Hôtel Palladia and the Orchestre de chambre de Toulouse

These Sunday gatherings can be accompanied by a gourmet lunch

Free OCT concert, an anthology of works from every era.By reservation only

You are bound to know all these tunes!

They have been used in so many films and advertisements that you are bound to have heard them, perhaps without knowing who composed what.There is nothing shocking about this practical use of music. Since the dawn of time, music has made people dance and accompanied the stories that human beings like to tell one another… or, more disturbingly, given them courage in battle. In a less warlike register, how many joggers, male and female, will only run while listening to music through an earpiece? Music holds a hypnotic power that is tempting to use, and when a tune is particularly successful it lodges itself lastingly in our psyche. Baroque composers, roughly between 1550 and 1750, even theorised this use, asserting that music expressed our « passions », even though they disagreed among themselves about the number and nature of those passions.All the same, the manipulative capacity of music should not be exaggerated: it only works if you agree to give in to it and let yourself go!

Originally dedicated to another violinist, Beethoven’s sonata was in the end inscribed to the towering French composer and violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer. By a twist of fate, Kreutzer never played it: like so many of his contemporaries, he thought the work far too demanding for audiences. Yet it now stands among Beethoven’s most frequently performed pieces — at least in its violin-and-piano version. It was Beethoven himself who made the version for strings that we present to you here. As we have so often shown you over the past 20 years, transcription is an integral part of the creative process…so much so that, as here, composers transcribe themselves! A “precious” view of music would have us believe that whatever was conceived for one instrument could never be played on another, and that a transcription is no more than a makeshift. Yet the whole history of music proves the opposite, so much so that the transcribed version is sometimes far finer than the original.It is hard to speak of Beethoven without mentioning Mozart, even though the latter never recognised the genius of the former. In the original version of this “concertante”, Mozart himself often took the principal viola part. Here too, these great composer-performers of centuries past were far more adventurous than we tend to imagine. Mozart and Beethoven…does the label “classical” really suit them so well after all? We see them rather as creators able to upset every convention! Judge for yourself!

Originally dedicated to another violinist, Beethoven’s sonata was in the end inscribed to the towering French composer and violinist Rodolphe Kreutzer. By a twist of fate, Kreutzer never played it: like so many of his contemporaries, he thought the work far too demanding for audiences. Yet it now stands among Beethoven’s most frequently performed pieces — at least in its violin-and-piano version. It was Beethoven himself who made the version for strings that we present to you here. As we have so often shown you over the past 20 years, transcription is an integral part of the creative process…so much so that, as here, composers transcribe themselves! A “precious” view of music would have us believe that whatever was conceived for one instrument could never be played on another, and that a transcription is no more than a makeshift. Yet the whole history of music proves the opposite, so much so that the transcribed version is sometimes far finer than the original.It is hard to speak of Beethoven without mentioning Mozart, even though the latter never recognised the genius of the former. In the original version of this “concertante”, Mozart himself often took the principal viola part. Here too, these great composer-performers of centuries past were far more adventurous than we tend to imagine. Mozart and Beethoven…does the label “classical” really suit them so well after all? We see them rather as creators able to upset every convention! Judge for yourself!

Concert only: 25 eurosConcert & lunch: 55 euros