Bradley Cooper’s Maestro lacks significant information about Leonard Bernstein’s life, his love of music, and what he contributed to the American cultural landscape.
Hommage à François Dompierre Louise Bessette, piano; François Dompierre, composer and piano ATMA Classique, 2023 We rarely hear Louise Bessette in this light. To celebrate François Dompierre’s 80th birthday, the pianist offers us arrangements of film music, and other selections, all of which played a role in establishing the reputation of the Quebec composer, himself a pianist. “Most are piano reductions (…); others are adaptations of radio improvisations. Finally, a few were written especially for her, and are dedicated to her,” explains the composer, in the album’s booklet. These include Entre mer et chanterelles, written in honour of his former…
Underwater Ludovico Einaudi, composer and pianist Decca, 2022 This is Ludovico Einaudi’s first original solo piano project in close to 20 years. Born in 1955, this notable Italian keyboardist and composer is best known for his film scores, but the pandemic allowed him to return to his instrument full time. He has now emerged from the lockdown with 12 new works, the title track Underwater being, in his words, a metaphor of sorts, or an expression of a very fluid environment untainted by external influences. Bearing this in mind, the music seems to have been conceived for undivided listening. The…
REVIEW: of the New York premiere of a new opera by Gordon Getty, “reimagined for film” – Goodbye, Mr. Chips, screened at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater, March 2, 2022, at 7:00 p.m., sponsored jointly by Festival Napa Valley and NYCO (New York City Opera). The idea for an opera version of James’ Hilton’s 1934 novel, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, had been germinating in composer Gordon Getty’s mind for decades – ever since, as a young man, he saw a re-release of the celebrated 1939 film adaptation starring Robert Donat (in an Academy Award-winning performance as the eponymous character) and the…
In Quebec, François Dompierre is like the kingpin of film composers, his stature akin to Denys Arcand in filmmaking – an analogy by no means spurious considering their repeated collaborations over the years. With some 60 scores written for TV and movie productions, Dompierre has worked with the best in the field. Filmmaker Jacques Godbout, for one, figures prominently throughout the composer’s career, starting with the 1966 flic YUL 871, followed by IXE-13 five years later, all the way to Le sort de l’Amérique in 1996. He went on to write music for Arcand’s most famous features, The Decline of…
The 2021-22 season of the Orchestre FILMharmonique, under the direction of Francis Choinière, opens on Oct. 2 at the Maison symphonique. The orchestra, the first in Canada entirely dedicated to film music, will perform for L’Univers symphonique du cinéma, a program drawn from some of the greatest soundtracks in the repertoire: Cinema Paradiso, Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulin and Schindler’s List, among others. “Film music, for us, has an important place in the classical repertoire,” Choinière explains. “It’s a repertoire that reaches a large audience, especially young people. With this music, usually quite virtuosic, we attract an audience that often…
On Feb. 18, after a seven-month trek, Perseverance landed on Mars. Costing more than $2 billion, this is the fifth rover NASA has sent to the Red Planet. Of its predecessors, only Curiosity, launched in 2011, remains operational. As images poured in, the very first sound recordings were being transmitted to mission control. Perseverance captured its landing as well, thanks to a breathtaking high-definition video that gives an eyewitness account of its slow and cautious descent. Needless to say, astrophysicists were elated, and many others, science buffs and laymen alike. Long before Mars was the subject of media hype, it…
Battleground: Brahms For 10 days in March home viewers will be able to compare the old upstart, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, with the new kid on the block, Rafael Payare, in the same piece of music, on the same day if desired, as performed on the same stage. YNS launches a Brahms cycle with the Orchestre Métropolitain on March 12 (available online through March 21) with that composer’s First Symphony. This was the score with which Payare, Montreal Symphony Orchestra music director designate, chose to introduce himself online on Jan. 10 in the Maison symphonique. MSO replays are available on www.medici.tv through April 11.…
I’m there to serve an idea, serve the music, not so much to transmit my own views or personal concerns […] You have to ask yourself: What does this story say now, how can I give it a contemporary resonance? That’s the real task of a director, making the music and meaning resonate. The main event of this summer’s ninth edition of the Festival d’opéra de Québec is an eagerly-awaited staging of The Flying Dutchman by Richard Wagner. Under the musical direction of Jacques Lacombe, a cast led by baritone Gregory Dahl will present the mythical story in a production…
« Je suis là pour servir un propos, une musique, pas tellement pour faire passer mes vues ou mes préoccupations personnelles […] Il faut se poser la question : que veut dire cette histoire aujourd’hui, comment lui trouver une résonnance contemporaine ? Faire résonner la musique et faire résonner le sens, c’est ça, le vrai travail de mise en scène. » La 9e édition du Festival d’opéra de Québec qui aura lieu cet été sera marquée par une production très attendue du Vaisseau fantôme de Richard Wagner. Sous la direction musicale de Jacques Lacombe, le baryton Gregory Dahl et les autres membres de la…
