It was a very colorful evening at the Maison symphonique on Wednesday, September 27. On the program: Blurr is the Color of my True Love’s Eyes, the concerto for percussion and orchestra by Quebecer Nicole Lizée (performed for the first time in Quebec), and Gustav Holst’s famous Planets. On the podium was Gemma New, a young New Zealand-born conductor currently at the helm of the Hamilton Philharmonic. The latter showed great qualities, with precise, nervous conducting and a personal commitment that went beyond her little dance steps. Her delicate physique vibrated in tune with her solid mastery of discourse and nuances, well followed by the musicians.
Lizée’s Concerto, which you are invited to get to know better by reading the interview I conducted with the composer just a few days ago, is a magnificent, organized chaos. A work bursting with ribbed textures and colors, it derives as much from the soloist’s impressive assemblage (marimba, tubular bells, xylophone, drums, synthesizer, guitar! and a host of other weirdos) as from the orchestra itself. The basic matrix is a series of constantly changing, but perpetually repeated orchestral motifs, in the style of the American minimalist school (Glass, Reich), over which, or between which, the soloist struggles to bang and clap and color the sound space in every conceivable way (He hits a guitar and, elsewhere, Brian Manker’s cello, the orchestra’s first chair!). Perhaps the balance needs fine-tuning (in the rendering? In the writing?), as some of the soloist’s interventions were occasionally lost in the orchestral mass.
Despite the bursts of timbre and sonority coming from the orchestra, the Concerto’s overall framework is pulsating, even groovy, throughout (some 30 minutes). We nod pleasantly as if we were in a tank spitting out bouncy bass. Fortunately, Lizée’s is infinitely more subtle, if resolutely felt. Let’s talk about the soloist: Colin Currie. It was he himself who premiered the work last year and who revived it here. The pleasure of the performance lies as much in the sounds he creates with his vast instrumentation, but also in the sometimes frantic runs he has to make between the parts of the set-up (placed on either side of the conductor)! Respect.
This is certainly a milestone, I think, in the still occasional repertoire of great percussion concertos. Nicole Lizée and her Blurr is the Color of my True Love’s Eyes will go down in history. I loved it, and the audience gave a long round of applause for the artists who took to the stage.
The crowd was made up of a large number of young people, which was great to see.
They were obviously from high school bands or music programs, as they were attentive and frankly impressed.
In the second half, we were treated to Holst’s lively Planets.Gemma New resumed with the same energy, launching Mars, the War Bearer.Perhaps a little too hastily, as the first few seconds seemed to veer towards loss of control.Fortunately, things settled down very quickly.The young conductor convinced the orchestra to shine, with many dynamic shifts and nuances of color and texture.I have very little to say that would bring substantial downsides to this exciting performance.
I was with my son, and we had a lot of fun. That’s how we like our symphony evenings!
The concert will be repeated in its entirety on Sunday at 2.30pm.Bring your teen, especially if he or she loves film music!
