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On March 15, under its Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Alexandre Da Costa, Orchestre Philharmonique du Québec (OPQ) presents La 9e de Beethoven : De Ludwig à Charlebois. The program includes a new version of the symphony’s famous choral fourth movement with a new text by poet Louis-Philippe Hébert. The concert will also feature popular songs as well as opera and jazz pieces performed by vocalists Natalie Choquette and Michaël Girard.
Louis-Philippe Hébert
Photo: France Boisvert
Ode to Joy, Friedrich von Schiller’s famous 1785 poem was set to music by Beethoven in the final movement of his Ninth Symphony, composed in 1824. Over a century later, the European Union adapted Beethoven’s ode in an instrumental version for its own anthem. It was set with no official lyrics to represent European unity and diversity without language barriers.
Alexandre Da Costa and Orchestre Philharmonique du Québec
Symphonic subtleties
Now in 2026, OPQ offers a new version for our times. At the suggestion of Da Costa, Hébert drew inspiration from Schiller’s poem to compose a French text in the same spirit, working from the original’s themes of brotherhood, humanism, and freedom. Hébert and Da Costa had numerous meetings to ensure that the verses and rhymes of the new text perfectly embrace the subtleties of Beethoven’s fourth movement and succeed in rendering the specificities of Schiller’s poetic writing.
The full season
Marcus Takizawa
Looking at the rest of OPQ’s season, on Feb. 15 they will present De Debussy à Piaf at l’Église Sainte-Famille in Boucherville, a program entirely devoted to French composers, with the participation of the orchestra’s principal string players: Caroline Chéhadé, Ariane Bresse, Marcus Takizawa, and Christopher Best, as well as harpist Honoka Shoji. They will perform works by Debussy, Fauré, Massenet, Satie, and Saint-Saëns, as well as French chanson masterpieces by Michel Legrand and Édith Piaf.
As part of its youth series, OPQ will revisit iconic film scores on April 28 and 29 at Salle Pratt & Whitney in Longeuil’s Théâtre de la Ville. On June 7, don’t miss the 25th edition of Concert du printemps in collaboration with the Fondation Famille Le Blanc at Maison symphonique in Place des Arts.
L’Orchestre Philharmonique du Québec presents La 9e de Beethoven : De Ludwig à Charlebois on March 15 at Centre multifonctionnel Francine-Gadbois in Boucherville. www.philharmonique.quebec
This page is also available in / Cette page est également disponible en:
Français (French)
