24 CATALUÑA LLIVIA... DISTANT PRESENCE What made you decide to bring together the three composers featured in this programme? It was Françoise Thinat* who first pointed me towards the work of Déodat de Séverac. I explored some of his cycles and was captivated by a piece evoking the prayer of mule drivers before the Christ of Llivia. This town in the Cerdanya (Cerdaña) became the starting point for my album, conceived as a journey through the Pyrenees. The geographical links with Mompou, whose music celebrates Catalonia, quickly became apparent to me. With Albéniz, the connection was more one of inheritance, since Séverac was his pupil at the Schola Cantorum and completed Navarra, which his teacher had left unfinished at his death. Bringing together this trio of composers was initially intuitive, but when I searched for their names online, I discovered that Vladimir Jankélévitch had already grouped them together in his essay La présence lointaine (Distant Presence). He discusses their sound worlds and their styles of writing, notably their use of added sixths, which give such a distinctive colour to their harmonies. Reading this essay confirmed the relevance of my programme. * Founder of the Orléans International Piano Competition and the Galaxie Y Foundation.
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