Le Blog – notes de Justine Verdier

Con los pies en la Luna

oct 23

JustineVie d'artiste, voyage Bilbao, opéra, orchestra, piano, Sevilla, travel 1 Comment

So, let’s continue. After the Mozart competition in January, I went back to Spain where I had planned to get my driving license as fast as possible. Finally it took a bit longer than I thought, but it was necessary. I work at the Maestranza in the evenings, we live far from Sevilla and there are no buses in those late hours. In march, I had to accompany the choirs rehearsals for Carmina Burana, the 9th symphony of Beethoven and one interesting and unknown piece of De Falla called Atlantida. Later, in may, it was a new experience because I was playing the piano part in the small orchestra of 10 people of one contemporary opera for children called « Con Los pies en la Luna » (literally « with the feet in the moon ») written by Antoni Parera Fons which is a kind of opera-documentary about the first travel of the human kind to the moon. We had 9 representations in Sevilla’s Maestranza and then we travelled to Bilbao to play there 4 representations. It was so exciting but quite stressful and tiring aswell, as we had only 3 days of rehearsals to prepare it. The rhythm in that piece wasn’t especially easy, even more for the piano part that never stopped in the whole piece. As we have the bad habit as pianists to be so used to play alone or in chamber music (where we are supposed to lead the group), I must admit I was really not used to follow an orchestra director… The other instruments were also not very helped in case they would get lost, because there was only one instrument of each: one violin, one cello, one double-basse, one trumpet, one clarinet, one horn, one flute, one other pianist that was playing electronic keyboard and had to change all the time the register, and the poor percussionist that had to run from one instrument to the other all the time, he must have lost 2kg per performance! Here is the Maestranza’s theater seen from the orchestra pit:

At the first representation, we were quite afraid to get lost or make mistake, but after 9 representations (once we played it 3 times in the same day!) we could play it with closed eyes…One other detail: I never realized that the musicians of the orchestra actually never see the stage and the singers! It’s very frustrating, especially after playing 13 times the same thing. Then, after Sevilla we traveled to Bilbao to be there 4 days. It was like holidays as we had just one rehearsal, the 4 representations were not so tiring and we had a lot of time for sightseeing and have fun all together. A small group of 10 people is more easily going out than an entire orchestra! On our arrival, we went directly to try the culinary speciality of Bilbao and Pais Basco: the Pinchos, small pieces of bread with a mix of whatever you can imagine other it (fish, ham, cheese, pate..). There are thousand kinds of them and every restaurant propose their own receipts. Here is an example of how it looks like:

It is delicious but really dangerous for the body figure! It is small so you never get full and can keep eating for hours…
After our gastronomical experiences, the second day we had a rehearsal and a representation in the evening. This is the opera of Bilbao:

On the next day, as we had a free morning I did some sightseeing and went to THE place you should not miss in Bilbao: the Guggenheim Museum. Bilbao has two parts: the old city where are the shops, restaurants and places to go out, that look like this

And the modern part, where is the Museum. This was taken on my way from our hotel to the Museum:

And this is the Museum, with its amazing architecture and its famous sculpture of dog made of flowers:

The museum itself has a more interesting architecture than contents. Well, I have to admit I am not that fond of modern art. To call a wall with changing lights a piece of art is a bit out of my understanding, but this is just a personal opinion.
Then, we just had some more representations, and the last evening we went out to celebrate. Those are the guys having tons of meat

And this is after the last representation in the morning before we took the plane, a group picture with the singers:

Just before we went to the airport, I went to make some shopping to start spending the nice money we got! Anyway, it was a really nice time, nice city to discover and I loved being part of an orchestra, even if it is stressful for a pianist… At least now I know how it works for the next time!

After a long time…

oct 20

JustineEtudiante, Vie d'artiste, Vie quotidienne 2011, Competition, Mozart, piano, practicing, Salzburg, student No Comments

Wow, almost one year that I didn’t write anything! Anyway, I was writing only in french and I think it is easier for everyone if I start sending posts in english. So, 2011 is almost getting to its end (although I still have a mountain of things to do waiting for me!) but until now it has been full of exciting happenings and experiences. Let’s start from the beginning of the year.
In january I was the whole month in Salzburg making exams for my Master studies and preparing for Mozart competition. Well, nothing much to say about a Mozarteum student’s life. Everyday is quite the same: wait for a room, which can take a long time depending on the queue that can look like this

You can practice 2 hours until somebody kicks you out. This is how the practice rooms look like:

This is my favorite one, with a nice view on the hall:

This is a nice view on Salzburg from a practice room in the 2nd floor:

After practicing or during the day, to take a break or to eat, there are many places around to eat quite cheap: the cafe San Marco just at the corner of Makartplatz that offers a lunch menu for 5 euros, the cafe Zentral, a bit
more snobbish but very cosy, especially in winter when it’s -15 degrees outside with snow.

So my life in January was like that, I remember watching Amadeus and those cold evenings when I was reading some kind of novel about Mozart life to get inspiration before the competition, where I was actually really surprised to get to the 3rd round! I always thought that Mozart is unplayable, I would never take the risk to play his music especially in this city where they are supposed to know better than anywhere else how it should be played – although every teacher has a different idea… For me it was more an opportunity to extend my repertoire and to learn the character of Mozart’s music and the interpretation of his pieces. At the end it was a great experience, as I was preparing the competition with two close friends from Mozarteum, we were getting stressed together, relaxing together in practicing breaks, playing everyday the first round for each other… Then at the competition I picked the last number, so I had to wait 3 days to play the first round, the nice thing was that I was getting the results immediately. It is so stressful to pass the rounds, because usually you would practice more the first round the last week before the competition start, but if you pass, after one day you have to play 45 minutes program that you eventually didn’t really touch for a few days… Of course I was so surprised to pass each time that I started to dream to get to the finals, but unfortunately that didn’t happen, anyway I was already quite happy. And I got a prize to buy Bärenreiter scores that I am using now!

Vive le Mozarteum

mar 17

JustineEtudiante études, Mozarteum, pianiste, piano, Salzbourg No Comments

J’ai participé à une vidéo de promotion de notre département il y a deux ans et elle était restée caché sur le site du Mozarteum.
Nous avons réussi à la récupérer et à la mettre sur YouTube – avec l’autorisation du Pr Kaufmann bien entendu !
Je suis contente de vous la montrer car vous allez constater que nous travaillons dans de très bonnes conditions depuis que le nouveau Mozarteum est ouvert : les bâtiments sont modernes et beaux, les équipements de très bonne qualité et le cadre, avec vue sur les Jardins Mirabelle, en plein centre ville, est merveilleux !