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CD Review | Ensemble ArtChoral — Art Choral, Vol. 1: Renaissance

By Kristen Whittle on 5 September 2024 CD and Book Reviews, Choral, Classical Music, Vocal

Art Choral, Vol. 1: Renaissance Ensemble ArtChoral; Matthias Maute, artistic director ATMA Classique, 2024 Ensemble ArtChoral’s newest installation to its collection spanning the history of choral singing returns to the origins of polyphony in Art Choral, Vol. 1: Renaissance. Under the direction of Matthias Maute, the ensemble performs early choral repertoire by composers from across Europe, including Cristóbal de Morales, Josquin des Prés, and William Byrd, to name a few. The album opens with No. 5, Adoramus te, Christe from Palestrina’s Recueil des morceaux de musique ancienne. Given Palestrina’s role in creating polyphonic technique, ArtChoral’s expert use of the push…

CD Review | George Benjamin: Picture a day like this

By Justin Bernard on 5 September 2024 CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Opera, Vocal

George Benjamin: Picture a day like this George Benjamin, composer and musical direction; Martin Crimp, libretto; Marianne Crebassa, mezzo-soprano; Anna Prohaska, soprano; Beate Mordal, soprano; Cameron Shahbazi, countertenor; John Brancy, baritone; Mahler Chamber Orchestra Nimbus Records, 2024 The opera Written on Skin by George Benjamin had its Canadian premiere in the winter of 2020. The orchestration proved to be of great harmonic density. The overlap between the orchestral and vocal parts demonstrated extremely delicate work, playing a lot with crescendo and decrescendo effects. Benjamin also demonstrated a pronounced taste for notes held in a style that recalled the purity and ethereal…

CD Review | Benjamin Bernheim, Douce France, DG

By Gianmarco Segato on 4 September 2024 Art Song, CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Vocal

Douce France: Mélodies & Chansons Benjamin Bernheim, tenor; Carrie-Ann Matheson, piano Deutsche Grammophon, 2024 For his debut album of French mélodies and chansons, French-Swiss tenor Benjamin Bernheim and Canadian pianist Carrie-Ann Matheson have not shied away from some of the most performed, most recorded songs in the repertoire. Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été, three of Duparc’s glorious mélodies and even Chausson’s cycle, Poème de l’amour et de la mer are certainly not lacking in exposure. But as Bernheim notes in the program book, the Berlioz and Chausson sets have historically been the domain of high-voiced female singers, the Duparc often taken…

CD Review | Strauss: Ein Heldenleben; Mahler: Rückert Lieder

By Joseph So on 2 September 2024 CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Orchestral, Vocal

Strauss: Ein Heldenleben; Mahler: Rückert Lieder Sonya Yoncheva, soprano; Orchestre symphonique de Montréal; Rafael Payare, conductor Pentatone, 2024 Following their successful release last year on the Pentatone label of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony comes this new disc, by the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal under the felicitous baton of its music director, Rafael Payare. The forces are back with more Mahler—this time, the sublimely introspective Rückert Lieder (1901-02)—paired with the grand Ein Heldenleben (1898) by Richard Strauss. Pentatone’s press release points out the rather unusual, if not perplexing, pairing of an exuberant Strauss tone poem with an inwardly radiant and spiritual Mahler…

CD Review | François Dompierre — Requiem

By Kristen Whittle on 2 September 2024 CD and Book Reviews, Choral, Vocal

François Dompierre — Requiem Myriam Leblanc, soprano; Andrew Haji, tenor; Geoffroy Salvas, baritone Orchestre FILMharmonique and Ensemble ArtChoral; Francis Choinière, conductor Let Artists Be, 2024 François Dompierre’s Requiem is nothing short of cinematic in nature. Its 12 liturgical texts are set in a manner that takes the listener on a journey through a plethora of sonic environments that are unexpected but seamlessly blend with the character of the Requiem genre. The French horn carries the opening Kyrie with its moving response gestures to the choir. This, of course, comes after the magnificent string opening—two broken dissonant chords are closed by…

Sharon Azrieli: Final Act

By Charles Geyer on 31 August 2024 Montreal, Opera, Vocal

Update (Sept. 19, 2024): Sharon Azrieli is sad to announce that she will not be performing with the Opera de Montreal in Barber of Seville due to circumstances out of her control. “I’ve waited my entire career to sing with Opéra de Montréal,” says soprano Sharon Azrieli. The wait is over! The Montreal-born-and-raised Azrieli will be performing the piquant role of the maid Berta in Opéra de Montréal’s new production of Rossini’s The Barber of Séville (Sept. 28 through Oct. 6). It’s a moving capstone to a remarkably varied operatic, concert and recording career. French Connection “My favourite opera…

Luminous Voices with Artistic Director Timothy Shantz. Photo: Claire Bourgeois

Luminous Voices: Thriving with new creations & great masterworks

By Gianmarco Segato on 30 August 2024 Choral, Interviews, Vocal

When Artistic Director Timothy Shantz founded Calgary’s professional choir, Luminous Voices, in 2012, it was to fulfill a “longstanding dream.” After completing his master’s in choral conducting in Edmonton, Shantz became chorus master at the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO) and founded a community choir, Spiritus Chamber Choir, in the same city. There was a gap, however: it was “one of those moments where you just say, we do it now, or you just don’t do it.” And so, Luminous Voices became Calgary’s first professional choir. Thanks to Shantz’s CPO connection, he was able to program the new choir’s first concert…

Claire de Sévigné, Phillip Addis, Kirsten MacKinnon, Sarah Dufresne

Opera Across Canada: a season anchored by the classics

By Gianmarco Segato on 30 August 2024 Arts Industry, Classical Music, Opera, Vocal

In many ways, the 2024-25 Canadian opera season represents post-pandemic reality. Government subsidies that helped companies survive the horrors of more than two years of disruption are now a thing of the past. The new season sees Canada’s opera companies proceeding with a degree of caution, but even in a sea of Bohèmes, Fledermice and Elixirs there are signs that not all eyes are just on the box office. Pacific Opera Victoria Starting at our nation’s westernmost opera outpost, Pacific Opera Victoria offers a season well-balanced between tradition and the (almost) new. The season opens in October with a new…

François Dompierre: A Québec Requiem

By Justin Bernard on 30 August 2024 Choral, Film, Interviews

Given the heavy legacy of Mozart, Verdi and Fauré, it’s understandable that some people would get writer’s block when they tackle a requiem. François Dompierre is not one of them. “I was already singing in choirs two or three times a week by the time I was 22 or 23,” he says. “I was already thinking about writing a requiem at that time, but especially later when I visited cathedrals like the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona recently. While admiring this project of architectural excess, of opening up to heaven, I remembered this foundational liturgical text. I thought it would be…

La Nef: Riding Local and International Seas

By Justin Bernard on 30 August 2024 Baroque and Early, Popular Music, Vocal

Mixing old and new repertoires has always been part of La Nef. Their 2024-25 season is another dazzling demonstration of this, with four concerts equally inspired by the exploration and meeting of cultures. Claire Gignac, co-founder of La Nef, offers a preview of the key elements of the season. To open, flutist Vincent Lauzer and percussionist Ziya Tabassian present an exceptional musical fusion project entitled Pulsations. On the evening of Oct. 9, medieval, baroque, jazz, Persian and Japanese music will freely inspire the two musicians. “Vincent is one of the members of our artistic committee, so I approached him first…

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