Tristan Longval-Gagné: Plexiglas and music

Tristan Longval-Gagné

Share November 7, 2020 3:00 am Updated at 4:02 am Share Tristan Longval-Gagné: Plexiglas and music

Steve Bergeron La Tribune Tristan Longval-Gagné is a pianist. But he is also a piano teacher and co-owner of the Pianissimo music school … which is not doing that bad at the moment: on the contrary, thanks to the arrangements and other adaptations, about 90 percent of the pupils receive their lessons. in the premises of rue Heneker.

” And it feels good! I think most of the students were very bored about it. But it is quite possible that the school will continue to give some distance learning courses. We realized that there were still some interesting possibilities with this formula. “

Contrary to what one might think, a lot of things can be done without the student and the teacher being in the same room. “Of course we have suggested to our teachers to reduce the length of the lessons. One hour of screen for a young person is still demanding. To check the technique of the student, it is also difficult. Sometimes you have to ask him to move his phone to see well. On the other hand, we can give him examples by filming himself on video. In fact, the creativity of our teachers often surprised us, as well as the progress that the students managed to achieve despite the context. “

Tristan Longval-Gagné still remains convinced that nothing can beat physical proximity. Pianissimo studios are now equipped with plexiglass (especially very useful for singing or wind instrument lessons), everything is carefully disinfected after a lesson, a studio has also been closed so that students and teachers can move around the room. building without meeting.

“Sometimes you have to teach in astronaut clothes, but it's worth it,” he joked.

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A first concert with the OSS

Tristan Longval-Gagné would probably have preferred that his first concerto with the Orchester symphonique de Sherbrooke (OSS) not take place during a pandemic period. But such an offer from chef Stéphane Laforest obviously cannot be refused. The 250 or so places allowed in the Maurice-O'Bready Hall will all be occupied for this concert dedicated to Mozart and presented on Sunday, November 8.

“As a Sherbrooke resident who has decided to make music here after having walked quite a bit, I am obviously very happy. We can say that it is a form of recognition. Also because it's an orchestra that I've known for a long time. In fact, I have collaborated as a musician with OSS before and most of the members are friends. Stéphane and I had been in discussion for some time. Calendars are not always easy to synchronize. But Stéphane and Élaine Marcil [spouse of the maestro and first violin of the OSS] invited me to one of the concerts at the Sinfonia de Lanaudière to mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Beethoven. I think that both have the concern to make play the musicians of the region. “

Tristan will perform the Salzburg prodigy's Piano Concerto No. 12, which might seem surprising, knowing the pianist's propensity for the repertoire of the 20th and 21st centuries.

“But I already did this concerto in chamber form during my studies at Julliard. My discovery of Mozart is quite recent. I was never naturally drawn to him. I was not fascinated by its simplicity or its elegance. But by dint of receiving requests and playing it, I began to study it more seriously and appreciate it at its true value. I ended up grasping his language, his accessibility, the fine line that must be followed, as a performer, between doing too much, which would distort his music, or not enough, which would give an impression of emptiness. I think with what we're going through right now, he can really do us good and put us in a good mood. “

Tristan Longval-Gagné explains that the twelfth concerto is at the beginning of a prolific period of writing Mozart for the piano. “He composed about ten of them in a very short time. The twelfth is the first of this series, and therefore, a kind of prototype of his last concertos. There is a naivety, a spontaneity that looks like improvisation. The themes are very singing. The slow movement is also inspired by a theme by Jean-Chrétien Bach, who had just died and who had greatly influenced Mozart. “