For the 100th anniversary of French composer Claude Debussy’s death, French pianist Hugues Leclère has created a performance in the hope of bringing back the shock felt by the public upon first hearing Debussy’s Preludes or Etudes.
Titled Debussy, 12 Studies of Modernity, Leclere will be bringing the concert to Qualicum Beach with a Nov. 4 performance at TOSH (The Old School House Arts Centre, 122 Fern Rd. West) for the Music on Sunday program.
Though the modernism and the uniqueness of his language, Debussy left a deep impression on 20th and 21st century composers. But a little over a century after its composition, his work has gradually become familiar.
“In my projects Debusy, Poet of Modernity in 2012, and Debussy, 12 Studies of Modernity, in 2018, I have sought to restore a part of the feeling of immanence and strangeness that must have gripped the original listeners during the creation of Debussy’s highly unexpected works,” said Leclère.
To accomplish this, Leclère commissioned 10 studies by 10 contemporary composers to interlace between Debussy’s 12 Études.
These include pieces by Laurent Durupt, Mauro Lanza, Franck Bedrossian, Stephen Hough and others.
Leclère himself was born in Franch in 1968, and practicing his playing of the piano with Catherine Collardbefore entering the convervatoire national superieur de musique de Paris, from which he graduated with high honours in piano, music theory and chamber music.
Leclère has performed all over the world, and has been invited to play with a variety of orchestras, from the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Minsk orchestra, Sate Symphony Orchestra of Mexico and others.
He’s recognized as a major contemporary musician, designing a variety of original shows, taking over direction of the Lagny-sur-Marne International Piano Competition in 2016, becoming the artistic director of the international festival Nancyphonies, and has been taching at the CRR of Paris since 1995.
Admission to his Nov. 4 performance are $18. For more information, call 250-752-6133 or go to www.theoldschoolhouse.org.
— Submitted by Ron Hadley
