Date/Time
Date(s) - 03/Dec/2023
Genre - Clarinet and piano
The Road Home
Bach and French music for piano and wind instruments
Robert Piéchaud, piano
Stan de Nussac, bass clarinet, flute
In association with Alliance Française de Pune
In a programme of Bach: excerpts from Suites for cello, Toccata in D major, Partita in A minor – Allemande and Piano concerto in D minor (1st movement); Debussy: Syrinx; Satie: Gymnopédie and Gnossienne, A. Roussel: Krishna, Pan and Tityre; Debussy: Reflets dans l’eau, Nussac: Suite (Prélude and Indienne); Ravel: Tombeau de Couperin (Prélude and fugue)
Robert Piéchaud is a composer and pianist whose wide-spanning interests and inspirations have given rise to many unique chamber works in recent years. Among them are the Wittgenstein-Lieder, a monodrama commissioned in 2016 by the historic Festival d’Automne in Paris, the string septet Métamorphoses (a 2019 commission by Radio France, with multiple broadcasts), and, most recently, Concerto urbain, a major work for chamber orchestra based on a series of Robert’s own photographic images of urban decay. A lover of the silent movie era, Robert also regularly improvises piano music during films shown at the Auditorium du Louvre and the Cinémathèque française. In addition to his work as a composer and recitalist, Robert is a seasoned arranger and transcriber of chamber works. Robert is also an author of sought-after music fonts, a designer of music notation software, and works for IRCAM as a research engineer.
Multi-instrumentalist Stan de Nussac holds high honours for excellence in jazz performance. While saxophones are his first love, he is also a flutist and clarinetist, and often plays several instruments within a single production. At ease as an improviser, Stan has played as an onstage musician in several ballets and theater pieces, including a noteworthy collaboration with the Maurice Béjart company. His work with Robert Piéchaud has ranged from chamber music recitals (Amerika! at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris as well as programmes in many other venues) and a long-standing partnership on silent film improvisation. Their duet has taken them to various cinemas in and around France, including an ongoing ciné-concert series at the Auditorium du Louvre, and, now, a multi-city tour in India. Stan is also an aikido master and a passionate teacher.
Robert Piéchaud and Stan de Nussac will tour several Indian cities, improvising music to silent films. The Road Home is a journey backwards in time featuring pieces by Satie, Debussy, Roussel, Nussac, and Ravel. But along the winding road of music from France, at a crossing there’s Bach: a composer without whom Robert and Stan wouldn’t be the musicians they are today.
