Hersant: Caprices
Georg Philipp Telemann: Various
Georg Philipp Telemann: Turkish Tune
Duo Zeitlos
After a voluptuously romantic concert in Dieulefit on Saturday night (We Drômois sure know how to party, don’t we?), late on Sunday afternoon my mom and I kept our momentum going and headed to the hilltop village of Le Poët-Laval, another beloved member of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (The Most Beautiful Villages of France) Association that has been one of our favorite local spots since we first set foot in it, about a quarter of century ago.
And what’s not to love? Besides being located an easy 10-minute drive–or one-hour walk—from Dieulefit, Le Poët-Laval is the sort of apparently dormant medieval village that is home to many unexpected treasures such as an insightful museum dedicated to the protestant movement in the Dauphiné region, an imposing castle, cool art galleries, fascinating artists’ workshops, charming restaurants, and the popular Centre d’Art Yvon Morin, whose permanent closure last winter thankfully has turned out not to be so permanent after all.
And it was in fact the art center’s small outdoor amphitheater with a sweeping view that was our destination on Sunday as it was going to host a program-less concert by the free-spirited ladies of Duo Zeitlos (or “Timeless Duo”, for the non-German speakers), namely cellist Anne-Charlotte Dupas and violist Chloé Parisot. We had had the chance to sample their talent in one of Dieulefit's cafes a couple of years ago for Bastille Day and we were looking forward to another informal concert in a slightly more formal venue, especially once the rain stopped and the sky cleared up, about one hour before the concert’s starting time.
The two musicians are well-known and well-liked for being not only extremely talented, but also endlessly adventurous. And they proved both points on Sunday afternoon when they started their performance with their own engaging take on Hildegard de Bingen’s “Ave Maria” and easily conquered the somewhat sparse but highly dedicated audience that had assembled with bated breath.
The main part of the concert would be another out-of-the-box exercise consisting of interspersing French contemporary composer Philippe Hersant’s Caprices, which Dupas aptly described as “musical haikus”, and various movements by German Baroque and Early Classical composer Georg Philipp Telemann. And lo and behold, this unexpected Franco-German alliance mixing styles and periods worked seamlessly, the wide variety of moods evoked by Hersant and the hand-picked contributions by Telemann creating exciting contrasts within a surprisingly meaningful whole.
The short concert was concluded with more Telemann, including a fun Turkish Tune and another light-hearted treat conjuring up a tambourine. All in all, this cool musical break al fresco was a wonderful way to wrap up our afternoon and start our evening, and we would not have had it any other way.
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