OSM and Khachatryan | Music, Politics and The Human Condition

by Hélène Archambault

There are moments when you feel privileged to be where you are. Such was the case on Wednesday evening at the Maison symphonique. I think the feeling was mutual, at least if I’m to judge by the encore given by violinist Sergey Khachatryan, who gave a superb performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35.

The orchestra provided a setting in which he could express his sincerity, as when the flutes pick up at the end of his very personal cadenza, or again in the opening bars, as the strings introduce the solo violin.

The reminder is a piece by Grigor Narekatsi, a 10th-century Armenian mystic poet and saint of the Armenian Apostolic Church. In 2015, in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, Pope Francis declared St. Gregory of Narek (Frenchized name), Doctor of the Church, the 36th, for his timeless writings. Timeless, Havoun, havoun is. More than 1,000 years apart, his play resonates.

After intermission, Payare and the OSM attack Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11, Op. 103 “The Year 1905”. 11 young instrumentalists from Montreal’s Conservatory, McGill, and Université de Montréal music schools join the orchestra for the occasion. Knowing the history of this symphony is the key to fully appreciating it because it’s not the kind of piece you listen to while preparing a chickpea salad on Monday morning before catching the metro. The program notes are illuminating. Symphony No. 11 is intimately linked to the history of Russia, and later the Soviet Union, both in its writing and its reception by the regime. With the USSR having decreed Shostakovich’s music an enemy of the workers in the aftermath of the Second World War, new compositions had to wait until the 1950s. Composed at the beginning of 1957, Shostakovich recounts in music the popular uprising of 1905 against the Russian Empire.

The first movement, “Palace Square”, opens with a hostile winter scene, where bloody repression soon unfolds. Military snare drums, bugles, and folk song illustrations are all sound manifestations of the violence of the repression. The second movement evokes Red Sunday, and here again, Shostakovich uses musical material to depict the horror of the massacre and the desolation of death. The third movement, “Eternal Memory”, is reminiscent of the Revolutionaries’ Funeral March. As for the Finale, “Tocsin”, this is revolutionary fervor, characterized by trumpets and low strings, interrupted by an English horn melody, and ending with the sounds of cymbals and bells. When the music stops, you wonder what you’ve just experienced. I was moved, disturbed, and thrown to the ground. This concert embodies the human condition in all its fragility.

Photo Credit: Antoine Saito

musique contemporaine

M/NM | Music with soul and Indian ink

by Frédéric Cardin

Yesterday the Festival Montréal Nouvelles Musiques presented an unusual programme, Le son de l’encre, at the centre of which was the mechanical and symbolic process of line, drawing and writing. Five works for flute and various additions (video, gesture-animated sound interface, live calligraphy) were performed. The spirit of Asian calligraphy is associated with elegance, harmony and meticulousness. It was also in this state of sound, at least in general, that the music on offer flourished. Although ‘contemporary,’ most of the pieces on the programme were enveloped in more or less explicit echoes of Asian music, thanks to the harmonies on pentatonic scales.

Penned by François Dery, Claire-Melanie Sinnhuber, Tao Yu, Gualtiero Dazzi and François Daudin Clavaud, the evocatively-titled works (Bambous, Fleurs de prunes tombantes, Le son de l’encre, Vent léger, etc.) set the scene in a way that was both modern and timeless, bathed in an atmosphere that was often contemplative, even ritualistic. Some pieces were more poignant than others, such as Gualtiero Dazzi’s La demeure du rêve, a superb sound construction based on drawings by South Korean Kim Yung Gi, one of the great illustrators of our time, who died at the age of 47 in 2022. Gi’s drawings, four in all and admirable for their naturalness but also for their symbolic complexity, took the form of a series of family portraits set against each other. A deeply moving moment.

The presence of renowned calligrapher Shanshan Sun was necessary to accompany some of the works, such as Feu, neige, cendres by François Déry. I wasn’t as convinced by the coherent relationship between Sun’s live gestures and the music. Especially in the last piece of the evening, coordination seemed to be lacking, with Sun finishing his writing on a large piece of paper on the floor, while the musicians had finished playing. I’d say almost a minute passed during which I caught the look on the face of one of the flautists, silently wondering how long he should hold his instrument up…

Be that as it may, I must mention the great versatility of the Trio d’argent, made up of Michel Boizot, Xavier Saint-Bonnet and François Daudin Clavaud. Three flutes together, some would say, is suicide. The French have shown that it can be done very well, and sound magnificently too. The variety of flutes used was also a major factor. Western, Oriental, bass flutes (I love them!), etc., the colours deployed were numerous and beautifully applied, in a contemporary perspective, certainly, but not experimental.

