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A Builder with Pluck – Meeting with Yves Beaupré

By Philippe Gervais on 30 October 2018 Baroque and Early

Yves Beaupré is fortunate to have a job as rare as it is exciting. He is the only Quebecer to devote himself entirely to the building of harpsichords. For nearly 40 years, he has created between three to five instruments a year, each with its own decorations and sonority. As soon as a harpsichord is finished, Beaupré’s Montreal workshop fills with friends and musicians to behold the new wonder, which is then brought to life by the fingers of a performer, himself surprised by the result. The instrument is then sent to its new owner, often in Quebec, but also…

Renaissance of Baroque – History of an Era in Montreal

By Philippe Gervais on 30 October 2018 Baroque and Early

How can Baroque music, born 400 years ago, seem so young to us today? The oblivion in which it has been immersed may have been paradoxically beneficial to the form. Ask any first- or second-generation “baroque specialist” and they will share the excitement they felt at their first Monteverdi Vespers, first Rameau, first Handel concerto with Harnoncourt, first contact with the viola da gamba, this strange instrument for which a certain Marin Marais, it was said, had written nearly 600 pieces. Discovering a particular genre of music is one thing; rediscovering it with a whole generation of music lovers is…

Photo : Faculté de musique de l'Université de Montréal

Higher Education: New and Noteworthy

By Carol Xiong on 30 October 2018 Classical Music, Education

Concordia University Concordia’s Department of Music celebrates the Year of the Woman. Key among its celebrations is the hiring of Andrea Young as Artist-in-Residence. Joshua Rager releases a new CD (Dreams and Other Stories), Ricardo Dal Farra completes the department’s first ﬁeld school at the Universidad de Caldas, and recent graduate Ilyaa Ghafouri wins First Prize at the TIMES PLAY 2018 Composition Competition. Glenn Gould School Beginning in the 2018-19 academic year, students completing undergraduate requirements at the Glenn Gould School will receive a Bachelor of Music, Performance (Honours). Acclaimed cellist Hans Jørgen Jensen is named to the faculty. Scholarship…

Photo: Marco Borggreve

Julian Prégardien – Tenor and Teacher Takes On Another Role

By Arthur Kaptainis on 30 October 2018 Art Song, Baroque and Early, Choral, Opera, Vocal

Like father, like son. Both Christoph Prégardien, the father, and Julian Prégardien, his son, are noted for baroque and classical opera and oratorio as well as 19th-century Lieder. Both have made highly-regarded recordings of Bach. Julian, however, is taking a step farther than his father – and most singers this side of Barbara Hannigan – by conducting the St. John Passion while singing the role of the Evangelist on Nov. 22 for the Montreal Bach Festival at the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul. (There will be a repeat performance on Nov. 25 at the Saint-Benoît-du-Lac Abbey in the…

Performing Baroque Music Today: As Fresh and Alive As Ever

By Pierre Chénier on 30 October 2018 Baroque and Early

Baroque music first enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in the 1970s and has never looked back. Nowadays, the works of major figures like Bach, Handel, Vivaldi and Couperin continue to be in the public eye, as are those of their lesser-known contemporaries. The performance of Baroque music, notably on records, has gone through different stages. The first, dating back to the 1930s, belonged to the pioneers who brought it to centre stage. Its guiding lights were cellist Pablo Casals, harpsichordist Wanda Landowska and guitarist Andrés Segovia, who included Bach in most if not all of their recitals. One never tires…

Infusion Baroque at L'Gros Luxe in St-Henri : : Montreal, QC : : Images by Danylo Bobyk Photography : : www.danylobobyk.com

Infusion Baroque – Old ”Infused” With New

By Carol Xiong on 30 October 2018 Baroque and Early

Infusion Baroque has it all: brilliant virtuosity, musical integrity and a concert presence unlike any other. With their innovative and often interactive performances, these musicians offer a progressive and accessible approach that is rarely seen in the mostly-serious world of art music. The Mandate Behind the Name This multi-talented female quartet (Alexa Raine-Wright, baroque flute and recorder; Sallynee Amawat, baroque violin; Andrea Stewart, baroque cello; and Rona Nadler, harpsichord) draws inspiration from anything and everything with a humourous sense of inquisitiveness. Even its name resulted from an exercise in free association. Nadler recalls: “We knew we wanted something beyond the…

Vincent Lauzer – A Recorder Player with Wind in His Sails

By Benjamin Goron on 30 October 2018 Baroque and Early

In 2012 the young recorder player Vincent Lauzer won first prize in the Canadian Music Competition’s Stepping Stone division, trouncing pianists, singers and violinists. Who is this phenomenon who has confounded expectations and found a place among the greatest musicians of his generation? As the Révélation Radio-Canada in 2013-2014, artistic director of the Lamèque International Baroque Music Festival, recipient of the Fernand Lindsay career grant in 2015, Lauzer has many feathers in his cap. Most recent was his recording last month with the Arion Baroque Orchestra, playing Vivaldi flute concertos. This won a Diapason d’or awarded by the prestigious French…

Flûte Alors! Albums, Tours, Concerts

By Benjamin Goron on 30 October 2018 Baroque and Early

Flûte Alors! was born in 1999, the fruit of a student exchange with some Berlin musicians, organized by recorder players Matthias Maute and Sophie Larivière. It underwent various transformations over the years, gradually becoming more and more professional, before ending up as the present quartet of Vincent Lauzer, Marie-Laurence Primeau, Alexa Raine-Wright and Caroline Tremblay. In 2011, the quartet issued their first album, Kaléidoscope, comprising Baroque and contemporary works. It set out their mission, which is to make the recorder better known through concerts covering medieval, Baroque, Renaissance and contemporary music – as well as jazz, which was the subject…

The audience playing the part of “The Water” at Festival O18’s Queens of the Night: Dito and Aeneas at the Theatre of Living Arts; photo by Steven Pisano

Opera Philadelphia’s Festival O18: The Whirlwind That Was

By Charles Geyer on 29 October 2018 Baroque and Early, Choral, Classical, Concert Reviews, La Scena Online, La Scena Spotlight, Multimedia, Musical Theatre, Opera, Orchestral, Theatre, Visual Arts

REVIEW: of Opera Philadelphia’s “Festival O18” (September 20-30, 2018) – a new production of Lucia di Lammermoor, composed by Gaetano Donizetti with libretto by Salvadore Cammarano; the world premiere of Sky on Swings, composed by Lembit Beecher with libretto by Hannah Moscovitch; the premiere of Ne quittez pas (a “reimagined” La voix humaine of Francis Poulenc, with a new prologue featuring numerous of the composer’s art songs); the premiere of Glass Handel, an immersive concert experience featuring countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo performing music by George Frideric Handel and Philip Glass; and Queens of the Night: Blythely After Hours, an opera/rock…

Photo: Louise Leblanc

Werther: Riveting Emotion from Start to Finish

By Dwain Richardson on 26 October 2018 Concert Reviews, Opera

The Opéra de Québec opened its 35th season with Werther, a dramatic French opera written by Romantic French composer Jules Massenet at Salle Louis-Fréchette in the Grand Théâtre de Québec. The four-act opera mostly centres on two characters: Werther, a young poet, sung by tenor Antoine Bélanger, and Charlotte, Bailli’s older daughter, sung by mezzo-soprano Julie Boulianne. During the two-hour-and-forty-five-minute performance, we discover how Werther has feelings for Charlotte, though later in the first act, we learn that Charlotte has already vowed to marry Albert (sung by baritone Hugo Laporte). Does Charlotte remain faithful to Albert, or does she fall…

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