire de Boulogne-Billancourt; and yet more were written at Festival les Inouïes d’Arras.

But, it is Festival de Cordes-sur-Ciel which will host the first entire performance of the cycle, including two pieces very recently composed: Papillon and Rêve.”