It was an evening that was sometimes bewitching, often soothing, always pleasant and surprising. A lovely offering from the Festival Montréal Nouvelles Musiques, and it’s only just beginning.

Interview (in French) with one of the musicians :

Publicité panam

musique contemporaine / Piano

M/NM : Kafka’s Insect in metamorphosis under the Satosphère

by Judith Hamel

On Monday evening, a handful of audience members braved the icy gusts of wind and mountains of snow to make themselves comfortable on the beanbags of the Satosphère, in the heart of the Société des Arts Technologiques (SAT). All the way from Malta, composer Ruben Zahra and pianist Tricia Dawn Williams swapped the mild Mediterranean climate for the cold of Montreal to present Kafka’s Insect as part of the Festival International Montréal/Nouvelles Musiques (M/NM).

An immersive audiovisual performance, Kafka’s Insect is a retelling of Franz Kafka’s famous novel La métamorphose (1915). Spanning some 40 minutes, the visual narrative features characters from the Austro-Hungarian author’s story, as well as a real insect filmed from various angles and in motion. The narrative is built up in fragments and is supported by sound events taken directly from Kafka’s text: the pounding of rain against windows, the crash of a laboratory flask crashing to the floor, or the clash of apples thrown against a wall. These diegetic sounds blend with the soundtrack that is played live by piano and synthesizers. Towards the end of the piece, a dialogue is established between a violin recorded in the film and the piano played on stage. These interactions reinforce the cohesion between the sound and visual worlds, making the experience all the more immersive.

In addition, these looped elements encourage us to interpret the sound and visual scenes from different perspectives. This process amplifies the strangeness of the work, paying homage to the absurdity that permeates Kafka’s text.

The video projections – usually broadcast on a two-meter-diameter inflatable sphere placed at the center of the stage – have been specially adapted for this event, exploiting a large part of the surface of the SAT’s immersive dome. The film, shot for the most part with a vintage Daguerreotype Achromat lens from 1838, featured a singular aesthetic: soft light, with a blur evoking a flourishing imagination, just like Kafka’s protagonist. The circular image was projected onto the dome. Projections of the protagonist, depicted as a giant insect, were thus projected onto an imposing screen, creating a captivating atmosphere.

The integration of projected texts, while making the story easier to understand, sometimes broke the immersion. On the other hand, the moments when synthesizers were added to the piano created a particularly enveloping atmosphere. Finally, the impeccable synchronization between live music and video, facilitated by a click in the performers’ headphones, was an appreciable element that enhanced the fluidity of the performance.

This show marked the final M/NM event presented at the SAT, but the 12th edition of the festival continues with several more concerts to be discovered in the coming days. Focusing this year on the dialogue between music and images, M/NM offers no fewer than 18 concerts over 16 days.

photo: Emma Tranter

Publicité panam

Africa / Indigenous peoples

Black History Month | An Afro-Indigenous Immersion

by Sandra Gasana

For its third edition, Immersion plunged us into a meeting between two African women artists, Dalie Dandala, from Congo-Brazzaville, and Lerie Sankofa, from Côte d’Ivoire, and an Atikamekw woman, Laura Niquay. Together, they shared with us the fruits of their 21-day artistic creation residency, during which they got to know each other, created together and sang in each other’s respective languages.

Under the direction of Fredy Massamba, himself a renowned artist, the art of staging had its place in this show. From dress to dance to the many instruments played by the three women, nothing was left to chance. Each woman took her turn to explain her songs, with the others participating in the chorus or playing an instrument. At times, it was hard to tell whether the language was African or native, as the boundaries were so porous.

Singing, dancing, instruments and their arrangement came naturally, allowing the artists to tell their own stories. Ngoma, percussion, guitar, handpan drum and ahoco: it was all there. Each artist sang in her mother tongue, with occasional bits of French.

“Nzobi, in my language, means ritual or prayer, a bit like vodou,” explains Dalie Dandala before intoning her song in Nyari. She is joined by Lerie on percussion and Laura on backing vocals before dancing away, all dressed in red.

