"I felt the OBC had enormous potential": Interview in Scherzo

9 April

Ludovic Morlot has been interviewed for the cover story of Scherzo magazine. In the interview, he speaks about his ongoing Ravel recording project, his relationship with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra (OBC), where he is Music Director, and his career to date.

Speaking about his love of contemporary music:

“First of all, for me there are only two types of music, good and bad. Music is a living art and it is the artist’s mission to appropriate what he finds quality in and become its ambassador to share it with the public. In my opinion, contemporary music is not appreciated by the public because it is not played well. It is as if we heard a poorly told story and that prevented us from connecting with it. Therefore, if you are going to play this music you have to work much more with it than with the music of the past. And also repeat it, play it more often; I would even love to be able to play it again in the same concert, as Mahler did at the Amsterdam premiere of his Fourth Symphony . That is why it is also very important to record and that is why in our recording dynamics we keep the Catalan repertoire and the works that we commission in mind, so that the public can hear these pieces again.”

[“Antes que nada, para mí sólo hay dos tipos de música, la buena y la mala. La música es un arte vivo y es misión del artista apropiarse de aquella en la que encuentra calidad y convertirse en su embajador para compartirla con el público. En mi opinión, la música contemporánea no es apreciada por el público porque no se toca bien. Es como si escucháramos una historia mal contada y eso nos impidiera conectar con ella. Por eso, si vas a tocar esta música tienes que trabajar mucho más con ella que con la música del pasado. Y también repetirla, tocarla más a menudo; incluso me encantaría poder tocarla de nuevo en el mismo concierto, como hizo Mahler en el estreno en Ámsterdam de su Cuarta sinfonía. Por eso también es muy importante grabar y de ahí que en nuestra dinámica de grabaciones tengamos muy presente el repertorio catalán y las obras que encargamos, para que el público pueda volver a oír estas piezas.”]

Click here to read the full interview (in Spanish)