Alexandra Dovgan, in concert on 28 February 2020 at the Palacio de la Opera, A Coruña, with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, conducted by Dima Slobodeniouk
The time has come to invite you to get to know the young Russian pianist Alexandra Dovgan in music through several concert recordings that will lead us to her opening recital of the TPLM 2020/21 season on Friday 20 November, the only date in Switzerland.
Newsletter of August 5, 2020, English version
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is to an event of national importance that we have the great luck and honour to invite you on November 20th at the Salle de musique in La Chaux-de-Fonds.
Alexandra Dovgan represents, in the company of a number of musicians, honesty and humility in today’s world of classical music. Just 13 years old, she is already giving way to music alone, in the manner of the greatest and greatest performers who have written concert history.
The first video that we are offering you to discover is, in our opinion, a striking testimony to this. It concerns the performance of Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory on 15 December 2019.
The concert is filmed with only one camera, fragile, with a single shot on Alexandra Dovgan, almost from behind. The sound recording is not optimal. But the most important thing, precisely, is not there. It’s in the interpretation, the force of which reaches the audience.
The video was put online by Mira Marchenko, the young pianist’s teacher, whom Grigory Sokolov greets, describing her remarkable teaching as an art.
And for who would doubt it, at the age of 250, Beethoven is more alive than ever. Make way for music.
The online sale of subscriptions (5 concerts from CHF 70) is now available without any system surcharge until the end of August. The only requirements are to create an account and have a credit card number. Then, click on one of the three categories displayed at the homepage and select a number of subscriptions before accessing the details.
As long as you haven’t paid for your order, you can go back at any time, and thus surf in a relaxed manner.
After validating your choice, we recommend that you modify the automatically selected seats at your convenience, concert by concert. This is also a good way for those of you who are not yet familiar with the Salle de musique in La Chaux-de-Fonds to try out several locations throughout the season.
The audience during the 2020/21 season is limited to just over 800 people per concert, including the obligatory wearing of masks. Beyond the financial advantage, acquiring a TPLM subscription now also gives you access to the best seats in each category.
In case of cancellation of the whole season due to the health crisis, the subscriptions will be fully refunded. In case of partial cancellation, the amount corresponding to each concert concerned will be returned to you.
We invite you to take note of the protection plan put in place to ensure your safety.
Wishing you a pleasant summer suite and hoping to have the pleasure of counting you soon among our subscribers, we send you, Ladies an Gentlemen, our cordial greetings.
For TPLM,
Frédéric Eggimann
The Arod Quartet on 7 July 2020
© TPLM-Coraclips
Looking back to better fit into the future, TPLM is very proud to have taken up the challenge of organizing the first concert at the Salle de musique in La Chaux-de-Fonds and the first public concert of the Arod Quartet since the beginning of the health crisis.
Newsletter of July 25, 2020, English version
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Maybe you were there? The magnificent concert given by the Arod Quartet now belongs to the great history of concerts in La Chaux-de-Fonds and, more widely, in the Canton of Neuchâtel, in Switzerland and even in Europe, so many live concerts were counted on the fingers of one hand.
“In London it’s a disaster, nothing happens anymore, like in most big capitals, this is in La Chaux-de-Fonds it’s happening.” Paul, the cameraman in charge of the video shoot for Warner Classics, noted the historical dimension of these magical moments.
And the words of the Arod Quartet, by its cellist Samy Rachid, between an extraordinary performance of the Schubert’s Quartet “Death and the Maiden” and the encore, Schumann’s “Rêverie” in a transcription for string quartet: “Good evening, Ah (who was truly coming out of the depths of his being) what a joy to perform again in public.” See you in a few months for the release of a CD like a pearl resulting from the recording session in which this concert was recorded.
We are very lucky to be able to count on the pen of a subscriber, Daniel Musy, who gives us on his blog the story of an unforgettable evening. We are deeply grateful to him.
We now turn our attention to the concert on November 24th and to the 2020/21 season.
Ensemble Jupiter © Stéfan Brion
Please be informed that online ticket sales for the next six concerts, which will take place from November to June, are now open. It is still possible to order subscriptions (5 concerts from CHF 70) via the corresponding form.
