LDV71

16 OFFENBACH How did this recording project come about? Xavier Phillips: I wanted to record, or at least play Offenbach’s duos, and to perform this music you really have to find THE right partner. These are very witty pieces, very humorous and also devilishly hard, but the difficulty lies in finding a way of approaching them together, with a very close rapport. I wanted to embark on this adventure with Anne because I admire her a great deal, and always have. We had often met, but we had never had the opportunity to get to know each other, to establish the kind of relationship that we’ve been able to build up thanks to this disc. It was something of a gamble; but the affinities were there. The pianist François-Frédéric Guy, with whom I play regularly, as does Anne, had often told me that she and I are very similar, that we have the same kind of sound – and the idea becamemore andmore convincing. And then, I haven’t forgotten that we first met in a more ‘pugilistic’ context: at the 1989 Rostropovich Competition in Paris, where we were both contestants – and therefore competitors! That ‘pugilistic’ side of music-making is also to be found in Offenbach’s duos, but in a muchmore open, happier, more humorous way. All the same, you have to have complete confidence in your partner to play them – we realised that when we came to record these pieces, whatever their level of difficulty. Anne Gastinel: There’s been a feeling of mutual respect between us for almost three decades. We followed each other from a distance, we only had a few rare opportunities to play together, but it seemed obvious to both of us that things would work out. Do we have the same sound? I don’t think so – I became fully aware of that when the microphones were set up – but we undeniably have the same urge to share with others, a common formof honesty in themusical process,