Maxence Larrieu (F)

Maxence Larrieu, flute

Maxence Larrieu was born in Marseille on October 27th 1934. He’s one of the best representative men of the French flute school. He was taught by Joseph Rampal and belongs to the Rampal’s flute school, with Jean-Pierre Rampal and Alain Marion.
He obtains the first flute prize with Gaston Crunelle (1951), and also the chamber music first prize of the National Superior Music College of Paris (1953). He also won the first prize of the international competition of Geneva, and was graduate from the international competition of München (1956).
From 1954 to 1966, he wase a solo flautist for the Comic Opera of Paris, and then for the Paris Opera’s orchestra until 1978.
He left this post to follow the virtuoso lesson at the National Music College of Geneva, and also at the National Superior Music College of Lyon.
A lot of composers wrote for him :
– Serge Lancen : Concerto « Monologue » for solo flautist (1962)
– Marcel Landowski : creation in Bordeaux of his “concerto” with Jean-François Paillard’s orchestra (1968)
– Jean Rivier : « Voltige » for solo flautist (1970)
– Marc Carles : piece for solo flautist
– Lionel Rogg : suite for solo flautist (1999)
Maxence Larrieu played many times in concert Francis Poulenc’s Sonata with the composer. He also recorded at Grange de Meslay “Aubade”, by Francis Poulenc, withSviatoslav Richter and the Jean-François Paillard’s chamber orchestra.
Some exceptional concerts :
– All Mozart’s concertos, with Clara Haskil playing piano and “Lamoureux Orchestra” directed by Igor Markevitch (1960)
– Norma / Bellini with Maria Callas, Maxence Larrieu was “first flute” of the Paris Opera’s orchestra, directed by Georges Prêtre (May / June 1964)
– Ballet show on Vivaldi’s music with dancers from Paris’ Opera at the Champs-Elysées’ theater, organized by Henri-Jacques Coudert (1975)
– “Sequenza I”, work of art for solo flautist, creation of a ballet of the Paris’ Opera scene with dancers from Paris’s Opera under the direction of Luciano Berio (1976)
– The “Brandebourgeois Concertos” at Pleyel Paris auditorium, with Zagreb’s and Henryk Szernyng’s soloists, under the direction of Antonio Janigro (1980)
He played with the best orchestras of the world (I Musici, English Chamber Orchestra, The Zagreb’s soloists…) and especially with Jean-François Paillard’s Chamber Orchestra, with who he gave more than five hundred concerts, and recorded about thirty times.
He recorded about a hundred records, more particularly with orchestras from Prague, Munich, Cologne, Monte Carlo, I Musici, “l’Ensemble Instrumental” of France, Orchestra of Sarre, Philharmonic of Turin, and had fifteen “records bigprizes”.
His concerts and records partners are : Arthur Grumiaux, Rafael Puyana, Bruno Canino, Gabriel Tacchino, Suzanna Mildonian, Maurice André, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Lili Laskine…
He played at Lincoln Center with the Chamber Orchestra of New York, Lili Laskine, Robert Veyron-Lacroix and Maurice André. He’s invited to music festivals in Osaka, Montreal, Sydney, Aix-en-Provence, Salzburg, Prague, Bratislava, Roma, Barcelona and Prades.
Since 1964, he’s also regularly invited to Japan, Corea, China, USA and all over Europe for master classes (Juilliard school, Yale, Royal Academy of London, Milan, Nice…) and concerts. Maxence Larrieu was a member of the jury for different competitions: Kobé, Carl Nielsen, Munich, Prague and Budapest. He was president of the Jean-Pierre Rampal’s competition in 2001.
He’s now the artistic leader of the season of concerts at the abbey of “San Futtuoso di Camogli Ligurie”, which takes place in July and August every year since 1993.

Benoit Wery , Harp and composer

Gold medalist of the National Music School of Lille and then unanimously named as the winner of the first prize at the National Music School in Paris, Benoit gave his first recital at the age of 11.

Thanks to the advice and help of Lili Laskine , Benôit Wery made his true debuts as a concert performer in Helsinki and became a prizewinner at the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation. After this he was a prizewinner at the G. Cziffra Foundation and gave a performance with this great pianist (who played in the first half) in the Auditorium F. Liszt of Senlis, he also played a series of concerts in Hungary at the Budapest Spring festival.

After this he was invited to play in at the Toulouse Festival, Nancy, Lille, Aix en Provence and in the World Harp Congress.

In Paris he performed at the Salle Gaveau, in the Chatelet Theater, and at La Salle Cortot.

Internationally ,ten or more European  countries have invited him to play, also Turkey, Brazil, Egypt, and Hong Kong. In Japan he did a few tours, one of which included the Harp festival of Tokyo, in the presence of the empress Michiko who praised his performance in the Japanese press.

Benôit Wery received a “5 diapason” for his recording of his CD dedicated to French music.

He twice recorded flute and harp with Maxence Larrieu, with whom he has given Mozart’s double concerto K299 at the Salle Gaveau accompanied by the Pasdeloup orchestra.

He has also recorded Reinecke’s harp Concerto with the Guard of the Republic Symphony Orchestra, and Mozart’s concerto for Flute and Harp with Royal Orchestra of Wallonie, (conductor Phillippe Bender), also a CD of French music for Violin and Harp and a CD of lyrical texts read and played with the actress M-C Barrault.

Quite a  few works are dedicated to him ( J-M Damase, J Casterède, H. de Luze…), he has composed collections for the use of young harpists, virtuosity studies, concert works ( sonatas, suites etc) and one concerto for the Celtic harp.

The St Petersburg International Competition ordered a special piece for Harp solo, and the Shanghai State Orchestra a harp concerto.

Recently Benôit has played a few times at L’Eglise de la Madeleine in Paris, various concertos with The French Chamber Orchestra and the National Police Orchestra, also in St Petersburg, Russia, and in Japan.