OSM | A Morning of Lightness

by Alexis Desrosiers-Michaud

Less than twelve hours after performing a concert version of Mozart’s opera Cosi fan tutte as part of the festival of the same name, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (OSM) and Rafael Payare presented two of the composer’s last works: Piano Concerto No. 27, with Kevin Chen as soloist, and Symphony No. 41, known as the “Jupiter” Symphony.

From the very first movement of the Concerto, we sense that everything will be in finesse, even before the soloist enters. At this point, our impression is confirmed; the fingers almost float over the keyboard. A real dialogue is established between Chen and the orchestra, with whom he constantly makes eye contact. The second movement is a gentle delight that takes us elsewhere, into a plaintive, restful, almost meditative world. This excerpt, full of emotion where the notes held never die, would certainly have been the subject of a replay on a digital application.

The “Jupiter” symphony that follows follows in the same vein as the Concerto, i.e., everything is lively, lilting, rhythmic, but light-hearted. All the more so since “one of the themes of the first movement is a bass aria written for an opera by Anfossi”. There’s something lyrical about this first movement.

The third movement could have been more dance-like, in keeping with the minuet tradition. Marked Menuetto : Allegretto, it tended more towards the second part of its surtitle, with a little more gallantry than usual.

The exclamation point of this symphony is undoubtedly the final movement. Indeed, Mozart’s final symphonic page is a jewel of contrapuntal writing, with no fewer than 5 (!) themes continuing uninterruptedly. It’s a compositional tour de force, but also a challenge for the conductor, who has to balance the sound so that the whole doesn’t become a jumble, which Payare succeeds in doing brilliantly. Constantly on his toes, he keeps everything under control. He even does the long reprise, like Labadie and Nagano’s previous versions, but which is not fashionable on disc. The timpani, hidden on the right, punctuates the phrases and ends of the sections, and provides the energy for the various climaxes. A quick note to say that the concert opened with pianist Chen’s solo performance of the Fantasy in C minor K. 475. This sombre but beautiful piece had more the air of a salon piece. Not because of the interpretation, quite the contrary, but because of the slight uproar caused by the admission to the hall of the dozens of latecomers who had arrived by bus for this school morning. No doubt listening to the same concert in the evening would have been different. But there was something beautiful about seeing and hearing the OSM’s “regulars” repeatedly questioning and taking an interest in these young people from all over, some wearing a piece of clothing bearing the effigy of their music program.

Photo Credit: Antoine Saito

Contemporary Jazz / Electroacoustic / Électronique / Experimental / Contemporary / Instrumental Hip Hop

African American Sound Recordings at SAT : Noise Floor

by Loic Minty

In a world of untraceable movements, this liquid form of music is barely contained by the term “experimental.” A post hip hop posts it exists only here and now, where hip hop has become more what is felt than what is heard.

And yet it is still everything that has made it, only noisier and further away, like a signal passing through old wires. African American Sound Recordings seems to look from above at this infinite network and finds the subtle voices, like Morpheus looking through the matrix for the human heart. “Where is that noise coming from?” After 20 minutes you start forgetting, after 30 minutes it has sucked you in, and after 45 minutes you are now a part of it.

Dismantling all expectations, A.A.S.R. sculpted a form beyond music, an anthropology to black culture: from punk, to 70’s soul, to a saxophone screeching like it was cursed by the Pharoah himself. There is an authenticity and an originality in his approach that seems to have been the common thread of this evening.

Slow Pitch Sound’s turntablist approach sent the crowd into a twilight zone. Mixing like he was on a cosmic trip with Lee Scratch Perry in Studio One, his chop and screw approach reminisced of classic scratching acts such as DJ Screw, while at the same time completely renewing it in his choice of samples. Finding loops in accidental sounds, Slow Pitch Sound crafted his rhythms on the spot and had the crowd hanging on his every move. The forgotten art of turntabling showed its untapped potential as an instrument and, combined with digital tools, built a warm and distinct sound made into art by the graceful mastery of his tools.

But the most unexpected surprise of the night was Dumb Chamber’s debut performance, as he showed Montreal the shape of electronic music to come. Always bringing you somewhere new, the dense patchwork of sequences teased rhythm and built up in swells of emotive orchestrations. Somewhere between Luc Ferrari, Dean Blunt, and Oneohtrix Point Never’s “Replica”, his sound was distinguished by a soothing mix of field recordings and sensitive melodies borrowing from classical orchestration.

