Claude DEBUSSY: Préludes, Book 2, L. 123: No. 2 Feuilles mortes – Préludes, Book 1, L. 117: No. 7 Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest – Préludes, Book 1, L. 117: No. 6 Des pas sur la neige – Préludes, Book 2, L. 123: Feux d’artifice – Préludes, Book 1, L. 117: No. 10 La cathédrale engloutie – Olivier MESSIAEN: Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus: No. 13 Noël – Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus: No. 11 Première communion de la Vierge – Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus: No. 12 La parole toute puissante – Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus: No. 5 Regard du Fils sur le Fils

Alice Ader, Piano

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Claude DEBUSSY

“And all this bright and gray wilderness where butterflies call, almost mixed in with the vegetal consciousness of sweet-smelling grasses, forms a kind of great sundial constantly offering the sum of its hours to a rich oblivion; in such places does one linger?… One lasts. Unoccupied but blissful, we discover a slow permanence of the heart, sheltered from all gain and loss.”

This text by Rilke could easily be the frontispiece to Claude Debussy’s entire oeuvre; an oeuvre which seems to resonate with the echo of a magic wand’s first stroke – so that whatever inhabits his work seems eternally suspended without ceasing to move. In this music, the evolution is not linear; the elements proliferate in a mass of moments which seem to have no beginning and which are on the point of ending, swept away by the wind or worn down by silent water, exploding into a thousand flames or swallowed by a cloud.

This is perhaps most noticeable in the twenty-four Preludes for piano (1909-1915) where the poetic beings which inhabit Debussy’s world are most vividly evoked: elves, fairies balancing on a spider’s web or on a cloud, drops of water trembling on blades of grass, the dreaming air, white processions seen in the distant sky, cries of the hunt lost deep in the forest; and clouds once again, ‘the passing clouds up there, the marvelous clouds…'”.

Olivier MESSIAEN

The “Twenty Looks at the Infant Jesus”, dedicated to Yvonne Loriod, were written between the 23rd of March and the 8th of September 1944.

“In this work,” writes Messiaen, “I have sought a mystical language of love, simultaneously varied, powerful and tender, sometimes brutal, with multicolored arrangements.” — “Messiaen requires this mystical, symbolic language from plainsong, melody, harmony, from aggregates sometimes consonant, sometimes exasperated, from Hindu rhythm, and from birdsong.” (Norbert Dufourcq)

These four Looks – Christmas, the Virgin’s First Communion, the Almighty Word, Look of the Son upon the Son – bring us joy, a gaze of tenderness, the power of a rhythm of total freedom, a silent space populated with birds.

Alice ADER

Born in Paris on March 23, 1945, Alice Ader studied under Jacques Février and Bruno Seidlhofer. She has received several awards including:

First Prize (by unanimous decision of the Jury) at the Conservatoire National Supérieur of Paris in 1963. She was a ‘Lauréate’ of the Marguerite Long International Competition in 1967.

She received the ‘Reifeprüfung’ diploma from the Viennese ‘Académie für Musik und Darstellende Kunst’ (with congratulations from the Jury) in 1970.

Miss Ader is a frequent guest artist in her native land as well as internationally in Germany, Austria, Great Britain, and other countries.

Her performances have been broadcast by radio and television from Salzburg, Munich, and Lisbon. She performs for the ORTF and was selected as a soloist by the BBC.

While performing works from the traditional piano repertoire, Miss Ader also pursues two specialized interests: the Viennese world – with a particular interest in Brahms and Schönberg – and French composers, notably Debussy and Messiaen.

In addition, her work with period pianos, her experience with chamber music, and especially her training as an accompanist for Lieder, have all greatly contributed to the richness of her musical background.