Feb 12th 2021

Interview: The kaleidoscopic musical world of Lydia Jardon

by Michael Johnson

Michael Johnson is a music critic with particular interest in piano. 

Johnson worked as a reporter and editor in New York, Moscow, Paris and London over his journalism career. He covered European technology for Business Week for five years, and served nine years as chief editor of International Management magazine and was chief editor of the French technology weekly 01 Informatique. He also spent four years as Moscow correspondent of The Associated Press. He is the author of five books.

Michael Johnson is based in Bordeaux. Besides English and French he is also fluent in Russian.

You can order Michael Johnson's most recent book, a bilingual book, French and English, with drawings by Johnson:

“Portraitures and caricatures:  Conductors, Pianist, Composers”

 here.

 

She began her piano training rather late in life – age 8. Raised in the south of France, she made her way into the Parisian piano world by sheer determination, facing down teachers who contradicted each other and some who were already recognized as great performers and teachers. In the confusion, she ended up “lost and very lonely”, often in tears after her stressful lessons, she recalls. She quotes Nietzsche as having written, “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”

In our intimate interview, Lydia Jardon casts her mind back to her experiences with Raymond Thiberge, François Joel Thiollier and the great Hungarian Georgy Cziffra, among many others.

Today, she has established herself as a champion of women composers and performers, the raison d’être of her festivals in Ouessant and Martinique. I asked her what women bring to piano performance that differs from men? “Women perhaps bring greater fluidity to the music,” she said, “a manner less constrained. In a word, more liberated, yet more engaged and thoughtful.”

She is acknowledged as a premier interpreter of some of the more challenging pieces in the piano repertoire. I am particularly taken by her recent recording of sonatas of the prolific Russian Nikolai Miaskovsky (See video clip below.)

As a respected teacher, she is working with promising young Chinese pianists in her Yaya Piano School in Paris, ranging in age from 5, through adolescence and adult years. She moved into the 13th arrondissement after one of her “exasperated neighbors” complained of her practicing, notably of Stravinsky’s Firebird suite. (See mini- documentary below.)

In this interview, Part II of our extended conversations, she recalls her “total immersion” into Chopin’s works, in parallel with her exploration of the French tradition and the great Russians. And she shares her views on young players’ flamboyance on the piano bench. (“Maybe they are right, for the world we live in,”)

Lydia Jardon
Lydia Jardon by the author Michael Johnson

Here is an edited account of Lydia Jardon’s thoughts on international piano world.

 

Michael Johnson: I believe you were a provincial girl, absorbing your first musical experiences from recordings purchased by your mother?

Lydia Jardon: Yes, I was raised in the wine region of the Bourbonnais bocage, in the middle of France. The family home was isolated but it resonated continually with all the Mozart sonatas as played by Arthur Grumiaux and Clara Haskil. My mother traveled to the nearest music store to find new records.  I still remember Clara Haskil’s Schumann.

Were your other siblings musically inclined?

My sister played the violin and I started piano at age 8, alas without much direction but I adored my piano. At 11, I was taken in hand by two Montluçon  spinsters. One of them had been the favorite student of the great harpsichordist Wanda Landowska. The other had studied with the renowned pedagogue and composer Raymond Thiberge and the famous Alfred Cortot. At this point, my life took a serious turn. My relearning was brutal and lacking in humanity but addressed the fundamentals of the instrument. I was marked for life by their teachings – pressure from back to front – a basic technique that I still pass on to my students today. They also taught me a rigorous and effective methodology for practicing. It was so hard that for seven years I was in tears at the end of each lesson. I escaped this routine by marrying at age 18 and moving to Brest to prepare my application to the Conservatoire National de Musique of Paris. It was at the Brest auditorium conservatory that I gave my first recital, playing Chopin’s 24 Préludes, among other pieces.

In your teens, you began accumulating prizes, didn’t you?