Dumb Chamber had a big smile on his face as he effortlessly moved between genres; even his twist at classic house held a distinctive style, as noises uttered counter-rhythms in the background. The crowd, which could have been a Ssense staff party, may not have been as warmed up for dancing, but there was the feeling of deep listening and appreciation for the passionately researched sound experiments we were witnessing.

It was one of those experiences where you walk out not quite feeling the same as you walked in. Maybe it was the wall of low frequencies that got into your bones, maybe it was from sitting on the cold concrete, but it felt like a new space opened in imagining music as a performance that I look forward to exploring.

Sylis d’or 2025 Final: Salsa Ahead of Afro-Colombian Roots and Réunionese Maloya

by Frédéric Cardin

The final evening of the Sylis d’or 2025, held last night at the Fairmount Theatre, lived up to its promise of exhilarating ambience, festive rhythms and sunny music. The three bands in attendance – Raiz Viva, Kozé and Marzos & Mateo – delivered solid performances, but with finishing touches that made all the difference.

Marzos & Mateo’s fiery salsa took the gold Syli honors, while Raiz Viva’s exhilarating roots took second place for silver, with Kozé’s Reunion maloya taking bronze.

Kozé’s uneven performance explains this third-place finish, despite a vibrant incarnation on stage of the singer and dancer who leads the charge in a Maloya style originating on Reunion Island, colored by traditional songs accompanied by percussion. While the entrance to the stage was beautiful and the finale exciting, a central episode with approximate tonalities on the part of the backing singers probably harmed the group for good. A fine-tuning that remains to be done, but the collective still has some fine moments to offer future festival-goers who will be hearing them across Quebec and Canada.

For my money, it was Raiz Viva who offered the evening’s finest combination of surprise, energy and originality. An intense, sustained thirty-minute performance, based on a rhizomic cumbia from Colombia that dares to touch on some soil close to Brazil, but also to the country adopted by the members of the group, Quebec. There’s no electrification in this hyper-efficient proposition, just traditional flutes and a heap of percussion, but a stunning sense of rhythm and a full, voluptuous occupation of sonic space, backed by catchy melodies. Superb music from which emanates a convincing authenticity. I’d like to hear this band in full concert as soon as possible. And you too.

It was to be expected that the Marzos supergroup with soloist, guitarist and singer Mateo would hit hard. 14 people on stage, if I counted correctly, with a double ration of trumpets and trombones, a powerful baritone sax, a keyboard, backing singers, a singer (excellent) in addition to the star Mateo and a bunch of percussion, that’s enough to impress. Salsa that’s fairly predictable in its deployment, but certainly packs a punch. The atmosphere was explosive, as always in the finals (and semi-finals too) of the annual Sylis.

Modern Classical / Modern Jazz / période romantique

Soir de jazz symphonique à Laval

by Alain Brunet

À travers leur vies professionnelles qu’on devine intenses, les saxophonistes Yannick Rieu et Lionel Belmondo ont mis deux ans à mettre ce programme au point : un jazz symphonique construit, aménagé et reformulé autour des compositeurs Johannes Brahms, Maurice Ravel et Lili Boulanger, soit la fin du 19^e siècle et le début du 20^eau service du jazz moderne. Malgré la tenue du débat des chefs et le match décisif du CH pour accéder aux éliminatoires de la LNH, une salle André-Mathieu bien garnie a chaudement accueilli l’exécution de ce programme.

La première intervention au programme est baignée de ces harmonies romantiques exécutées sur un mouvement lent et des notes graves. Les trois souffleurs de jazz se fondent dans l’Orchestre symphonique de Laval sous la direction de Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser. Jazzmen et interprètes classiques se fondent dans la partition, aucune improvisation n’est ici prévue.

La section rythmique sextette s’amène pour une relecture orchestrale du Nocturne de Lili Boulanger, sœur cadette de la grande pédagogue parisienne Nadia Boulanger, soeurette dont les musiques sont de plus en plus jouées, un siècle après sa disparition tragique et prématurée: Louis-Vincent Hamel, batterie, Rémi-Jean LeBlanc, contrebasse, Jonathan Cahier, piano. Le menuet en do mineur de Ravel est parfaitement propice à la jazzification. On observe déjà les croisements entre le Français Maurice Ravel et l’Américain George Gershwin, dont se sont nourris les plus grands penseurs du jazz moderne,de Bill Evans à Duke Ellington.

