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Michel Debost to Give Faculty Flute Recital Saturday
Michel Debost
PHOTOGRAPH BY HERBERT ASCHERMAN, JR.
DECEMBER 3, 1998--"I do a recital like this every year, just so people know that despite my very large age, I can still play the flute a little," says Michel Debost, professor of flute, who will offer a recital of all French music Saturday, December 5, at 6:30 P.M. in Kulas Hall.
Debost has employed the assistance of several French colleagues for the recital. Mezzo soprano Marie Lenormand, a senior from Fontenay sur Vegre, France; flutist Kathleen Chastain, teacher of flute and chamber music; and pianist Aymeric Dupré la Tour, a first-year artist-diploma student from Paris, will accompany Debost in works by Camille Saint Saens, Charles Koechlin, Henri Dutilleux, Maurice Ravel, and Olivier Messiaen.
"I like the program very much," says Debost. "It is unusual in that it combines a variety of collaborative efforts. The primary collaborative piece on the program is Ravel's "Scheherazade" for mezzo-soprano, piano, and flute. I picked this piece because its passage for flute is simply beautiful. The theme of the piece comes from the story of Scheherazade, the Arabian harem girl who keeps herself alive by telling her Sultan stories for 1001 nights. Tristan Klingsor wrote this poetry specifically for Ravel to compose music based on the Scheherazade theme. I met Klingsor before he died, so I have a personal connection with this piece."
Debost says the connection to eastern themes is very strong in French music. "Especially in the early 20th century, French music was influenced by the Orient in sound and style." Marie Lenormand, who recently sang the role of Stephano in the Oberlin Opera Theatre production of Roméo et Juliette, will sing the Scheherazade songs. "Marie is terrific," says Debost. "She has just the right kind of voice for these songs, and she sings them beautifully."
Kathleen Chastain, who happens to be married to Debost, joins him for Koechlin's Sonata for two flutes. "Koechlin was a nonreligious mystic, always writing music to honor and worship nature. This sonata's sound is a reflection of his mystical ideas and his connection to nature," says Debost.
"Messiaen, also a mystic but with religious leanings, wrote the final piece of the recital, 'Le Merle Noir' (the black blackbird), to show his belief that God is incarnated in birds," says Debost. "Messiaen uses various techniques like bird songs and the rumblings of thunder in the piano, and includes some choral-sounding sections (he had an affinity for choral music) to celebrate the glory of God. This is a stunning little piece--it's surprising for most people, but they always love it."
Debost will play Saint-Saens's "Romance" for flute and piano with Dupré la Tour. "The "Romance" was written just before the 20th century and is quite melodic--just like a good romance should be," says Debost.
Debost says that his choice of all French collaborators on this project was fortuitous. "I met Aymeric and heard his playing and had the idea for a concert of collaborative pieces, and Marie and my wife Kathleen were just the right people for the music I had in mind. French music is very sentimental. I think that since we are all French, we have an inborn appreciation of that sentimental sound, but we are performing together mostly because we have such fun doing it."
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