“If Beethoven hadn’t been deaf, he wouldn’t have gone so far. He pushed the walls of his deafness by not giving himself any limits. » The voice is soft and the tone passionate. In the living room of his Parisian home, pianist Anne Queffélec marks a pause. “His music touches me deeply, because his music is beauty and kindness. » The musician grew up in Brittany. “The landscapes of my childhood are very Beethovenian. Yes, there is another life, I would like to take Beethoven to Ouessant”she says with a big smile.
A significant meeting
The German composer has accompanied him since his years of training at the Paris Conservatoire. “His repertoire is one of the essential and founding steps for all pianists. » In 1968, at just twenty years old, the young woman left for Vienna to follow the teaching of Alfred Brendel.
The Austrian master is already famous for his recording of 32 Piano Sonatas by Beethoven. “It was a landmark meeting that has remained a landmark. Brendel was not a pedagogue who sought to know the nature of the student. He first talked about the work and thought about how to approach it as accurately as possible. »
His ” mentor ” passed on to him the keys to the Beethovenian journey, at the dawn of his career. In more than fifty years, the keyboard virtuoso has forged an international reputation thanks to an illuminating game as much Bach, Scarlatti, Haydn, Mozart, as Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Satie or Ravel.
“Beethoven, I played it relatively regularly but I don’t consider myself a specialist”, confesses the concert artist with humility.
However, the interpreter does not hide his admiration for the one who explored the sonata ” in one hell of a state “ for about thirty years. “He was constantly renewing himself and seeking new paths. In the Last three s onatas, we feel that he is saying goodbye to this form and that he has reached a certain accomplishment. »
For Anne Queffélec, Beethoven’s “Three Last Sonatas” are a farewell to sonata form and a spiritual message that tends towards infinity. © Daniel FOURAY, West-France
“Spiritual Dimension”
These “ Three sisters » what are the Sonatas No. 30, No. 31 and No. 32, Anne Queffelec has long lived with. “ I needed to experience them in my body, my heart and my mind. I decided to save them as a duty to myself. As a performer, these works lift you up. It is a personal and artistic achievement that justifies all the work done over the years. »
The first, theopus 109takes on the colors of the intimate “by singing with inner feeling. » L’opus 110 is for the pianist “a portrait of Beethoven” and a gift to his fellow humans. ” Despite his suffering, his music is joy, sweetness and strength of the soul. The end of this initiatory journey takes on a spiritual dimension with the opus 111. “Beethoven embraced everything in human nature and his music is an introduction to the world of knowledge. “The last sign of the S onate 32 is a quarter sigh. A silence that opens up to infinity. »
It is not easy to put words to music. Passionate about literature and philosophy, the daughter of the writer Henri Queffélec and sister of the writer Yann Queffélec, to whom she is close and with whom she performs during musical and literary shows, gives the floor, in the booklet of the disc , to authors fascinated by Sonatas of Beethoven like Leo Tolstoy, Thomas Mann, Milan Kundera or Éric Rohmer.
And nothing better than a quote from another giant, Victor Hugo, to portray the great composer and his music. “This deaf man heard infinity. » An eternity masterfully sublimated by the keyboard and the sensitivity of Anne Queffélec.
The Three Last Piano Sonatas by Beethoven. Mirara. 69 minutes.
“His music touches me”: Anne Queffélec’s piano inspired by the humanity of Beethoven.