Cette fois, le sextette s’impose au sein de l’OSL et impose cet équilibre entre jazz moderne et musique classique moderne. Les French, très solide trompettiste australien transplanté à Montréal, prend le premier solo, suivi du pianiste Jonathan Cayer, devenu l’un des très bons jazzmen de la période actuelle sur le territoire québécois. Les deux saxophones et la trompette sont entrelardés dans certains thèmes, familiers et agréables à l’écoute.

Composé pour le piano seul, ce Menuet en ut dièse mineur de Maurice Ravel a été orchestré et arrangé par Lionel Belmondo pour orchestre symphonique et sextette de jazz. Le thème principal met en relief le saxophone soprano de Belmondo complété par les bois de l’orchestre, suivi du saxo ténor de Rieu.

Inspirée du premier mouvement de la Symphonie No 4 de Brahms, cette pièce de Yannick Rieu implique l’improvisation des vents dont les lignes mélodiques ajoutent un contrepoint supplémentaire à la progression harmonique prévue pour l’orchestre. Il est alors intéressant de noter l’unification heureuse des deux esthétiques, cette fois dominée par le romantisme brahmsien.

S’ensuit Nostalgie, une pièce de Yannick Rieu dont il est le soliste principal aux côtés de Rémi-Jean LeBlanc, mais la partie jazz de l’œuvre demeure très jazz, l’orchestre se transforme alors en faste accompagnateur et rappelle les arrangements et orchestrations typiques des grands orchestres américains au milieu du 20^e siècle.

Un riff de contrebasse introduit l’orchestre, le piano et les autres solistes du sextette. Le piano mature et assuré de Jonathan Cayer et le sax soprano de Rieu sont ici mis de l’avant. Les somptueuses harmonies sont tellement propices au jazz moderne qu’on en oublie les fondements originels. Il faut toujours rappeler que les jazzophiles ont intégré les musiques romantiques ou classiques modernes sans nécessairement en connaître précisément le répertoire, en voilà une autre éloquente démonstration intitulée Ritournelle.

La suivante,Ballade sur le nom de Maurice Ravel , a été composée par Yannick et arrangée par Lionel, cette œuvre relativement courte est introduite par les cordes ravéliennes de l’OSL qui précèdent le thème exposé par le sextette. La nappe est dressée pour un riche exercice harmonique à l’échelle symphonique, l’excellent trompettiste Lex French y est mis en valeur pour une improvisation fervente qui en coiffe la conclusion.

Un solo de batterie bien senti de Louis-Vincent Hamel, et puis c’est parti dans un swing soigneusement enrobé par l’orchestre symphonique. Pour Pharaon de Yannick Rieu, des accords de piano précèdent le thème exposé à troix voix, on se trouve dans un romantisme luxuriant, et le piano s’élance sur un groove lent et ternaire avant de donner la réplique à l’orchestre symphonique et ses collègues du sextette pour conclure aux côtés des saxes, cuivres et compléments orchestraux.

Inspirée des Jeux d’eau de Maurice Ravel, La Couleur de l’eau est l’occasion pour Lionel Belmondo de fusionner le discours ravélien avec un jazz moderne typique des années 50, époque hard bop et Third Stream, s’envole alors Lex French dans un chemin dont il connaît parfaitement les balises.

On conclura ce programme ambitieux avec Embrahms-moi de Yannick Rieu, une pièce qui ne fut pas sans difficultés côté arrangement, dixit Lionel Belmondo. Le piano s’exécute d’abord et puis le romantisme brahmsien, donc pré-moderne et tellement repris dans les trames cinématographiques hollywoodiennes, se fond dans le discours de Yannick Rieu dont le thème au saxophone est purement romantique.Solidement ficelé tout ça, au plus grand plaisir des mélomanes.

Experimental Rock / Post-Punk

FACS, WORKS, and DahL at Quai Des Brumes

by Stephan Boissonneault

Last weekend we had a ripper of a show at Quai Des Brumes in the form of FACS, WORKS, and DahL, all single-word band names, all with their own vibes, dabbling in the “experimental” or abstract rock sound genres. Many in the crowd were here for FACS, but some where just looking to support a live show and had their feeble minds twisted—and better for it.