Yes, from 13 to 22 years old I won medals and prices made my way up the ladder between the Paris Ecole Normale de Musique where I studied with Germaine Mounier and Victoria Melki, and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique with Lélia Gousseau, Raymond Trouard and Jean Hubeau. But I really began to blossom as a pianist when I worked outside these institutions and was enrolled with François Joël Thiollier, who has recorded the entire piano works of Rachmaninov among 40 other CDS. And the fantastic Hungarian pianist Gyorgy Cziffra.

-------

Hungarian virtuoso Georgy Cziffra was one of Lydia Jordan's early teachers. This clip feataures his famous improvisation around a Chopin étude.

 

---------

You had an association with Georgy Cziffra as a young pianist, didn’t you?

Yes, I was a laureate of his Foundation some years ago. This was very important in my development. “Watch me and do as I do,” he said to me. With his guidance, I realized that an economy of gestures is essential for virtuosity. The stormy left-hand part in Chopin’s “Revolutionary” étude has marked me forever. Its elegant savagery captivated me and possessed me to the point that every time I play it – and numerous other pieces we worked on together -- I think of him.

How was your repertoire affected?

I was mastering numerous Mozart and Beethoven sonatas, then went into total immersion of Chopin, in parallel with French music. At the same time, my mother was connecting me with a great many teachers who contradicted each othert. I ended up lost and very lonely. Every day I struggled with these conflicting forces which constantly bedeviled my progress. That’s why I adopted the famous Nietzsche aphorism, “That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.”

Did your conservatory experiences connect you with mentors for your career?

No, none of them. However, separately, Milosz Magin, who recorded all of Chopin for Decca, filled that role. I loved him like a father. He was the first teacher who really encouraged me, admired me.  But if by “teacher” you mean one who can act as guide, who makes you think about phrasing, to liberate you sometimes from the original text to create an appropriate sonority, to add to the fantasy of the composer …

If by “teacher” you mean one who, detecting a rhythmic ostinato suggests accentuating the notes to add a new dynamic to the phrase, then yes, I do work occasionally with Jean-Marc Laisné, a viola player who has helped with my recordings on my label AR RE-SE for 20 years. He is a great musical director – with some 800 CDs to his credit ranging from Gregorian chant to contemporary.

My first three recordings in Germany were with Heinz Wildhagen, former artistic director of Deutsche Grammophon, who showed me how to gain freedom from rigor and determination.

How would you define the interpreter?

An interpreter is someone capable of grasping what the composer is trying to reveal to the world. The music must ooze poetry and philosophy which is the mirror of his or her soul. For me, inspiration is nurtured by great musicians, composers and interpreters, not necessarily pianists. Listening to Fürtwangler and the Freischütz overture, Perlman playing the Bach partitas, Karajan conducting Debussy’s “La Mer”, Michelangeli doing the Beethoven sonatas or Rachmaninov playing the Chopin “Funeral March”, the world they create gets right under my skin.

Where is your repertoire going?

First, I want to finish the final CD of my complete Miaskovsky sonatas. And I will continue to unearth works of composers lost in the silence of history. I would also like to return to the music of my Spanish origins. I also want to work with the music from my Brittany festival for women composers. I am working with the composer Florentine Mulsant. With two other pianists, we have recorded her complete piano works. And in 2023 my label will bring out her six string quartets, played by the Debussy Quartet.

With all your activities, how do you keep your piano technique up to full potential?

I practice a minimum of three hours a day when I am teaching, five to seven hours the other days. My piano is an original grand Chinese Pearl River regularly tuned by a professional. Whatever the quality of the piano, nothing is as essential than the quality of the tuning technician.

What are you seeking when you practice? Technical prowess?

If I am working on specific phrasing, I am searching for sonorities, a quasi-orchestral sound by the alchemy of pedaling. This involves a delicate easing of pressure on the pedal to create the immensity of certain phrases. What’s essential is the fluidity, the clarity, the coherence.

How do you view musical memory?

The choice of playing from memory is the artist’s decision, whose challenge is to produce the best musical message.  Sometimes I prefer to reduce all anxiety and play from the score, bringing serenity to certain complex works of such composers as Miaskovsky and Mulsant. Also, maturity brings a certain liberty.

Aren’t the festivals a distraction from your performance and recording career?

