Caution, moment of sensational discovery ahead... which will be echoed in the new festival conceived by Renaud Capuçon at the Grand Théâtre de Provence in Aix (Nouveaux Horizons) from 17 to 19 October with a world premiere of "Istiraha" by Benjamin Attahir. 

Here is text from the composer about the work: 

I remember that April afternoon when we were joking in the corridors of the Grand Théâtre de

Provence: “So what shall we do for the next one? a sonata? ". As luck would have it – is it really luck with you? – the pleasure of performing several years later this piece for your violin and Guillaume's piano within the same walls where we had for the first time imagined it is an extraordinary feeling.

I wanted to try my luck a second time by developing this music into a cycle started in Aix. I know of your love for Brahms, we also agree on that. Therefore, I wanted to base this little sonata entirely on the sublime notes of "opus 117 n ° 2". In Arabic, "Istihara" is the break, the interlude, the pause. Breaks - I apologise - you will have too few throughout these pages which go on to the end of the breath. We need to think more about the meaning of the intermezzo, of this thing caught between two moments. A world barely open that it is already closing. Cuts, there are

also, but in the violent sense of the word; fracture or rupture, a landscape that one apprehends by jolts, in jerks.

There you go, now I have only one question to ask you; what shall we do for the next one?

Benjamin Attahir - "Istiraha"
Sonate for violin and piano
World premiere: 17 October 2020
Festival "Nouveaux Horizons"
Grand Théâtre de Provence, Aix-en-Provence
Renaud Capuçon, violin
Guillaume Bellom, piano