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Bernard Cavanna |
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Bernard CAVANNA, was born in 1951 in Nogent sur Marne. At the age of nine, he began studying the piano and soon became interested in composition which, for the most part, he studied by his own, occasionally meeting and exchanging views with composers H. Dutilleux, A. Stroë, P. Méfano and G. Aperghis, who all strongly encouraged him. He also studied musicology with F. Bayer at Paris VIII-University. In 1984, he received the annual scholarship for creation and the following year was awardrd the Prix de Rome.
Attracted by film and stage, Bernard Cavanna was led to working for the theatre with J. Gillibert, A. Vitez, S. Seide, D. Martin, for dance with C. Marcadé and A. Preljocaj, and for the cinema with P. H. Salfaty and A. Fleisher with whom he has collaborated regularly over the past ten years.
Among his various vocal and instrumental pieces: Io for voice and ten instruments, La Confession impudique, an opera based on Tanizaki's novel (premiered in 1992 in Strasbourg and Nanterre/Amandiers, adapted for the stage and produced by D. Martin), Messe un jour ordinaire, based on a collection of different texts from various origins (the ordinary of the mass in latin, an interview of a young female junkie, a quote from K. Barbie, a poem by N. Méfano).
Fauve for solo violin, followed by the Trio avec accordéon, was started in 1994, as a first step towards the Concerto pour violon et orchestre commissioned by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France and violinist N. Schindler. This work was premiered at the 1999 Présences Festival.
In 2000: opera La Confession impudique performed by the ensemble Le Banquet conducted by Oliviers Dejours in a new version. World premiere of the opera for youth Raphaël, reviens, libretto by Michel Beretti.
Commissions by: the French State, the Avignon Festival, Radio-France, Compagnie Angelin / A. Preljocaj dance company.
Prix SACEM 1998 for the best contemporary music (Messe un jour ordinaire).
Victoire de la musique contemporaine (2000) for Concerto pour violon (7e Victoires de la musique)
Grand Prix Musique SACD 2007
Since 1987, B. Cavanna is director of the Gennevilliers National Music School.
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One must freely admit that Cavanna's music displays an organic unity with its subject-matter that is as effective as its timbres are attractive. Main elements of this incredibly refined trend (maybe a beneficial influence from Dutilleux ?), the bandoneon (vector of melancholy or catalyst of instrumental 'hip-swaying') and tape (remarkably well-focussed on the text/music relationship without any unnecessary electro-acoustical effects) soberly underline the expressive role devoted to the human voice, with a special mention to Jean Segani's outstanding Mari. La Confession impudique adds something new to contemporary lyric drama.
Pierre Gervasoni - Diapason, september 1992
In Messe un jour ordinaire, the meek utterances of Laurence, a young junkie barely out of jail, rubbing off on the ordinary of the mass, make the ritual words lose some of their assurance and soon become unsteady, make them question themselves in doubt or fall into some kind of dramatic hysteria or mass fanaticism. But the expressive power of the piece lies in its music: in the setting of the words to music, especially in Laurence's part, (Isa Lagarde), in its dramatic contrast to the two soloists' respectively baroque and belcanto singing (Peggy Bouveret and Terence Robertson), in the original choral writing and in the subtle conception of the instrumental ensemble. Never do the major driving principles of the score become confused, in spite of the complexity of the instrumental body; never does the choir, moving from ritual austerity to frenzy, slip into abstraction or shapelessness. A grim, grave and expressionist work, Cavanna's opera does but reflect our everyday environment.
Jacques Bonnaure - La lettre du Musicien, september 1996
[...] Cavanna is a gifted and eloquent musician, whose powerful writing works and unfolds itself in a climate of fierce expressivity.
Jean Emmanuel Fousnaquer - Le Monde
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Goutte d'or
Blues -
D. Kientzy, ADDA
Jodl pour
orgue -
P. Bousseau, ADDA
Messe un jour ordinaire, Fauve, Trio avec accordéon - Ensemble Ars Nova, Trio Aller-retour, N. Schindler, MFA Radio France. (MFA 216025)
Film Portrait sur le périphérique réalisation A. Fleischer.
Concerto pour
violon et orchestre / Trois chants cruels
Noëmi Schindler, violin - Rayanne Dupuis, voix - Hubert Soudant,
direction
Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire - nocturne
diffusion (S201 - NT 094)
Raphaël,
reviens !
opéra pour jeune public de Bernard
Cavanna
d'après un livret de Michel Beretti
CD SOUPIR
S-208 - un disque MFA
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Editions
Salabert:
Canzone for
rec., ob., vc. and kbd., 1978
Jodl for kbd., org. or 2 pno, 1980-83
Goutte d'or Blues for solo sop.sax. + 12 sax. (or tape) 1985
