Festival Musical Durtal.

COMP-COMP
COMPetition-COMPosition
A European competition for the commissioning and performance of new works for piano
This summer the Festival Musical Durtal returns with its Ninth Edition. Over the past three years, the
Festival has increasingly focussed on teaching, supporting and professionally guiding young international
pianists of special talent. French, Chinese, Ukrainian, Russian, Czech, Turkish, German, Korean,
Japanese … From all over the world they come to stay in residence at Le Bout du Monde in Durtal,
western France, our old chapel, the lazy banks of the River Loir, a pedigree Steinway D, and good
company to nourish their imagination.
Through Masterclasses led by the renowned German pianist and teacher Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy,
we’ve come to realise that an important part of an artist’s work concerns the study of the text, the score,
and the fact that the great masters of the past – Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Schumann,
Brahms, so many – are not with us to answer our questions or clarify our searching. The score, however
precise it may be, will always have grey areas. Solutions need to be found
To resolve this paradox and help young pianists, what better way for them than to work with a composer,
to get feedback at first hand? So in the autumn of 2022 we launched a new Competition. In January
2023, following an international call and over forty high-quality submissions, we commissioned a new
piano work. Selected by our jury, our winner was the British composer Graham Waterhouse. Graham
will stay at Le Bout du Monde from 8 to 10 July to work with our pianists. They will have the opportunity
to share their thoughts and questions with him directly.
Galéjades
The premiere of Graham Waterhouse’s Galéjades, a four-part opus, will take place on 9 July at 7pm in
a public concert at the Chapelle Saint Léonard du Bout du Monde in Durtal. Each movement will be
performed for educational purposes by a different pianist and will be professionally recorded.
A world premiere at a small festival
Usually it’s the big institutions like Radio France or the Opéra National de Paris that have the resources
to commission new works, not small rural organisations like ours. It was the educational emphasis and
the desire to offer as many opportunities as possible to future great artists in residence at Le Bout du
Monde that led us to pursue this commission with such determination. It is vital to support contemporary
creation, a veritable research laboratory for music. We would like to thank the DRAC des Pays de la
Loire for enabling us to fund this project.
Comp-Comp 2023 Jury
Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy (Germany)
Pianist, Director of the WSL Masterclasses
Pierric Guennégan (France)
Artistic Director of the Festival Musical Durtal, Balance Engineer
Agnès Yamakado (France)
President of the Festival Musical Durtal
Ateş Orga (United Kingdom)
Writer, Journalist, Recording Producer
Théotime Gillot (France)
Pianist, WSL Masterclasses
The pianists who will create the work
Kaan Baysal (Turkey)
Théotime Gillot (France)
Jeyu Lee (South Korea)
Dennis Orkiszewski (Poland)