Tout un monde lointain...

Nicolas Deletaille and Nathalie De Keyser will leave Brussels next September for a one-year travel along the silk road -with a cello. Nicolas Deletaille accepted to have an interview with the great Alberto Pozzi (although he wished to take a nap). Exclusive interview by Alberto Pozzi, August 14, 2003.

______________________

AP:"Tout un monde lointain...", is the title you gave to your travel's Web Site. Why did you chose this name?

N: You know, a name is a name, as says Aldo Platteau when someone asks him some clue about one of his composition's title, and in general, we would prefer not to have to find one. But a Web page without any title could be compared to a bottle without any label: it could then happen that people buy oil instead of honeyl! "Tout un monde lointain" is the name given by Henri Dutilleux for his cello concerto. The composer quote in this score excerpts from Baudelaire 's "Les fleurs du mal". "La langoureuse Asie et la brûlante Afrique, Tout un monde lointain, absent, presque défunt, Vit dans tes profondeurs, forêt aromatique! Comme d'autres esprits voguent sur la musique, Le mien, ô mon amour! nage sur ton parfum." etc. etc. You can see how appropriate is this quote for our Web Site title...

AP: The first question I would likt to ask you now is: how can you take a one-year break in the beginning of your career? Isn't it a huge commercial risk?

N: Yes. It's a commercial risk, but I think that the performer's mind must be as rich as possible; therefore, I have chosen "Tout un monde lointain...", which is the project I expect serving this objective the most. In this regard, I don't think I could gain as much staying home.

AP: Why did you chose the silk road? Have you been inspired by Yo Yo Ma's project?

N: My friend Nathalie, just returning from a three-months trip in South America and on her way to the Middle East, told me she wished to see this part of the world. I approved this idea so much that she understood she would have to carry me... Curiously, this road, where Western and Eastern worlds influenced each other in the past, crosses countries which have been more recently isolated for political or geographical reasons. I especially whished to see them. When I began to think about this project, I was not aware of Yo Yo Ma's project, but since then, I realized that this mythical silk road was in fact very popular. Moreover, Ella Maillard's hundredth anniversay this year has been celebrated by numerous publications related to her travels in these countries.

AP: Since you are talking about this legendary traveller, don't you consider that the Art of travelling evolved so much since then that travels such as those Ella Maillard did with Peter Fleming through China or with Annemarie Schwarzenbach until Afghanistan wouldn't be possible today?

N: Yes, one travels now with computer, cell phone, travel insurance, anti-malaria medication, media cover or sponsored shoes. Also, thanks to Internet, one can read Belgian newspapers, upload digital pictures on his Web Site or send newsletters from any small chinese village. But if, as you say, the Art of travelling changed, it's not the case with travel itself: one keeps the same expectations, same goals, one gets the same surprises, fullfilments or desillusions. In fact, in Ella Maillard time, people could already find her way of travelling confortable, in comparison with those of Marco Polo...

AP: Why do you take a cello? Do you expect it can be used as an universal language instrument?

N: Hahaha! I wish I could use it to improvise a visa request in E flat major? Yes, it would be so easy! Initially, the only reason why I decided to take the cello was to avoid loosing my skill. The danger was real if I didn't touch my instrument for a complete year. But, thanks to Quintus, who let me use a very solid carbon fiber cello whose sound is excellent, I developed the idea to perform in the countries I will cross, and also to try by this communicational moyen to make contacts.

Also, I am interested in general by the relation between an acoustic and its effect on a performance; I like the association between what I play and a place, its colors, its fragrance, etc.

The Fifth Bach cello solo Suite in the San Antimo Abbay (Toscan - Italy) is much more subtle and aerian before twilight than by night in a garden full of audience in France, where it dance perhaps more vigourously... I will thus be able to experiment all my cello solo repertoire in a huge range of different atmosphere's. About the cultural encounting, the meeting between Eastern and Western cultures, I don't think I can believe in it: how could I hope that somebody external to the Western written music understand it, since I observe already here around that people need so much energy to understand it, at the very core of our culture, in the tonal harmony territory, in the Bach's country?

AP: While you prepare this travel, do you however try yourself to understand the culture you will meet?

N: Of course! And the listing with the read in this purpose is longer and longer everyday.

AP: What kind of books do you read?

N: First of all, there are books written by travellers of the past, such as Marco Polo, Robert Byron or Ella Maillard; then, there are books about specific issues: about the Art of travelling or about a civilisation or about a place; finally, we have languages manuals.

AP: English is not enough for you?

N: I doubt it, but anyway, we like to learn these other languages; Nathalie work hard with the Mandarin, I try to understand Russian, and we would learn as well Farsi and Turkish languages if we had time.

AP: Are you going to write travel articles in order to finance your trip? Did you contact magazines?

N: We thought about articles, but in general one has to sell it before the departure, and that would have interfered with the daily freedom we want to preserve for ourselves: we prefer to travel for our own pleasure only, without external pressure, without public promisses. In this way also, we can avoid filling preparatory and conclusive administratory files.

AP: Do you already have lots of concerts organized?

N: I organise them as soon I become sure that I will be in a specific place at a specific moment. Since the only thing that became sure at this point is to be in Turkey in october, I am curruntly organizing concerts in Turkey. I will be able to speak better about these concerts when I'll come back next year, for your second interview...

AP: Until then, I wish you both a safe and exciting trip.

N: Thank you Mister Pozzi. Have a good year!