{"id":35854,"date":"2020-12-19T13:19:35","date_gmt":"2020-12-19T18:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/panm360.com\/interviews-panm360\/louis-philippe-marsolais-de-cor-et-dame\/"},"modified":"2020-12-19T13:25:31","modified_gmt":"2020-12-19T18:25:31","slug":"louis-philippe-marsolais-de-cor-et-dame","status":"publish","type":"interviews","link":"https:\/\/panm360.com\/en\/interviews-panm360\/louis-philippe-marsolais-de-cor-et-dame\/","title":{"rendered":"Louis-Philippe Marsolais: Horn and soul"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Photo: Martin Girard\/Shoot Studio<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spotlight was on Louis-Philippe Marsolais as he performed the French-horn encore that brought to a close the first European tour in the history of Montreal\u2019s Orchestre m\u00e9tropolitain, at the Philharmonie de Paris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was like weightlessness,” Maestro Yannick N\u00e9zet-S\u00e9guin recalls. \u201cAll of a sudden, there was no longer any barrier between emotion and playing. It gave us wings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three years later, almost to the day, Louis-Philippe Marsolais, 43, embraces the lull caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has allowed him to catch his breath after a marathon of concerts, recordings and tours. From one day to the next, we went from 100 miles an hour to a wall,\u201d recalls the bearded horn player. \u201cIt was great, it gave me a chance to step back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Principal horn of the Orchestre m\u00e9tropolitain (OM), member of the Penta\u00e8dre wind quintet, professor at l\u2019Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al and father of Violette, Henri, and Victor, Louis-Philippe Marsolais has not been idle since the beginning of confinement in mid-March. Like everyone else, the classical music industry has had to conform to this new norm of physical distancing and atomization of society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Orchestras, the very incarnation of strength in numbers and esprit de corps, have been fragmented by health measures. It is difficult to become accustomed to the transformation of this environment for which tradition is the backbone. Abroad, for example, acrylic panels separate the musicians of the wind instrument section of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. In our backyard, the OM has to occupy an entire hall \u2013 including the floor \u2013 in order to be able to rehearse with sufficient distance. Enough to distort the essence of classical music? Yes and no, answers Marsolais.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[With distancing in the hall,] the speed of sound comes into play,\u201d he explains. \u201cWe noticed at the beginning that we were always playing early or late. You always have to readjust the scales, it becomes mathematical.\u201d This goes against an orchestra\u2019s personality, he says, as he emphasises the communal qualities of music, where listening and reacting to the playing of others prevails. \u201cFor me, the great pleasure of making music is being with the people I love and having fun together,\u201d says the musician, partially hidden by his spotted mask. He gets this feeling much more often \u201cwith his gang in an orchestra\u201d than on tour as a soloist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Louis-Philippe Marsolais (in the center). Photo: Fran\u00e7ois Goupil<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Rockstar in Austria, nuisance on the orange line<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Marsolais cherishes unforgettable moments from his expeditions in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Like this time he went to Austria for the most important festival paying tribute to Schubert\u2019s music, The Schubertiades. His Penta\u00e8dre Quintet presented a newly released recording before \u201c1000 old Austrians singing Schubert at night before going to bed\u201d. Marsolais had experienced one of the moments in his career that made him feel like a superhero. \u201cAt the end, people came to us crying… it\u2019s really quite a feeling,\u201d he recalls today, wearing a Captain America T-shirt. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t happen often in classical music.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He first tasted this collective appreciation for classical music some 20 years ago when he was completing his training at the Hochschule f\u00fcr Musik Freiburg in Germany. After obtaining a DEC at Joliette and a BAC at McGill, both in music, he decided to go abroad to the home of Bach and Beethoven. \u201cI used to get stopped on the street by passers-by who would tell me how lucky I was to play the horn, and that they couldn\u2019t wait to hear me play,\u201d he recalls. \u201cHere in Montreal, you\u2019re more likely to get yelled at in the metro because you take up too much room!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You don\u2019t need to have written a doctoral thesis to understand why classical music is so marginal here in Quebec. It has simply never been part of its (young) popular culture. However, can it still be described as inaccessible, or worse, elitist? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve tried hard not to,\u201d says Marsolais. \u201cThere is so much diversity, so many free shows. It\u2019s possible to follow the scene very closely, even for students or people with little income.\u201d According to Marsolais, this has resulted in a rejuvenation of the fanbase of Montreal orchestras, whereas young professionals have been gaining ground on the bluehairs for the past decade. The OM has seen its proportion of unit tickets sold to the under-35s jump by 188% between 2015 and 2020. The same is true of the Orchestre symphonique de Montr\u00e9al (OSM), where the number of subscription packages for those 34 and under also nearly doubled between 2015 and 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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OSM and OM, opposite atmospheres<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In addition to being the solo horn for the OM, Marsolais also served as third horn for the OSM between 2013 and 2015. \u201cI dug that job a lot less, it was much less demanding, but people found it cooler and I made five times more money,\u201d he says with irony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly after his arrival in the Nagano troupe, \u201cpolitical jousts\u201d got the better of him. Although he was assured that the brass section had never sounded as good as it did in with him present, he was given no clear explanation as to why he had been dismissed. \u201cWhen all this happened, it really knocked me down,\u201d he confides. \u201cIt made me lose faith in the importance of music, in a context like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The months that followed this turning point in his career were not easy. Marsolais plunged into an implacable quest to prove to everyone that he was still first in class. With hindsight, he now understands the darker side of his competitiveness, which has sometimes overshadowed his interpersonal relationships. \u201cWhen I was younger, I wasn\u2019t aware of what it could do to others,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This departure from the OSM was perhaps a life-saver for Marsolais\u2019 professional health. He was able to devote more time to the OSM, which he now places on an equal footing with its main competitor. \u201cOn paper, the OSM has better musicians,\u201d the horn player says. Afterwards, you wonder how it is that the OM sometimes sounds better than the OSM. \u201cIt\u2019s really a matter of cohesion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They owe this cohesion in large part to their captain, the Quebec prodigy Yannick N\u00e9zet-S\u00e9guin. \u201cIt makes all the difference in the world to have a leader who is strong, inspired, respected and competent,\u201d says Marsolais. \u201cThere is no confrontation, no \u2018I will play louder than you to show that I\u2019m better\u2019.\u201d For me, it comes from the leadership of the person at the podium.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marsolais\u2019 admiration for N\u00e9zet-S\u00e9guin is not unreciprocated, far from it. \u201cWhen he became the main French horn of the OM, it was an extraordinary addition,\u201d the conductor says. \u201cLouis-Philippe has this way of inspiring us all. He is so dedicated and reliable, which is very important for horn players.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

N\u00e9zet-S\u00e9guin nevertheless describes his \u201cfluidity of style\u201d as \u201cone of the things that sets him apart from the rest of the world, and the great horn players he knows.\u201d It\u2019s thanks, among other things, to his various orchestral and chamber-music experiences with Penta\u00e8dre that Marsolais was able to build his enviable versatility. So much so that he estimates he has performed 90 percent of the French-horn repertoire that\u2019s commonly played.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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