Czech Philharmonic ⬩ Anastasia Kobekina

“I was told in conservatory to focus on one thing. And I ignored that advice.”

The American composer and guitarist Bryce Dessner crosses and disrupts the boundaries between musical styles. He sees the future of the arts in the breaking of the bonds of genre restrictions, allowing all artists to speak in their own languages and to collaborate, crossing over between artistic fields and countries. He himself is moving towards such a future in all of the directions mentioned.

The son of a jazz musician, he began with the flute and later studied the classical guitar. Since 1999, he and his twin brother have been playing in the indie rock band The National. In 2013, he first classical album Aheym demonstrated the impossibility of classifying him. He also composes film music: he wrote soundtracks for the Oscar-winning film Revenant (2015) and for The Two Popes (2019).

Originally from Ohio, Dessner is a long-term resident of France. There, in the French Basque Country, he became a neighbour of Semyon Bychkov, to whom he dedicated the composition Mari, named for the Basque forest goddess. The Czech Philharmonic gave that work its postponed Czech premiere in December 2021.

In Dessner’s thinking, nature and creativity are closely related. He sees both as sets of mutually integrating structures. “To me, an orchestra is itself an instrument. I like the feeling of diversity and plurality in music, where you can feel a kind of vastness that is perhaps most comparable to nature. When you look at the sea or the mountains, you can perceive both a simplicity and a complexity. That’ why I like the orchestra—for the creative possibilities it offers.”

The programme also includes Métaboles, Dessner’s favourite work by Henri Dutilleux, which he characterises as a bit of musical poetry similar to the work of the French Impressionists. He also calls Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring a key influence on his music and his style.