Pierre Sancan

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Pierre Sancan (born October 24, 1916 in Mazamet , † October 20, 2008 in Paris ) was a French pianist , conductor and composer .

Life

Sancan studied in Toulouse and at the Conservatoire de Paris with Yves Nat , Jean Gallon , Henri Busser , Jean Estyle , Charles Münch and Roger Désormière . In addition to the piano, he studied composition , harmony , fugue and counterpoint . In 1943 he won the Prix ​​de Rome with the cantata La légende d'Icare . This enabled him to receive a scholarship at the Villa Medici in Rome from 1946 to 1947.

As a pianist, Pierre Sancan lived in a transition period. At the beginning of the 1950s, the then much vaunted, technically perfected French culture of piano playing was shaken in two ways: On the one hand, some Russian piano virtuosos appeared in the West who questioned traditional methods with their playing style. On the other hand, the French pianos by Pleyel and Sébastien Érard were more and more displaced by Anglo-German piano manufacturers, represented by Steinway & Sons . Sancan contributed to this change and dealt intensively with physiology, bodywork when playing the piano, the interaction of fingers, arms and back of the pianist. His departure from the fast-paced game in the tradition of Camille Saint-Saëns and Isidore Philipp , in favor of a more restrained, more expressive style, earned him criticism at the time; over time, however, his views prevailed.

From 1956 to 1985 he was professor of piano at the Conservatoire . In the early 1960s, the first famous piano virtuosos emerged from his class. In 1960, Jean-Philippe Collard won the second prize for under-fifteen-year-olds at the international youth music competition in Berlin. In 1962, at the age of 17, Jean-Bernard Pommier caused a sensation at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Other well-known pianists who studied with Sancan are Michel Béroff , Marc Laforêt , Abdel Rahman El-Bacha , Jean-Efflam Bavouzet , Kristin Merscher , Jacques Rouvier , Jean-Marc Savelli and many others. In his teaching program, Sancan also and especially cultivated the study and practice of the music of the 20th century.

Although he seems to step back from some of his students in his pianistic career, a number of top-level pianistic appearances on the public stage are noteworthy, both in France and abroad. His recordings are no longer available in stores. He made recordings of the two piano concertos by Maurice Ravel , conducted by Pierre Dervaux , as well as sonatas for violoncello and piano by Ludwig van Beethoven recorded together with André Navarra . You can hear his compositions on YouTube and see and hear him playing the piano himself.

Sancan composed an opera , three ballets , instrumental concerts, chamber music works and songs .

In the late 1980s, Sancan contracted Alzheimer's disease and retired from public life.

Works

  • La légende d'Icare , cantata, 1943
  • Sonatina for flute and piano , 1946
  • Commedia dell'arte , ballet, 1952
  • Piano concerto , 1957
  • Violin Concerto , 1958
  • String Symphony , 1961
  • Ondine, Fille de la forêt , Opera, 1962
  • Reflet , ballet, 1963
  • Les fourmis , ballet, 1966
  • Concertino for piano and chamber orchestra , 1966
  • "Lamento et Rondo", for alto saxophone and piano

literature

  • Alain Lompech: Pierre Sancan , Le Monde , October 20, 2008, p. 19

Individual evidence

  1. [1] , query on October 28, 2008

Web links