Additional Information
If you haven’t already heard, which is unfortunately quite possible given the chronic under-reporting of creative music in the media sphere, the superb Quasar saxophone quartet is commemorating 30 years of existence. World-renowned for their virtuosity and inclination towards contemporary works, Quasar is an active member of Le Vivier. It’s easy to see why Quasar is honoured to present the opening concert of the third Semaine du Neuf, this Saturday, March 8. To this end, Alain Brunet interviewed the excellent saxophonist Marie-Chantal Leclair, Quasar’s artistic director.
PAN M 360: This program presents the North American premiere of three contrasting and evocative Lithuanian works: Calligrammes (Kristupas Bubnelis), Trauma (Mykolas Natalevičius) and Azaya (Egidija Medekšaitė). Why these Lithuanian choices? A theme?
Marie-Chantal Leclair: In October 2024, Quasar presented three concerts in Lithuania. One of these concerts took place in Vilnius, as part of the Autumn Festival organized by the Lithuanian Composers Association. The Festival commissioned three pieces for us from composers Kristupas Bubnelis and Mykolas Natalevičius and composer Egidija Medekšaitė. We had the chance to work with them and her on site before premiering them in concert. We discovered three singular and inspired musical universes that we are now presenting in Montreal, convinced of the importance of making the voices of these three artists heard.
The festival’s theme “Global issues, Theories of Survival” referred to the major global, geopolitical, climatic and technological issues that are shaking up and weakening our world. How do these issues resonate in the works of composers, in the world of music and in the way it is received by audiences? This is the theme under which the two composers imagined their piece, each appropriating it in their own way. I wanted to share these works with our Montreal audience, but I also wanted to share this theme and the reflection that accompanies it, convinced that here too (over 6000 km from Vilnius), it resonates, and that these concerns are also ours.
PAN M 360: “The Quasar saxophone quartet continues its international collaborations, tackling with sensitivity the major issues facing our world”, announces the official Vivier program. What do you mean by the major issues facing our world? We know there are quite a few these days!
Marie-Chantal Leclair : The challenges are climatic, economic, technological, socio-political, both local and international. We approach them with a great deal of humility. In fact, we’re holding out a perch, proposing a moment of reflection, trying to create an opportunity. The title of the concert refers to our fears in the face of these “planetary challenges”, in the face of the scale of the threat. We hope that, together, we can better confront them, or at the very least find ourselves in a space of dialogue and solidarity, full of meaning and hope.
PAN M 360: “The title Tout ce qui m’épouvante is taken from a poem by Guillaume Apollinaire, excerpts of which are recited in Kristupas Bubnelis’ piece. This quotation evokes our fears, our terrors, in this world of global challenges, but also the saving and necessary power of art.” Needless to say, it’s a timely theme in the global context, but… what prompted you to call this program at Semaine du Neuf?
Marie-Chantal Leclair : I’m interested in the poetic aspect of the title, its evocative power (it’s an extract from Apollinaire’s poem) and at the same time its brutal link with an equally brutal reality. Tout ce qui m’épouvante“ (”All that frightens me”) refers us to both the intimate and the external situation. Musicians and artists are not disconnected from the world; we don’t live in bubbles. Even if we don’t turn our works into manifestos, we are touched and affected like all other citizens. The concert hall is not impervious to the outside world, even if art can be a refuge, a space of freedom. We can’t pretend nothing’s happened, so we might as well create a space open to exchange.
A few months after the Vilnius Festival, as the pressure continues to mount, we too are asking ourselves the following questions: What influence do major global issues have on the music of today’s composers? Can or should we ignore it? Do they divide or unite us? How do these issues resonate in composers’ works, in the music world and in the way music is received by the public?
On March 11, a round table with various Semaine du Neuf artists will address these issues.
PAN M 360: Over the years, Quasar has forged links with a number of artists’ networks abroad. How would you rate the importance of these networks in the edifice of your achievements?
Marie-Chantal Leclair: It’s a major impact for us, and hopefully for our community too. It goes back a long way, our first international tour took place in 2006, and it’s grown in importance over time. What interests me is the artistic and human dialogue, the exchange. We’re lucky enough to work with a large community of artists, performers, composers, curators and so on, all over the world. They have greatly nourished our artistic approach, but always in resonance and dialogue with our strong sense of belonging to the Montreal and Quebec new music scene, which is of great creative vitality. All these contacts influence our vision of the world as a whole. The stranger becomes a friend forever.
PAN M 360: Could you briefly elaborate on each of these 3 “evocative” works? A word about their composers? The nature and stakes of these 3 works?
Mykolas / Trauma : Freely inspired by the phenomenon of post-traumatic syndrome, this piece is a succession of moments of relaxation and rising tension, of consonance and dissonance, symbolizing a growing pain towards a possible healing, supported by a continuum of sustained, intense, rich and complex sonorities.
Kristupas / Calligrammes : An unbridled, impetuous flow of poetry and music, virtuosity and extreme contrasts. Quite a ride.
Egidija / Asaya: Music with electronic tape based on drones evoking the buzzing of bees. Gradually, the harmonious sounds turn into chaos. A strong, direct, punchy gesture. With a video, created by Lukas Miceika, whose images evoke the Predator drone engine.
A fourth piece by Lithuanian composer Vykintas Baltakas is on the program, an older work that we premiered following an unexpected encounter with the composer at the Witten Festival (Germany). Inspired by the mythical phoenix bird, which rises cyclically from its ashes, I like to think it symbolizes our capacity to be reborn as humanity.
