Fortunately for music lovers, the season openings are similar at the highest level. After the Gurre-Lieder of the OSM and the Bruckner grand mass of the OM, it was the Bourgie hall, Nicolas Ellis, the Orchestre de l’Agora and Ema Nikolovska who offered us an original and hypnotic musical journey on Wednesday to inaugurate the complete works of Melodies by Schubert which will take us until 2028.
One could be surprised to see the great cycle of 600 Lieder Schubert’s Bourgie Hall launched with an atypical concert featuring melodies orchestrated by various other composers. But the idea turned out to be excellent, especially since the proposal was embedded in a very convincing setting, mixing and linking orchestral pieces, narration and melodies.
“Schubert’s Dream”, a text spoken by the actor Émile Proulx-Cloutier, intersects the musical continuum or relaunches it on new paths by evoking the death of the composer’s mother, the tensions with his father and then his visions of a post-mortem reconciliation.
The concert project “Schubert: the dream” is therefore worthwhile for the music, but also for the concept, which includes a real science of sequences, such as the story of the mother’s death, followed by the 1er movement of the “Unfinished” Symphonyto which is linked, attackthe Lied The Zwerg.
Singer in sight
Emma Nikolovska, the Canadian mezzo with a dazzling international career, remains on stage and finds a place in the orchestra, so as to avoid a ballet of entrances and exits. The audience perfectly understands the dramatic stakes and applauds only at the end of each of the two parts, thus allowing the concept to unfold perfectly.
Musically, Nikolovska’s performances are excellent. She knows how to paint the atmosphere of the melodies. Her Erlkönig is right and she manages to get as much of it across as possible against Berlioz’s rich orchestration. The game is easier for her against Webern’s more diaphanous textures in The last Wegweiser of Winter travel or those of Ian Cusson, who traces this Webernian simplicity in Spring mood of the same cycle.
What Nikolovska lacks is very common: in the pronunciation of the German language, it is the detachment of words in the sentence (she often sings sentence continua that are a little too blended) and more emphatic consonants, for example the “k” in ” Kiss ” Or ” Seligkeit ” of Spring mood. But these minor drawbacks, which only affect hardened German speakers, are compensated for by the intelligence of the climates. Thus, in the last Lied, Night and Dreamsthe nuances, associated with those of the orchestra, are admirable.
Nicolas Ellis’ work on nuances and eloquence in Schubert is also masterful, particularly in the 3e intermission of Rosamunde. But the project itself, at the Bourgie Hall, is in itself a bit “limited”. For us the hall is saturated with about 24-25 musicians. Giving a concert with an orchestra of 33 is very daring. When everyone plays a tutti in this hall strong/fortissimo with 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, 3 horns and woodwinds in pairs in the 8e by Schubert, it may be music to some, but we won’t blame anyone for thinking it’s a load of rubbish.
This is the only downside to this captivating evening, delving into the often very painful heart of German romanticism.