{"id":5898,"date":"2017-01-18T14:45:13","date_gmt":"2017-01-18T22:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=5898"},"modified":"2017-12-20T15:40:43","modified_gmt":"2017-12-20T23:40:43","slug":"young-frenchman-old-spanish-soul-thibaut-garcia-draws-inspiration-from-many-cultures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/young-frenchman-old-spanish-soul-thibaut-garcia-draws-inspiration-from-many-cultures\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Frenchman, Old Spanish Soul: Thibaut Garcia Draws Inspiration From Many Cultures"},"content":{"rendered":"
From the Winter 2016 issue of Classical Guitar<\/em> | BY BLAIR JACKSON<\/h6>\n

When 22-year-old French guitarist Thibaut Garcia strides onto the stage of the concert hall at Metropolitan State University in Denver, Colorado, for an afternoon recital at the Guitar Foundation of America\u2019s annual convention, he has a spring in his step and seems to be brimming with confidence. And when the first-prize winner of the 2015 GFA competition in Oklahoma City jumps right into late-Baroque composer Sylvius Leopold Weiss\u2019 six-movement Sonata no. 29 in A minor<\/em> (\u201cL\u2019infid\u00e9le\u201d) for lute, beautifully negotiating the piece\u2019s many moods and tempos, it is clear that Garcia\u2019s self-assurance is well-placed. At the conclusion of the work, the nearly full hall explodes with enthusiastic applause.<\/p>\n

As he traverses several similarly challenging, thoughtful, and thematically varied pieces over the next 45 minutes, a relaxed but focused Garcia continues to show why he has been widely hailed as one of the most promising young contemporary guitarists. Aire Vasco<\/em>, by Spanish composer Antonio Jim\u00e9nez Manj\u00f3n (1866\u20131919; he was a major inspiration to Miguel Llobet) feels deep and expressive. He makes a change in the program to accommodate two of Llobet\u2019s charming Canciones Populare Catalonas<\/em>\u2014\u201cEl testament d\u2019Am\u00e8lia\u201d and \u201cEl noi de la Mare.\u201d Joaqu\u00edn Rodrigo\u2019s darkly powerful homage to Manuel de Falla, Invocaci\u00f3n y Danza<\/em> (premiered by Alirio Diaz in 1961), can be daunting to even the best guitarists, with its bracing mixture of harmonics, big chords, tremolo passages, and contrasting traditional-Spanish and modern textures, but Garcia makes it all sound effortless.<\/p>\n

The set\u2019s real tour de force, though, is the concluding suite by Astor Piazzolla, Las 4 Estaciones Porte\u00f1as (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires)<\/em>. Garcia elects to start with \u201cOto\u00f1o Porte\u00f1o\u201d (\u201cAutumn,\u201d listed third in the program) with its jumping nuevo tango<\/em>\u2013ish figure, and then proceeds with \u201cInvierno\u201d (\u201cWinter\u201d; it\u2019s the quietest and most balladic of the four), followed by \u201cPrimavera\u201d (\u201cSpring\u201d) and \u201cVerano\u201d (\u201cSummer\u201d)\u2014the last two clearly related in approach and sound to \u201cOto\u00f1o.\u201d All four sections feature interesting rhythm and tempo shifts, as well as sonorous lyrical passages and contrasting moments of brooding intensity and\/or sensuality. Garcia handles the piece\u2019s varying shades with great skill and sensitivity, and he is rewarded at the end with a thunderous standing ovation.<\/p>\n

The following afternoon, Garcia and I meet in the concert hall\u2019s hospitality area, at the close of his day judging the juniors competition. I ask him how playing a concert at GFA compares to being in the competition the previous year. \u201cCompetitions always are difficult because even if you\u2019re enjoying yourself onstage, you\u2019re being judged,\u201d the young Frenchman replies. \u201cYesterday was much more comfortable for me. It was a great audience and I felt welcomed; I really enjoyed it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia doesn\u2019t play as many competitions as some\u2014\u201cone or two a year, max\u201d\u2014choosing his spots carefully, based in part of the required repertoire and the amount of freedom that the contestants are allowed. Even in competitions, though, Garcia tries to \u201ctreat it like a performance. The first prize [at GFA] is something like 50 or 60 concerts [an extensive tour of the U.S. and Canada the following year, organized by GFA] so you must be a concertiste<\/em>. And you don\u2019t become a concertiste<\/em> the day after your first prize; you should be one before<\/em> it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t change the way I play for the judges,\u201d he continues. \u201cI believe that if I\u2019m convinced by what I do, other people will be convinced, too. If I do things just to make the judges like me, but I\u2019m not convinced, it won\u2019t work. I want the jury and the public to like me for what I am. I always try to play natural.<\/p>\n

