The flawless happiness – Paris Match

The French maestro of the violin has just celebrated its 40 years.

Paris Match. You are celebrating your 40 years old. You are among the five best violinists in the world and you play with the Vienna Philharmonic. Does it make you a happy man?
Renaud Capuçon. Totally! Play with the Vienna Philharmonic is a great honor and when this morning when I arrived at the rehearsal, the musicians began “Happy Birthday”, I was very moved! Music is my dream since the age of 8, his fullness nourishes me more than the rewards, in which I see mainly encouragement. Learning fascinates me and music, it is endless. Unlike athlete, a musician is never the best.

Two virtuosos in the same family [Renaud is the brother of cellist Gauthier Capuçon] is extremely rare. Your parents were themselves musicians?
not. They just liked the music. My father worked at the Customs Directorate of Chambery, where I was born. Every year, my parents took us to the Les Arcs music festival, where we could see “real” musicians admired the “Grand Chessboard” by Jacques Chancel. I was 4 years old when I started to learn the violin and 8 when I decreed, in front of my school teacher, wanting to do my job. I left school at 14 to join the Paris Conservatoire while following my studies by correspondence. I came home every weekend with my parents and I worked my way in the train

see : Renaud Capuçon celebrates 40 years in music

“in my 18 years in my marriage to Laurence, I have not taken a vacation”

Enter to 14 years at the National Conservatory of music in Paris, it is extremely young!
I was, in fact, the youngest in a class where all my “colleagues” had 19 or 20 years! At 19, I went two years in Berlin, without speaking a word of German. While in Paris, I was part of the “elite”, the people that I ended up there all played beautifully! This is where I met Claudio Abbado and Daniel Barenboim, who I played. I was finally pushed into the deep end and my will as my energy gave me wings.

you produce worldwide. You feel that you live only to work …
And again, I reduced the pace, passing from 160 to 120 concerts a year! For a long time I accepted too much to reassure me. In my 18 years in my marriage to Laurence, I have not taken a vacation. I spent the summer giving concerts at festivals before putting the world, during the night, with musicians friends. I went on tour with Abbado in Cuba or South America …

The soloist’s fate is not it difficult to reconcile with family life?
when I was young, we often said to me: “If you want a career, you have to choose.” But I was lucky, my home, the family is sacred. My goal has always been to achieve both. What is chasing success if one fails in his private life? I do not believe in curses artist’s myth. When I was not good in my life, I was not good on stage. Even today, if I do not sleep well, I do a bad show. That’s why I force myself to an amount at least an hour before going on stage, as well as three micro-naps of twenty minutes each, in the day. The violin is played to the thousandth of a millimeter. This is the goldsmith, the slightest mistake is fatal.

Discover our entire interview in Paris Match n ° 3482 on newsstands Thursday.