LDV110

18 DEBUSSY ∙ MURAIL | RÉVOLUTIONS You mention Liszt, one of the founders of modern piano technique. How would you define the technique of Murail’s keyboard pieces? I recently premiered two new compositions, Mémorial and Résurgence , two separate pieces, but which belong to a set of works. The underlying ‘model’ for Résurgence is Liszt’s Les Jeux d’eau de la villa d’Este , and the homage is no longer to the famous villa at Tivoli, not far from Rome, but to the Sorgue, a river in the Vaucluse region, near the composer’s home. However, there can be no question of descriptive music in Murail, any more than is the case in Liszt’s work: both men go far beyond that, as do all the great composers. It’s essential to achieve fluidity in the music of Tristan Murail, in order to make the listener forget the virtuoso technique in the runs or the alternating chords. In Mémorial , the musical strata require gigantic leaps that the ear should not suspect. This is music written by a great connoisseur of the piano. What he calls ‘proportional writing’ – that is, the placement of notes in relation to visual markers materialising the overall pulse – enables him to play with a certain ‘written’ freedom, while maintaining great rhythmic precision. Everything is scrupulously marked – as in Debussy – and while the performer senses this freedom within a regular pulse, every rhythmic and melodic detail must be perfectly realised.