Composer

Miles Walter

 (Composer), Open Application composer winner

Stay tuned for updates. More information coming soon.

Chamber Music Concert

Elise Bertrand

We are proud to join forces with the esteemed pianist David Fray for this concert. Together, we are excited to present an exceptional programme, including the works of our Open Application composer winner, Elise Bertrand. 

Joining us will be David Fray, alongside the composer and violinist herself Elise Bertrand, as well as clarinettist Joë Christophe and pianist Tomoki Park. This collaboration represents our commitment to supporting emerging talents and celebrating the richness of classical music.

Elise Bertrand, violin | Joë Christophe, clarinet | Tomoki Park, piano | with special guest David Fray

Psalmodie, Op. 20 (world premiere)

3 Romances, Op. 94

Sonate pour violon seul, Op. 16

Sonatina for Violin and Piano No.3 in G minor, D. 408 (IV. Allegro moderato)

Fantasie in F minor, D. 940

Chamber Recital

Ambassador Programme open application jury

Selecting this year's applicants

« Durchaus fantastisch und leidenschaftlich vorzutragen; Im Legenden-Ton »

The title of the first movement of Robert Schumann’s Fantasia in C demands it ‘to be played fantastically and passionately; as if recounting a legend’. Therefore, in telling the story of Schumann and his music, we have no choice but to gracefully oblige:

…Once upon a time, back in the 1830s, there lived a law student in Leipzig. He soon realised that studying law was for him both Crime and Punishment, so he turned to song composition and piano performance instead. Yet the desire to analyse and critique was never far off. Hence, this almost-lawyer founded a music journal, the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, where for ten years his perceptive writings represented the most progressive musical thinking of the time.

This student, a young Robert Schumann, promoted the work of prolific past composers like Mozart, Beethoven and Weber, as well as contemporary composers such as Chopin and Berlioz. However, his fervent advocacy of their music was not his only preoccupation. He was also entwined in a passionate love affair and, as is so often the case in legends, faced a formidable villain.

Enter Friedrich Wieck, renowned piano professor and father of Clara Wieck, a piano prodigy. From the beginning, Wieck opposed Clara and Schumann’s romantic entanglement, stating that Schumann could not support his daughter financially and was not of a high enough social standing. He forbade Clara from seeing him, threatening disinheritance. Thus began the couple’s separation in 1836, which led to the composition of Schumann’s Fantasia in C.

Often seen as one of Schumann’s greatest works for piano, and privately considered by Schumann as “…perhaps the most impassioned music [he had] ever written,” his Fantasia in C is a testament to the heart-stopping ecstasy and unresolved longing that being in love with Clara provoked. Contained by a loose sonata structure, Schumann nonetheless broke free from this Classical form to create an emblematic piece of the Romantic period. And like

all great romances, Schumann included a special message to his love. The coda of the first movement begins with a melody from the last song in Beethoven’s song cycle An die ferne Geliebte (‘To the distant beloved’). This melody is from the phrase “Take, then, these songs, beloved, which I have sung for you.”

Like all great legends, we cannot finish without returning to the beginning: our law student in Leipzig. For even though Schumann did not continue his studies, he initiated several lawsuits against Friedrich Wieck. His legal complaints against Wieck eventually led to Schumann and Clara’s court-sanctioned marriage on 12 th September 1840.

Regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era, Robert Schumann’s originality pushed emotional and philosophical boundaries. His music often told stories peppered with motifs and literary references.

After listening to his Fantasia in C, consider exploring his song-cycle Dichterliebe (‘A poet’s love’) to delve further into his tumultuous relationship with Clara Schumann.

Schumann, a legendary composer

Applications for the Classeek Ambassador Programme 2023-24 are now open!

The Classeek Ambassador Programme is a one-year career enhancement programme for promising young classical artists, ready for a career at the highest level. 

This year, there will be two spaces open to applicants from around the world, looking to pursue an international career in the classical music industry. We will have one space for instrumentalists, and for the first time, we will also have one space open to composers. 

 page to find out more about the programme, entry requirements and how to apply.

Entry onto the scheme for the remaining artists of the programme is via nomination by one of Classeek’s internationally renowned Artist Ambassadors. This year, ambassador nominations will be presented by Sir András Schiff, Steven Isserlis, Renaud Capuçon, and Sonia Simmenauer.

