Piéchaud will hold a concert at Mazda Hall on Saturday.French pianist and music composer Robert Piéchaud harbours a keen interest towards silent films. He has assembled and performed cine concerts on silent films by Charlie Chaplin, Carl Theodor Dreyer, Kenji Mizoguchi and Joseph F Keaton at the Louvre.
Piéchaud, who is researching in the archives of the National Film Archive of India (NFAI), is also working towards creating a repertoire of cine concerts with Indian silent films. The project is supported by the French Institute in India, the Alliances Françaises Pune and NFAI-NFDC.
“I visited India two years ago just before the pandemic. It was then the idea of the project with Indian silent films came to me. I have already worked on cine concerts with French, American as well as Japanese silent movies and wanted to make an attempt with Indian silent films. While the pandemic muted the
plan for two years, I was excited to get back to the project,” said Piéchaud.
With the assistance of the film restoration department of NFAI, Piéchaud watched silent films by Dadasaheb Phalke, Baburao Painter, Kanjibhai Rathod, PV Rao and Ganpatrao Pawar in the form they are preserved in the archives. Citing the example of Kaliya Mardan, the 1919 Indian silent film directed by Phalke, he said the film evokes sentiments of childhood innocence, fun and mischief.
Piéchaud, an expert in music technology, in association with MakeMusic and IRCAM, will pair up with saxophonist Stan De Nussac to choreograph cine concerts with a clever assembly of French and Indian silent films coupled with music on instruments like the piano and the saxophone.
“It is a project in its nascent stages and there is a lot to be done. Much of my work in cine concerts is through improvisation. Along with Stan, I expect to construct the programme with a convergence of Indian and French silent films, along with the music composed by us…We hope to showcase it in late 2023… the programme will allow people to experience and look at silent films in a totally different way,” he said.
Piéchaud will hold his very first concert in India at Mazda Hall in Pune on Saturday. “I am looking forward to giving the audience an experience of the kind of work I do. I believe that the Indian audience is very warm and welcoming compared to the ever-critical French audience. While the cine concert with Indian silent films is an ongoing work, I would attempt to demonstrate an improv for the audience at the concert,” he said.