In turn, Lerie shares a song in Avikam about women and their desire for freedom when mistreated by their husbands. Dalie and Laura accompany her, one on the ahoco and the other with poetry in the Atikamekw language, with a touch of French.

Despite a string coming loose on her guitar in the middle of the show, this didn’t stop Laura from playing it on the track “Stéréotype”, which denounces prejudices about the role of women, with Dalie and Lerie on backing vocals and percussion.

These women even got the audience involved on one track, when Fredy Massamba couldn’t hold back from dancing. Indeed, he did so at one point in the evening when he joined the trio on stage, quickly accompanied by Louise Abomba, a visual artist from Cameroon.

They closed the show with a tribute to twins, considered a blessing in many African cultures, in song, music and dance. The complicity was more palpable between the two African artists, of course, but Laura managed to carve out a niche for herself while giving them the space to create a stronger bond between themselves.
This was followed by a question-and-answer period, during which the audience had the opportunity to ask the three artists a few questions. The theme of women was central throughout the show, the power conferred on them, their role in society and the prejudices to be deconstructed about them.

To the question “What’s next?” from the audience, we learned that Laura, who is currently working on a blues album with an all-female band, has invited Dalie and Lerie to participate in her project. So we’ll have to wait for a follow-up to this artistic immersion that resulted in a cultural symbiosis between Africa and one of Canada’s aboriginal peoples.

Baroque / classique

Les Violons du Roy : Bach, les premières cantates et Bernard Labadie

by Sami Rixhon

On s’imagine facilement et même presque exclusivement le grand Johann Sebastian Bach en homme âgé, pétri des plus grands savoirs musicaux que seuls l’expérience et le temps apportent. C’est pourtant un tout jeune homme, au début de la vingtaine, qui nous lègue les puissants et parfaits chefs-d’œuvre que sont ses toutes premières cantates. Des œuvres qui ouvrent l’une des plus importantes sommes musicales de tout l’Occident, livrées ici avec La Chapelle de Québec, dans toute leur splendeur.
Bernard Labadie, chef
Myriam Leblanc, soprano
Daniel Moody, contre-ténor
Hugo Hymas, ténor
Stephen Hegedus, baryton-basse
Avec La Chapelle de Québec

It is easy to imagine the great Johann Sebastian Bach almost exclusively as an elderlyman, steeped in the greatest musical knowledge that only time and experience can bring. Yet it was a young man in his early twenties who handed down to us the powerful, true masterpieces that comprise his very first sacred cantatas. These works are the first of one of the most important musical collections in the whole of the western world, delivered in all their splendour here with La Chapelle de Québec.
Bernard Labadie, conductor
Myriam Leblanc, soprano
Daniel Moody, countertenor
Hugo Hymas, tenor
Stephen Hegedus, bass-baritone
With La Chapelle de Québec

Programme

J.S. BACH
Cantate Christ lag in Todes Banden, BWV 4
Cantate Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit, BWV 106
Cantate Aus der Tiefe rufe ich, Herr, zu dir, BWV 131
Cantate Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, BWV 150

Program

J.S. BACH
Cantata Christ lag in Todes Banden, BWV 4
Cantata Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit, BWV 106
Cantata Aus der Tiefe rufe ich, Herr, zu dir, BWV 131
Cantata Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, BWV 150

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Ce contenu provient des Violons du Roy et est adapté par PAN M 360

musique contemporaine

Ali Zadeh @ Molinari: a visit that will live long in our memories

by Frédéric Cardin

The three-day event Le quatuor selon Ali Zadeh (The quartet according to Ali Zadeh), organized by the Molinari Quartet, reached its climax on Saturday evening, February 15, at the Salle du Conservatoire de Montréal. In the presence of the composer, a small, elegant woman of 78, we listened, probably for the very first time, to all her string quartets in one go. This was made all the more special by the fact that it included the premiere of a work written specifically for the Molinaris, her Farewell quartet.

WATCH THE INTERVIEW WITH OLGA RANZENHOFER FROM THE MOLINARI QUARTET (In French)

After a full and fast-paced introduction by multidisciplinary artist Nicolas Jobin, who is also a “specialist” in the work of Franghiz Ali Zadeh, the seven quartets by the Azerbaijani composer were launched in non-chronological order, contrary to the Molinari Quartet’s usual practice for this kind of event. An idea of Mrs. Ali Zadeh’s which, I think, turned out to be a happy one, as it favored an alternation between harmonically “modernist” works and those more openly “folkloric”.