Oh no, being an artistic director is very good for one’s development. To bring to light certain composers rarely played or little-known calls for careful programming to balance these works with others already in the collective memory. The mix is as pleasing to the public as it is to the interpreter.

Where is your teaching based?

In the 13th arrondissement of Paris. Actually it was because one of my exasperated neighbors almost killed me for practicing Stravinsky’s “Firebird” that I decided to rent a basement apartment in the 13th arrondissement in Paris. Very quickly, young Asian students came to me, and I understood that their commitment to determination and hard work corresponded to my habits. As I witnessed how quickly they could progress, I decided to stay in the 13th and create my private Yaya piano school in 2014. (Yaya is a popular Chinese fictional heroine who, as a young pianist, faces the dangers of the Sino-Japanese war to participate in a piano competition.)

(See mini-documentary below.)

How is your Yaya school doing in this virus scare that afflicts us all?

I have about a hundred students a year ranging in age from 4 to the teens. Some will go on to music careers, others will be accomplished amateurs, and some will continue to play for their own pleasure and satisfaction.

Are you bothered by the show-business side of the modern piano world?

No. All the younger generation pianists are trying to be noticed, and so they adopt non-traditional methods. Many of the ‘bankable’ players have understood that the general public listens partly with their eyes – leading to the phenomenon of stage behavior, or eye-catching ways of dressing. Maybe they are right, for the world we live in.

How problematic are the covid19 constraints on musical life in general?

Covid19 has disrupted society, and our art in particular, both for schooling and for public performance. Teaching via video is indispensable but creates some frustrations. Virtually all public performances were canceled last year, and more of the same is threatened this year. Nevertheless I am working closely with my team and financial supporters to go ahead with my two festivals in August and October.

How did these festivals get started?

The first, on the island of Ouessant, known as “The Island of Women” got me started, and turned it into an annual festival of music composed by women and played mainly by women. Twelve years later I took the concept to the Caribbean – first Guadeloupe, then Martinique – where women are known as “potomitan”, or “pillar of the family”. I am delighted to say I now have rivals in France.

What do women bring to music that men sometimes don’t?

Women perhaps bring greater fluidity to the music, a manner less constrained. In a word, more liberated, yet more engaged and thoughtful.

How do you keep coming up with less-known composers? What is your real objective?

I want to contribute a sense of joy by discovering atypical works that might surprise an educated public. I have great experience and am inclined to share them with anyone who can appreciate them, or as André Gide wrote, anyone “who has an open mind”.

 

---------

Lydia Jardon interview, Part I:

Interview with Lydia Jardon: ‘Any artist who stops creating simply dies’

 

------------

Lydia Jardon discussing and playing excerpts from sonatas 1, 5 and 9 of Nikolai Miaskovsky

 

-----------


This mini-documentary includes footage shot recently Lydia's Yaya school for Chinese children.
 


 

 

 

 

 

 


This article is brought to you by the author who owns the copyright to the text.

Should you want to support the author’s creative work you can use the PayPal “Donate” button below.

Your donation is a transaction between you and the author. The proceeds go directly to the author’s PayPal account in full less PayPal’s commission.

Facts & Arts neither receives information about you, nor of your donation, nor does Facts & Arts receive a commission.

Facts & Arts does not pay the author, nor takes paid by the author, for the posting of the author's material on Facts & Arts. Facts & Arts finances its operations by selling advertising space.

 

 

