CD Review | Jacques Hétu, Two Orchestras, One Symphony

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Two Orchestras, One Symphony

Jacques Hétu, composer; National Arts Centre Orchestra, Orchestre symphonique de Québec, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir; Alexander Shelley, conductor

Analekta, 2024

Jacques Hétu’s fifth and last symphony has been given a brand-new recording on Analekta, the fruit of an exceptional collaboration between the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Orchestre symphonique de Québec and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. Two orchestras, as the album title suggests, and three cities represented: Ottawa, Quebec and Toronto.

This work is a benchmark in the contemporary landscape. Its success owes much to the final movement with choir, written to the words of Paul Éluard’s poem “Liberté.” Here, the split orchestral texture offers an exceptionally rich sound, particularly from the strings and brass. Fragments of themes repeated in the trumpet foreshadow the famous finale.

While the choice of combining a choir with the orchestra inevitably recalls Beethoven, the musical account of appalling living conditions during the Second World War is more reminiscent of Shostakovich. In the second movement—“Invasion”—the chromatic lines and rhythmic changes, as well as the magnitude of the two orchestras, help to generate this state of permanent tension.

The third movement shifts from terror to the horror of war. The repetition of dissonant motifs, combined with vibrant percussion perfectly illustrates the anguish into which France was plunged during the Occupation.

In the finale, all the choir’s sections, even the highest, take great care with the words of the poem, “Liberté.” There is almost no need to refer to the libretto, which says a lot about the quality of the performance. The flutes, clarinet and oboe also stand out particularly well from the orchestral ensemble. In short, a powerful and beautiful ending that is sure to leave a lasting impression.

Translation: Gianmarco Segato