For Gérard Lesne, a straight line is not the shortest distance between two points. This self-taught musician's tastes initially drew him towards repertoires far removed from classical or Baroque music: his eclecticism attracted him to explore rock and jazz, then electronic music.
As he met more and more musicians working in that area, he became fascinated by the medieval and Baroque repertoire. Among his earliest mentors, there was, first of all, René Clemencic who helped him discover, step by step and concert by concert, the beauty and expressiveness of Italian music. William Christie passed on to him his love of the French music of Marc-Antoine Charpentier and François Couperin. And, under the inspired direction of Philippe Herreweghe, he was initiated into the demanding world of German music and J. S. Bach.
Then came the moment to spread his wings. With his ensemble Il Seminario Musicale which he founded in 1985, he adopted a different, more intimate approach to his preferred areas of the French and Italian repertoires, with a particular predilection for the contemplative atmosphere of church music.
He and his ensemble have already recorded twenty-seven CDs, devoted to such composers as Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Alessandro Scarlatti, Caldara, Galuppi, Pergolesi, Handel, Charpentier, Couperin, Sébastien de Brossard, Clérambault, Bach, Bernier and Purcell. Many of these recordings have won prestigious prizes, including notably three Victoires de la Musique in 1993, 1995 and 1996.
In 1992, Gérard Lesne composed Tempus Fugit, a work inspired by the haiku, which he premiered with Il Seminario Musicale at the Roma-Europa festival of contemporary music in the Palazzo Farnese in Rome.
And the operatic stage? Here his initial experience came with such operas as Vivaldi's L'incoronazione di Dario and L'Olimpiade, Handel's Orlando, Alessandro Scarlatti's Narciso, Stradella's San Giovanni Battista. He sang the role of Oberon in the Opéra de Lyon production of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1998.
Since 1993 Gérard Lesne has held regular masterclasses in France (at Royaumont, Lyon, and Bordeaux) and abroad. He has recorded for Naïve since 2000.
Gérard Lesne is probably one of the classical artists best placed to encourage the building of bridges between early music and the music of today. Is he not an avowed admirer not only of Arvo Pärt, Michael Nyman and Philip Glass but also of the electronic music of Underworld, Prodigy, Chemical Brothers and Amon Tobin, not forgetting the trip-hop of Massive Attack?
Gérard Lesne's discography to date consists of some sixty recordings. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.