DAY 10
THURSDAY 11TH JULY
18:00- 22:00 PROGRAMME 1
NEW CREATION
The Well-Tempered Clavier
Music: The Well-Tempered Clavier by Bach (1720-1740)
Played by: Alain Franco
In collaboration with: GXII
The Well-Tempered Clavier, composed by Bach, was published in 2 books, 1722 and 1745 respectively. For the major and minor scales of each key of the clavier (keyboard), Bach composed two preludes and two fuges. Combined, The Well-Tempered Clavier is made of 96 compositions. Instead of playing the entirety through as an encyclopedia from A-Z, Alain has re-organised the order “in order to grant it a dramaturgical coherence that would extend the succession of the singular pieces and project these into the complexity of public space reception.”
Together with the students of GXII, an improvisation structure has been built to accompany this 4 hour long “opera for piano”.
The Well-Tempered Clavier and the performance that accompanies it lasts for a duration of 4 hours.
There are 2 entry points:
Entry 1= 18:00
Entry 2= 20:15
At 20:15 the doors will open for a short break of 15 minutes. 20:15 also functions as the second entry point, but we would encourage you to join us at 18:00 to enjoy the full experience of this durational piece.
Pre-show- 17:00
Talk! Public
(not really a public talk) #3
Interview with Alain Franco, pianist performing Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier
Alain Franco studied music at the conservatories of Brussels, Liège, Antwerp and achieved a DEA master in Music and Music history of the 20th century at the IRCAM-EHESS Institute in Paris. From 1989 until 1993 Franco was the permanent conductor of ensemble Champ d’Action and collaborated with Ensemble Modern (Frankfurt), Ictus (Brussels), the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Orchestra of Lyon’s Opera House and Ah Ton ensemble (Oldenburg), among others. He collaborated closely with composers such as Karel Goeyvaerts, Hugues Dufourt, Philippe Schoeller, Serge Verstockt, Kaija Saariaho, Heiner Goebbels, Jonathan Harvey, Enno Poppe, Benoît Mernier, Kris Defoort, Denis Bosse, Walter Hus, ...
In addition to his practice as a musician he developed an original reflection on theatrical issues regarding stage reresentation and practice, which lead him to collaborate with performers, theatre directors and choreographers, such as Dito'Dito, De Parade, Needcompany, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Meg Stuart, Romeo Castellucci, Isabel Schad, Loïc Touzé, Etienne Guilloteau, Benjamin Vandewalle, Deufert & Plischke and others. He co-authored the piece 'Zeitung' with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker in 2007, which was re-made as with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Louis-nam Le Van Ho as 'Zeitigung' in 2017.
He has been teaching at the Akademie der Künste and HZT in Berlin and at P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels.