Trio Fibonacci – Brothers in Music

by Rédaction PAN M 360

Beethoven, Haydn and Reicha, these three representatives of Viennese classicism are reunited in a concert that also echoes their encounters during their lifetime. First, the musicians bring Anton Reicha’s rare but magnificent Trio in D minor out of the shadows. This brings to the fore this composer and friend of Beethoven, with whom he shared the orchestra pit in Bonn and an admiration for Haydn. This is followed by a score by the man nicknamed “Papa Haydn”: his trio, a genre to which he gave his letters of nobility, here reaches the same heights as his famous quartets. Finally, Beethoven’s monumental Archduke Trio is praised for its sublime inspiration and inventive fantasy. Indeed, this work shows the full extent of the immeasurable talent of this other founder of the Viennese school.

Beethoven, Haydn et Reicha, ces trois représentants du classicisme viennois sont réunis dans un concert qui fait aussi écho à leurs rencontres de leur vivant. Les musiciens sortent d’abord de l’ombre le rare mais magnifique Trio en ré mineur d’Anton Reicha. Mettant ainsi en lumière ce compositeur et ami de Beethoven avec qui il partageait la fosse d’orchestre de Bonn et une admiration pour Haydn. Suivra une partition de celui qu’on surnommait justement « Papa Haydn » : son trio, un genre auquel il a donné ses lettres de noblesse, atteint ici les mêmes hauteurs que ses fameux quatuors. Enfin, le monumental Trio « À l’Archiduc » de Beethoven est loué pour son inspiration sublime et sa fantaisie inventive. Cette œuvre donne en effet toute la mesure de l’incommensurable talent de cet autre fondateur de l’école viennoise.

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This content comes from the Salle Bourgie and is adapted by PAN M 360.

classique persan / Contemporary / musique contemporaine / Persian Classical

Bahar Harandi’s feminist Iran

by Frédéric Cardin

On 2 April, a concert of discoveries and feminist affirmation took place in Salle Bourgie at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Iranian-born Montreal soprano Bahar Harandi was accompanied by Amir Eslami on ney (a traditional Iranian flute), Saba Yousefi on violin and Hooshyar Khayam on piano. Through a repertoire of contemporary works written by as many Iranian-Canadian women composers, we were presented with a whole universe inspired by Persian roots and its rich history. The concert began with a number of traditional pieces arranged for ney and piano, immersing the audience in an exotic soundscape that was also relatively close to the music of Gurdjieff/Hartmann from the early 20th century. The other pieces on the programme, by Parisa Sabet (born in 1980), Aida Shirazi (born in 1987) and Mina Arissian (born in 1979) demonstrated a very high level of skill, ranging from the consonant music of Sabet to the more demanding expressionism of Shirazi, before returning to the Scriabinian inspirations of Arissian.

The texts, many of them by the great poet Rumi, were used symbolically in the context of this concert, even if their initial premise had no such intention. For example, Parisa Sabet’s Be still (based on a text by Rumi) says:

Sit, be still and listen,

because you’re drunk

and we’re at the edge of the sky

It came as no surprise that the expressive force given to the voice was concentrated on the first stanza. Bahar Harandi put a lot of intensity into it and it was impossible to think of anything other than a man ordering a woman to do this in modern Iran (or indeed anywhere else). There were, in fact, several moments of powerful dramatic force throughout a programme that was quite varied in terms of musical texture, rhythm and atmosphere.

Harandi sang with a beautiful and very well-balanced voice, combining technical mastery with plenty of emotional character. The soprano also demonstrated good dramatic range, accentuating certain passages with bite, cynicism or gentleness.

Instrumental

Lluís Claret, Cello & Sandra Murray, Piano at Salle Bourgie

by Rédaction PAN M 360

Andorran cellist and winner of the Rostropovitch and Pablo Casals awards, Lluís Claret travels the world with his splendidly lyrical phrasing. For his first appearance at Salle Bourgie, he will be accompanied by the talented Quebec pianist Sandra Murray in a program of works from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Violoncelliste andorran, grands prix Rostropovitch et Pablo Casals, Lluís Claret parcourt le monde avec son phrasé d’un splendide lyrisme. Pour sa première apparition à la Salle Bourgie, il sera accompagné par la talentueuse pianiste québécoise Sandra Murray dans un programme d’œuvres des XIX^e et XX^esiècles.