Browse articles by author

More Music Reviews

Oct 7th 2024
EXTRACT: "Oppens stands apart from today’s keyboard virtuosos by her four decades of discovering and commissioning new works. These contributions to the repertory ensure her a permanent place in pantheon of modern music. But she is also recognized as a powerful performer who tackles the thorniest of new pieces. As she said in our interview, she remembers hearing the difficult works of Julian Hemphill for the first time and thinking 'This is for me!'  Composers who have been commissioned by her or who have written works for her include such leading lights as Frederic Rzewski, William Bolcom, Elliott Carter, John Corigliano, John Harbison, Julius Hemphill, Peter Lieberson, Conlon Nancarrow, Tobias Picker, Christian Wolff  and Charles Wuorinen.”
Jul 5th 2024
EXTRACTS: "The Conservative Party, which was finally pronounced dead from multiple unnatural causes on July 5 2024, was born in 1832." ---- " Strange as it might now appear, the party was once very popular and respected, even by its opponents. Educated at Eton and Oxford, it established a reputation for governing competence which allowed it to bounce back from serious setbacks, notably the landslide Labour victory of 1945." ---- "The end of the cold war debunked the notion that the Conservatives had restored Britain’s former global status. Unwilling to acknowledge their country’s subservience to the United States, the party’s dominant nationalist faction could now only rage against reality by identifying the European Union, and post-war immigration, as the twin culprits for the depletion of British political influence and cultural uniformity." ---- "The Conservative party has presented a sorry spectacle to sympathetic observers in its undignified post-Brexit dying days. It became prone to hallucinations, first believing that Boris Johnson could be a successful prime minister then replacing him with Liz Truss."
Jun 17th 2024
EXTRACT: "Question: Isn’t piano study a big problem in the USA, with all the electronic games and distractions from music lessons? ---- Answer: The problem is also in Europe. We have lost a lot of quality, in terms of knowledge behind the music. The schools do not make the transmission from the composers to us. We owe that to the composers. And it’s very sad because now we focus on goals and competition, and competition does not go well with art.
Jun 9th 2024
EXTRACT: "Question: Isn’t it true, as the musicologist Kyle Gann says, that one cannot judge immediately what’s good or bad in contemporary music? We must wait 20 years. Answer: Yes, look at Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring”. It caused a scandal. It was booed and rejected by everyone. Now it’s standard in the concert hall. In jazz, I think it’s not 20 years, but more like 50 years before we know what has worked or not. One has to step back and reflect on whether we have brought something new."
Mar 9th 2024
EXTRACT: "In a way, every experience you have, every book you read, every movie you watch, every place you visit, every encounter you have, every moment you spend with friends or family, they leave a mark on you and direct you indirectly and therefore leave their mark on your playing.", says Boris Giltburg in Michael Johnson's and Frances Wilson's new book 'Lifting the Lid: Interviews with Concert Pianists', now available on Amazon.
Feb 27th 2024
EXTRACT: "Question: Some pianophiles say the CD could be useful for meditation, therapy or even healing. ---- Answer: Indeed, that is the kind of feedback I am getting. But this music doesn’t belong to me any more, therefore I cannot label it with any purpose. It has taken on a life of its own. I can’t say how it affects the life of other people. Will it be therapeutic or will it have another effect? Time will tell."
Dec 4th 2023
EXTRACT: "Seated in a quiet corner of a Bordeaux hotel last week, we had an interview – more a casual chat – about her life, her Soviet Russian origins, her career, her future."
Nov 27th 2023
EXTRACT: "Schiff creates an atmosphere that we 'seniors' remember from the old days. No clowning, no bouncing on the bench, no outlandish clothing. He dresses in a black smock, black trousers, black shoes, topped off with a mane of pure white hair. His manners, his grateful bowing, are très Old Europe. ---- Schiff keeps control of his two hours onstage. He believes that dignity goes with the great music on the program and he scarcely moves as he plays."
Nov 19th 2023
EXTRACT: "  Boston-based guitarist, band leader and composer Phil Sargent is not about churning out endless CDs. In fact his ten-year recording gap, just ended, had his fans wondering where he was. But in New York and Boston, he tells me, he has never stopped working with other groups while composing and actively teaching young and mature talent. Although not always visible, he seems to be a confirmed workaholic, even practicing five hours a day. Yes, virtuosos also need to practice. ---- And now he is back. His new CD, 'Sons'....."
