Jean-François Zygel: “In Toulouse, my inspiration is stimulated at every step”
Although Parisian, he is in Toulouse at home: Jean-François Zygel, this crazy about music and cinema, offers two concerts in quick succession during the Toulouse Festival, Tuesday July 19 in solo at the Cinémathèque and Wednesday 20 in duo with André Manoukian garden Raymond-VI.
Tuesday July 19, Jean-François Zygel will be at the Cinémathèque for a “musical tribute to the Pink City”; the second Wednesday 20 at the Jardin Raymond-VI, for a “duel and duo” with another fond of musical improvisations, André Manoukian.
You often come to play in Toulouse: is it a musical city, as people say they are photogenic?
Toulouse is my favorite city, where I always feel welcomed, where my inspiration is stimulated at every step. All sensations, images, words, emotions are transformed in my head into music… It is this alchemy that I propose to the public to share this July 19 by drawing up a true “musical portrait” of the Pink City.
What are your most significant musical memories in Toulouse?
Difficult to answer you! I have moving, almost intimate memories of the Salle Bleue in rue Croix-Baragnon, of the many film concerts and shows that I was able to give at the TNT (now the Théâtre de la Cité), of my concerts at the Halle aux grains in the company of ONCT musicians, not forgetting the original projects concocted for the Toulouse Festival in the summer, the Moondog season, the Saint-Pierre-des-Cuisines auditorium or the Cinémathèque…
You perform at the Toulouse Festival at the Cinémathèque, you who have often set classics of the 7th art to music. Music and cinema go hand in hand, what do you think they bring to each other?
Silent cinema remains for me the golden age of the history of cinema, a time when cinema was a performing art, a living art, mixing direct music and projection.
Tell us about the concert you are going to present to the people of Toulouse: what themes will you tackle?
Well, I’m going to draw inspiration from my wanderings in the city, from images or panoramas that have struck me, from olfactory or gustatory sensations… As it’s improvised, I don’t know yet what I’ll be playing, but this will be a recital entirely designed for and with the spectators present, that’s for sure!
Will improvisation have its place there, as it often does? What is the share of work upstream of a successful improvisation?
My recital on July 19, like my concert with André Manoukian on July 20, will make a lot of room for improvisation. You know, for me, improvising on the piano is as natural as talking! But beware, improvisation cannot be improvised: it is of course because you have worked upstream that you are able to indulge in inspiration at the time.
Do you see yourself as a “transmitter”, a transmitter of knowledge and emotions?
I think we have to bring people into the studio of great composers as one enters the laboratory of a great cook, reveal the secrets to them, teach them to listen to all the nuances and all the subtleties. We only have one life, it’s such a shame to deprive ourselves of all the great masterpieces of classical music!