\u201cJuries are very complicated to understand. I\u2019ve participated in three juries and each time it\u2019s been a different experience. But one thing I\u2019ve seen is that the man or woman who has some personality and gives us that\u2014that\u2019s interesting. That is what we\u2019re looking for. Not just for someone who doesn\u2019t make any mistakes. Of course you must play well, but we want someone who does something convincing and is musical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia grew up in Toulouse, in southwestern France, the son of a French mother and a father with a Spanish heritage. \u201cMy father played the guitar as an amateur, and my mother loved music, too,\u201d Garcia says. \u201cMy father is passionate about the guitar and he loved Julian Bream, Presti-Lagoya, and John Williams, so before playing the guitar, I heard recordings. I liked them very much and I loved hearing my father play\u2014he would play [Isaac Alb\u00e9niz\u2019s] Asturias<\/em>, [Agust\u00edn Barrios\u2019] La Catedra<\/em>l, Villa-Lobos.<\/p>\n

So I asked them to teach me but they couldn\u2019t because they didn\u2019t know how to teach, so finally I went to a little music school. I remember the first year, when the teacher gave me one little piece\u2014two lines\u2014I played the three, four, five lines after it. I liked to play on my own. No one told me, \u2018You must do this, you must do that.\u2019 I wanted to do things on my own.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember the Pujol method; I made all the scales with each finger\u2014this week it\u2019s i m<\/em>, next week it\u2019s m a<\/em>; it was a very traditional approach, but good. I played Gaspar Sanz music, Villa-Lobos; also very traditional. Later on, after I really discovered the big world of the guitar, I found new pieces. But I still like a lot of the old guitarists. Like [French guitar legend] Ida Presti\u2014when you hear recordings of her when she was 13, she sounds like she was 40. It\u2019s awesome; it inspires me so much!\u201d<\/p>\n

Beginning at age seven, Garcia studied chamber music and classical guitar and by the time he was 16 he had migrated north to the Conservatoire National Sup\u00e9rieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), studying with Olivier Chassain and earning his Bachelor of Arts with honors. Soon after, he started entering major competitions, notching several victories in Spain, as well as ones in Germany and Romania. Much of Garcia\u2019s repertoire is Spanish or at least Spanish-influenced, yet he says, \u201cI feel French totally, but there is something of Spain in me because of my father and also because Spain welcomed me even more than France at the beginning. My first concerts were in Spain, and I play there almost every year. But I don\u2019t think because you\u2019re from Spain or Spanish you play better Spanish music than other musicians do. Even where I\u2019m from in France there is much Spanish influence. There\u2019s an expression: \u2018The bull of Spain put his horn in the south of France, in Toulouse.\u2019 A lot of Spanish [people] came to the south of France to escape [Spanish dictator] Franco, and there are flamenco festivals and some Spanish food.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Garcia\u2019s newly released CD, Leyendas<\/a><\/em><\/strong> (\u201cLegends\u201d), on Warner Classics\u2019 Erato imprint, consists entirely of Spanish and South American repertoire. Three of the pieces he played at the GFA concert\u2014the Piazzolla, the Manjon, and the Rodrigo\u2014are joined by a pair of classical-guitar repertoire warhorses\u2014Albeniz\u2019s Asturias<\/em> and Francisco T\u00e1rrega\u2019s Recuerdos de la Alhambra<\/em>\u2014and the less-played (but still popular) Sevilla<\/em> by T\u00e1rrega and Falla\u2019s Siete canciones populares espa\u00f1iolas<\/em> (on which Garcia is joined by cellist Edgar Moreau, an Erato labelmate).<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted the album to be full of energy, sun, emotion, and tenderness, exploring the repertoire that has nourished me from an early age,\u201d Garcia said in a publicity release about the album. \u201cMost of the repertoire on the album evokes places in which I have travelled extensively\u2014from Seville and Granada to Buenos Aires, by way of the Basque country and the Asturias. That enables me to bring a personal character to each piece, as if every page were part of my travel diary.\u201d<\/p>\n