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When Bernard Labadie builds his repertoire, Handel’s music is a contender. In December 2021, he directed the Messiah as guest conductor of the NAC symphony orchestra in a program of works from composers influenced by that baroque master. In early April, he will be at the rostrum for an MSO performance of The Creation by Haydn, an oratorio Labadie considers to be closer to Handel than Bach.
A month later, on May 10 and 12, the conductor returns to his beloved ensemble, Les Violons du Roy, for an all-Handel program comprised of the Four Coronation Anthems and other works of circumstance, written for British royal celebrations. “The program was set up a long time ago,” Labadie says, a tad bemused by the circumstances of these performances occurring around the coronation of the new British king. “Do not connect the two, but rather the voices on stage that evening that will be front and centre with Les Violons at their side.”
The concert opener, Zadok the Priest (HWV 258), is the first hymn of a collection of such works. It is fairly well known, too, having made its way into motion picture soundtracks and advertising spots. Audiences will have a good opportunity to gain a greater appreciation of this one side of Handel’s œuvre too often overlooked because of its far more celebrated counterparts, the Hallelujah Chorus and Messiah.
“Handel was smart enough to draw on several strands of the British music tradition for audiences of the time,” Labadie says. “Consider the orchestration and voice leading techniques of those pieces: they are straight out of Henry Purcell, the dominant figure of 16th-century British music. Handel’s music is richly varied because he forged a style out of different traditions—one based on the art of counterpoint he learned in his native Germany, the other on the development of melody he perfected during his time in Italy.”
The instrumentalists will also have their work cut out for them—the brass section in particular, who play a prominent role during Music for the Royal Fireworks. Modern trumpets will be played rather than their baroque ancestors, the reason being their equal temperament and ability to blend in better with the strings. “The Violons never made a point of playing on period instruments,” Labadie notes in passing, “yet we demure to that tradition by remaining true to its style and having the string players use vintage bows rather than modern ones.”
The concert closer, Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne (HWV 74), will cast the spotlight on three first-rate singers fronting the orchestra: soprano Magali Simard-Galdès, countertenor Tim Mead (heard last November during a performance of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater under the baton of Jonathan Cohen), and bass-baritone Neal Davies.
Translation by Marc Chénard
Haendel, chœurs et feux d’artifice royaux (Choirs and Royal Fireworks Music). Quebec City, May 10 and 11; Montreal, May 12. Information and tickets: www.violonsduroy.com
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