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This content comes from the Salle Bourgie and is adapted by PAN M 360.

classique

Tribute to Raffi Armenian and Agnès Grossmann at Salle Bourgie

by Rédaction PAN M 360

Musicians from the Orchestre Métropolitain and numerous friends and collaborators join forces to pay tribute to two great conductors who have left their mark on the musical life of Quebec and Canada.

Des musiciens de l’Orchestre Métropolitain et de nombreux amis et collaborateurs s’unissent pour rendre hommage à deux grands chefs d’orchestre qui ont marqué la vie musicale québécoise et canadienne.

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This content comes from the Orchestre Métropolitain and is adapted by PAN M 360.

Piano

Igor Levit, piano at Salle Bourgie

by Rédaction PAN M 360

Considered by the New York Times to be “one of the most important musicians of his generation”, pianist Igor Levit is in a class of his own. He will perform an original program featuring transcriptions of symphonies by Mahler and Beethoven, as well as Brahms’ poignant Opus 119.

Considéré par le New York Times comme « l’un des musiciens les plus importants de sa génération », le pianiste Igor Levit est dans une classe à part. Il interprètera un programme original comprenant des transcriptions de symphonies de Mahler et de Beethoven ainsi que le poignant Opus 119 de Brahms.

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This content comes from the Salle Bourgie and is adapted by PAN M 360.

Contemporary / Post-Minimalist

The tranquil and (too) discreet music of Missy Mazzoli

by Frédéric Cardin

On Wednesday 28 February, Salle Bourgie welcomed violinist Jennifer Koh and composer and pianist (and keyboardist) Missy Mazzoli for a type of concert that is still rare in Montreal, hence the title of this article. It’s a discreet kind of music, because here in Montreal it’s still under-recognised. Yet Mazzoli is one of the most important musical creators of our time. Elsewhere in English speaking North America, she is a star.

The programme presented in Montreal was part of a tour by the two musicians and friends celebrating fifteen years of collaboration. It featured works by Mazzoli either written for solo violin or as a duo with piano (or synthesiser keyboard). With perfect organic coherence, this programme was deployed like a great thin veil, with undulating movements that swell and deflate the sound fabric, in a stylistic whole that is quite soaring and resolutely post-minimalist.

The final result gives an imperfect idea of Mazzoli’s musical contribution to the early 21st century, for her output is far more complex and fleshed out than yesterday’s relatively monochrome programme. Listen, for example, to her superb Double Bass Concerto ‘’Dark With Excessive Bright’’, her opera Proving Up, or These Worlds in Us for orchestra, and you’ll get a better idea.

That said, this concert, full of beautiful moments of intangibility and contained spirituality, was important because it presented in Montreal a still too rare concert of what I would describe as real “music of our time”. Scholarly music that blends the need for a return to tonality with the sonic possibilities inherited from the modernist avant-garde, scholarly influences with vernacular, impressionistic and affective atmospheres with textures more akin to indie pop/rock or electro. But, because Montreal has been a strong continental hub of avant-garde post-Boulezian contemporary music, the awareness, even less the appreciation, of newer post-minimalist stuff has been slow coming.

This is not to say that this music is better than ‘traditional’ contemporary avant-garde music. Not. At. All. It’s just a paradigm shift. Traditional contemporary music, with its abrasive and abstract worlds, is in fact a tool, a way of doing things that is hyper-concentrated on intellectual formalism. The result can be works of fabulous, suprasensible beauty. New contemporary music, on the other hand, takes an infinitely more holistic (or inclusive) approach, aiming to create new worlds of sound and, above all, emotion, without denying itself any compositional tool or technique, and shunning concepts of High and Low art.

The first is fuelled by rigorous knowledge, and leads sometimes to emotions. The second is fuelled by emotions and imagination, using a large amount of knowledge that leads to transcendence.

I’d like to thank Olivier Godin, Artistic Director of Salle Bourgie, for his commitment to the development of a Montreal listening culture for this music that we can’t afford to ignore for long.

Jazz

André Leroux & Friends at Salle Bourgie

by Rédaction PAN M 360

This concert invites you on a cross-cultural musical journey around the rhythms of the world, where jazz notation and improvisation merge. It brings together experienced musicians to share their musical ideas, inspired by their many travels.

Ce concert invite à un voyage musical interculturel autour des rythmes du monde où la notation et l’improvisation jazz se confondent. Il réunit des musiciens d’expérience qui souhaitent partager leurs idées musicales, inspirées de leurs nombreux périples.

