Jardin partagé

A three-voice reading of Alexandre Tharaud's book *Touché*, an account of his childhood, of the figures who inspired him and of his apprenticeship at the piano, alternates with pieces by three of his favourite composers.

The Quatuor Arod, which won the prestigious Concours de l’ARD in 2016, plays as a prelude to this concert held under the sign of friendship. The programme opens with Beethoven's String Quartet No.

4, a work that was well received in its day, something that irritated the rarely satisfied composer. French music follows, with Debussy's Sonata for Violin and Piano, a score of fanciful exuberance, then Ravel's dazzling Tzigane, one of his most deliberately virtuoso pages.

Franck's Quintet brings a monumental conclusion: dramatic, highly expressive music that did not much please its dedicatee, Camille Saint-Saëns. Debussy swept those reservations aside, hearing in it ‘real music’.