We invite you to take note of the protection plan put in place to ensure your safety and, hoping to have the pleasure of welcoming you from 20 November onwards, we send you, Ladies and Gentlemen, our summer greetings.
For the committee,
Frédéric Eggimann
The Arod Quartet at the Salle de musique in La Chaux-de-Fonds, the latest news.
Newsletter of June 30, 2020, English version
Ladies and Gentlemen,
With less than a week before the concert that the Arod Quartet will give at the Salle de musique in La Chaux-de-Fonds, discover the musicians in concert and… at the supermarket.
You can find out more about the health and safety arrangements that have been put in place to ensure your safety and that of the performers by consulting our Ticketing page. Among the main measures, which go beyond those imposed by the Canton of Neuchâtel and by the Confederation, are the limitation of the number of people who can attend to 500 instead of the 1000 that the hall can accommodate and a carefully worked out occupation plan. Floor markings will help you to maintain the necessary distance and to move around safely.
With Schubert’s famous quartet Der Tod und das Mädschen, preceded by the composer’s Fourth and Twelfth Quartets, the Arod Quartet invites you to enter the 100% Schubertian universe in which it will immerse itself during its few days of recording for the Erato/Warner label in La Chaux-de-Fonds.
The updated biography of the Arod Quartet.
You should also know that the 19:45 timetable has been chosen to allow those of you coming from Bern or Lausanne, and therefore from Neuchâtel, to travel with the best trains to and from La Chaux-de-Fonds.
Looking forward to welcoming you soon, we send you our warm and sunny greetings.
Frederic Eggimann
Tel: + 41 32 964 11 82
Mobile: + 41 79 244 17 93
Mail: frederic.eggimann@tplm.ch
July 7 at 19:45 pm,
back to the live music.
Newsletter of June 4, 2020, English version
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We can now almost touch what looked like a dream a few weeks ago. The Arod Quartet combines youth with excellence. The concert on May 9 was expected, the one on July 7 already sounds like an event to the power of 2. It will be the first concert at the Salle de musique in La Chaux-de-Fonds and the first public concert of the Arod Quartet since the beginning of the health crisis.
A programme with a Schubertian flavour, including the “star quartet” of the Viennese composer, Der Tod und das Mädschen. This concert is part of a Schubert recording for the Erato/Warner label, which will once again make the mythical Music Hall of the modest town of La Chaux-de-Fonds shine around the world. By your presence, you will be part of this planetary journey.
And then there are the two terrible children of the baroque. Jean Rondeau and Thomas Dunford couldn’t perform on March 24th? Never mind, they will be on stage on the 24th anyway, but in November, to dialogue about the rising and King’s bedtime. Get into the dance.
Moreover, the two musicians offer us a common discographic news. Barricades was released on 29 May on Erato/Warner’s label, a recording which comes at just the right time since it contains most of the programme for the concert on 24 November.
“We embark on an incantatory dance, but devoid of any mechanics so that the musical phrase becomes the organ itself. This is our work, our obsession! Here we seek to fascinate by the backwash of the repetition and not to convince by the verb. We are ruminants of gesture-passion, freebooters of joy. That’s it!” Jean Rondeau & Thomas Dunford
Be among those who will be able to tell their children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren: there we were. There are still 70 tickets for sale. Orders of tickets, for the moment only via the online form, will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis. You can also order subscriptions and tickets for the 2020/21 season.
In conclusion, the concert by Diana Tishchenko and Zoltan Fejervari that was scheduled for tomorrow, June 5, will most likely be rescheduled during the 2021/22 season. The first part of the evening by the Duo Jumel is of course postponed as well.
We are very much looking forward to seeing you on July 7.
In the meantime we send you, Ladies and Gentlemen, our warmest greetings.
For the committee,
Frédéric Eggimann
Saison TPLM 2020/21
Newsletter of April 30, 2020, English version
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We sincerely hope that our message finds you and your loved ones in good shape. In the current health situation, projecting oneself requires even more confidence and faith in the future than usual. In any case, building an artistic season is a challenge. Today, it requires an extra dose of courage.
