Originally published in The Clarinet 50/2 (March 2023).
Printed copies of The Clarinet are available for ICA members.
News from France
by Jean-Marie Paul
The French version of this article can be found here.
Orchestral Chairs
Many changes have happened since 2019, particularly for bass clarinets. So I made a summary arranged by orchestra. Philippe Cuper retired in December from his first solo clarinet position at Opera de Paris. The competition was in January 2023. Han Kim (Korea) won the chair. Philippe kept his job of professor at the Versailles Conservatory and joined the faculty at Schola Cantorum, one of the rare private music schools in Paris.
PARIS
Orchestre de Paris: Julien Desgranges, bass cl
Orchestre National: Carlos Ferreira (principal with Patrick Messina)
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France: Victor Bourhis, Lilian Harismendy, bass clarinets
OUTSIDE PARIS
Avignon: Didier Breuque retired as bass cl. No replacement for the moment.
Besançon: Anaîde Apélian (soloist, daughter of Paul, soloist at Montpellier 1979-2016), Luc Laidet (co-principal)
Cannes: Emilio Alonso Espasandin, cl
Lille: Michele Carrara, soloist (with Christian Gossart), Jorge Gaona Ros, bass cl
Limoges: Mio Yamashita, soloist; Valentina Pennisi, bass cl and cl (N.B. The former soloist, Filipo Ricardo Biuso joined the Luxembourg Philharmonic)
Lyon, Orchestre National: Lise Guillot, bass cl
Lyon, Opera: The competition in Jan. 2023 to replace Yoshua Fortunato was won by Ángel Martín Mora (Spain)
Marseille (Philharmonic): Augustin Carles, bass cl
Montpellier: Benjamin Fontaine, bass cl
Mulhouse: Juncal Salada Codina
Nice: Stasys Makstutis, Simone Marco Cremona, cls
Pau-Pays de Béarn: Tanguy Gallavardin
Pays de Loire (Nantes-Angers): Enzo Ferrarato, bass cl
Rouen Opera: Lucas Dietsch, cl
Saint-Etienne: Cécilia Lemaître-Sgard, soloist
Strasbourg: Théo Fuhrer, bass cl
Toulouse: Victor Guémy, bass cl
Professional Bands
Sept. 2022: Amaury Viduvier succeeds Sylvie Hue as a soloist of the Garde Republicaine orchestras (band and string orchestra). He had been a member since 2012. Like his father, Christian (1948-2018), he got a first prize of clarinet at the Paris Conservatory. Sylvie Hue (b. 1963) joined the Garde Republicaine in 1985, becoming the first female clarinetist of the orchestra, then was the soloist since 1988. If you want to have a complete list of actual clarinetists (19 in the band and four in the symphony orchestra), see: https://orchestrechoeur.garderepublicaine.fr/en/the-musicians.
Amaury Viduvier
André Faure, former bass clarinet of the Garde in the 1970s-80s, died in November. He also collaborated with Orchestre Pasdeloup.
The Musique de l’Air will play in an exceptional concert with Sharon Kam as a soloist on March 16, 2023, in Paris, Cathédrale Saint-Louis (Invalides)—works of Bernstein, Gould, Milhaud, and Canat de Chizy.
Musique des Gardiens de la paix (Paris Police) had a recent competition in Nov. 2022: Justine Debeer, soloist; Anne-Sophie Lobbé and Mélanie Haas, cls; Elodie Roudet and Yann Pannecoucke, E-flat and cl.
Premieres
There are so many premieres in France that in the last issue I notably forgot to mention some outstanding pieces.
Edith Canat de Chizy’s “Sunrise” for clarinet and orchestra was premiered on March 10, 2022, by Annelien Van Wauwe, clarinet, and the Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Lorraine (one of the commissioners with the Orchestre de Cannes). Rental: Editions Lemoine. Duration 10 minutes. This composer had already written a concertante piece, Drift, premiered in 2013 by Paul Meyer and the Orchestre de Lille.
Jérôme Comte, clarinetist of the Ensemble InterContemporain since 2005, commissioned six composers to write a new piece for clarinet alone, with the help of Buffet-Crampon, Vandoren, and crowdfunding (www.proarti.fr/collect/project/echo-jerome-comte/0). This project named “Echo” puts in regard new and older pieces. A concert on Jan. 25, 2023, premiered works of Trybucki, Benoît Sitzia, and David Hudry which mirror the sonatas of Chausson, Poulenc, and Honegger; and Philippe Hurel and Yann Robin works mirrored with Debussy, Saint-Saens, and Milhaud.
Belgian composer Michel Lysight (b. 1958) has composed much for clarinet (see www.michellysight.org). His works have been premiered by Belgian or French clarinetists, notably Jean-Marc Fessard. His last work, Tiles (2022), three short pieces for clarinet alone, was commissioned by the Concours de Picardie, the main French competition for clarinet students. It is dedicated to Thierry Wartelle, professor in Amiens and founder of the competition. Billaudot publishers, J.M. Fessard collection. Lysight’s Rhapsody for clarinet and strings was premiered by Ronald Van Spaendonck, cl. and the Orchestre de chambre de Wallonie on Oct. 16, 2022, in Belgium.
Books of La Couture Boussey Museum
The main French museum of wind instruments is in a village that hosted Leblanc, Marigaux, and many other clarinet makers. It now has a collection of interesting books, issued as catalogs of exhibitions (French/English texts) about Leon Leblanc, Saint-Saëns, and winds. The newest one is Regards sur la facture instrumentale (A Look at Musical Instrument Making) and the exhibition lasts until March 26, 2023. It is 90 minutes by car from Paris. It has 275 pages richly illustrated with pictures of instruments and makers (http://lemiv.fr/fr/catalogues).
