Hymne à la tristesse modérée — Jean-Christophe Renault

In 2024 we celebrated the bicentenary of Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Ode to Joy (which has become the European Anthem since 1985).To take the opposite view of this celebration, I wrote an « Ode to moderate sadness » based on Franz Schubert’s last Sonatas (Schubert lived in Ludwig’s shadow throughout his very short life).

Of course I know you’re not supposed to touch these masterpieces…By shaking up the codes, I felt like doing something a bit subversive, a sort of « unplugged sampling» . I hope I brought this music to new life even if, as the Austrian pianist Paul Badura-Skoda said once: “Only those who have had a glimpse at the other bank of the River Styx (surrounding the Kingdom of the dead) can create a work of such magnitude”.