I won’t summarize each piece here, but the final impression of the many listeners present is probably that of an authentic fusion, sophisticated without abstruse cerebralism, of Eastern and Western musical universes. The language of Azeri sacred chants, called mughams, is omnipresent in Ali Zadeh’s expressive palette, but with variations in intensity and explicitness depending on the quartet. While 2015’s Reqs (Dance), and especially 1993’s Mugham Sayagi, her most famous work (commissioned by Kronos), are strongly tinged with what Western ears perceive as obvious orientalism, others such as Dilogia (1974, rev. 1988), In Search Of… (2005), and even the premiere Farewell (2025) are more strongly in the wake of chromatic modernism, or even the Second Viennese School (Farewell is explicitly inspired by Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto). That said, even in these, the soul of an art music linked to Islamic sacred chant remains perceptible, for those who know how to listen.

Franghiz Ali Zadeh’s music is an authentic fusion, a brilliant syncretism, all the more natural as it has been personally experienced by the artist throughout her life (Nicolas Jobin’s lecture was very enlightening in this respect). This music is even more powerful in its expressiveness because Ms. Ali Zadeh possesses two additional major assets: firstly, she is an excellent musical narrator, who knows how to tell stories with sufficient focus to set a lively scene, but also to leave interpretative space, both for the musicians and for the listeners, so as to allow each and every one to immerse themselves with a certain freedom of perception. Secondly, Ali Zadeh is a fine colorist, using almost the entire palette of string techniques such as col legno battuto, tremolos, glissandos, pizzicatos, mutes and so on. Elsewhere, the musicians sing, or (in Mugham Sayagi) also play percussion, moving around the stage and playing backstage. The rhythms used by Ms. Ali Zadeh, often demanding but propulsive, endow her music with an infectious accessibility.

For this ease of reception, combined with an elaborate academic knowledge and structural complexity that is anything but obtuse, Franghiz Ali Zadeh’s musical proposal is one of the most inspiring of our time, and perhaps one of the most promising for the future of contemporary creation.

This kind of world-class event (which also included two previous days of conferences and discussions) is a landmark event. The Molinari Quartet gave us the kind of privilege that music lovers in Berlin, Vienna or Paris know so well. The ensemble has benefited from the support of a far-sighted and essential patronage (the Lupien Family Foundation), to which we are grateful.

I’ll end with an arrow aimed at a few media “competitors” (forgive me, but you’ll understand): to my knowledge, no one from Radio-Canada, La Presse or Le Devoir was present. This just goes to show the deplorable cultural state of the mainstream media, unable to grasp the unique and historic nature of this event.

Baroque / Classical / musique contemporaine / période romantique

Les Violons du Roy and Kerson Leong: A Time of Grace

by Alexandre Villemaire

Les Violons du Roy’s first concert of 2025 finally took place not in Quebec City, but in Montreal’s Salle Bourgie. The weather having forced the postponement of the February 13 performance at the Palais Montcalm to a later date, it was Montreal audiences who got to hear violinist Kerson Leong and the world premiere of Kelly-Marie Murphy’s Found in Lostness, to a full house.

The evening’s repertoire was structured around works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Felix Mendelssohn. Bringing together the figures of Bach and Mendelssohn in a program is not a new or innovative idea. As first guest conductor Nicolas Ellis, in charge for the evening, rightly reminded us in his introduction. Indeed, Mendelssohn made a major contribution to the rediscovery of the Leipzig cantor’s music, which had been somewhat forgotten in the 19th century, when he presented The St. Matthew Passion in Berlin in 1829. Mendelssohn, himself an organist, was greatly influenced by Bach, as were many other composers who saw him as a spiritual master.

The first work on the program was Mendelssohn’s Symphony for Strings No. 10 in B minor. A youthful composition – he was fourteen when he wrote it – the influences are clearly classical in the treatment of the strings, reminiscent of Haydn, but the conduct of the voices, particularly in the first movement, marked Adagio, is eminently Bachian. In fact, the choice of the key of B minor, the same as that of his famous Mass, is a nod to Bach. For the rest, the form remains classical, but is peppered with the lyricism and passionate dynamic changes characteristic of Romanticism. It is clear that this is a young Félix exploring musical language, who has not yet found his style.

