Patrice d’OLLONE, composer

Réconciliation (for accordion and string quintet)
a piece freely inspired by Beethoven’s Symphony n° 6

« Pastoral, Beethoven and… Debussy!

Crossing a particularly painful period in his life, it is joyfully (and perhaps metaphorically?) That Beethoven presents the sixth symphony. We meet there certainly a tempest, but most of Pastoral work, from start to the end, speaks only of joy and rebirth.

When for Debussy, the least that can be said is that his vision of nature is far removed from the one of Beethoven, hence, in his “Monsieur Croche”, his unpleasant words: “A man born he is not required to write only masterpieces, and if we treat Pastoral this way, this epithet would lack strength to qualify the others.”

But yet, we almost want to bring these two great masters together and even dream of a possible reconciliation of their music… Let’s come to it, but don’t dream too much!. »

Patrice d’Ollone

Patrice d’Ollone in a few lines…

Graduated of Sciences Po Paris, of public law and a CAPES of classical letters, Patrice d’Ollone was from 1990 to 2002 artistic delegate of the Orchestre National de France (ONF), while Charles Dutoit in assured the musical direction. But he began his career with the Total group, as head of relations with the Éducation nationale and universities and administrator of the Total Foundation for music. He then occupied, from 1974 to 1990, the functions of head of the press service.

Pianist, grandson of composer Max d’Ollone (and grandphew of explorer Henri d’Ollone), Patrice d’Ollone has also devoted himself since the 1970s to the interpretation and recording of unknown pages of the French music. It was during several commissions for television documentaries that he launched into composition. After the music for the films En France à l’heure allemande (2012 – Arte) and Ils ont libéré Paris!  (2014 – France 3), in 2016 he composed an orchestral suite on the theme of the battle of Verdun for a documentary broadcast by Arte and France 3. This 30-minute suite was orchestrated by Thibault Perrine, professor of writing at the CRR in Paris and recorded by the Orchestre de la Garde républicaine, gathered in symphonic formation under the direction of François Boulanger.

The Verdun suite is played in concert at Verdun Cathedral, the Invalides, the Fortress of Arras, the Lourdes Festival, Cambrai, the Mairie de Paris and the Clairière de l’Armistice de Compiègne, during the concert for Europe organized on June 15th, 2018 for the commemorations of the end of the Great War. In 2018, the Orchestre de la Garde républicaine recorded a new sequel written by Patrice d’Ollone (and orchestrated by Thibault Perrine) for the documentary Dans la tête des SS, broadcast by the American channel National-Geographic and France 3.

His discs with the Enesco Quartet, with the singers Didier Henry and Elsa Maurus (awarded by the Académie nationale du disque) as well as several musicians of the Orchestre national de France are praised by critics. “He convinced better than many giants of the piano,” according to Bernard Gavoty in Le Figaro; “A pianist with a simmering sound”, according to Jacques Lonchampt, music critic for the newspaper Le Monde.

In charge of musicology teaching at La Sorbonne, Patrice d’Ollone has been director of the festivals of Menton, Béziers and the Abbey of Valmagne. He is a knight in the Order of Arts and Letters.