We begin with the arsty trip-hop rock stylings of DahL, who take us on a psychedelic journey through their 2024 album, That’s It, adding a cerebral live energy during songs like “Edie and Ginger” and the crowd favourite, “Una Minutes.” I’ve seen DahL three or four times and it’s always good. Lead singer and guitar player, Nassir Liselle always seems to go into a trance of swagger, fully taking on the form of the characters he sings about, demanding prasie from the audience. Then we have Bryan Greenfield holding down the funk with his bass, modular synth, and occasional reverb-y backing vocals. William Winston adds another layer on another all-encompassing synth, and drummer Edward Scrimger holds down the chaos with his jazzy drumming, popping in a few ghost notes for more flair.

Next up is another local band, WORKS—whom I was unaware of until this show, with a wave of noisy art rock that immediately feels like the Montreal equivalent of the UK’s Dry Cleaning. Singer Skylar Aung-Thwin puts her own spin on the spoken word post-punk style, occasionally throwing in a weird, falsetto-y vibrato that brings to mind bands like The B-52s—as the WORKS dual guitar players unleash wave after wave of angular guitar riffs. The MVP of WORKS has to be bassist Zakir Jafry, who does not miss a beat during the off-kilter jams. Aung-Thwin’s stage prescence was cool and aloof, and kind of surreal as she offered the crowd apples, not once, but three times.

A few beers in, our heads are on swivels, waiting for FACS to take the stage. For the uninitiated, FACS is a weirdo noise rock three-piece from Chicago, who just released the album Wish Defense—the last album engineered by the legendary Steve Albini before his passing last year. As FACS take the stage, the bass guitar lets out the fuzzy and sludgy opening to “When You Say”—from 2023’s Still Life in Decay, and lead singer/guitarist Brian Case lets out his discordant and bright guitar harmonics. As he riffs, Case falls into the Quai Des Brumes walls, as if he’s being constantly hit by some luring presence. He looks like he’s in a constant fight, elevated by the fact that he raises his head to scream into the mic. Live, FACS’ music feels an inescapable vortex. This was of course, an Analogue Addiction show, so the quality was brimming, meaning the lead up to FACS—a local combiantion of DahL and WORKS—was weirdly perfect.

Classical

Université de Montréal: Stars shine on music’s next gen

by Frédéric Cardin

Saturday evening, April 12, saw the Université de Montréal’s Rising Stars concert. Graduates in conducting, composition and flute performance presented the results of years of learning. It was inspiring.

Conductor Marie-France Mathieu began by presenting the first three pieces on the programme, creations by three composition students, Gabriel José Melim Schwarz, Amichai Ben Shalev and Charles-Vincent Lemelin. Schwarz offered a tonal and rather sunny neo-romantic piece, ironically entitled Folle (Crazy). Vibrant with energy and inspired by Schwarz’s native Brazil, it is a work that is pleasant to listen to and not very demanding for the listener.

This was followed by A Groyse Metzieh by Ben Shalev, a musician also known as a member of the ensemble Les Arrivants. The title means ‘a beautiful find’, which is in fact a sarcastic formula typical of Jewish humour, meaning ‘not much of anything’. I really enjoyed this post-modern piece, which mixes tonality with noisy avant-gardism, thanks to a wide range of instrumental techniques linked to experimentation. It begins in a sombre atmosphere with a warm string theme, quickly interspersed with bursts of colour that would not have displeased Messiaen. The rest moves slowly but surely towards saturation, punctuated by thunderous stridencies, before ending with a return to consonance, but with the brass choir. Superb.

Finally, Lemelin’s Passacaille had the greatest effect on me. In this piece, which treats the orchestra as a living mass, dark but nonetheless criss-crossed by many luminous streaks, and which gradually swells to its maximum sonic and harmonic density, I perceived echoes of Saariaho and Rautavaaraa, but also of a certain Straussian monumentalism and the muscular expressionism of ex-Hollywood composer Goldenthal. Passacaille is a demonstration of quiet power, perfectly calibrated and constructed. Your humble reviewer thoroughly enjoyed it.

The rest of the programme featured Romantic repertoire, starting with a charming Concerto for two flutes by Franz Doppler, the king of the flute (along with his brother) in the 19th century. It was an opportunity to see and hear at work two young performers who won 3rd prize in the OUM 2024 Concerto Competition, Gabriel Lapointe Guay and Sarah Billet. The two artists injected all the right sparkle into this smiling, feel-good music.

The second part was devoted to Schumann’s Manfred Overture and Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite (1919). Above all, it was an opportunity to judge the conducting work of Marie-France Mathieu and Paul Karekezi. It was the latter who gave us a Manfred full of drama, inhabited by a necessary discharge of conflicting emotions. Perhaps a little tempered, but beautifully embodied.

