Lachert, Piotr de Peslin: Concerto Sereno, for Piano 4 Hands and Orchestra

Piotr Lachert (Piotr de Peslin Lachert, 1938–2018), born in Warsaw, came from a German-French family established in Poland since the 18th century. He became a Belgian citizen in 1977 and lived in Italy from 1992 until his death in Pescara on 18 September 2018. The first piano lessons Lachert received were from his mother, Hanna Lachertowa. He then studied piano with Jan Ekier (Warsaw), Vlado Perlemuter (Paris), and Reimar Dahlgruen (Hannover). At the Conservatoire de Bruxelles, he studied chamber music and conducting. He was a self-taught composer and was influenced by artistic contacts with Karol Goeyvaerts, Boguslaw Schaeffer, Maurice Béjart, Bob Wilson, and John Cage. Until 1971 Lachert was a classical piano soloist, often playing duets with his sister, violinist Hanna Lachert. Thereafter, he worked as a performer, pianist, conductor and director, all within the context of contemporary music.

In 1972 he founded and directed for 20 years the Théâtre Européen de Musique Vivante, a musical theatre ensemble based in Brussels. The first “repertoire” of this group was happenings, workshops, multimedia performances, action music, and improvisations. In 1973 he re-discovered the clavichord, an instrument with which he developed a distinctive modern performance practice. He composed for amplified clavichord, writing many pieces for Annette Sachs. In 2014, Lachert brought attention to the ancient Chinese instrument the Guzheng, little known in Europe. For the Italian performer of this instrument, Cecilia Bielanski, Lachert composed pieces written in the tradition of European music. Lachert’s compositions were performed in more than 70 festivals and cycles of New Music concerts, and were played by about 60 chamber music ensembles and orchestras, and more than 300 soloists.

From 1972 to 1976 he worked on electronic, concrete, and acousmatic music in the studio Métamorphoses d’Orphée in Laine (Brussels). Lachert was one of the first composers to write in the “new consonant music” style. In 1976 he created “méthode créative”, a new method for teaching piano, based on controlled improvisation and graphic notation. Its first edition was published by Baerenreiter Verlag (Kassel / London). In 1979 Editions Jobert Paris published Lachert’s “Cartes” for violin and piano, one of the first European compositions in the style of repetitive music.

Between 1981 and 1984, in cooperation with computer programmer Robert Marchal, Lachert created “Letter Music”, a computer-assisted composition system. Lachert was one of the creators and leaders of Jeunesses Musicales de la Pologne (1956 – 1960). Lachert was the director of “New Music for New Pianists”, an international piano competition held five times between 1987 and 1998, in Brussels, Belgium; Pescara, Padova; and Latina, Italy. Between 1997 and 2005 he was the director of the five “Città di Pescara” Awards, an international composition competition in Pescara, Italy. In 2011-2012, together with Jörg Grünert and Alessandra Fol, Lachert organized three sessions of GRAFIMUSE: a visual art competition with works made only by professional musicians. The competitions, held in Pescara and Fermo, Italy, and Sofia, Bulgaria, included audience participation where they would improvise music as if the pictures were graphic scores.

In 1988 Lachert became the artistic director of “Alain Van Kerckhoven, éditeur” (Brussels), a publishing house devoted to New Consonant Music. In 1992 together with Valentina Chiola, Lachert founded the music publishing house “Chiola Music Press” (CMP), now known as “Consonant Music Press.” The press specialises in New Consonant Music.

Lachert taught piano at the Liceum Muzyczne in Warsaw, Poland; the Conservatory in Brussels, Belgium; and Accademia Musicale Pescarese in Pescara, Italy. He was a juror in many piano and composer competitions.