The Emerson Quartet, a reference group in the classical repertoire, decided in 2013 to end a 47-year career in which only the cellist changed extremely rarely. Before leaving on October 20th and 21st in New York Their home base, the Emersons, were in Paris on Saturday October 7th at the Auditorium of the Louis Vuitton Foundation for an evening dedicated to their latest record. Neverending journey (Alpha Classic).
Shown before the concert, Before it is too late (“Before it’s too late”), a film by Mathieu Amalric, is intended to take us behind the scenes of the recording of the CD, which was made with the soprano Barbara Hannigan, with whom he lives. Purely musical questions (tempo, color, balance) appear less in these cut-off sessions than “private jokes” (particularly about the products of the British hairdresser Vidal Sassoon), which hardly make the audience laugh. This documentary is an endless series of scenes in which the protagonists compete against each other in theatrical performances. This documentary only briefly addresses the questions of interpretation, whereas they were brilliantly uncovered by Almaric in 2017 Music is music, available on the album’s “bonus” DVD Crazy girl, crazy (Alpha Classics), by Barbara Hannigan.
Pocket opera
“Play more and talk less”recommends the sound engineer at the beginning Before it is too late. Of course, the instructions are followed during the concert, which we approach while our ears are still “tuned” to the intensity of the film soundtrack. Then everything seems small. The “live” sound of the American quartet and the wise, even modest silhouette of the Canadian soprano. A fragility arises and with it the truth of the musical act. The work that begins the program melancholy (1917) by Paul Hindemith is a beautiful discovery that Barbara Hannigan suggested to the Emersons.
On the edge of this series of four melodies based on poems by Christian Morgenstern, they seem to be on guard. In the second (The Mistweaver), to the point that in the end he gives the impression of integrating his entire being. The soloist no longer sings, but it is her inner voice that we hear. The third part is articulated in a hypnotic march (Dark drop) is a pocket opera, as is the finale (Forest of dreams), which allows the soprano to lead her partners to a lyrical climax comparable to that of The Transfigured night, d’Arnold Schönberg, in the plush envelope.
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