The Firebird was brought to life with beautiful colours and crystalline details, powerfully underlined by conductor Mathieu.

Since the two young conducting artists also led the OUM (Orchestre de l’Université de Montréal) in the creations mentioned above, I noticed two different but complementary personalities of baton and control.

Paul Karekazi, who conducted Lemelin’s Passacaille (and, as I just said, Manfred), gave a clear performance, but above all one imbued with emotional intensity and inner strength. This favoured strong nuances and a legato imbued with heartfelt lyricism.

Marie-France Mathieu, on the other hand, is more sober in her outpourings, but nevertheless skilfully brings out the detailed colours and textural contrasts in a limpid manner, thanks to a surgical baton that leaves no room for doubt. She conducted the pieces by Schwarz and Ben Shalev, the Doppler (and of course the Stravinsky) very well.

Karekazi and Mathieu are students of Paolo Bellomia, the two flautists come from Denis Bluteau’s class, and the three composers benefit from the knowledge of Jimmie Leblanc, Ana Sokolovic, François-Hugues Leclair and Olivier Alary.

It was a wonderful evening for the future of music in Montreal, Quebec and Canada.

Photos: Tiago Curado

Jazz Pop

Magnificent Heiresses

by Marilyn Bouchard

This Wednesday, April 8, at Théâtre Outremont, was the opening of Héritières, a show imagined by composer and singer Karine Pion, who we’ve known for some time as the lead singer of Belle et Bum and a member of the group Galaxie. As she opens, she explains that the project was born during the pandemic, and that she had long toyed with the idea of an all-female, multi-performer show. Indeed, none of the 20 performers on stage (plus the stage management artists) are men. A look back at an evening of feminine celebration.

The show opens with the soloists: Erika Angell, Simone Bournival, Marie-Christine Depestre, Coral Egan, Soleil Launière, Kim Richardson, Mamselle Ruiz, Meryem Saci, Malika Tirolien and Karen Young. In chorus around fire-like lighting, they follow Karine’s lead in an almost dance-like fashion.

The pleasure and bond between the singers is palpable, right from the start.

This is followed by an intergenerational journey for women, with recordings, memories and confidences from loved ones punctuating the narrative, often with humor and tenderness. Accompanied by double bass, cello, viola, violins, saxophone, drums and sometimes guitar, we hear the performers’ mothers, sisters and grandmothers share their visions and memories of what it means to be a woman.

There’s a jazzy duet, a creative and sensitive drum solo, engaged lyrics, a surprising canon of vowels, slam-poetry and a magnificent Spanish song that transports us for a moment to the warmth of the South. And let’s not forget the power of Kim Richardson, who, even without amplification at times, moves through us with the same resonance as her miked colleagues. All this skilfully highlighted, notably with memorable side lighting that creates an oversized shadow of the performer on the audience wall. Very theatrical.

All in all, it a very fine evening “to the rhythm of legends and traumas,” in which Quebec women’s talent takes pride of place and where the committed tone is a reminder that victories and women’s rights are never easily won and that the struggle to achieve them is never over.

Drum & Bass / Hip Hop / Trap

Tunisian Goddess Emel Presents MRA

by Sandra Gasana

If there’s one thing Emel Mathlouthi has mastered, it’s the art of staging a performance worthy of a tragedy. Accompanied by her two musicians, on drums and keyboards, Emel Mathlouthi, known as “the voice of the revolution,” made a spectacular entrance on stage, adding lighting effects and appearing like a goddess on top of her throne. Wearing a sophisticated crown and an antique-style white dress from the 15th century, the Tunisian artist presented her most recent album, MRA, which means woman in Arabic, released in 2024 and produced entirely by a team of women.

Always with a screen behind her, her voice is rarely in its natural state. She uses a lot of reverb and plays with her microphone, adding an enigmatic effect to her universe in which trap, hip-hop, and drum ‘n’ bass cohabit harmoniously. Emel really gets into her character and lets herself go, inserting saccadic dance movements on several tracks. She taps her drum at times, complementing the work of her drummer and adding to the danceable effect.

At the end of the third song, the audience starts dancing, contrasting the solemn style of the first two tracks. Emel also adds pre-recorded sounds that merge with the looped images, a true sensory cocktail. Most of her songs are in Arabic, but she also sings in English, a language she mastered, and French. She switches from one to the other when addressing the audience.

