Gautier Capuçon: a very special recording session
Clouds drifted over London’s Henry Wood Hall on a sunless December afternoon last year. But despite the cold outside, a warm vibrance emanated from within, as the celebrated French cellist Gautier Capuçon recorded his new album. The music was by none other than the American composer Danny Elfman (The Simpsons, Beetlejuice, Batman, The Nightmare Before Christmas), including his new Cello Concerto, written for Capuçon.
In between takes, a voice bellowed out from the studio, hidden away by thick wooden doors. Grammy Award-winning producer Michael Fine proffered some pacing advice over the talk-back for the BBC Concert Orchestra on how to play with a particular ritardando. Fine’s explanation, like many wisdoms, appeared to contradict itself. ‘So, be on time but not be on time?’ Capuçon teased back buoyantly, rousing a smile from the orchestral players.
In the studio, a row of people sat alongside Fine, following and annotating the score with a cacophony of pencil scratches as he delivered his thoughts on intonation, tonal colour and balance. And among them was Elfman himself. What was notable, however, was not just how much he stayed silent and entrusted Fine and Capuçon to take the music to newfound heights; it was how the concerto pulls you right into Elfman’s instantly recognisable soundworld.
Gautier Capuçon on composer Danny Elfman
‘The most important thing is that the Cello Concerto is Danny Elfman’s music, not him trying to pretend to be someone else,’ Capuçon later explains over a Zoom call from his home in France. ‘I am so happy that you hear the first bars of the concerto and immediately recognise Elfman’s world.’ There is a tendency for film composers to morph into a different character when writing for the classical scene, he explains. ‘We’ve had some examples where film score composers would write for the concert hall and suddenly their music would change. There is no difference between classical and film music. It’s just people putting it into boxes. And there is also a thing where certain classical people say film score music is not great music. I hate this.’
One of Capuçon’s earliest encounters with Elfman’s music was in Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands, the 1990s Gothic romance starring Johnny Depp as an artificial humanoid with blades for fingertips. So, he hoped one day he would meet the person responsible for this ingenuity and ask if he would write a piece for him. ‘I always listen to film music. I thought I’d take my chance and write to him. And the next thing I know, I am meeting him in Los Angeles in the studio.’
'I thought to myself, this guy is completely crazy!'
First impressions almost compelled Capuçon to give it all up. ‘I remember the first meeting in a big studio. A member of his team opened the door and ushered me in to wait. As I waited for Danny, I looked around. I started to see strange things: hands in a box, hands in liquids – I thought to myself, “This guy is completely crazy”,’ the cellist laughs. ‘I started to be really afraid and wanted to run away.’
What started as a nervous encounter flourished into a highly collaborative relationship. The music, Elfman’s Cello Concerto in particular, is not entirely set in stone once the ink lands on the manuscript. ‘Most of the time you get given the score. You can move a few dynamics or alter a few details. But with Danny it’s continual, perpetual,’ Capuçon lights up as we talk. ‘This is fascinating because film composers are used to adapting and changing the score to the filmmaker’s vision up to the very last minute.’
Gautier Capuçon on working with composer Henri Dutilleux
For Capuçon, this marks his first time working with a composer where the collaboration knows no end. ‘Maybe even after the recording, the process will keep going.’ But has he worked with composers who are quite dogmatic about the finished product? Capuçon points to his work with one of France’s most renowned composers, Henri Dutilleux, who died at the age of 97 in 2013. ‘For five years I worked with him. He was extremely picky with every detail of his score – the atmosphere, the colour,’ Capuçon reminisces. ‘He knew exactly what he wanted.’
The first meeting with Dutilleux was for his 90th birthday for which Capuçon learned his concerto. But the composer rang him beforehand telling him not to come with his accompanist. Capuçon obliged. Shortly after, he rang again: ‘Actually, I know your work. Don’t come with your cello. We’ll just talk.’
‘Of course, I took my cello because there were things I wanted to play for him,’ Capuçon chuckles. ‘We drank whisky on Île Saint-Louis. It was only two or three o’clock in the afternoon. He loved whisky. As the day went on, I was able to take my cello out and play for him. I knew how meticulous he was. There was a passage I played for him, but I wasn’t sure if I was going in the right direction.’
The cello concerto, Tout un monde lointain..., composed in 1970, has been recorded by some of the world’s most distinguished cellists – Slava Rostropovich, for whom it was composed, Yo-Yo Ma, Steven Isserlis and Truls Mørk. Capuçon feared he couldn’t carve out his own interpretation with individuality. ‘He finally said that my playing was so convincing, he told me not to change it.’
Gautier Gapuçon on our changing environment and recording atop Mont Blanc
Our conversation moves on to how classical music can highlight our changing environment. Capuçon recorded Max Richter’s musical contribution to his 2025 Erato album Gaïa atop Mont Blanc for a music video. ‘We hear lots of figures by scientists about climate change which are terrifying – [what will happen in] five, ten or 20 years. I was very lucky to visit Mont Blanc several times. But from one year to another, it’s not just a little change,’ he warns sternly. ‘It’s metres of change, with ice melting and rocks being exposed. It’s not happening in ten or 20 years. It’s now.’
Recording the music video wasn’t just about admiring the beauty of nature, he explains, but to show with images, not figures, the damage being done to our planet. He points to Maurice Baquet, the cellist and mountaineer, as his inspiration to take on the feat of climbing Mont Blanc carrying a cello. ‘I have admired him since I was a kid. And going to Mont Blanc with my cello, just like Baquet had done in the 1950s, was something I had dreamed of doing since I was six or seven.’
'There were dangerous weather forecasts... high in the mountains there is always huge risk'
Trekking up these mountains requires luck and timing. ‘I only had two small windows because of dangerous weather forecasts – we’re talking high mountains so there was always a huge risk – and the windows were extremely thin.’ The first expedition involved skiing but, despite carrying a cello with him at all times in the Alps, he wasn’t fazed. ‘It was something which seemed much easier for me because I have been skiing since I was a child. But my mountain guides later told me that this was the most dangerous part, although I didn’t realise it at the time,’ Capuçon reflects.
Part of the Sequence for Gaïa music video shows Capuçon suspended in mid-air, playing the cello against a glorious panoramic view of the snow-covered mountains. ‘I was alone on this cable, 4,000 metres high. I was there for almost three hours. And when I put my feet on the ground again, I was in tears. It was very intense and, for me, it was important to show this together with the album.’
Gautier Capuçon... musical adventurer
It is his innate passion for adventure that compelled Capuçon to climb Mont Blanc with his cello, an already difficult ascension with basic mountaineering gear. ‘If I wasn’t a musician, I would be some kind of explorer and adventurer,’ he says. But his packed musical schedule, filled with projects, concerts and his Foundation Gautier Capuçon for young musicians, eats away at most of his time. ‘Instead, I explore every day through music. There are so many possibilities for adventure, but unfortunately life is too short. This is why it’s important to not have any regrets. To have regrets in life is a killer.’
Whenever confronted with a task, he sets out on it with full commitment. ‘Sometimes it’s hard but if I am not capable of doing something 100 or 120 per cent, then I would rather not do it. It’s important to do it fully. It’s an important philosophy I am teaching my children. With Mont Blanc, I had to wait many years. But I kept believing that one day I would achieve my ambition. Maybe next year or in a decade. But one day, I knew I would do it.’
‘Danny Elfman: Cello Concerto & Film Music’, featuring Gautier Capuçon, is due for release on Erato in November.