This was followed by a sensitive, meditative interpretation of the organ chorale O Mensch, bewein’ dein Sünde groß [O man, weep for your great sin]. Nicolas Ellis guided the musicians into an intimate, pleading world. The arrangement for strings by German composer Max Reger (1873-1916) lends a hushed, more interior character where, right up to the last note, we are left in a state of suspension. It’s another nod to Bach’s legacy to include Reger, who is said to have said: “Bach is the beginning and the end of music”.

What an excellent idea to seamlessly link the arrangement for soloists and string orchestra of the aria “Erbarme Dich [Have mercy, my God]” from St. Matthew’s Passion, featuring the evening’s guest soloist Kerson Leong, with Canadian composer Kelly-Marie Murphy’s Found in Lostness. With a sound of purity, Leong is accompanied by violist Jean-Louis Blouin in this vocal duet that perpetuates the dynamics of the previous chorale. Seconds that rub against each other to create dissonance magnify the imitation of the Apostle Peter’s guilt-ridden weeping after denying Jesus.

The transition into Kelly-Marie Murphy’s world is a natural one, as the aesthetic of the piece explores the theme of loss. The piece opens with chilling high notes, following a double bass solo by Raphaël McNabney that exploits the unnatural treble of his instrument. The piece then takes off in an energetic burst, featuring vivid melodic lines, extended violin playing techniques imitating shrill cries, tense chords and constant dynamic changes. After this wild ride, calm returns with a harmonic string carpet over which Kerson Leong’s violin brushes a dissonant line that the rest of the orchestra lightly joins. This finale reminded us of Charles Ives’ The Unanswered Question. Coherent, accessible and engaging, it deserves to be heard and, above all, listened to!

After opening with the music of the young Mendelssohn, the concert concluded with his last work, the String Quartet in F minor, composed after the death of his sister. The language of maturity asserts an unabashed romanticism, where the development of ideas is more developed, personal and marked by emotionally charged orchestral lines and treatments.

Choral Music / Classical / Classical Period / Renaissance music

Beethoven’s 9th, Montreal, 200 Years Ago…

by Alexis Desrosiers-Michaud

On this Valentine’s Day, we were treated to a premiere at the concert by Ensemble Caprice and Ensemble ArtChoral: Beethoven’s 9ᵉ symphony on early instruments, conducted by Matthias Maute.

The original program was to have opened with the little-known cantata Hiob by Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel. Instead, we were treated to two Yiddish pieces, Ernst Bloch’s Yih’yu L’ratzon and a traditional aria calledOy dortn, as well as Gregorio Allegri’s famous Miserere.

The two Jewish pieces feature soprano Sharon Azrieli and her imposing vibrato. Acting as cantor, she announces psalmodies and the choir responds. We don’t know if it’s a microphone or projection problem, but she was barely audible from the back of the audience. All the same, it’s very pretty, and reminds us that this Jewish and Hebrew music is too rarely performed in our concert halls.

The Miserere is a jewel of musical genius that leaves no room for error. Unfortunately, there were mistakes. Firstly, the voices of the quartet perched high up in the Maison symphonique are not homogeneous; those of the men do not vibrate, whereas those of the women do. What’s more, it’s not always right. Then, there’s no change in volume throughout the piece, and as this piece is often repeated, it becomes redundant and loses all its intimacy. Then, in the psalmodies, different notes are accentuated by the choristers, instead of being lightly pressed, and it’s sometimes unclear in the cuts and consonants. In short, this is a fine work, but it would have deserved a more consistent rendering.

The real treat of the first half is Höre auf meine Stimme, written by William Kraushaar, also a chorister in the bass section. Maute warned us that the melody would stick in our heads, and for good reason. Simple without being kitschy, repeated often enough without our noticing it too much, it is supple and expressive. The accompaniment doesn’t impose itself, leaving the choir to sing along, acting as a harmonic carpet. Were it not for a few dissonant chords from the language of Morten Lauridsen and his contemporaries in the a cappella passages, we would have placed this work between the styles of Mendelssohn and Schubert, and on our first listen, this piece seems accessible to most amateur choirs. When will it be published?

According to conductor Maute, this is the first time in Montreal that Beethoven’s Ninth has been played on period instruments. It takes a few minutes to adapt to the new sound, but it’s very pleasant and successful, despite a few lapses in accuracy and precision. The sound isn’t fat, and the loud passages don’t give the impression that Obelix is lifting the Sphinx, but the tension is there. In the first movement, which Maute conducts at breakneck speed, you can hear all the elements of the musical dialogue, and the second really has the feel of a dance, something you don’t get from many other conductors. However, the middle section of this movement is too fast, and the winds don’t keep up. The third movement is certainly not adagio, but very cantabile. One enjoys the phrases without lingering or falling into the moon.

