LDV76

PHILIPPE CASSARD, ANNE GASTINEL, DAVID GRIMAL 21 We have forgotten an earlier era and a different approach, which was perhaps more that of the Amadeus Quartet, of Furtwängler, and which has often been wrongly accused of being post-Wagnerian: an approach with a much freer discourse, enfolding themusic in a gesture . The problemwith this attitude based on verticality, which very much corresponds to the arrival of the binary world, the era of the industrialisation of music and the standardisation of discourse, is that we no longer ask ourselves how to find the right gesture . We consider that as soon as the music is perfectly in place, our job is done. However, as soon as we forget about the barlines and start to see the phrases, to see the gestures, and to allow ourselves to feel emotions by getting away from this serious, angry marble figure, symbolised by a whole world of classical music made in his image, suddenly humour, charm and tenderness make their appearance! Beethoven was a human being. And from the moment we take him alongside us, instead of looking at him the way we look at a bust towering above us, the musical exchange becomes completely different, andwe reconnect with an utterly liberating feeling of intimacy. That’s howwe tried to prepare the music, and all three of us were completely on the same wavelength in that respect.