Trois Préludes pour violoncelle, Benoît Mernier

commande de Radio France 

samedi 10 février 18h

Maison de la radio, studio 105

These three short pieces were written for the Finnish cellist Anssi Karttunen. Through the pieces Benoît Mernier explores the cello’s expressiveness in its lowest and highest registers.

1. Andante misterioso, lent, incantatoire
2. Allegro e risoluto, vif et virtuose
3. Fragile e cantabile, lent, berçant

" These three pieces of around 3 to 4 minutes each were written for Anssi Karttunen, to whom they are dedicated.

The first (Andante misterioso), slow, incantatory, at first rooted within the bass sounds of the instrument, seems to constantly want to withdraw into itself whilst hesitating about its own future. The initial expression is repeated by declining through multiple variations. The music seems the same, but it never quite is. The phrases are short, always calling out for something to come. The phrases accelerate a little bit. The movement is a little more animated. A figure appears suddenly, more lively and continuous but still obsessive. It will be the seed of the second piece, but the only once-heard figure will be left abandoned throughout the first part. It opens on the second idea of the first Prelude played in pizzicato, alternating with the monody from the beginning.

The second Prelude (Allegro e risoluto) is lively and virtuoso. Persistence is still a given but this time as a continuum. We finally seem to want to move on. A game of contrasts is quickly put in place. It will alternate repeated notes, bowing on all four strings, ricochet and natural harmonics. The music, however, doesn’t go anywhere and seems to want to escape at the same time, as if two incompatible things were desired at once.

Some accidental silences gradually interrupt the persistent movement. These breaking elements, whilst being dynamic, will finally allow the piece to find an exit…

The third Prelude (Fragile e Cantabile) explores the instrument’s high, singsong tessitura. It is like the mirror of the first Prelude but with a distorted image, as if the perspective were reversed. The tempo is slow and the form simple. Three phrases played in a high register followed by medium with the bow alternating with three other pizzicato and arpeggiando phrases that gradually let you hear a simple melody, like a lullaby. The bowed phrases are shorter and shorter, leaving more and more room for the pizzicato melody…"

Benoît Mernier