Classeek Ambassador Programme 2023-24

Applications now open!

Violin

Alexandra Conunova

In this specially curated concert featuring Alexandra Conunova, Suzana Bartal and David Kadouch, the artists join forces with composer and Classeek Ambassador, Eric Tanguy, in a recital programme featuring Tanguy's own music, bookending a trio of works from the first half of the 20th century. 

Alexandra Conunova & Suzana Bartal | Eric Tanguy, In a Dream

In a Dream

Classeek Showroom performance, October 2022

Eric Tanguy

Suzana Bartal | Eric Tanguy, Deux Moments Musicaux

Deux Moments Musicaux

David Kadouch | Eric Tanguy, Passacaille

Passacaille

One of the most widely performed French composers of today, Eric Tanguy's latest disc of chamber works 'In a Dream', released earlier this year, evokes “imagination, poetry and an interior world”.  

Featuring a selection of his works, composed over the past twenty years, the disc showcases an array of artists including violinists Alexandra Conunova and Rosanne Philippens, violist Lise Berthaud, cellist Edgar Moreau, clarinettist Pierre Génisson, pianists Suzana Bartal and David Kadouch, Quatuor Diotima.

"For an entire CD of chamber music by Eric Tanguy, Erato has brought together a group of artists who play the eight compositions with great dedication."

Eric Tanguy joins us here at Classeek next week, on 19th October, in a special live-stream concert featuring music from this latest release, performed by Alexandra Conunova, David Kadouch and Suzana Bartal. You can watch live on our website

The latest on Eric Tanguy

CD and concerts

If you have already approached music composition, you might have realized that most times all you need is something to unleash your creativity and start writing. That initial spark could be as well a natural element, just like the sound of the wind blowing through the trees or a bird singing a melody. 

Long ago, way before tweets on social media, the sound of birds have inspired people: it happened already with Vivaldi, Handel, Mozart and Beethoven but in Messiaen’s music it played a crucial role. It became in fact one of the main features that characterized his works. What started initially as an interest soon became a real obsession, so fascinating that he could have been defined as an experienced ornithologist. 

Encouraged in his early years by his teacher Dukas, he started notating bird songs to include them in his own music and several of his compositions consist of a dedicated analysis and meticulous transcriptions that he wrote through the years. 

As he later revealed, it wasn't an easy process at all: he had to transcribe at a slower tempo and transport the notes an octave or two below, in order to make it playable by the instrument he was writing for at the time. If the interval between the notes sung by the bird was too small to play by an instrument, it had to be replaced with an appropriate semitone that could fit the melody. 

In 1940 the 34 year old composer was captured by the Germans and sent to a prisoner camp, while serving as a medical auxiliary in the french army. There he started writing one of his most popular pieces, Quartet for the End of Time. At this time there were several influences in his writing but the singing of blackbirds and nightingales are clearly present.

Other earlier works that included some bird inspired music are pieces such as Nativitè and Vingt Regards. In 1952 he was asked by the Conservatory of Paris to provide a piece to test flautists and for this occasion he composed La Merle Noir, a tune based on the song of the blackbird. Shortly after that Messiaen wrote Reveil des Oiseaux, a piece based on birdsong that are singing between midnight and noon in the specific area between France and Switzerland.

The whole subject of including bird vocalisation took more and more space in his music and culminated in 1958 when he wrote his major work dedicated to the pianist Yvonne Loriod, who eventually became Messiaen’s wife. His Catalogue d’oiseaux consists of a collection of thirteen tunes for piano, based on his transcription of over 80 european bird species. Often described as Messian’s most abstract work by critics, it was in fact one of the most analytical works of his where each page was littered with names of specific landmarks and related bird types.

In combination with his synaesthesia (a neurological condition of his that led him associating sounds with colour)  Messiaen’s profound dedication to birds has always fascinated and intrigued audiences. His music in fact really tried to connect with the world as a whole, as a universal language: sometimes it is written by humans and other times is spoken by nature.

Can nature inspire a composition?

The answer could be in your backyard

A specially curated programme, by the performers and Classeek Ambassador Eric Tanguy, this recital programme features the music of Eric Tanguy, bookending a trio of works from the first half of the 20th century. Having studied under the likes of Horatiu Radulescu, Gérard Grisey and Betsy Jonas, Tanguy has become one of France’s most widely performed composers. Violinist and Classeek Ambassador Programme alumnus Alexandra Conunova is a featured artist in this recital, along with pianists David Kadouch and Suzana Bartal.