The last movement opens smoothly and lightly. Finally, the cello/bass recitatives are not too heavy! And all is exalted before the entrance of the chorus, with the recitative of bass Dominique Côté. But as soon as the chorus begins, something annoys us: a soprano pierces more than the rest of her section, especially in the high register, which is like saying almost all the time in Beethoven. Once this is targeted by the ear, it’s extremely difficult to ignore. My seatmate, who was also bothered by it, confided to me at the end of the evening that it wasn’t the first time it had happened to this tandem. If you don’t want one person’s work to unbalance a rare, high-level performance, this is something to be corrected.

photos: Tam Photography

Contemporary

New European Ensemble open the 12th edition of M / NM

by Vitta Morales

The Netherlands-based New European Ensemble kicked off this year’s 12th edition of the Montréal Nouvelles Musiques Festival. The opening concert titled “Dynamite Barrel” showcased the work of innovative contemporary composers whose pieces on the night would adhere to this year’s theme: the marriage of music and images.

Heading into this concert with little information, I assumed that this meant music that evokes imagery but that ultimately each listener was to be responsible for their own imaginations. As I would soon see, each of the featured composers would run with this theme slightly differently.

The pieces are set out to represent locations, sonic evolution, historical periods, or a mixture of the three. Sometimes this was done, as it routinely is when it comes to new chamber music, by pushing the limits of textures and timbre; meaning that they contained all the florid passages, extended techniques, mixed orchestration, and meterless moments you would expect. For those who found this fatiguing, the piece Cyan Saturn, inspired by Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew, provided some nice contrast as it contained some compositional conventions of jazz fusion which made for something a bit different.

Regardless, most of the pieces of the night would couple their music with images projected onto a screen and essentially require the players of the New European Ensemble to “score” the images live. In one piece this meant recontextualizing old Looney Tunes scenes; on another occasion, a Bollywood film; and at the very end, a surf rock piece superimposed with Thai music set to shadow puppetry.

When the musical scoring lapsed into what I would consider dense, pointillistic, or meterless soundscapes, I was much more tolerant of any shrieks and squeals when I could see they were in accordance with what was happening on the screen. The brain is funny that way. At other moments I felt some dense soundscapes overstayed their welcome. I can wholly admit that contemporary chamber music asks important questions of established practices when it goes down this route; my gripe is that it always seems to be the same questions. And they’ve been asked for more than a few decades at this point. Overall I would say the New European Ensemble interpreted for us some very interesting music, but I wasn’t about to rush to the merch

photos: Marie-Ève Labadie

Classical / Modern Classical

OSM | Payare and Weilerstein: Passion for Two From Prokofiev to Ravel

by Alexandre Villemaire

On the eve of Valentine’s Day, February 12 and 13, the setting couldn’t have been more propitious for the pairing of Rafael Payare and Alisa Weilerstein on the Maison Symphonique stage.

If Maurice Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé can be deliberately associated with the idyll of love, both in its subject matter and in its music, Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony Concertante for Cello, with its eclecticism and biting, percussive sounds, could appear out of step with the program’s aesthetic. On the contrary, the works were highly complementary in terms of timbral language, dynamics and passionate playing.

Opening the evening, Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphonie concertante. Written between 1950 and 1952, this mature three-movement work by the Russian composer is a reworking of an earlier cello concerto that was roundly criticized. Prokofiev’s language is textured and composite, drawing on the full range of the cello’s sound, as well as orchestral and rhythmic sonorities and passages reminiscent of jazz. At the podium, Payare was as fiery as ever, but more restrained than usual in his gestures for this complex score, where the orchestral interventions are velocity-laden in terms of texture and technique. Payare’s direction was precise and the orchestra of great intensity.

