Classica Festival | Fascinating discovery at the opening

Contrary to what Marc Boucher, artistic director of the Classica Festival, feared, the room was more crowded than the stage for his opening concert dedicated to the little-known but fascinating Mass of the dead by Gossec. The Claude-Champagne room, with a capacity of nearly 1,000 people, nonetheless seemed rather sparse.

Too bad, because it was well worth the pain of making your calves suffer to get to the music faculty room at the University of Montreal. Because even if Gossec’s inspiration has not always been there throughout its 95 years (!) of existence, as Mathieu Lussier, at the head of Arion for occasion, the French composer was certainly in a “good time” when he put down on paper this sort of requiem which announces Mozart, if not, at times, Beethoven and Berlioz. A work of which it was undoubtedly, if we are to believe the conductor, the first Canadian.

Style, sailing between gallant style and style anticooften evokes Carl Philip Emanuel Bach (his Magnificat notably), but above all Pergolesi and his Stabat Materof which certain harmonic sequences are found in an almost identical manner in the Mass of the deadparticularly in the “Lacrymosa”.

In the “Tuba mirum”, it is Berlioz that we think of, with these spatial effects created by a wind orchestra placed on the balcony.

The “Dies irae”, even if it is far from being as striking as that of Mozart, to which we cannot help but compare it, nonetheless remains very effective with its vibrated repeated notes, a bit like in the cold air of King Arthur by Purcell.

The instrumental colors, which give pride of place to the winds, have a very French side, helped by the presence in Paris at the time of Joseph Stamitz, who introduced Gossec to the Mannheim style.

The execution, without being absolutely impeccable, does justice to the work through the fervor of the troops in attendance, first and foremost the conductor, who knows this music very well.

If the orchestra is a little “green” at times, and the choir (the Montreal Early Music Studio), a little low in volume, particularly on the viola side, the direction of Mathieu Lussier is almost flawless , except for a few largos that were a little too intentional.

As for the five soloists, we will more readily remember the contribution of the bass-baritone Geoffroy Salvas, almost too sonorous at times (but such ease and substance!), the eloquent tenor Philippe Gagné and the soprano Magali Simard -Galdès, who was able to showcase himself in two demanding arias. Her colleague Myriam Leblanc is hardly left out, but tenor Haitham Haidar is perhaps the one who calls for the most reserve with his fairly quavering timbre.

The Classica Festival continues this Wednesday, at 7:30 p.m., with a French chamber music concert at the Sainte-Famille church in Boucherville.

Consult the complete program

Also at the Classica Festival

The best of female Mozart singing

“Porgi, amor”, “Parto, parto”, the two arias from the Queen of the Night… It is to a real tasting of vocal – and orchestral – sweets that the Classica Festival invites us on Thursday, at 7:30 p.m., at the Claude-Champagne room, with its concert Mozart lovers. Four emerging Canadian singers – mezzo-soprano Amelia Keenan and sopranos Michelle Bawden, Elisabeth St-Gelais and Sophie Naubert – will slip into the shoes of the heroines of The clemency of Titusof the Marriage of Figaro and of The Magic Flute alongside Arion Orchester Baroque and its conductor Mathieu Lussier.

Emmanuel Bernier, special collaboration

Splendors of French Baroque

Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville is the epitome of an unfairly overlooked composer. You just have to listen to the great motets of uncommon inspiration from this contemporary of Rameau to be convinced of this. We will be able to hear two of them on June 3 (7:30 p.m.) in the magnificent Sainte-Famille heritage church in Boucherville thanks to the good care of the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra (under the direction of David Shemer), the Ensemble Caprice and the ArtChoral Ensemble (under the direction of Matthias Maute). Also on the program: an opening of the Spring diary by Johann Caspar Ferdinand Friedrich. The same protagonists meet the next day, same place, same time, for a program of baroque rarities from the four corners of Europe.

Emmanuel Bernier, special collaboration

Tétreault celebrates the cello of the Belle Époque

The cello found some of its most beautiful pages in France at the end of the 19th century.^e century and early 20th^e century. The opulent sound of Stéphane Tétreault, who will perform alongside pianist Olivier Godin, will ideally highlight classics likeElegy and the Sonata for cello and piano^o 2 by Fauré, but also rarities by Reynaldo Hahn and Théodore Dubois, in line with the 150 years of the birth of the first and the centenary of the death of the second. It’s at the Sainte-Famille church in Boucherville on June 6, at 7:30 p.m.

Emmanuel Bernier, special collaboration