On October 21st, at the Canadian Center of Architecture, the Chapelle Historique’s programming proposed a concert by the SQMC with a wide variety of contemporary music by Quebec’s composers, performed by the two aces Philippe Prud’homme and Louise Bessette.
The first positive note of the concert is the introduction to each piece, enriched by the presence of some of the composers in the audience. The concert begins with the Suite pour piano by Jean Papineau-Couture, a great name of Quebec’s music. The piece, with clear neoclassical features, and with sounds à la Hindemith, passes easily from serene to tense, in a beautiful range of emotions and atmospheres that follow one another in a pleasant way. This piece highlights the virtuosity of Prud’homme and his ability to create refined sounds. It continues with Six Preludes by Francis Battah, a young composer already established on the Canadian scene. These pieces demonstrate an original aesthetic, sometimes jazzy sometimes restless. There is something Debussian in Battah’s work, which treats the piano with great attention to sound and timbre, in short, to the expressive possibilities of the instrument, and Prud’homme interprets all this with class. The creation of the evening is Latence by Alexandre David: a piece that is a seamless musical exploration and that embodies the idea of the title very well. This is followed by Intérieur, jour by Nicolas Gilbert, who describes his piece as intimité retrouvée. The piece, written in 2020 during COVID-19, transports the audience into a lunar, suspended atmosphere, sometimes interrupted by ornamental moments of baroque reminiscence. All performed with great lucidity by Louise Bessette, an icon of contemporary Quebec pianism. In Fragments by Serge Arcuri, the resonance of the harmonics of the bells runs through the whole piece, also masterfully performed by the artist. The evening closes with Les planètes by Walter Boudreau, containing various pieces rich in register contrasts and lively in rhythm, which return the image of a constellation of planets. A special mention to the two performers, who have been able to take the audience on a long journey through the music of our time with intellectual honesty and artistic dedication.
photo : Pietro Freiburger