The second and third movements (Allegro giusto and Andante con moto) particularly appealed to us, respectively for their virtuosity, their use of dynamic orchestral effects and their folk accent in the cadenza of the second movement, where Alisa Weilerstein demonstrates the full range of her technique and the possible interplay of her instrument with evocative ease. Even if what sounds false to the ear is in fact well calculated, written and conveyed with naturalness. The cello lines are as swift as the orchestral lines, blending with the different sections in a rich, inventive orchestration. On stage, Alisa Weilerstein transports us into a world of her own, where she doesn’t just play the music. She is the music. She embodies a character like an actress on a stage, where her facial expressions and gestures are as significant as the accompanying music. The audience gave her a standing ovation for several minutes.

The second part, dedicated to the music of the ballet Daphnis et Chloé, plunged us into a dreamlike, colorful world. Here, Payare becomes a painter before a blank canvas which he paints with precision. Even if we’re dealing with repertoire that’s all too familiar, it’s always a delight to see the dynamics and colors imagined by Ravel unfold. The arrangement of the choir, which was installed higher than usual due to the recording, was also interesting. It’s a nice touch, too, to have the rows of choristers enter successively during the introduction, to simulate the effect of voices arriving from afar and gaining in power. A minor criticism: the processional effect would have had even greater impact if this entrance had been sung without a score! For the rest, the choir’s interventions were excellent, delivered with fine control of nuances and dynamics. In the orchestra, Rafael Payare danced across the stage, instilling vigor and character into the various orchestral forces, both in the more diaphanous moments and in the thunderous, brassy passages reminiscent of the language of George Gershwin. The astonishingly complementary and passionate interpretation of the evening’s two works richly deserved the thunderous applause of a packed Maison symphonique, and gave the orchestra great material for their forthcoming album releases, which we look forward to discovering.

Photo Credit: Antoine Saito

Africa / classique / période moderne

OSM : Angélique Kidjo chante Glass

by Rédaction PAN M 360

Beethoven dépeint poétiquement les chants d’oiseaux et le murmure des ruisseaux, alors que Janácek, en fin observateur, oppose la quiétude de la vie sylvestre au monde conflictuel des humains. De son côté, Glass s’inspire de poèmes africains évoquant le mythe de la création du monde et celui des dieux du royaume d’Ifé. La musique nourrit l’imaginaire d’Angélique Kidjo qui donne vie aux légendes avec sa voix puissante et profonde.

While Beethoven poetically depicted birdsong and rippling streams, Janácek, a stark observer, contrasted the stillness of forest life with the conflict-filled world of humans. Meanwhile, Glass drew inspiration from African poems that tell of the creation myth and deities of the ancient Ifé Empire, fuelling the imagination of Angélique Kidjo, who brings these legends to life with vocal depth and power.

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Ce contenu provient de l’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal et est adapté par PAN M 360

Jazz

ONJ | Tirolien with Strings Brings Down the House

by Vitta Morales

I will waste no time in saying that Malika Tirolien with the ONJ was among the best concerts I’ve been assigned. It is only February, but I suspect it will go down as one of my favorite shows of the year. And the reason why it boils down to this: Tirolien and company treated us to fantastic performances of solidly crafted songs that were then elevated by great arranging from Jean-Nicolas Trottier.

Tirolien, armed with a rhythm section, three backup singers, a string orchestra, and horns, performed songs from her 2021 album Higher, in addition to a few other selections from a separate project called Gemini Crab. Already, the songs from Higher in their original form are groovy, synth heavy, and high energy. (Due in part, no doubt, to it being co-produced by Michael League of Snarky Puppy). In an interview with Tirolien, our colleague Varun Swarup quite astutely wondered how much more grandiose these songs could get. This would be answered immediately. These arrangements, and in particular their use of strings, equated to a lightness and floating quality in the more gentle moments of the music, but they were equally up to the task of adding a satisfying density and dissonance when required. As concerns the horns, they provided some heft and weight, making the groovier moments even more so. In the words of Tirolien herself, Jean-Nicolas “found a way to elevate the music without losing its core identity.”

Musically, the show and compositions had a bit of everything. Quintuplet grooves, 12/8 shuffle, synth lead solos, a saxophone battle, politically fueled rap, belted high notes, creative tempo changes, a shredding guitar solo, and even some light choreography were all seen before the night was over. And, most importantly, it all worked. It really worked. Going over my notes, I looked to see if there were any fair criticisms that were worth mentioning. In the end, I decided that including any nitpicks would feel a bit forced. And this is because my takeaway from the evening wasn’t “Wow, what a great show; but it would have been nice to clean up elements X, Y, and Z.” Rather, my takeaway was, “Wow, what an exceptional show from all involved.”