Les musicales du Poët-Laval - Nathanaël Gouin - Rachmaninoff & Mussorgsky - 07/30/24

Sergei Rachmaninoff: Isle of the Dead (Transcription by Nathanaël Gouin) 

Sergei Rachmaninoff: Études-Tableaux, Op. 33 (Études 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9) 

Modest Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition 

Nathanaël Gouin: Piano 

Last Monday evening, at the end of the terrific first concert of Les musicales du Poët-Laval (The Musical Events of Le Poët-Laval), its founder and director Stéphanie Réthoré had strongly encouraged us to come back the following evening to hear Nathanaël Gouin again, and by himself this time, in a program that had to remain top secret within 100 km of La Roque d’Anthéron where he would play on Wednesday as part of its prestigious piano festival. I guess you know you have arrived when your contract has become overly finicky. 

But Réthoré had not been able to keep the secret, and Le Poët-Laval was beyond the limit anyway, not to mention that we would have showed up regardless of the playlist, my mom having become one of his biggest fans. So, we had bought our tickets early for what in the end was essentially the final rehearsal before La Roque d’Anthéron for this young and already much in-demand pianist, composer and teacher, who had made an excellent impression just 24 hours before. 

Additionally, having learned their lesson the hard way the previous evening, the event’s organizers had thankfully turned on the AC before our arrival in the Centre d’Art Contemporain Roche Colombe, and we were therefore able to come in and get settled in an acceptably cool space. In fact, the considerably more comfortable environment turned out to be a real blessing as the concert started almost 15 minutes late due to unstoppable waves of newcomers and a last-minute scramble to find extra seats. 

Unlike most opening numbers, which tend to be short and sweet, Gouin’s own transcription of Rachmaninoff’ Isle of the Dead was anything but. Inspired by a black and white version of Arnold Böcklin’s painting Isle of the Dead, the symphonic poem is unforgivingly dark and haunting. Having experienced unexpected and heart-breaking loss a decade ago, Gouin could probably relate all too well to the work’s delicate yet intense lyricism, and the eventual acceptance of grief and mourning. No doubt this was an unusually heavy, but also brave and impactful, way to get things going on an otherwise delightful summer night. 

Then we thankfully moved on to some of Rachmaninoff’s lighter fare with a handful of his Études-Tableaux, which Gouin had carefully picked and superbly played. Whether the vignette’s source of inspiration was a scene or an atmosphere, the score made sure to describe it with finesse and vivaciousness. During his introduction, the soft-spoken and engaging Gouin had deemed Rachmaninoff the greatest pianist ever, and this level of appreciation and kinship was certainly palpable in his deeply committed performance. 

Without an intermission, but after another insightful introduction, Gouin tackled Mussorgsky’s ever-popular Pictures at an Exhibition next, after having noticed that performing it in an art center filled with, well, pictures being exhibited had not been planned, but was clearly most appropriate. And while everybody stayed firmly put on their seats, we still thoroughly enjoyed Mussorgsky’s musical stroll through the exhibition of 10 works by Viktor Hartmann, a talented architect and visual artist who was friend with Mussorgsky and met an untimely death at only 39 years of age. 

Written within the year following the tragedy, the piano suite made of ten movements interspersed by the recurring and ever-changing promenade theme has undergone various orchestrations since then, the most famous probably being Ravel’s boldly colourful version, but to my ears, the power of the original is unmatched. And it sure sounded that way on Tuesday evening, as the pictures came wonderfully alive during Gouin’s superbly virtuosic without being unnecessarily flashy performance. 

The concert was a big success, and I was wondering what Gouin had in store for us for the highly anticipated encore, and especially if it would also come from the Russian repertoire. Well, not even close. As a special nod to the Olympic Games going on in Paris and to French culture in general, he concluded our enchanted evening with a dynamite take on Edith Piaf’s already infectious “Padam, padam…”, to which he managed to bring a brand new and oh so exciting flavor. Let’s face it, this young man has it all.