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This content comes from the Salle Bourgie and is adapted by PAN M 360.

classique

Arion Orchestre Baroque Presents Requiem and Coronation

by Rédaction PAN M 360

This concert (re)discovers two contrasting Masses heard in France during the reigns of Louis XVI and Napoleon. Written by Mozart in 1791 on his deathbed, at the urgent request of an enigmatic figure, his Requiem was performed in Paris for the first time in 1804 in a slightly reworked version, conducted by Luigi Cherubini. It was a triumph! A little earlier, in 1774, François Giroust, the last representative of the French grand motet, had been commissioned to compose the music for Louis XVI’s coronation mass in Reims cathedral.

Ce concert propose de (re)découvrir deux Messes contrastées entendues en France sous les règnes de Louis XVI et de Napoléon. Écrit par Mozart en 1791 sur son lit de mort, à la demande pressante d’un personnage énigmatique, son Requiem est donné à Paris pour la première fois en 1804 dans une version légèrement remaniée et sous la direction de Luigi Cherubini. C’est un triomphe ! Un peu auparavant, en 1774, c’est François Giroust, le dernier représentant du grand motet à la française, qui avait été chargé de composer la musique de la messe du sacre de Louis XVI en la cathédrale de Reims.

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This content comes from Arion Orchestre Baroque and is adapted by PAN M 360.

Piano / violon

Claude Debussy : Forgotten Images

by Rédaction PAN M 360

This singular concert offers a musical retrospective of the life of Claude Debussy. Reinvented for cello and piano by two renowned musicians, these forgotten images paint a timeless portrait of this great name in music history.

Ce concert singulier propose une rétrospective musicale de la vie de Claude Debussy. Réinventées pour violoncelle et piano par deux musiciens dont la réputation n’est plus à faire, ces Images oubliées dressent un portrait intemporel de ce très grand nom de l’histoire de la musique.

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This content comes from the Salle Bourgie and is adapted by PAN M 360.

violon

Arion Orchestre Baroque Presents Love Letters at Salle Bourgie

by Rédaction PAN M 360

To celebrate Valentine’s Day in an original way, Arion presents, under the inspired direction of Australian violinist Sophie Gent, a happy blend of Italian and English Baroque concertos grossos in a program that weaves together music and poems to paint a complex and delightful portrait of amorous feelings.

Pour célébrer d’originale façon la Saint-Valentin, Arion présente, sous la direction inspirée de la violoniste australienne Sophie Gent, un heureux mélange de concertos grossos baroques italiens et anglais dans un programme qui tresse un entrelacs de musiques et de poèmes brossant le portrait à la fois complexe et délicieux des sentiments amoureux.

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This content comes from the Salle Bourgie and is adapted by PAN M 360.

classique

The String Quartet: from Refus global to Today

by Rédaction PAN M 360

The Quatuor Molinari presents four works by Quebec composers who witnessed the effervescent artistic experimentation in Quebec since the publication of the radical manifesto Refus global in 1948: Otto Joachim, Rachel Laurin, Jean Lesage and Jean Papineau-Couture.

Le Quatuor Molinari présente quatre œuvres de compositeurs et compositrices québécois.e.s, témoins de l’effervescente expérimentation artistique au Québec depuis la parution en 1948 du manifeste radical Refus global : Otto Joachim, Rachel Laurin, Jean Lesage et Jean Papineau-Couture.

In connetion with the exhibition Françoise Sullivan

Rachel LAURIN Poème, pour quatuor à cordes, op. 35
Jean PAPINEAU-COUTURE Quatuor à cordes n^o 2
Otto JOACHIM Quatuor à cordes
Jean LESAGE Quatuor à cordes n^o4

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This content comes from the Quatuor Molinari and is adapted by PAN M 360.

classique

Les Violons du Roy Presents French Romance

by Rédaction PAN M 360

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the deaths of two of France’s most expressive composers, Gabriel Fauré and Théodore Dubois, the admirable soprano Florie Valiquette and the brilliant pianist David Jalbert join Nicolas Ellis to deliver all the nuances of a repertoire of profound humanity.

Pour commémorer le 100^e anniversaire de la mort de deux des plus expressifs compositeurs français, Gabriel Fauré et Théodore Dubois, l’admirable soprano Florie Valiquette et le brillant pianiste David Jalbert se joignent à Nicolas Ellis pour livrer toutes les nuances d’un répertoire d’une profonde humanité.

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This content comes from the Salle Bourgie and is adapted by PAN M 360.