Inspired by Bach : Philippe Herreweghe
"Intet nytt under solen", Bach er og har vært inspirasjonskilde for svært mange skapende mennesker - uavhengig av kunstform og sjanger. Albert Schweitzer mente alt fører til Bach, i forståelsen at Bach var et vendepunkt som alt pekte frem mot før, og alt i ettertid pekte tilbake til.
It's not exciting when you are a musician and you can guess what will be the next step in a specific composition. In very good composers, like Bach, you are surprised by what comes next. And that is the difference between very good music and not very good music. But what is more surprising is that even if you listen ten times to the Art of Fugue by Bach, you are surprised every time. That's very mysterious I find.
- Philippe Herreweghe fra et intervju med Young-Jin Hur
"While still at medical school he founded the Collegium Vocale of Ghent and attracted the attention of Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Gustav Leonhardt"
Philippe Herreweghe was born in Ghent and studied the piano at the Conservatory there before going on to study medicine and psychiatry. While still at medical school he founded the Collegium Vocale of Ghent and attracted the attention of Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Gustav Leonhardt who subsequently invited him to collaborate in their recordings of the complete Cantatas of Bach.
In an endeavour to do adequate justice to a repertory ranging from the Renaissance (Ensemble Vocal Européen) to modern and contemporary music, Philippe Herreweghe felt the need to create several ensembles of variable composition with whom he has made nearly sixty recordings for harmonia mundi. In 2000 the Collegium Vocale celebrated 30 years of a career devoted entirely to Bach and his forerunners; together with the Chapelle Royale, whose specialties are French Baroque music and classical and romantic vocal works, this ensemble has frequently collaborated with the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées.
Philippe Herreweghe has appeared as guest conductor of ensembles like the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Flanders Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. He was the Artistic Director of the Saintes Festival from 1982 to 2002. He was named Musical Personality of the Year in 1990, European Musician of the Year in 1991, Cultural Ambassador of Flanders with his Collegium Vocale in 1993. Philippe Herreweghe was awarded the order of Officier des Arts et Lettres in 1994, and named Doctor Honoris Causa of Louvain University in 1997. In 2003 he was appointed Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, and in October of that same year he was knighted by the King of the Belgians.
O Jesu Christ, mein's Lebens Licht", BWV 118
YH: Thank you. In the field of aesthetics, some people say that truly great things can be fearful. Do you think beautiful or wonderful music can be fearful?
PH: Well. That's another difficult question. When the writer Stendhal visited Florence, he lost conscious by fear. He was so overcome with emotions he fainted. And they had to bring him to a hospital (calm laugh) (Note: Stendhal syndrome). In a sense, when you look into the night and go 'wow', and when you look to the endless stars, you are conscious that you are in a kind of infinite world with infinite dimensions. Once again, when in the night you look to the sky and are surrounded by darkness, you feel that the stars are so far away and that you even don't exist anymore. You can have that same kind of sensation when listening to something very strong in music. Or when you look at self-portraits of Rembrandt, you look into dimensions you didn't even know that could exist. And that snap can be fearful.
But music is about consolation. And that is very strange, that there is fear but also consolation. This kind of strangeness does not exist in lesser profound composers like Telemann. It's not exciting when you are a musician and you can guess what will be the next step in a specific composition. In very good composers, like Bach, you are surprised by what comes next. And that is the difference between very good music and not very good music. But what is more surprising is that even if you listen ten times to the Art of Fugue by Bach, you are surprised every time. That's very mysterious I find.
When a composer of genius experiences sadness in life, such as thoughts of one's own mortality or deaths of close ones, this becomes very sad music. But during the performance of these works, the listeners feel consoled. It's a good way of being comforted. The sadness goes away by listening to sad music (calm laugh) for a while and that's a mystery too. This is a kind of empathy that you feel. In this world where many things are cruel, one thing that can console us is empathy, the feeling that as human beings, you are in the same situation as others and that you are not alone. Very good composers give you that feeling ten times as strong as a normal person can do because their capacity of empathy is a hundred times stronger. And they can represent this in their compositions. And that's what I feel when I listen to very good music in general and very good requiems.