Thirty-five years now, Hervé Niquet has been exploring the baroque repertoire (but not only), primarily French, with his Spiritual Concert created in 1987, an orchestra he named in reference to the first concert society French private houses dating from the 18th century. Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, André Campra, Jean Gilles, Joseph Michel and Marc-Antoine Charpentier, many composers whom he helped to bring out of the shadows at the cost of long years of research.
He makes them shine on stage and through a quantity of often reference recordings, including the last, dedicated to Medea by Charpentier, is released on January 26 by Alpha Classics, with the faithful soprano Véronique Gens, in the title role, and the tenor Cyrille Dubois. Pianist, harpsichordist, organist, singer, choir director, conductor, composer, Hervé Niquet is a guarantee of seriousness and rigor in the baroque revival.
But behind his tall figure and his serious and strict demeanor hides an amused and facetious spirit that we find in the Don Quixote and the Duchess by Boismortier, concocted with the duo Shirley and Dino, performed at the Royal Opera of Versailles, from January 26 to 28. Encounter.
Franceinfo Culture: Let’s talk about you, before talking about The Spiritual Concert. Two youthful encounters undoubtedly say more about you than your training as a musician: the music hall star Zizi Jeanmaire and the choreographer Rudolf Nureyev…
Hervé Niquet: It’s true. When I arrived in Paris from my province, I was a boy for three months in a Zizi Jeanmaire revue at the Casino de Paris. Then I arrived at the Paris Opera as ballet accompanist pianist: Nureyev was appointed shortly after. Nureyev’s demand was still a slap in the face. And then thanks to him, I met big stars, like the dancer Serge Lifar, whom I would never have imagined meeting!
What has cabaret brought you?
Everything, because these people hate approximations. They are great pros and at the show everything is taken care of. And in particular, for Zizi Jeanmaire or for Jacqueline Maillant, the “mise” – so everything that happens before the show – was important. I learned at the cabaret the rule of zero errors. That’s why, all my musicians will tell you, that even today, I annoy the lighting engineer who lights a simple concert, because it’s super important! I check everything. In the smallest church of the smallest festival, in a village of seven inhabitants, with our baroque music, I put on the show until the end. And, from entry to exit, it must be impeccable.
You created the Spiritual Concert 35 years ago: when you look back, what do you say to yourself?
First of all, I note that between the records recorded with the Spiritual Concert and those I made outside the Spiritual Concert, that’s more than 170: that’s a lot. This journey inspires nostalgia in me, because we discovered a lot of repertoires. We are still discovering more, but when we are young, we have a passion and a vigor that is stupid, but productive. Now I have to think.
Have you changed?
I haven’t changed much, I work like the first day and I still have musicians like theorbist Caroline Delume and double bassist Luc Devanne who were there at the first concert more than 35 years ago! And Véronique Gens too.
A certain maturity should help you…
Yes, because I have always searched, read, thought, found… It’s certain, I have accumulated a lot of information. All that is valuable and then, with age, we have a way of saving money, the analysis is quicker, and even in terms of group teaching, it is surely better. As for the recordings, I remember that on the very first one, I was going to vomit between takes because I was so anxious! Now it’s okay, even if I still hate it as much, it’s a moment of anxiety and stress, to make decisions that will be fixed for 2000 years…
Your gestures as a conductor are striking. It is ample, often very theatrical. What is she saying?
That I was a dancer! We don’t need that many gestures to lead. Ultimately, you learn to lead in five lessons and there is 90% psychology that you have to learn. In my work, I am very economical, minimalist even. But here, we have a show to put on, we have to make people dream. And then, yes, it’s also an old dancer’s frustration, I need to stretch, I have big arms, that makes me happy.
In vocal training, it’s always impressive to see you conducting, surrounded by your singers forming a perfect circle.
Once again, it’s a show! That said, there are also many pieces of music that we have given where the architecture is very important: I am thinking, for example, of the Mass for eight choirs by Orazio Benevolo. Or at theAgnus dei with 60 voices by Alessandro Striggio written for the cathedral of Florence, which is a sort of tornado of sounds: it was composed in a circle, so why would I avoid that? It is an additional asset for the dramaturgy of the work, for the sound, for the understanding, for the image. It highlights the architecture of a room.
Which conductor are you with your orchestra?
The musicians who are under my baton, we try to get the best out of them, they are part of a collective which lives for the duration of a production, it is obviously ephemeral a production collective! But I make sure that it is a good memory, because it creates a capital of reflexes and pleasant work. I am very demanding. But they, the instrumentalists, are against me too. When Luc the double bass player or Caroline the theorbist says: “but we don’t understand anything here, can you stop?”, well, that’s it. The smallest chorister in the back or the smallest violinist in the last row are in the same place as the soloist on the first violin. Everyone is the same distance from hands, eyes and ears.
You were part of the Baroque revival from the start. What seems most important to you in the so-called “historically informed” approach that you have adopted?
I was confronted with both schools in the work of interpretation: that of “this is how it should be done”. And that of “why?”. I opted for the second, when I came across the ancient manuscripts, when I finally read Harnoncourt’s musical discourse [l’un des grands chefs baroques], which asked questions and finally offered answers full of musicological, scientific, historical information… I said to myself that that was it! And when I worked on the old company called Le Concert Spirituel to name our ensemble and I saw that we still had the program of the 1200 concerts of the time, with all the works, the numbers, the files musicians’ pay, etc., I said to myself: that’s precise!
The other favorite of the Concert Spirituel is the restitution of the “French sound”, therefore the French repertoire, from the baroque to the 19th century. What is so special about it for you?
I feel good there because it’s my language. I’m much more uncomfortable with Italian music and German music, and even English music. It’s our repertoire, it’s our heritage, it’s very simple. I draw a parallel between the arts: it’s very easy to decode a small French church or cathedral, you go to Germany, there we come back from Romania, it’s really another architectural, decorative, ornamental language.
So you have rediscovered the scores of Boismortier or Jean Gilles, you wouldn’t have done it for a Cavalli [grand compositeur baroque napolitain] ?
Oh no ! For me, Italian Baroque opera is very complicated. It fascinates me and it bores me at the same time.
“Don Quixote chez la Duchesse” by Boimortier with a staging of Shirley and Dino, which you are performing again from January 26 at the Royal Opera of Versailles, is proof, if proof were needed, that humor is very important in your work. What does he bring to music?
To the music I don’t know, but to the audience… everything! So of course, it depends on the works, we’re not going to laugh all the time, there are moments of reflection. But when we have a subject as facetious as this, why wouldn’t we fall for it? I always have a laugh. In my rehearsals, we work a lot, we are demanding, but we laugh a lot. When I met Shirley and Dino, I was finally able to do with them everything I had dreamed of doing without ever daring to ask. It has made people feel more relaxed about coming to the opera: now there are people who make me sign the DVD with which they grew up, which brought them to the opera and to music!
“Don Quixote and the Duchess” by Boismortier with a libretto by Favart, directed by Shirley and Dino, musical direction by Hervé Niquet with the choir and orchestra of the Concert Spirituel, at the Royal Opera of Versailles, from 26 to January 28, 2024.
“Médée” by Charpentier, Hervé Niquet, with the choir and orchestra of the Concert Spirituel, Alpha Classics, released on January 26.