The recital opens with Tanguy’s Passacaille for solo piano, before Alexandra Conunova leads a performance of In a Dream, a piece she recorded for an acclaimed album of Tanguy chamber works earlier this year. The recording was awarded a four-star review by BBC Music Magazine, who praised Conunova’s rendition, stating that it was ‘performed with strength and conviction.’ Now better known in its orchestral arrangement, Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances is heard here in its original version: a suite of short piano pieces based on Romanian folk tunes. The dances include ‘Stick Dance’ – a piece inspired by a tune Bartók overheard two gypsy violinists playing, ‘Sash Dance’ and ‘Romanian Polka’, showing the richness and variation of traditional Romanian gypsy music and dance. 

We then cycle forwards a few decades to 1940s Paris with Poulenc’s Sonata for Violin and Piano. Written in memory of the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca, the sonata is peppered with Spanish influences throughout and, as a result, is not instantly recognisable as Poulenc’s style. Premiered with the composer himself at the piano, this was never a piece Poulenc looked too favourably upon. In fact, he had difficulty writing the piece at all, with various attempts made. It is an intense and deeply moving work, with moments of grief, anger and bittersweet sentiment. 

Staying with the French theme, the musicians present Ravel’s Ma mère l’Oye in its original piano duet form. Another work now better known in its orchestral arrangement, Ma mère l’Oye was originally written by Ravel for the Godebski children, whose parents had been the dedicatees of an earlier work by the great composer. With the subtitle ‘Five Children’s Pieces’, the work is made up of a series of movements which take their names from children’s stories, such as Sleeping Beauty and Tom Thumb. 

The evening is then brought to a close with another contemporary work by Eric Tanguy, Deux Moments Musicaux.

An evening with Eric Tanguy

Ma mère l'Oye

Romanian Folk Dances

Sonata for violin and piano

Alexandra Conunova, David Kadouch & Suzana Bartal

[{"type":"paragraph","children":[{"text":""}]}]

Flipe Johnson & Natalia Morozova | Nimrod Borenstein, Souvenirs Op. 49

Souvenirs Op. 49

Classeek Showroom performance, October 2021

The author of Cinquante questions pour 50 ans de questionnement (Fifty Questions for 50 Years of Questioning), published last July, is without doubt one of the most prolific and one of the most frequently performed French composers. An inexhaustible curiosity for new discoveries and a fervent optimism nourishes this violin lover, particularly in what regards the use of modern technologies. As a proof, he will be the first composer in residence of Classeek for 2018 and 2019.

What does it mean to be composer in residence for a classical music platform? It is a virtual presence, which offers a large visibility to young musicians but also to myself. I still need to discover everything since it is a premiere for me! Those new technological tools bring about a lot of change in the music profession, the listening, distribution, and the way of acquiring music. For instance, Classeek helps brilliant young soloists, which have been selected for their artistic qualities foremostly, to develop their image and network. I think this is a sound idea. Thirty years ago, musicians embarked on a career because they were singular – but this is no longer the case. So it is important that by means of such a platform, singularity is reestablished and connects people amongst themselves. 

Do you know which shape your collaboration will take? 

We still have to work out the specifics. We will create a beautiful artistic content and find a resonance between the performers and composers on the platform. I suppose this will entail the execution of some of my works but in any case you cannot force musicians to play pieces for which they feel no affinity, just as I myself prefer to collaborate with people for whom I have an undiminished admiration. For instance, Alexandra Conounova, who is present on Classeek, is a highly unusual violinist. I only wish I could have played the violin like her once in my life! Those who play fast and loud do not interest me much. Listen to Ivry Gitlis: he places his bow on the string, and you cry. That’s all it is. Sokolov, Angelich, Levit, Rostropovich, Gastinel, the Capuçon brothers… There are many who produce the same effect. The important thing is to protect the poetry of your sound and of the music you are playing throughout your career. And this will guarantee you a life in music. At least that’s how I see it!