TPLM was born on May 1, 2019, one year ago to the day! To unveil today its 2020/21 season represents for us a dream way to blow out its first candle!
Our aim is to create the conditions that invite everyone to enter a concert hall to listen t0 classical – in the broadest sense – music, by offering incentive prices, by integrating people in difficulty who face a feeling of exclusion, with a view to facilitating their social reintegration, by collaborating with schools, by inviting music by AC/DC and John Williams, thus opening up the repertoire, by offering extra motivation to young people in training, by encouraging transmission between generations and by opening up to dialogue and the freedom to heal through an interdisciplinary show.
Our next season will open on November 20th with a recital by the young pianist Alexandra Dovgan, 13 years old, whom I personally went to listen to last summer in a small church in a small village north of Verona. Twice “small” for a double event! I can assure you that I came out of that concert mesmerized, animated by the big question about talent and acquiring through work and study. Of course, the young Russian pianist possesses the first one and devotes herself fervently to developing it, to cultivating it. The next day the great, the very great Grigory Sokolov performed in this unlikely place! The tone is set, the maestro is full of praise for Alexandra Dovgan, who is already playing in the greatest halls, under the baton of conductors of the dimension of Gergiev! Discover her biography.
Maestro Sokolov is in a way Alexandra’s artistic godfather. He will be in recital on June 3, 2021 at the end of the season! Consequently that transmission between generations, so dear to TPLM and so badly damaged today, is at the heart of the artistic program. Opening and closing, the two poles worthy of a season that promises to revive beautiful emotions. You will discover the other three concerts on the TPLM.ch website. You’ll see that it’s all about Amazons by the baroque excellence of the moment, cello piccolo and the new sound experience that goes with it, and a Saxophone Quartet presented as a reincarnation of the Beatles! They’re young, they’re beautiful, they the ones, witn an indomitable muti-percussionist, who will perform “Starry Night“, an innovative program including, among others, music by AC/DC and John Williams, author of the film scores of Steven Spielberg’s and George Lucas’ greatest hits, in the midst of innovative and contemporary works.
The socio-therapeutic dimension of music, also dear to TPLM, will be expressed through a double collaboration with the Centre Neuchâtelois de Psychiatrie (CNP) and The Perce-Neige Foundation, in the form of two pre-concerts, on November 20, 2020 by Astelle Sound System and on February 20, 2021 by the Fanfare 3D la fanfare autrement. A double opportunity for TPLM to contribute to the reintegration and the social valorization of the participants, who never imagine performing on the stage of the Salle de musique in La Chaux-de-Fonds!
The training area will build on our positive experiences of 30 January and 15 and 16 February, through renewed collaboration with the Collège musical de la Ville de La Chaux-de-Fonds (pre-concert on March 9, 2021) and with the Conservatoire de musique neuchâtelois (CMNE) on May 20 (pre-concert) and May 21, 2021 (public masterclass).
Interdisciplinarity is embodied by Dori, which also embraces the socio-therapeutic dimension, on tour from April 30 to May 28, 2021. Dori is a character created and performed by Mélanie Pauli, with the support of the Toulouse-based Cirque des Petites Natures company. Mélanie, a circus artist from La Chaux-de-Fonds, trained notably at the Ecole du Lido in Toulouse, should have performed with the Duo Jumel on June 5, 2020. Dori is a show about children’s rights.
Sale of new subscriptions are open from now on, at the promotional prices of CHF 70, CHF 110 and CHF 150 until 31 October! It is also possible to order your tickets today (payment at a later date) for all the concerts mentioned on the corresponding form.
In case of total cancellation of the season due to a prolongation of the Coronavirus crisis, your subscriptions will be fully refunded. In the event of a partial cancellation, as is the case for the current season, you will be offered compensation. We strongly hope that these pessimistic scenarios will not come true.
Believing in a favourable evolution and in the impatience to meet you again on July 7 already, during the rescheduled concert of the Arod Quartet, with the respect of course of the measures which will probably still be in force, we address to you, Ladies and Gentlemen, our most cordial greetings.
Please take care of yourselves!
Frédéric Eggimann,
President
Photographic credits:
Alexandra Dovgan © Oscar Tursunov
Signum: © Andrej Grilc