Unfortunately, Naya Ali, who was due to perform, was unable to attend after all. That said, one of the highlights of the concert was when artist Narcy took to the stage for the track Yemenade. And that’s when the evening took a turn for the better, as his energy was felt throughout the room. He managed to get us singing, dancing, all in one song, while Emel danced behind him, banging her golden drum.

The other artist I was looking forward to seeing again was Ziya Tabassian. Also performing on four tracks, he added a traditional Middle Eastern touch to the show. He was perfectly attuned to the drummer’s rhythms, with whom he exchanged glances.

“I hope you like crazy percussion like we do! We don’t know how it sounds from your end, but we like it,” she says between songs. “I can’t seem to make soft songs, I can’t help it,” she confides.

During the song “Souty,” which means “My voice”, she scrolls through sheets on which it is written “My voice is time less like the wind” among other words, as if these were the lyrics of the song. She also takes the opportunity to mention the names of prisoners on some of the sheets.

Emel took the time to share a message from a Palestinian activist who wrote to her to give her the state of play. Indeed, Palestine was the backdrop throughout the show, including during the opening set by Checkpoint 303, a DJ duo who set the table for Emel’s performance. My favourite song is “Mazel,” which means Again, and speaks of the hope she still carries within her, and the new tomorrow she intends to build. In the background, we could see the faces of activist women from all over the world.

She finished with “Rise,” involving the audience on the chorus, before giving us an audience-pleasing encore. I was expecting to see a packed National, but that wasn’t the case. But one thing’s for sure: the people who were there went home satisfied with their evening.

Photo Credit: Ola Choukair

Choral Music / Classical / trad québécois

Sacré Gilles Vigneault | Between Natashquan and Buenos Aires

by Judith Hamel

Sacred music sometimes tells us more than the catechism. It brings us together, it uplifts us, it reminds us that we are here, together. This Saturday evening, the Chœur Métropolitain invites us to a double mass at the crossroads of the Americas. A meeting of the Argentinian and Quebecois peoples, these Masses bring the rhythms of everyday life to life, blending European traditions with local folklore.

But the real star of the evening was Gilles Vigneault. A charming old lady sitting beside me whispered in my ear: “Monsieur Vigneault is here! People in the front, in the back, turn around and pull out their phones to capture the presence of this legend. Even before the first note rings out in the Maison symphonique, an ovation rises to salute this great man who forged the Quebec nation.

The first part of the concert was devoted to Argentina, through the music of four of its composers: Carlos Guastavino, Astor Piazzolla, Juan de Dios Filiberto and Ariel Ramírez.

The concert opens on a note of wonder and contemplation, with Carlos Guastavino’s Indianas. His charming melodies sing to us of the apple through love lyrics and nature metaphors. In Astor Piazzolla’s Oblivion, a work originally written for bandoneon, the arrangement for choir and solo voice with soprano Myriam Leblanc bewitched us from the very first note with its pure, colorful timbre. This melancholy version makes the work’s theme of forgetting resonate like sweet nostalgia. With Caminito de Juan de Dios Filiberto, the dynamic changes. This light-hearted song, rooted in the tango tradition, adds a lively, convivial touch to the concert.

Finally, before the Quebec mass, Ariel Ramírez’s Misa Criolla concludes the first part. Like Gilles Vigneault with his native land of Natashquan, Ramírez explores the mix of cultures, between Indigenous roots and European heritages. The work surprises with rhythmic dance sections alternating with lyrical passages. Soloists Antonio Figueroa (tenor) and Emanuel Lebel (baritone) complemented each other beautifully. This lively mass, rooted in local traditions, deserves to be heard again and again.

Like Ramirez, Vigneault weaves the threads of people who are both Indigenous and European in this mass that evokes our northern winds and the prayers of ordinary people. Presented in its world premiere, this new arrangement of the High Mass by Sebastian Verdugo takes on a light, colorful form, where the textures of the choir mingle with those of guitars, charango, piano, double bass, violin and percussion. While most of the mass retains a traditional structure and texts, some tunes are transformed into rigodon accompanied by spoons and folk guitar, which pleasantly surprises listeners.

Rooted in Vigneault’s memory of Natashquan, the first and last part includes lyrics in Innu: “Shash anameshikanù. Matshik! Ituték! Minuatukushùl etaiék.” (Now that the Mass is said, Go live in peace on earth).

