Hector Berlioz said he wrote the Hungarian March from the Damnation of Faust in one night. It took the musicians of the National Orchestra of the Capitol of Toulouse much longer to record separately, assemble the videos and be able to broadcast the final version. A technical feat, a human and musical adventure in which features of humor and communicative joy slip.
The musicians in Petite Vadrouille
A week before the start of confinement, the Toulouse musicians found themselves without a lectern. Very quickly, the idea of not sharing anything between them and with their audience became unbearable. “We exchanged within the artistic committee. We had to keep the orchestra alive, says Jean-Baptiste Jourdin, violinist. We first polled the colleagues and we got a lot of positive feedback. ”
About fifty musicians out of the 125 that make up the group are ready to go. Everyone will film and register with a simple smartphone. Some think back to Louis de Funès, conductor of the same Hungarian March. For them, no Grande Vadrouille, but authenticity: “All you hear in the video is the sound that everyone has recorded. This is not the case for other recordings that I have heard, even if they are very beautiful. Here we have all done.”
The evidence of the Hungarian March.
It’s a work that we play a lot. This music is used for reminders during our concerts.
From the start, Jean-Baptiste Jourdin proposed the Hungarian March from the Damnation of Faust by Hector Berlioz. “It’s exactly the same orchestrations as usual. But we took the final part, from the crescendo”. The orchestra has often played it – especially a few years ago in Vienna where it was premiered – but it has not recorded much.
Finally it is the version of the Paris orchestra conducted by Tugan Sokhiev which will serve as support for each musician. For David Minetti, clarinetist, this choice seems obvious: “La Damnation de Faust is French music and the Capitole orchestra is its ambassador all over the world. We have played it a lot with Tugan. It is a work that does not highlight a soloist but the ensemble of the orchestra. It was very important to us. “
And that’s good, there are about sixty parts in this piece for fifty musicians who participate in this experience. Just the trumpeters sometimes did 2 or 3 parts. Each musician put his headphones on his ears, his instrument in his hands. Start clap to synchronize, but no conductor to guide.
A work to discover below.
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The big absent: Tugan Sokhiev
Jean-Baptiste Jourdin insisted: “We wanted our chef Tugan Sokhiev to be there at all costs. We did everything to convince him. We even sent him extracts. He was probably afraid of the image and the result it could give.” It must be said that the conductor is confined to Moscow where he was to rehearse with the Bolshoi orchestra for the Franco-Russian festival which was to take place in Toulouse. He supported the process but did not participate in it. In any case not directly because it is the Hungarian March under his direction which served as a referent for the musicians, but recorded with the Paris orchestra.
Its distant conductor, the confinement does not stop the humor on the WhatsApp group of Capitoline musicians. With this conclusion:
If the chef does not come, we put De Funès!
Louis de Funès, the humorous joker
In the Grande Vadrouille, De Funès is directing the same piece. Wink: we hear it at the end of the video published by the orchestra. “It wasn’t bad, it was very bad! So let’s resume” concludes the video.
“We thought that starting with a French work, we might as well go all the way and be a bit frank”. Jean-Baptiste Jourdin had given instructions for recording sound, but none for the image.
This is how we find the trombonist on the throne, the oboe player with a necklace of toilet paper rolls, still paper that slides on the strings, the big dog who poses in front of the bass drum … Some are in ceremonial dress, others dress up or are on the home confinement register. Children dance and participate in the party.
Claire Pélissier who plays the violin and who acted as stage manager for this experience recognizes her orchestra well there: “We have such a desire to be together, in diversity, in humor. It’s really particular in Toulouse. The orchestra has been renewed a lot, there are a lot of young people. It’s been 27 years since I “I’m there. I’m proud of this orchestra, proud of such enthusiasm.”
“I had never done editing and mixing”
Enough to forget the complexity of the task, the hours and hours spent in ensuring that the result is good. “When we get along on our own while we are usually with all the musicians, we tell ourselves that it’s really not that great. We did several takes, but assembling several stringed instruments is very complicated. is not the same result as when the strings are together at the recording. We had to reassure the musicians. We were afraid of what it was going to give. ” Like her colleagues, Claire Pélissier was reassured.
It was Jean-Baptiste Jourdin and two other musicians who worked miracles: “We separated the sound and the image. There was no dubbing. All the recorded sounds were edited with software, the normalized sound, calibrated, synchronized. Then we re-balanced the orchestra because each instrument does not have the same sound level. A little reverb and all that was left was to resynchronize the image with the sound. “
The result is more than convincing. He gave joy to the confined orchestra and to all those who shared this moment. For the moment, no other project in sight. The artists continue to train at home, away from the cameras, in order to be ready for D-Day. “It will be such a pleasure to meet all of us, proclaims David Minetti. In the meantime, I’m working on my basics, my scales, my arpeggios … The day we resume, I will be even more fit than usual! “
The National Orchestra of Toulouse, like an hymn to the joy of being together.
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