With the predominance in our times of the image and the necessity to „sell“ yourself this poetry of the sound is not always put in the first place by certain musicians of international renown… What do you think about this? If it serves an artistic goal, it does not worry me. At this time, a virtual presence is fundamental for propagating your work. Earlier, brilliant artists made a career, whereas now certain individuals become very popular even though they are not the most stunning ones. It is this that bothers me because I have always seen art as the priority. However, I always say that everything will be better after because everything becomes transformed. As someone who creates I cannot be nostalgic. Creation is an adventure that is always turned towards the future, a constant discovery. We must be delighted that young generations turn towards music. This is exciting.

Speaking about develoment, what have you noticed regarding the way contemporary music has developed among the wide public? I have seen the frequency with which it is presented on television melt like snow! It has become rare that a composer of contemporary music gives a television interview, whereas 25 years ago invitations were frequent: the programmes of Philippe Lefet, Frédéric Taddeï… With Renaud Capuçon we participated in one of the last broadcasts on French television of Jacques Chancel’s Le Grand Echiquier from Toulouse: Michel Plasson conducted the Orchestra of the Capitole. This television show was huge! And where is the Jacques Chancel of today? There are the Victoires de la musique, which are a showcase of what is going on in classical music. I myself have received them twice and they still make a big impact. But the rest has dwindled into nothing… It is new media that have become intermediaries.

Did you get used to the new technologies quickly? I am no longer a little boy so I had to learn to use these tools! About 10 years ago, I still had no email address. I am part of that generation which still has a strong attachment to objects, not only content. To leaf through a CD booklet is very important. These are ancient reflexes. Everything has become different but I think that life today also has a lot of qualities. I am pleased to be on Facebook: I have discovered extraordinary musicians of whom I had never heard talk, and to communicate with people all over the world relieves you from the solitude of travelling. Paradoxically, the virtual world brings people a lot more closer.

The encounters that launched your career took place at a time when this virtual connections did not exist. Could you talk to us about those great artists who gave you this initial impetus? The first was my encounter with music. I had the chance to be born into a family of music fanatics where we listened to everything. When I was still a small boy I fell in love with a record of the legendary Ivry Gitlis, and I began to study the violin. It was super to play those small pieces by Mozart and Vivaldi but soon I wanted to write my own music. This is a paradox! (laughs) And then there ensued a succession of magic encounters. Amongst my violin teachers, Rodrigue Milozi, the cousin of Radulescu, marked me profoundly. At about twelve I realized I wanted to go down the path of composers. At Caen, during Aspects des Musiques d’Aujourd’hui, a marvellous contemporary music festival, Rodrigue presented me to the composer Ivo Malec. He told me “Come to see me when you are ready.” And so I became a student in his class for two years, in 1988 at rue de Madrid, in 1989 at La Villette. And there were so many other magnificent encounters at the Conservatoire: Gérard Grisey, Betsy Jolas, Michel Philippot, Xavier Darasse, the ingenious director of the Conservatoire, who is unfortunately no longer with us…

Rome also plays a considerable part in your development…I was admitted to the Villa Medici in 1992 and lived in the Italian capital from 1993 to 1994. I was dazzled by this city, its history, the superposition of its architecture… and the works of Caravaggio. To live through this pictorial shock at 25 induced in me the desire to create a different music and to search for my roots as a musician and interpreter. I had gone far in my experimentations, and I think I had lost touch with instrumental reality. When I returned to Paris, this became a bit of a fight with contemporary music circles. But it was the classical sphere that launched me. Meaning? That my works were played by musicians of my generation, even great names such as Ozawa, Salonen, the Capuçon brothers, Angelich, Gastinel, Rostropovich, etc. With many of them, I was at the Conservatoire. We were all studying and continued our discussions at the coffee machine. And here we are, thirty years later. These are not easy journeys. You need to endure pressure, solitude, travelling, adversities. 

From the moment you produce a work of art – be it as a creator or interpreter – you meet people who support you and others for whom your work is a problem. This is how human beings are. Personally, I have always preferred those that do something to those that undo something. That is one of my rules.

A first virtual residence

What does it mean to be composer in residence for a classical music platform? 

To open the Winter season, Ambassador Programme violinist, Alexandra Conunova, and pianist Suzana Bartal perform a selection of works by Classeek Ambassador and composer, Eric Tanguy, alongside Debussy and Ravel.

Discover, Follow and Support Talent Globally

Composer

Classeek's Community

Latest