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The sensational Wies de Boevé 17 December 2017



"So it was for me a big honour and a huge pleasure
to be here and play with this orchestra."

Wies de Boevé, double bass soloist





The great Belgian contrabassist Wies de Boevé fully justified his reputation offering an unforgettable experience to the music lovers who joined the Friday’s TSSO concert. The audience reacted with intense cheers at the end of his performance in Botessini's "Concerto for double bass and Orchestra No. 2", and he did not stop calling him back to the stage even after the bis.

The program began with the "Divertissement sur un choral" for a chamber orchestra, an interesting work by Pierre Wismar, as part of the collaboration with Action Musicale Pierre Wissmer and closed with the wonderful “Organ Symphony” by Saint-Saens.  The recognized authority in the French repertoire Alain Pâris conducted the concert.
 
At the end of the night Wies de Boevé said: «It was for me a great week. Straight from the airport, I got such a warm welcome and then from the first rehearsal everybody was so nice and played with so much passion and joy. So it was for me a big honour and a huge pleasure to be here and play with this orchestra. And I think, as you could here it from the audience, they also liked it so. I think it’s a win for everyboby and I hope I’ll be back soon.»
 
Alain Pâris stated about Wissmer’s work: «Wissmer’s music is very interesting because, at first, he was born Swiss, his mother was Russian and finished his life as a French citizen. So this is a good cocktail. His first pieces at the end of the 30’s are classical and then he changes and sometimes he has influences by Roussel, Ravel, indivisually Gershwin and a little bit dodecaphonist. At the end his music was more ascetic. His last pieces was very difficult. In my opinion they can’t be understood if you don’t know what he was before. This piece we played with the orchestra was very often played until the middle of 70’s but suddenly all these composers who were not enough “modern” were immidiately forbidden. The official institutions in France closed the door for them. It was a pity. When Wissmer died in 1992 some people started printing the scores from the manuscripts. And then organized communication, publicity, websites so now we can record this works.»
As far as Wies de Boevé appearance he said: «For me it was the second time in my career that I conducted a double bass concerto. The first one was 20-30 years ago because I was looking for very good contrabassists to conduct. I think now, the young musicians are realy soloists, naturally. Wies is not a contrabassist playing a concerto. He is a real soloist. He is so easy to play with him. Just look at him and you understand. One of the TSSO musicians told me when he started playing: “What is this? He is so incredible, I just want to cry”. »