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Franck Bedrossian: Don Quixote-Concerto. Memories of a knight errant

for a pianist, his assistant and orchestra

(2020/2021)

Dedicated to Françoise and Jean-Philippe Billarant & Christoph Grund

This piece is composed of two movements/chapters, and freely structured after the book of Miguel de Cervantes. Some episodes in particular (the fight with the windmills, the Duke and Duchess’s pranks, Montesinos’s cave, etc.) provided the opportunity of exploring the complexity of their narrative features within the musical discourse. Furthermore, that literary model allowed me to propose an ironic interpretation of the pianist’s heroic behaviors, and to distort it, somehow mocking the traditional relations of power existing between a donquichottesque soloist and the orchestral community. From there, an impossible conversation will emerge, now including the presence of Sancho Panza, an awkwardly virtuosic assistant whose evolution will arguably transform the whole story.

Franck Bedrossian

Franck Bedrossian
© Joan Gomez Alemany

After studying harmony, counterpoint, orchestration and music analysis, Franck Bedrossian (*1971 in Paris) studied composition with Allain Gaussin and entered the Conservatoire de Paris (CNSMDP) in the class of Gérard Grisey and Marco Stroppa. In 2001–2002, he attended the Cursus in composition and computer music at IRCAM and received education from Philippe Leroux, Brian Ferneyhough, Tristan Murail and Philippe Manoury. Meanwhile, he completed his training with Helmut Lachenmann at Centre Acanthes in 1999 and International Ensemble Modern Academy in 2004.

His music, beyond its immediate physical impact, invokes a forceful yet refined dramatic intensity. The invention of sonic matter and the expressive density in his writing sculpts a musical form rich with acoustic ambiguity and auditory illusions. « Transmission » for bassoon and electronics, composed in 2002 as part of the IRCAM program for Composition and computer music, laid the groundwork for an aesthetic later known as « Saturation ». This initial interest for articulation of excess was quickly enriched and developed throughout the prism of harmonic research [It (2005), Charleston (2006), Swing (2009)], vocal writing [Lamento (2007), Epigram (2009–2018)] and literary models [ Le lieu et la formule (2019), Don Quixote Concerto (2021)].

His works have been performed worldwide by ensembles and orchestras such as L’Itinéraire, 2e2m, Ensemble Ictus, Court-circuit, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble intercontemporain, Klangforum Wien, Contrechamps, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Eco Ensemble, Diotima Quartet, Tana Quartet, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, SWR Symphonieorchester, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Many international festivals present his music, especially Manca (France), Musica Nova (Finland), Festival Internacional Cervantino (Mexique), RTÉ Living Music Festival (Ireland), Présences (France), Musica (France), Borealis Festival (Norway), Ars Musica (Belgium), Wittener Tage für Neue Musik (Germany), Nuova Consonanza, Suona Francese (Italy), Printemps des Arts de Monte-Carlo, Festival international d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence (France), Fabbrica Europa (Italy), Wien Modern (Austria), Archipel (Switzerland), Donaueschinger Musiktage, MaerzMusik, Sommer in Stuttgart, Darmstadt Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, NOW! (Germany), ReMusik (Russia), Venice Biennale (Italy) and ManiFeste (France).

In 2001, he received a grant from the Meyer Foundation and the Fondation Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet for Vocation, then in 2004, the Hervé Dugardin Prize of SACEM. In 2005, the Institut de France (Académie des beaux-arts) awarded him the Pierre Cardin Prize of Musical Composition. Franck Bedrossian also received the prize for young composers of SACEM in 2007. In 2012 at Donaueschinger Musiktage, he was awarded the SWR Symphonieorchester Prize for his piece Itself.

Franck Bedrossian was a resident at the Villa Medici from 2006 to 2008. He teaches composition at the University of California at Berkeley from 2008 to 2019, then at Kunstuniversität Graz since March 2020. His works are published by Éditions Gérard Billaudot, Verlag Neue Musik, and Maison ONA.

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Franck Bedrossian: Don Quixote-Concerto. Memories of a knight errant

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