Bon vent (2018)

Bon vent! dit Suzanne Gessner souvent à ses élèves au lieu de au revoir ou bonne chance – en les envoyant avec bienveillance vers les nouvelles aventures musicales.

Quand Xavier Delette, le directeur de CRR de Paris, m’a proposé de la saluer avec ma musique, l’ambiance ensoleillée et optimiste de ces mots m’ont inspiré pour cette pièce, en imaginant un vent, souvent léger et souple, mais parfois aussi plus grave ou impétueux, qui a porté tant des jeunes musiciens vers leur futur.

Et j’étais heureuse de me retrouver avec Aliisa autour de ce projet, ainsi devenu notre cadeau commun:

Chère Suzanne, Bon vent!

Kaija Saariaho
Paris, le 16 juin, 2018

Bon vent! (fair winds!) is a phrase often used by Suzanne Gessner to her students, instead of goodbye or good luck, when sending them out kindly towards new musical adventures.

When the director of CRR, Xavier Delette, proposed that I celebrate Suzanne’s career with my music, the sunny and optimistic atmosphere of these words inspired me for this piece, imagining a wind, often light and flexible, but sometimes also more heavy or impetuous, carrying so many young violinists towards their future.

And happily I could work on this project with Aliisa, one of those students, which thus became our common gift:

Dear Suzanne, Fair winds!

Kaija Saariaho
Paris, 16 June 2018

Suzanne Gessner (1952–2020) was an important and much-loved French violin pedagogue. The piece was written for her retirement festivities and premiered at that occasion on 16 June 2018 at the Auditorium Marcel Landowski, Conservatoire Rayonnement Regionale de Paris (CRR), given by Aliisa Neige Barrière, violin.