Volodia Van Keulen and Philippe Hattat

Cellist Volodia Van Keulen and pianist Philippe Hattat build a recital around music by Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt, interspersed with texts by George Sand. The alternation gives spoken language and instrumental phrasing equal weight, allowing one art form to alter how the next is heard. Chopin and Liszt belong to the Romantic world in which Sand wrote and formed important artistic relationships. Her words therefore supply more than a literary pause; they restore a cultural conversation among music, authorship and personal expression. At Espace PITA in Bourges, the pairing brings an international repertoire into direct contact with the Berry memory of one of France’s defining writers at close range.