Country : Canada (Quebec) Label : Analekta Genres and styles : Modern Classical Year : 2024

Orchestre du Centre national des Arts/Orchestre symphonique de Québec/Choeur Mendelssohn/Jean-Sébastien Vallée, dir. – Jacques Hétu : Symphonie no 5 op.81

· by Frédéric Cardin

Jacques Hétu’s Symphony No. 5 Op. 81 is a very rare work on this scale in the Canadian symphonic music panorama, perhaps even the only one. It is an ample and expansive construction, giving the Quebec composer airs of Sibelius, Mahler, Shostakovich and Debussy, but with an undeniable personal palette. This is a powerful masterpiece, whose inspiration is the city of Paris under Nazi occupation. You have to listen carefully to the second movement, L’invasion, to be convinced of the very high stylistic and artistic content of this music, which has nothing to envy its European peers. Some evoke Shostakovich. I’m thinking more of the Englishman Robert Simpson for his instrumental abundance and rhythmic activity, or the Swede Allan Pettersson for his emotional intensity. I would also venture to suggest a link with the American Walter Piston. 

Each movement is masterfully constructed and poignantly narrative. The first movement, an expansive Prologue laid out like a sumptuous Debussian canvas, is followed by the aforementioned second movement, which serves as a tempestuous scherzo. The third movement, a dense and charged Shostakovichian adagio, evokes the Occupation, while the final Andante, entitled Liberté, is the longest of the work at around twenty minutes. It is also the most transcendent in its effects. Inspired by Paul Éluard’s poem of the same title, Hétu uses the chorus like a soothsayer, singing the idea of the word (it is spoken only once at the end) more than uttering it loudly. It becomes synonymous with hope, for, since the poem was written in 1942, its presence was in yearning rather than in celebrating. So, harmonically, and rightly so, there is a kind of ambiguity that emerges from the Quebecer’s writing. The choral part is reminiscent of Fauré or Duruflé, but the swarms of woodwinds that run through it are chromatic, amplifying the impression of uncertainty, or at the very least of extreme modesty in the face of the prospect of liberation. One imagines the future ‘liberated’ torn between long desired relief and horror at the anticipated devastation, imagining the titanic task of reconstruction ahead.

It is Hétu’s great intelligence, even wisdom, that he has avoided any triumphalist grandiloquence. He makes a lucid observation of freedom as a fleeting reality even after the end of hostilities : it is fraught with dangerous pitfalls and is a perpetual balancing act, which makes it so fragile. This last movement can also be read in other ways: true freedom is never acquired, and the one we acquire contains the seeds of its own destruction. An observation that could not be more topical. Hétu could not have seen the current state of democracy coming, but it is the mark of a great work to allow this kind of reflection. 

The National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Orchestre symphonique de Québec and the Mendelssohn Choir, conducted by Jean-Sébastien Vallée, offer a definitive and historic reading of this great monument of Canadian and Quebecois music. 

Latest 360 Content

Jeff Bridges – Slow Magic, 1977-1978

Jeff Bridges – Slow Magic, 1977-1978

Piknic Electronik | DJ Fuckoff Turns Up The Heat for Pep Rally

Piknic Electronik | DJ Fuckoff Turns Up The Heat for Pep Rally

Orford 2025 | Collectif9: folk that innovates and grooves

Orford 2025 | Collectif9: folk that innovates and grooves

Nuits d’Afrique 2025 | The next global star of Tuareg blues is born, and it is in Montreal

Nuits d’Afrique 2025 | The next global star of Tuareg blues is born, and it is in Montreal

Ruby Creek – Forget Me Not

Ruby Creek – Forget Me Not

Clipse – Let God Sort Em Out

Clipse – Let God Sort Em Out

Ross Lee Finney : Landscapes Remembered

Ross Lee Finney : Landscapes Remembered

Lanaudière Festival | The Sparkle of Strauss, Schumann, and Brahms in Joliette

Lanaudière Festival | The Sparkle of Strauss, Schumann, and Brahms in Joliette

Wet Leg – moisturizer

Wet Leg – moisturizer

Sister Ray – Believer

Sister Ray – Believer

Festival de Lanaudière | Franco Fagioli and the voice of bel canto

Festival de Lanaudière | Franco Fagioli and the voice of bel canto

Nuits d’Afrique | Manamba Kanté, An Undeniable Diva

Nuits d’Afrique | Manamba Kanté, An Undeniable Diva

Nuits d’Afrique | El Gato Negro, A Feline Like No Other

Nuits d’Afrique | El Gato Negro, A Feline Like No Other

Nights of Africa 2025 | A gnawa fusion reactor named Saïd Mesnaoui

Nights of Africa 2025 | A gnawa fusion reactor named Saïd Mesnaoui

Nuits d’Afrique 2025 | Sousou and Maher Cissoko: benevolence and complicity

Nuits d’Afrique 2025 | Sousou and Maher Cissoko: benevolence and complicity

Nuits d’Afrique | Las Karamba And Their Militant Salsa

Nuits d’Afrique | Las Karamba And Their Militant Salsa

Women shine at the Quebec City Opera Festival

Women shine at the Quebec City Opera Festival

Festival de Lanaudière | A Successful Choral Evening for Akamus

Festival de Lanaudière | A Successful Choral Evening for Akamus

Festival d’art vocal de Montréal | Training the Next Generation of Lyric Artists, From Voice to Stage Direction

Festival d’art vocal de Montréal | Training the Next Generation of Lyric Artists, From Voice to Stage Direction

Nuits d’Afrique | Soul Bang’s, The King of Improvisation

Nuits d’Afrique | Soul Bang’s, The King of Improvisation

Nuits d’Afrique | Tyrane Mondeny: The Rising Star Has Reached Her Destination

Nuits d’Afrique | Tyrane Mondeny: The Rising Star Has Reached Her Destination

Nuits d’Afrique | El Gato Negro, The Sound of Subtropical Pop

Nuits d’Afrique | El Gato Negro, The Sound of Subtropical Pop

Nuits d’Afrique | Glowzi, in Soundsystem Mode

Nuits d’Afrique | Glowzi, in Soundsystem Mode

Nuits d’Afrique | Mateus Vidal & Axé Experience, “Uma Festa” in The Rain

Nuits d’Afrique | Mateus Vidal & Axé Experience, “Uma Festa” in The Rain

Subscribe to our newsletter