June 2023

editorial

silence blossoms

Silence is the perfect conductor of noise.
Joachim Mogarra

Akselli Gallen-Kallela, lake Keitele

some ways of listening to silence in music

really listen …. give yourself time, space and good listening conditions (headphones, earphones)

here, we could say that silence holds music in suspense

Modest Moussorgsky, extract from Pictures at an Exhibition played by Ivo Pogorelich

here, the music seems to be hollowed out by silence

Joseph Haydn, adagio from sonata 46 played by Ivo Pogorelich

Silence is essential. To hear silence, to be able to play the first note. To hear the silence that precedes the first note. Because the first note of the piece doesn’t just happen. It arrives on something that has already happened.
And silence is not emptiness. And it’s the same with the end: when you play the last note, there’s something afterwards. (…) Silence doesn’t necessarily mean standing at the piano in a room and waiting ten seconds before starting to play. You can rush to the piano like Richter and, as soon as you’re seated, start playing – it’s nothing like that.
Silence is something you bear. What I mean by that is that, for me, the basis of music is silence and not sound. Sound comes from silence.

Piotr Anderszewski, pianist, Les grands Entretiens, France Culture