Spring Highlights: Quebec City

0
By Michèle-Andrée Lanoue
Erreur de type 27
The ensemble Erreur de type 27, the “presence of contemporary music” in Quebec City incarnate, is collaborating with Oktoécho for a reading where theatre and music collide for the presentation of Chants du prophète. Part improvised and part written, the performance draws on the philosophical/poetic anthology Le Prophète by Khalil Gibran. This premiere from composer Katia Makdissi-Warren and playwright-director Hanna Abd El Nour will be performed at the Palais Montcalm on March 31 at 8 p.m. www.erreurdetype27.com
Orchestre symphonique de Québec
Two orchestras, from the Conservatoire de musique de Québec and the music faculty of Université Laval, will join the OSQ on March 7 at the Grand Théâtre de Québec. Under the baton of maestro Jean-François Rivest, the three orchestras will perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, “Eroica”, along with Richard Strauss’s Metamorphoses and Thus spoke Zarathustra.
After worldwide success, a multimedia production designed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will be presented in Quebec City on March 21. The centrepiece of the multidisciplinary composition is Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. Actor Jack Robitaille, along with Jacques Leblanc as narrator, will stage a dramatization of the symphony’s composition. The piece will then be performed in its entirety, directed by maestro Jean-Michaël Lavoie.
The OSQ is presenting its four-part Mozart festival from April 1 to 4. Four concerts, featuring violinist Mayumi Seller and pianist Anton Kuerti, will evoke distinctive places and atmospheres. The festival will draw to a close with two key works of the Austrian composer’s repertoire: Symphony No. 41, “Jupiter,” and the Requiem.
The vitality of gypsy music is at the heart of the OSQ’s April 25 concert directed by Jean-Marie Zeitouni. Montreal violinist Alexandre Da Costa will play Ravel’s Tzigane and Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy. Also on the programme are Manuel de Falla’s Suite No. 1, The Three-Cornered Hat, and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8.
The OSQ will perform Carl Orff’s Carmina burana on May 30 at the Grand Théâtre de Québec. Conductor Jacques Lacombe and soloists Nathalie Paulin, Matthew White and Philip Addis offer a presentation enhanced with special effects for a reinvention of this classic. Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms is also on the programme. The audience is invited to Salle Louis-Fréchette an hour before the concert begins to learn about the historical context of the evening’s pieces.
Opéra de Québec
Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Falstaff (1893) will be performed in Quebec City on May 12 (7 p.m.), 15, 17 and 19 (8pm). In this Shakespeare-based comedy, directed by Jacques Leblanc with musical director Giuseppe Graziloli, intrigue abounds and vengeance, jealousy and humour all have their say.
Les Violons du Roy
One of Bach’s greatest masterpieces, the St John Passion, will be performed on March 20 and 21 at 8 p.m. in Salle Raoul-Jobin of Palais Montcalm. For the occasion, Bernard Labadie has brought together La Chapelle de Québec and a spectacular cast. Particularly of note are tenor Ian Bostridge and soprano Karina Gauvin. The same concert will be performed on March 25 at Carnegie Hall in New York.
Bernard Labadie and les Violons du Roy will perform Mozart’s three last symphonies on June 1 in salle Raoul-Jobin of Palais Montcalm. Symphony No. 39 in E flat major, K. 543, Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550 and Symphony No. 41 in C major, “Jupiter,” K. 551 — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s symphonic last will and testament.
The OSM visits Quebec City
On March 28 at 7:30 p.m., the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and Kent Nagano will visit the old capital to give a concert in Salle Louis-Fréchette of the Grand Théâtre de Québec. On the programme: the overture of Richard Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman, Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, and Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2, with soloist Vadim Repin.
Club Musical de Québec
New York pianist Murray Perahia, a student of Vladimir Horwitz, is one of the great pianists of our time. He will be at the Grand Théâtre de Québec on March 20. Bach, Chopin, Beethoven, Brahms and Schubert are on the programme.
Translation: Ariadne Lih
Share:

About Author

Leave A Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.