Patrick Dheur (1960-)
9 Préludes pour piano
"Concerto métamorphique" pour piano à 4 mains et orchestre à cordes
Rhapsodie pour piano, op. 30 "La Salazarienne"
Ballade pour piano, op. 38
"Visions des âmes" pour piano

Patrick Dheur, piano
Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie
Frank Braley, piano, direction

Si la virtuosité de son travail d’interprète est admise, le musicien belge, formé au Conservatoire Royal de Liège (et aux Etats-Unis), laisse émerger dans ce disque intitulé, avec un certain sens de la mise en scène, "Patrick Dheur plays Patrick Dheur", une dimension moins connue de son travail, puisqu’il en compose la petite vingtaine de pièces. Il met son jeu, vivace, expressionniste et habile, au service de morceaux ancrés dans la tradition (romantique notamment) : la Rhapsodie pour piano "La Salazarienne", dédiée au basque Luis Salazar, réconcilie les deux facettes du peintre, sa fureur de vivre et son angoisse face au vide de la mort ; les Préludes pour piano racontent autant de tableaux d’un voyage musical imaginaire, allant du sombre au primesautier ; "Visions des âmes" pour piano, déroule sa forme cyclique sur quatre mouvements, écrits en l’honneur de la restauration du piano Henri Herz de 1869 conservé au Château de Modave (une manufacture de pianos renommée pour la qualité du toucher et la sonorité de ses instruments) et le "Concerto métamorphique", qui fait intervenir quatre mains sur le clavier en plus de l’Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, retrace la progression du magma à travers la roche. (Bernard Vincken)

From the very first hearing, Patrick Dheur’s music is comprehensible and reveals a personal style that attracts the attention of music lovers sensitive to the most diverse expressivities. Composed and ordered on a characteristic melodic sense, it is distinguished by forms stemming from romantic models which are linked to concrete and sometimes pictorial ideas. The personality of the pianist is in the image of his musical writing. Free from conventions, fashions and trends, he keeps the strength of traditions to adapt to the rapid evolution of ideas and technologies and to the new proposals of modern societies. The requirement of the virtuoso’s technical mastery is inseparable from the interpreter’s responsibility to the composer. In this collection dedicated exclusively to his piano music, we feel this essential conjugation between the man, the artist, the virtuoso and the composer. The fruit of a long experience acquired through his career as a concert performer in a wide variety of repertoires, his music is today of growing interest to the public as well as to numerous soloists and orchestras who find in his style a new destination for their musical development and pleasure. Patrick Dheur has also composed numerous chamber music works (trio, quartet, quintet, sextet), specific pieces for violin, flute, cello, viola, clarinet as well as Symphonies, Cantatas and Concertos for soloists and string orchestra which are regularly performed and recorded. His conceptions of the art of composition were the subject of a book entitled “Composing with the World. Seven notes to understand each other” which he wrote in 2019, published by Snel.