duchable

[birba]

I hadn't ever heard of this Duchable guy until I read about him somewhere here in piano forum.  The you.tube has some outstanding bits and pieces of him.  I went to the Wikipedia and what do I read?  He turned completely against the whole classic music system, and dropped his piano from a helicopter into a lake!  Now, supposedly, he only plays in hospitols and teaches young children?  On the one hand, I can't blame him. I've been at this as long as he has.  On the other hand, I can't help but imagine some gimmick behind it all.

[m]

He turned completely against the whole classic music system, and dropped his piano from a helicopter into a lake! 

I think it was a wise decision on his end. Hopefully, as time passes he does not change his mind.

Best, M

[goldentone]

I would have dropped the classical music system in the lake, instead of my piano. 

[birba]

I would have dropped the classical music system in the lake, instead of my piano. 

RIGHT ON!

[m19834]

I think it was a wise decision on his end.

Best, M

If you ever dropped your piano in the lake, I would follow it there just in case it ever echoed from days when you may not have felt like dropping it there.

[ahinton]

If you ever dropped your piano in the lake, I would follow it there just in case it ever echoed from days when you may not have felt like dropping it there.

Au lac de Wallenstadt (Liszt, Années de Pèlerinage, for those that might not know) seems somehow to spring unbidden to what's left of my mind...

Best,

Alistair

[m19834]

Au lac de Wallenstadt (Liszt, Années de Pèlerinage, for those that might not know) seems somehow to spring unbidden to what's left of my mind...

Best,

Alistair

A very special piece to me, actually, which I may have yet to truly play for the correct set of ears. 

[m]

If you ever dropped your piano in the lake, I would follow it there just in case it ever echoed from days when you may not have felt like dropping it there.

Well yeah... I just meant something else...
In any case, once I make a decision I'll let you know 

Best, M

[m19834]

In any case, once I make a decision I'll let you know 

Best, M

hmmm ... are you telling me to go jump in a lake ? 

[m]

hmmm ... are you telling me to go jump in a lake ? 

No, what I was trying to tell is it is OK for Duchable not to play piano anymore... 

Best, M

[m19834]

No, what I was trying to tell is it is OK for Duchable not to play piano anymore... 

Best, M

Yeah, I almost got it before but now I definitely do.  hee hee ... sorry, I was really just being goofy.  I don't know him, but now perhaps I will have to find out more about him !

[m]

I don't know him, but now perhaps I will have to find out more about him !

Good fingers, good techinque, not much more to say... why bother?

Best, M

[m19834]

Hopefully, as time passes he does not change his mind.

Best, M

I think that if he does manage to change his mind as time passes, perhaps he will have found more in himself and the endeavor than just good fingers and a good technique, there could be more to say then regarding his playing, and perhaps it would be worth him buying a new piano (or fishing the old one out  ) !  Either way, perhaps it WAS a very wise decision, as you suggest !

[arensky]

I think it was a wise decision on his end. Hopefully, as time passes he does not change his mind.

Best, M

Ouch!!! 


I respect his given reasons for leaving the classical scene (although I don't entirely agree with them) but the whole helicopter stunt was a bit much, and in and of itself was very elitist and pretentious, two of the things he was protesting about classical piano. He could have given that piano to a deserving young person who couldn't afford one. Or to me! 

What a duch

[birba]

And that's why I think there was a bit of gimmick"ness" in the whole charade.

[Petter]

Like when KLF burned 1 million quid.

[birba]

KLF?  Here we go again with these "inside" abbreviations.  Let me think...nope, I give up.

[Petter]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_Foundation_Burn_a_Million_Quid

[birba]

Wow.  Incredibally stupid.  Think of the help it could have provided some needy pianist.

[Petter]

Wow.  Incredibally stupid.  Think of the help it could have provided some needy pianist.

Except Duchable

[jaypiano]

Wow.  Incredibally stupid.  Think of the help it could have provided some needy pianist.

Hold on, everyone.  I know Duchable personally and can assure you of the sincerity of all of this.  And a MAJOR point to be made: the "piano" that was thrown into the lake was a sculpted imitation of one, and NOT a real one.  Totally symbolic object for a totally symbolic gesture.  Yes, he was throwing the entire classical music "game" into that lake.  Think of Glenn Gould and his wanting out of the tiresome stage-hall ritual, preferring the recording studio.  As for Duchable, an extraordinarily gifted prodigy for whom everything started very early, all with ease, and who burned out from the grinding routine.  My personal reaction to that:  if he had bothered to cultivate interest in CREATION, in what was happening in terms of living composers continuing to write (and in many cases, great) music for the piano, and not only rehash the masters of the past, this might have kept the spark alive.  Didn't happen.

[Petter]

I think she commented the KLF "performance"

[birba]

"KLF"?

[Petter]

I guess not.

[jlh]

French classical pianist FRANCOIS-RENE DUCHABLE is quitting the industry in protest at its elitism - by destroying two grand pianos and burning his recital suit at his last three gigs.

Duchable - who won France's soloist of the year title three years in a row in the 1990s - believes the piano is an "arrogant instrument", so at the end of this month (JUL03) he plans to launch his piano into LAKE MERCANTOUR in the French Alps in his first farewell concert.

The second farewell concert will see Duchable burning his recital suit on stage, while the last gig will see him blow-up his piano in mid-air.

He says, "I have had enough of sacrificing my life for one per cent of the population. I have had enough of participating in a musical system, which in France at least, function badly and limits classical music to an elite.

"Used as this society uses it, the piano is an arrogant instrument which excludes all those that don't know about music."
04/07/2003 17:16

https://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/french%20classical%20pianist%20quits%20in%20style

[michel dvorsky]

Agree with Marik. He's totally obsessed with technique to the point of being a trivial musician.  Not what music should be about.

[bm607]

Just an information, he stopped... but still goes on.
https://www.ville-sevres.fr/ewb_pages/a/actualite-5184.php

But not in the same context as in early's 2000, for sure (Sèvres is a small town near Paris, France)

BM

[birba]

I love that : "soutenues par la musique de F. Chopin".  So he's gone into background music.