As a passionate chamber musician, Théo shares the stage with unconventional, even unprecedented, formations. The musical repertoire designed by clarinetist Florent Héau and Théo Ould highlights the subtle and porous border between so-called classical music and popular music.
Their program “Dance Preludes” offers an itinerant journey to the borders of these styles, when classical composers are inspired by their own roots and give birth to the spirit of dance.
Of course, we think of Bach and his Dance Suites, Brahms and Liszt with their Hungarian Dances and Rhapsodies or Granados and De Falla for the Spanish Dances. We travel east, from Lutoslawski’s Poland to Martinu’s Czech spirit, from Bartok‘s Romanian dances to the melodies of klezmer. To the west, where America under the influence of Bernstein’s jazz meets the swing of Benny Goodman. Further south, Piazzolla reinvented the tango, while Guastavino made the pampas sing and dance.
The accordion and the clarinet, nomadic instruments, meet to make us discover or rediscover this music from all over the world. The title as a preface sums up this eclectic journey as follows; Preludes to symbolize the classical side and Dances for the popular side.