PAN M 360: The Saxophone Quartet/While Flying Up, by Ukrainian composer Alla Zagaykevych, a favorite of the quartet, pays tribute to the struggle of the Ukrainian people. We’re still in Eastern Europe, and we know what just happened in Washington with the humiliation/embarrassment of President Zelinsky. So how do you see this work in context? And what are the main characteristics and interpretive challenges of this work?
Marie-Chantal Leclair: We met Alla during his residency at Le Vivier in 2022, at the start of the war. It was a wonderful artistic and human encounter. She is a great artist and a woman of extraordinary courage. After her residency in Montreal, she returned to Kiev, where she continues her life as an artist and teacher. Carrying the voice of Ukrainian artists is a tribute to the quality of their art, but also a way of humanizing them, giving them a place in the world, carrying their voice.
It’s a highly sensitive piece, with a very refined, assertive style. It’s a piece made up of thousands of details, each with its own importance. The piece requires great mastery of soft nuances, attacks and the exploitation of very delicate multiphonic sounds. Each sound has its place, its role, and this requires the utmost concentration.
PAN M 360: Your 30th anniversary features a number of concerts, including this one: “To celebrate its 30th anniversary, Quasar is offering a special anniversary version of its concert From Bach to Zappa, celebrating three decades of creations during which Quasar has left its mark on the musical landscape here and abroad. Always eclectic, energetic and festive, this new version of a concert that has conquered audiences of all kinds (from Havre-Saint-Pierre to Moscow!) gives pride of place to new Quebec works created by Quasar: Rouge, by Jean Derome and Michel Smith’s musical theater, Squat au Quat “… Could you elaborate on this program and its update?
Marie-Chantal Leclair: The From Bach to Zappa program has been on the road for 20 years, and the formula still works with audiences, so we’re always delighted to present it! We start with Bach, end with Zappa, and in between, we travel between eras and musical styles. Between Bach and Zappa, the works may change, but the aim is always to introduce the public to the many facets of the saxophone, always choosing works that we feel are of the highest quality, regardless of style or era. It’s a living, breathing program that evolves and changes with us, while retaining its essence.
The integration of contemporary repertoire, and particularly original Quebecois content, has always been part of the De Bach à Zappa project. This program has enabled us to reach out to a wide range of audiences both here and abroad, and for us it’s important to reach out to the general public outside the concerts given by specialized new music broadcasters and festivals. It’s complementary.
This year is the first time we’ve included Michel Smith’s musical theater. We’re enjoying ourselves, and I think we’re also, and above all, enjoying the audience. It’s a wonderful work, funny, colorful and out of the ordinary, just like its creator. Set to a deeply original score, the story unfolds as four protagonists work to get somewhere, overcoming a few obstacles…!
PAN M 360: What’s the link between Bach, Chick Corea, Frank Zappa, Will Gregory, Jean Derome and Glazunov?
Marie-Chantal Leclair: They are all excellent composers whose pieces we love to play!
PAN M 360: More than ever, Quasar seems to be revisiting modern and contemporary jazz. What is your connection with jazz?
Marie-Chantal Leclair: Our link with jazz is free and unpretentious. It has to be said that avant-garde jazz and free jazz share many things with contemporary music. Musical genres are not compartmentalized. It should also be said that improvisation has been part of Quasar’s practice for a very long time, so it’s a common ground (albeit with different codes and a different tradition) with jazz. Finally, it’s worth mentioning that there’s a whole repertoire for saxophone quartet that flirts with jazz aesthetics, and we don’t hold back when the opportunity arises. Take, for example, Louis Andriessen’s Facing Death, a veritable tribute to Charlie Parker, which we have endorsed.
Alongside his work with Quasar, André Leroux is a great virtuoso performer and jazz improviser. His proximity to the jazz community has certainly facilitated encounters and exchanges. I’m thinking here in particular of our collaboration with François Bourassa, with whom we’ve just set up a new concert program around Chick Corea, and for whom François has composed and arranged new pieces for this quintet, Quasar-Rass.
PAN M 360: Could you briefly comment on each of the works on the March 6 program?
Johann Sebastian Bach : L’Art de la Fugue
Frank Zappa : Peaches En Regalia
Alexandre Glazounov : Quatuor op. 108
- Bach: the art of the fugue, a must-have masterpiece by the great Baroque master, which we’ve been playing for 30 years and to which we always return.
- Glazunov: Probably the only great Romantic work written for saxophone quartet, this is an exceptional work that really takes the detour, and makes the quartet resonate in a new way.
- Chick Corea: Originally written for solo piano, this rather classical work is a series of short pieces inspired by the world of childhood, which we intersperse at various points in the program. Little gems.
- Jean Derome: a formidable piece based on a single scale that runs from the lowest note of the baritone to the highest of the soprano, never repeating itself. It takes 4 of us to play it in its entirety, and is a symbol of solidarity and the need to work together to achieve things. A clever mix of melodies (love songs, war songs) with moments of improvisation, all with Jean’s unique touch.
- Will Gregory: Inspired by South African music, this piece is an irresistible ode to joy and sunshine.
- Michel Smith: From Bach to Zappa, part of the Opus Concert of the Year award-winning “J’men’sax” concert.
The Quasar saxophone quartet is made up of Marie-Chantal Leclair (soprano), Mathieu Leclair (alto), André Leroux (tenor) and Jean-Marc Bouchard (baritone). Last fall, Quasar launched Chaleurs, a piece by the illustrious Walter Boudreau.
