Laurent de Wilde, pianist – The Proust Questionnaire

Attending a concert so gigantic that you can neither hear nor see anything properly, the sort of thing that happens in a stadium.

–Where would you most like to live?

I’m happy living in Paris. I think it’s a beautiful city, creative and inspiring. Even if, as the slogan says, “the Parisian is better read than met.”

–What is your idea of earthly happiness?

Concerts, records, books, my family and friends never too far away and, come on, let’s go wild, a small house on the Breton coast to watch all four seasons pass in a single day.

–Which wrong notes do you have the most tolerance for?

I’d like to answer like Thelonious Monk: the bad wrong notes. But that would be cheating, so I’d say the ones that do not break the overall movement of the music. What is wonderful about live music, unlike painting or literature for example, is that it moves forward through time, and what has been left behind should no longer matter.

–Which fictional heroes do you prefer?

The Masked Cucumber by Nikita Mandryka. It’s a comic book character, but it still counts.

–Who is your favourite classical musician?

–Who are your favourite heroines or divas in real life?

Lady Gaga leaves me speechless. She sings and plays piano incredibly well, she’s an excellent actress, dresses impeccably, and constantly surprises me with her poise: a pure diva who somehow also feels completely down-to-earth. For me, she ticks every box. And then there is always Josephine Baker, magnificent until the very end.

–Who are your heroines in fiction?

Julia Ségovie in Le dimanche de la vie by Raymond Queneau.

–Who is your favourite painter?

Probably Mark Rothko. His colours pull me in. And also Henri Rousseau.

–Who is your favourite jazz musician?

That’s where I surrender… it’s like asking a father which child he prefers. But when it comes to jazz, I feel like saying: the next one! Thankfully, we play a music that keeps reinventing itself endlessly. Just look at Sullivan Fortner, for instance, quietly settling into a kind of evolving permanence recognised by almost everyone. And of course he’s not alone. In France too, people are queuing at the gate; the level is absolutely phenomenal.

–What quality do you most admire in a man?

Integrity.

–What quality do you most admire in a woman?

Curves.

–What is your favourite virtue?

Honesty.

–What is your favourite occupation?

Reading, laughing, playing, eating, writing, talking, sleeping, repeat.

–Who would you have liked to be?

Perhaps Louis Armstrong. An exceptional natural talent combined with an equally natural warmth, both of which changed things gently but forever. From where I stand, though perhaps I misunderstand the reality of the world, he seems to have had a beautiful life.

–What is the main trait of your character?

A need for speed.

–What do you appreciate most in your friends?

Their affection.

–Your principal fault?

Doubting everything.

–Your dream of happiness?

To doubt everything, but better, and a little less.

–Your greatest misfortune?

Not managing to do things the way I would like.

–What would you like to be?

A heating engineer or an electrician, a useful trade. I do a bit of DIY and find it deeply satisfying to repair or install something essential to everyday life. Because when it breaks, everyday life becomes hell. So thank you, plumbers and electricians.

–Your favourite colour?

Orange.

–The flower you love?

The passionflower. It’s like an interstellar spaceport for bumblebees. If I were a bee, I’d spend all my summers there.

–Your favourite bird?

The common blackbird.

–Your favourite prose writers?

Goodness, it keeps changing. But the bedrock is probably made up of French literature: Raymond Queneau, Marcel Aymé, Le Petit Nicolas, Denis Diderot, Jean Echenoz, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Honoré de Balzac, Raphaël Confiant. Foreign literature too: Mario Vargas Llosa, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Witold Gombrowicz, Robertson Davies, including American fiction, especially science fiction and crime novels: Isaac Asimov, Jim Thompson, Chester Himes. And of course comics: Daniel Goossens, Jacques Tardi, Marcel Gotlib, Nikita Mandryka, Hergé, André Franquin.

–Your favourite poets?

Arthur Rimbaud, Saint-John Perse, René Char, Guillaume Apollinaire, Stéphane Mallarmé. I’m very classical because I no longer read poetry. Which is foolish, really, because beautiful things are still being written today. It’s astonishing what one can do with only twenty-six letters and a bit of punctuation…

–Your heroes in real life?

Sonny Rollins, Herbie Hancock.

–Your heroes in history?

Denis Diderot, Leonardo da Vinci, Johann Sebastian Bach, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Hergé, Léon Theremin, Jimi Hendrix.

–Your heroes in real life?

With a capital H: those who risk their lives.

–Your favourite names?

Athanase, Raoulette, Théophraste, Puck, Mû. All of them were submitted to my wife and firmly rejected when naming our three children, who are nevertheless called Ulysses, Pannonica and Émile, which are my true favourites.

–What do you most dislike?

People who doubt nothing and take advantage of it, because apparently that kind of certainty is contagious.

–Which reform do you most admire?

Always the latest one, because reform should never stop. At the moment, the one forcing SNCF ticket inspectors to tolerate double basses aboard TGV trains.

–Which natural gift would you most like to possess?

Perfect pitch and a photographic memory.

–How would you like to die?

On stage… well, perhaps not literally, but not too far from it. In any case, not in a hospital. Though we do not get to choose.

–Your definition of jazz?

A music made together without quite knowing where it’s going, but everyone goes there anyway and is happy to do so, and you can hear it.

–Present state of mind?

Positive, and relieved to have reached the final question.

–And finally, your motto?

Prepare for the worst, but hope for the best.

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–Your Signature Tune?