Nov 19th 2023
EXTRACT: "There is a renewed fascination with the memory-stimulating and healing powers of music. This resurgence can primarily be attributed to recent breakthroughs in neuroscientific research, which have substantiated music’s therapeutic properties such as emotional regulation and brain re-engagement. This has led to a growing integration of music therapy with conventional mental health treatments."
Sep 28th 2023
EXTRACT: "British psychotherapist, Michael Lawson, who has worked with several prodigies and former prodigies, calculates there may be as many as 200,000 piano prodigies active in the world today. “In a sense, they are not that rare,” he says in our interview below. Lawson is author of International Acclaim: The Steinfeld Legacy a new novel of the great pianists of the 19th and early 20th centuries in which the prodigy phenomenon is described in some detail."
Sep 17th 2023
EXTRACT: "Like so many stories about relationships told over an extended time, Past Lives uncovers the twists and turns, the “what ifs” and the manifold choices that lead to two people wondering whether they were meant to be together."
Sep 12th 2023
EXTRACT: " OrpheusPDX, a new company founded by Christopher Mattaliano in Portland, Oregon, concluded its second season with a brilliant and thought-provoking production of Nico Muhly’s “Dark Sisters,” at Lincoln Hall (August 24), exploring and exposing relationships in a polygamous sect and the courage of one sister-wife to leave it. With Stephen Karam’s libretto inspired by memoirs of women who have left the FLDS (Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints) and the 2008 raid of the YFZ Ranch by the FBI, “Dark Sisters” was delivered with spot-on directing by Kristine McIntyre and riveting performances by an exceptional cast."
Aug 30th 2023
EXTRACT: "Wagner’s operas are well known to be budget busters, and lack of funds is probably one of the main reasons that Seattle Opera has not mounted the Ring Cycle in since 2013. After Speight Jenkins retired from his post as General Director in 2014, the company delivered The Flying Dutchman (2016) and Tristan und Isolde (2022), the latter under its current General Director, Christina Scheppelmann. Now starting its 60th season, Seattle Opera celebrated with Das Rheingold, but that can be seen as a bittersweet moment since Scheppelmann is moving on to take over La Monnaie/De Munt in Brussels at the end of the 2023-2024 season."
Jul 6th 2023
EXTRACT: " More than a hundred recordings have been made of his suite of 14 light pieces he called “The Carnival of the Animals”, and a range of his other works remain in the standard repertoire."
Jun 18th 2023
EXTRACT: "Conservatories and university music departments are filling up with fee-paying Asians as their parents pressure them to succeed in the West. Piano competitions around the world, now numbering about 800, are open to this new wave of Asian players. They are winning top prizes and they are building careers in Europe and the U.S.  Too often, according to some teachers, young Americans prefer computer games, the latest movies, rock bands, sports, or other less-demanding activities. The Asians are happy to fill the vacuum."
May 30th 2023
EXTRACT: "Three of Europe’s longtime leaders in contemporary jazz, now in their senior years, have just launched a CD of twelve  pieces that shows what a lifetime of sharing ideas in music can really produce." “New Stories” (Frémeaux et Associés) by the French trio of pianist and composer Hervé Sellin, bassist Jean-Paul Celea and drummer Daniel Humair is remarkable for improvisations so synchronized that the listener can feel the music come together from three angles in real time. The tracks were mostly composed or improvised by Sellin."
Mar 28th 2023
EXTRACT: "The young ex-dancer from Italy first burst upon the piano scene three years ago with 20 of her hand-picked Scarlatti sonatas. Now comes her second CD (Academy Classical Music) even more original and powerful, performing six of Baldassare Galuppi’s 18th century sonatas. Margherita Torretta‘s early training as a dancer gives her playing a swaying, graceful air while she maintains Alberti bass for control of the rhythm, momentum and especially continuity. Her ornamentation is boosted with some of her own improvisations, producing a fresher feel. It’s a magic combination."
Mar 24th 2023
EXTRACT: "Driven by a sense of mission and determination over several years, French pianist Lydia Jardon has completed a rare cycle of nine piano sonatas by Nikolai Miaskovsky. Her new CD  of numbers 6, 7 and 8 completes the task and offers a particularly rich sample of Russian experience in the worst of times. Miaskovsky may be only vaguely remembered today but he was a leader in the Soviet music world until the end of World War II. He left a wide range of engaging sonatas that have been brought back to life by Mme. Jardon on her own label AR Ré-Sé (AR 2022-1)."