SFist Interviews Cellist Gautier Capuçon
Cellist Gautier Capucon
Gautier Capuçon makes his SF Symphony debut tomorrow. The French cellist will dazzle in Schumann's cello concerto, under the direction of famed Russian conductor Semyon Bychkov (the program also includes a curtain opener by Dutilleux, and Sibelius 5th symphony). It's his third time in San Francisco, but his first time with the SFS orchestra, or without his brother and chamber music partner, the violinist Renaud Capuçon.
We caught up with him on the phone shortly after he checked in his hotel room, and he sounded refreshed and excited with an easy-going charm, despite the long plane ride from Paris. It's easier to travel when you're only 28yo. Gautier plays a 1701 Goffriller cello. You'll find below his answers to his question, in our translation from the French.
What can you tell us about the Schumann cello concerto?
Before I go into that, let me say I'm glad to make my debut with the orchestra, and to meet up with Semyon Bychkov. We did a tour together with the Dvorak concerto and his Köln orchestra. He's a wonderful conductor and musician, and a good friend as well, I'm very happy to get together with him.
About the Schumann concerto, it's a very delicate piece, to find the right atmosphere. It has all the characters, all the atmospheres, all the different tensions in Schumann, all this sudden madness, this intensity, alternating with this more intimate character. It's a delicate piece I did not want to approach too early, it's not one of the first concertos I wanted to play. One must find the right balance between this strength and internal intensity, and at the same time, this great fluidity in the phrasing.
Schumann had this bipolar personality...
You can say Schumann's music is always bipolar, in all of his music, more or less, depending on each piece. This piece, all of a sudden, the slow movement, it's chamber music. It's a duo between the soloist, and the first cello. There's a slow movement full of intimacy, and then a final like fireworks, with a woodwind dialogue. In the first movement, there's always an alternation of delicate moments and of this craziness flying away.
Do you see a program in it, or images?
When we talk about images, we all have different inspirations. I don't have images really, it's more, a feeling, an atmosphere. It's hard to describe, I can't say: "I'm thinking about such painting," it's more a climate, an atmosphere which I feel very deeply inside; and for the same piece, it will be different characters that one will feel.
Brahms was quoted saying, about Dvorak cello concerto: "Why on earth didn’t I know that one could write a cello concerto like this? If I had only known, I would have written one long ago!” Well, Schumann wrote his piece during Brahms' lifetime, why didn't Schumann's concerto inspire Brahms?
I'd like to ask him! It's a strange beast, inspiration. Why such piece will inspire you, and not this other one? It's not that it is not as good, it's just that it does not talk to you.
Marielle Labeque, one half of the Labeque sisters, told us, shortly before your last SF performances with your (violinist) brother Renaud, that you guys were like their little brothers to them. And that the image of you and your brother playing together is very "vivid to the audiences."
It makes me happy that she says that; we've known each other for a long time, we play often together, we see each other very often. It a four minutes walk from my place to their place. We just heard them play the Mendelssohn concerto for two piano last week with Semyon, actually. It's true that when we see them on the stage, they're like big sisters.
It's impressive to see this link between them; my brother Renaud and I, we live it internally. When I play with him, it's a miracle to have this blood connection and to share the music together. But we don't necessarily realize this connection. When we see Katia and Marielle, we see it externalized. It's magical to see them play together, at the same time with very different personalities, which enrich each other and bring so much to each other.
The Labeque sisters have been quite active commissioning new pieces and expanding their repertoire. If you could commission anything, what would be your dream cello concerto?
It's a very difficult question. First, we have commissioned many pieces with Renaud. The repertoire for violin-cello duets it's not that rich. Ravel and Kodaly, that's the two master pieces in the repertoire. We have commissioned a piece from Eric Tanguy, a french composer. Karol Beffa, Thierry Escaich, who wrote a double concerto, we did commission quiet a few duets. If I were to commission a concerto, it's more a collaboration, it's an encounter with a composer, and it depends how well the composer knows you. If he knows you, he'll write with respect to your relationship with hi, to your personality, and it's a wonderful process. My dream concerto is one in which I'm in phase with the music, and I can express myself, and share the words of the composers with my own words, and the greatest sincerity.