Argentinian conductor Leonardo García Alarcón returned to Montreal, this time with the OSM, once again with innovative ideas to shake up the usual concert ritual, ideas applied to a fervent interpretation of theChristmas oratorio.
Leonardo García Alarcón seems to make music to exalt his sensual power and to shake up our certainties. At the beginning of the concert the orchestra is alone on stage. The music of the Cantata I sounds. The choir arrives from both sides of the hall. This is the signal for the beginning of the Christmas celebration ceremonies (Cantata I, December 25). This cannot be a spectacle that we watch but something that encompasses us like this choir that literally surrounds us.
Excellent soloists
In the recitatives of this 1st Cantata, García Alarcón’s contribution to the harpsichord will be exuberant, especially in the alto aria “Prepare yourself”, magnificently sung by Avery Amereau, a deep and unmannered voice that we had already favorably noticed during the concert of cantatas by Bernard Labadee. The conductor goes far in his dramatic recreation, since he spares time for the movements of the choir by instilling an orchestral version of the chorale “Wie soll ich dich empfangen” before making it sing. “Empfang”, the reception of the present of the Nativity, is the dominant word: the atmosphere of this 1st day is of the greatest humility. The expression of the choir is almost timorous. In contrast, the recitative chorale of the bass, opposing it to the soprano, is peremptory, setting up a dazzling bass aria by Konstantin Krimmel, extraordinary throughout the evening.
A big tip of the hat for this choice of soloists, with, also, the revelation of this aerial tenor, Laurence Kilsby. There’s just the recurring presence of Marie-Sophie Pollack all the time at the OSM that we can’t really explain. There’s nothing this sure but interchangeable little voice does that Myriam Leblanc, Magali Simard-Galdès and a few others from here wouldn’t do as well or better.
Suitable atmosphere
Leonardo García Alarcón had also chosen the Cantatas II and IVor the annunciation of the shepherds for December 26 (II) and the circumcision of Jesus for the New Year (IV). All of this was worked on down to the smallest detail with a green luminous atmosphere replacing the blue one for Cantata II and a dominant red color for the IV.
The opening “Sinfonia” of the Cantata II was almost the masterpiece of the evening with its sweetness and emotional tenderness. The theme of pastorality ran throughout this cantata. And what emotion, when everyone noted that the “weak newborn will be our joy and consolation”, a statement followed by a very strong theatrical effect on “he must tame Satan and finally bring us peace”. There too, a luminous performance by Avery Amereau in “Schlafe mein Liebster”. We will recall here the need for a female voice since it is particularly a question of a mother breastfeeding her baby, which does not prevent certain conductors from having this embodied by a countertenor.
In Cantata IV the horns made their entrance and Marie-Sophie Pollack positively distinguished herself in a very nuanced echoing aria (with an excellent echoing chorister). It will be noted that the concluding chorales, the “moral of the story” in a way, are presented in the foreground, as if a group of lawyers had come to make a plea before the people to edify them morally.
We will have understood: champion of music, Leonardo García Alarcón has once again succeeded in his bet of transforming his concert into a “happening” from which we do not come out unscathed.
small planes
On the other hand, we are increasingly wondering about certain phenomena in concert halls, in particular at the OSM. The one with Barbara Hannigan had been marked by an admittedly limited leak on social networks of a code allowing free access. Link of cause and effect or not: certain performances (Saturday in particular) saw the performance so refined by Barbara Hannigan massacred by indifferent people who were waiting for the fantastic symphony and coughed who better.
Wednesday we had singular profiles around who came who knows how and for who knows what reason. Some were tinkering with paper planes that they passed from right to left while not stopping chatting during the whole concert, others a row in front were playing on their telephones.
We didn’t question these jerks to find out where they came from. But filling the room on this account, if such is the case, is done to the detriment and discouragement of people who have paid a high price and will not tolerate this kind of circus for very long. So we come back to the fundamental questions expressed in Le Devoir by Madame Scheibler, director of the Bach Festival: by filling artificially with dumping or other, you don’t gain a potential audience, you risk eroding the substance, the resistance or the patience of the one who stays.