Mu­si­cal rea­ding by Frédé­ric Pa­jak and Mat­hil­de Pes­ki­ne

If Friedrich Nietzsche writes several times that “life without music is only an error”, it is because the philosopher calls himself a musician above all, and a philosopher because a musician. He himself was a remarkable pianist, gifted at improvisation, and composer of lieder, sonatas and a symphonic poem, with youthful and melancholy tones, where nothing ever seems finished. Music permeates his existence and his thought even in the inflections of his writing. While he declared the death of God, intractable solitary, visionary and slayer of nihilism, Nietzsche wishes to bring about the birth of a new world, inspired by a new aesthetic which can only be, according to him, musical. This music of the future, saving, would be Mediterranean, "Dionysian", the antipodes of the great German music, in particular that of Wagner, to be sought in the ancient choirs of ancient Greece. In this musical reading of his latest work Nietzsche at the piano (Black on White, 2024), Frédéric Pajak, accompanied by pianist Mathilde Peskine, looks at the philosopher's tormented passion for music. Between the words and the notes, a singular Nietzschean utopia emerges, a quest over a life of struggle, moving and tragic. Frédéric Pajak, born in Suresnes, in Ile-de-France in 1955, is a writer, designer, editor and filmmaker, director of three documentary films. Author of around thirty works translated into several languages, he made himself known with L'immense solitude, inventing an original form where text and drawing clash by uniting. His project The Uncertain Manifesto, in nine volumes, earned him the Prix Médicis for the essay, the Prix Goncourt for the biography, the Swiss Grand Prix for literature and the Flaubert Prize. For twenty years, he has directed Cahiers Dessinés, a publishing house dedicated to drawing in all its forms. Curator of several exhibitions, he also regularly exhibits his drawings in France and abroad. He is, with Vera Michalski, the founder of the Arles Drawing Festival. Mathilde Peskine, born in Paris in 1969, studied music in Norway and France, where she also pursued architecture studies at the same time. In 1997, she met the Brazilian pianist Sonia Rubinsky, thanks to whom she began a series of concerts in both recital and chamber music. For more than twenty years, she taught both piano and chamber music to children. In 2016, she opened a first music studio in Paris, then two others in 2021. The L'Accord Perfect studios have since welcomed hundreds of musicians for lessons, rehearsals, masterclasses and concerts. In 2019, she created the Musique au Pressoir en Touraine festival, which combines music, images, text and local gastronomy. Musical program: Ludwig van BeethovenSonata Op. 26 1st movement Robert SchumannThe prophet birdIntermezzo from the Vienna Carnival Frédéric ChopinNocturne Op. 15 n°2 Richard Wagner / Franz LisztDeath of Isolde Georges BizetCarmen (extracts) Friedrich NietzscheHeldenklageDa geht ein BachIm Mondschein