Finally, after waiting patiently for their moment, the Vincent-d’Indy choristers joined the musicians for the final songs of the concert. Under the sensitive arrangements of François O. Ouimet, several emblematic Gilles Vigneault songs were performed, ending, of course, with Gens du pays. With their eyes riveted on Vigneault, the entire audience stood to sing him our anthem, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, as is the Alliance chorale du Québec. It was a touching moment in which we felt the love of a people for our Quebec, but above all for the man who gave birth to the hymn we all know so well.

Baroque / Classical / Modern Classical / période romantique

Les Violons du Roy and Antoine Tamestit | A Gripping and Profound Performance

by Alexandre Villemaire

Two years after a musical encounter that was described as masterful, French violist Antoine Tamestit, considered one of the world’s finest, returned to the Quebec stage with Les Violons du Roy. Presented on Thursday evening in Quebec City, this same concert, which took place on Friday evening at Salle Bourgie, featured themes such as death, loss and departure: themes which, despite their dark side, are nonetheless necessary to address, and in which we can nonetheless find light and a form of humanity.

Without preamble, once the orchestra and Tamestit had taken the stage, the hall was plunged into darkness, with the only source of light the lamps on the musicians’ lecterns. This set the stage perfectly for the first piece of the concert, Johann Sebastian Bach’s chorale Für deinen Thron ich tret’ich hiermit [Lord, here I stand before your throne], arranged for strings. According to Antoine Tamestit, in his speech following this short piece by Bach, he wanted to create a sensory experience in which the audience and musicians were led to feel the music through their breathing, through the intrinsic energies of the movement of the musical lines. The moment was indeed soothing, with a sound that was relentlessly gentle, yet rich in harmonies and low tones. The soloist, who also acted as conductor for the first part, followed with Paul Hindemith’s Trauermusik for viola and strings, composed a few hours after the death of King George V. We then enter another universe and harmonic language, with varied textures and musical materials, ending with a quotation from the same Bach chorale.

Tamestit then invited the audience to take part in an aural treasure hunt with Benjamin Britten’s Lachrymae, in which the composer quotes, in the form of variations, the song by Elizabethan composer John Dowland, If my complaints could passions move. To provide context, he performed the original in an arrangement of his own, preceded by the beautiful Flow my tears. A particularly touching moment, in which Tamestit’s sensitive playing came to the fore as the strings accompanied him in pizzicato. In Britten’s piece, Tamestit invited listeners to try and spot the musical extracts of these Renaissance songs scattered throughout Britten’s work. There was a strong appeal to pique listeners’ attention and invite them to open their ears wide to this universe of sound. His interpretation of the musical lines, with their enveloping thickness of sound and pure, fleshy grain, showed an invested and sensitive musicality. It has to be said, however, that Britten won the game of musical hide-and-seek, with Dowland’s excerpts remaining difficult to identify, even for seasoned ears.

The pièce de résistance of the concert was Tamestit’s arrangement for string orchestra of Johannes Brahms’ String Quintet in G major. For this final piece, in which Antoine Tamestit joins the viola section, we were treated to a blaze of emotions and luminous vivacity, particularly in the first and last movements, while the central movements – Adagio and Un poco allegretto – flirted with Hungarian folk accents and melancholy affects respectively. In this new texture with its increased sound amplitude, playing with 21 instrumentalists together without a conductor is a challenge that Les Violons du Roy met with brio and aplomb, producing a particularly rousing and gripping result, especially in the last movement, which is extremely dance-like with gypsy inflections.

The warm ovation from the audience and the radiant smiles on the musicians’ faces made this second collaboration between Antoine Tamestit and Les Violons du Roy well worth repeating. Having begun in darkness and contemplation, the concert ended in great light and human energy. Bringing out the beauty of a program that traces in filigree the themes of death and loss is not in itself innovative. But in this program, imbued with a skilful organicity, where we are naturally transported from one state of mind to another, we are reminded that even in the darkest moments, we can find beauty. To quote Félix Leclerc: “C’est grand la mort, c’est plein de vie dedans.”

Photo Credit : Pierre Langlois

Baroque / Choral Music / Classical / Classical Singing / Sacred Music

Ensemble Caprice | A Beautiful Evening of Passion

by Alexis Desrosiers-Michaud

Just two weeks away, Ensemble Caprice and Matthias Maute prelude the Easter celebrations with a presentation of Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. John Passion. In his opening address, Maute recounts that this work has many links, especially in the arias, with the art of opera. As he told us earlier in the interview, “The St. John Passion alternates recitative, arias and choruses to carry the story with intensity. The recitatives tell the story, the arias express the emotions of the characters, and the choruses embody the crowd, reinforcing the drama. The orchestra supports the whole with expressive writing that underlines the key moments.” The proof was shown on Friday.

