Back from kyiv, Jean-Guihen Queyras’ cello, voice of freedom

Montreal-born French cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras will be the guest of the Orchestre symphonique de Québec (OSQ) on September 26. His new CD featuring a concerto by Antonin Kraft is coming out this weekend, and a new recording of Bach suites will be released in three weeks. The artist, who has been playing a cello loaned by Quebec patron Roger Dubois since February, is returning from a trip to kyiv, where he wanted to bring music in support of Ukrainians.

“I feel since Maidan [révolution de 2014] a huge empathy for the Ukrainian people’s struggle for freedom. Since the full-scale invasion of 2022, they have been fighting not only for their freedom, but for ours. We owe them a lot; their sacrifice is immeasurable and you realize it even more when you are there. I wanted to do something. And what I know how to do is music.”

The choice of risk

In this second half of August 2024, Jean-Guihen Queyras traded the comfort of the big hotels of musical tours to go and play in Ukraine. The first step for him was to ask if he would disturb or if his visit could bring a little balm to the heart. Denis Severin, a Ukrainian cellist friend teaching in Switzerland, reassured him and brought his contacts into play, in particular with the Kyiv Camerata, the best ensemble still active there. “Denis reassured me by saying: ‘If you are ready to go, it will be a gift, because what this war takes away from the Ukrainians, in addition to the terrible consequences on their daily lives, the loss of fathers, brothers and cousins, is contact with the outside world, since it is an area to which no one wants to go.'”

For his visit, the cellist did not benefit from any official framework: “Paradoxically, if we wanted to go through government authorities, it would be almost impossible to make such a trip, unless we were sent on a mission. Even the director of the French Institute on site does not have the right to invite anyone, since it is a red zone,” the musician tells us.

“So I went there with my partner, Annely, on a private visit, invited by my Ukrainian friends. I didn’t need a visa, but I was left to my own devices. So, for everything related to insurance, it’s a risk-taking choice.” Since his precious instrument could not be insured, Jean-Guihen Queyras played on a cello lent by a Polish violin maker, Jan Bobak. Connections with the Ukrainian capital are easy: “Between Warsaw and kyiv, trains run several times a day and are full. Communication is therefore not impossible.”

In kyiv, Jean-Guihen Queyras did not stop at a concert. “I also wanted to play for the wounded soldiers, if that was welcome. Denis Severin therefore established contact with the Recovery organization, which runs many rehabilitation clinics on the territory, because this is taking on dramatic proportions. I was able to play for them and tell them that in every concert, since the large-scale invasion, I play a Ukrainian melody. It was very powerful, even if these are small things, because we are small things.”

New chapter

Annely, Jean-Guihen Queyras’ partner, made the connection with the NGO Voices of Children, which takes care of traumatized and displaced children. “During a workshop, we made them dance, talk about expressing their feelings through music.” The images of this meeting circulating on Instagram are very touching. The cellist is already thinking about his return there, “because it makes sense and because they are asking for it.”

“I am subscribed to the Kyiv Independenta newspaper from the country, which lives up to its name. I see that they are launching a program called “Oser l’Ukraine”. The idea is to say: “Come, we are a country that works despite everything that is happening.” That motivates me. My new project with my partner is to set up a foundation to finance trips for musicians who are sensitive to the Ukrainian cause, because on the ground they do not have the means.

For his trip, Jean-Guihen Queyras had taken care to leave his new musical partner at home, the Pietro Guarneri cello of Quebec patron Roger Dubois, president of Canimex. “I had been with my Gioffredo Cappa (1696) for 17 years, with whom I experienced extraordinary things. But, as sometimes in life, I felt the need to open a new chapter. Certain things were evolving in my language and could not be done with that cello.”

To begin this new phase of his career, Jean-Guihen Queyras found a Montagnana cello in London, with which he gave concerts at the beginning of 2024. It was with it that he travelled to Quebec in February 2024. “When we played as a trio with Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov at the Club musical de Québec, the patron Roger Dubois was at the concert. The seller was in contact with him. Mr. Dubois told me: ‘It’s not bad, but I have a Pietro Guarneri in my collection that I would like you to see.’ I had never tried one. The next day, we were playing at the Bourgie Hall and Mr. Dubois brought this cello to the dress rehearsal. I tried it and, right away, I felt something mellow, a beautiful sound,” remembers Jean-Guihen Queyras.

After consulting his partners on stage, the cellist decided to play with this instrument at the Bourgie Hall concert, in front of Roger Dubois. “Everyone agreed that there was an obvious understanding between the cello and me.”

Charisma

Ironically, in the following days, a continuation of the instrument auditions was planned in the United States, with a Stradivarius and a Montagnana gleaned in New York. “We made the trip from New York to Princeton with a Stradivarius and two Montagnanas; we had $36 million worth of cellos in the car!” recalls the cellist, who immortalized the shipment. In the end, the instrument with which there was an obvious connection was the Pietro Guarneri from Drummondville!

“The comments, even from my students, after the concerts with the Montagnana in London, were: ‘The instrument is impressive, but where is Jean-Guihen?’ For myself, on stage, it was not my voice. With Pietro Guarneri, I never had such a reflection. It is my identity, but with a breadth, a suavity, a kind of generosity, but not at all in force. It is a very open sound.”

Jean-Guihen Queyras’ first recording with his Quebec instrument will be the Concerto by Lutosławski coupled with Schelomo by Bloch. “For SchelomoI am so happy to have encountered this instrument! The cello embodies the voice, and we imagine this voice which, simply by charisma, carries to an entire people!

A new version of the Suites for solo cello by Jean-Sébastien Bach. A challenge, since the first recording (2007) is considered a reference. As in recent concerts, the new work plays more on the pulse and the spirit of the dance, with a more neutral, more natural sound. More music, less cello, less artifice in a way. “I wanted to go further in a form of freedom, of flight, compared to the basic line. I took more freedom in the framework and, suddenly, I tried to go a little more towards the dance and to take advantage a little more of the articulations, in a greater proximity with the listener”, summarizes the artist.

“I was aware of the risk [de réenregistrer ces oeuvres]because I had so much positive feedback on the first recording. I had everything to lose,” admits Jean-Guihen Queyras. “But a lot has happened in the evolution of what I am, of what I live.” The first reason for the re-recording was not, however, to find a more natural sound universe. “It was really another form of rebound,” to which this sound universe suits well, according to the musician.

In Quebec, on September 26, Jean-Guihen Queyras will play the Cello Concerto by Dvořák. He knows Clemens Schuldt, with whom he has already collaborated in Munich. The Montreal-born cellist was very pleased with the appointment of this musician in Quebec: “He is a match “very creative!” says the man who will be testing his concerto for Quebec in the coming days at the… Concertgebouw in Amsterdam!

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