In the absence of staging, characteristic of the oratorio, a narrator – in this case, the Evangelist – is needed to describe the scenes. Supporting the entire work on his shoulders, tenor Philippe Gagné rises to the challenge of interpreting this thankless but oh-so-important role. His intention to really tell a story is clear, with impeccable German diction, and he lets the textual phrases dictate his interpretation, rather than following the score, placing absolute trust in the continuo.

The other discovery of the evening was chorister-soloist William Kraushaar – whose composition had captivated us at the last Caprice concert – in the role of Jesus. Not only is his voice clear, but God, it carries! We’re already looking forward to hearing him as a soloist next season. Countertenor Nicholas Burns and soprano Janelle Lucyk deliver their arias with great emotion. Burns is very moving in duet with the mournful viola da gamba in Es ist vollbracht (“All is finished”). As for Lucyk, her voice is somewhat restrained, but blends well with the flutes in the aria Ich folge dir gleichfalls (“I follow you”). These two soloists not only deliver their arias with musicality, but also with a spellbinding, moving stage presence.

The chorus is very well prepared, and the dry articulations given to it fit well with the role it occupies, that of the plebeian ordering and cheering the action of the biblical tale. The best example is the track “Kreuzige” (Cruxify it!), where the short, accented articulations are incisive.

At the very end of the work, there was something solemn about seeing the soloists (except for John the Evangelist) join the chorus in a dancing Rut Wohl, and the final chorale, in accompaniment, thanksgiving and celebration of Christ’s life.

Photo: Tam Lan Truong

Classical Singing / Contemporary

Nouvel Ensemble Moderne | New Songs for a New Era

by Judith Hamel

The Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (NEM) is writing the first pages of a new book in this 2024-2025 season, divided into three chapters and driven by the wind of renewal of Jean-Michaël Lavoie, who succeeds Lorraine Vaillancourt after 35 years at the helm of the chamber orchestra. For the second chapter of three this season, the NEM invites us to the Cinquième salle at Place des arts for a concert in collaboration with the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal.

Entitled Chapitre 2 – Des airs nouveaux, this afternoon concert featured a repertoire equally divided between three Quebec composers and Korean composer Unsuk Chin. Upon entering the foyer, the audience was greeted by a mediation team led by Irina Kirchberg, visiting professor at the Université de Montréal, which included a recording device for superimposing spectators’ voices, as well as an interactive panel in the form of a memory game inviting them to discover more about the works on the program.

The concert then opened with José Evangelista’s Vision, a piece for small ensemble and mezzo-soprano with a mystical aura. Brazilian singer Camila Montefusco brilliantly interpreted this work, which highlights the composer’s Spanish origins and multiple influences.

This was followed by Claude Vivier’s Bouchara, a long love song sung entirely in an invented language. Soprano Chelsea Kolić, buoyed by the expressiveness of the writing, gave us the impression of understanding her message, even as it eluded us. So we don’t need to speak the language to understand love.

In the second half, Luna Pearl Woolf’s Orpheus on Sappho’s Shore impressed with the rich voice of countertenor Ian Sabourin, who deftly navigated his multiple registers.

Finally, the NEM offered Unsuk Chin’s Cantatrix Sopranica, the only piece outside Canada on the program. Written for two sopranos, a countertenor and ensemble, it was performed here by Chelsea Kolić, Ariadne Lih and Bridget Esler, three sopranos whose timbres intertwine perfectly in this texturally fascinating work. Chin explores the very act of singing, summoning vocal warm-ups, role-playing and unexpected reversals between singers and musicians. Its fragmented writing makes it a hyper-vocal work in which the orchestral ensemble extends and magnifies the voices. Accessible and complex at the same time, blending virtuosity, humor and emotion, this piece is a perfect match for the NEM’s new direction.

The collaboration between the Atelier lyrique and the NEM has been a success. The commitment of the young singers, with their expressive, precise voices, blends very well with the spirit of the NEM.

Jean-Michaël Lavoie conducts with such fluidity. When the lights illuminate the musicians’ work, we can at the same time deconstruct every little intention of the conductor, seeing with clarity the variations of suppleness in these gestures. In this way, the NEM is in good hands.

For their next concert, we’re lucky not to have to wait too long. On May 10, they’ll be at Salle Pierre-Mercure, presenting Chapitre 3 – Dérive 2 Pierre Boulez.