(Trois-Rivières) The successful album Stories Without Words – Symphonic Harmonium will continue from May 24 on the stage of the Cogeco Amphitheater in Trois-Rivières. A series of ten major concerts will be presented there exclusively, enough to satisfy the repeated requests of the diehards of Serge Fiori and his legendary group.
“It is exceptional for me to live this experience”, explained the composer Wednesday during a press conference hosted by Bernard Derome. “When I wrote that music, I knew there were classic tones, but not like that. To live this 45 years later, I am moved, overwhelmed and confused. ”
The Orchester symphonique de Montréal, which brought the arrangements of Maestro Simon Leclerc to life on disc, will make way for its counterpart from Trois-Rivières on stage. This time, more than 100 artists and artisans – including 62 instrumentalists and choirs – will be called upon to (re) live the entire work of Harmonium in an instrumental version.
You have to pay for this experience, visual and audio, live. It’s beyond me, it’s beyond my music. It is an extraordinary creation.
Serge Fiori
“This is a project that will shine outside Trois-Rivières,” says Natalie Rousseau, general manager of the Orchester symphonique de la ville (OSTR). Not only in Quebec, but also elsewhere; in the Atlantic provinces, Ontario or the northeastern United States. “The instruments and arrangements will remain faithful to the studio album,” she says. The professional orchestra is used to concert-events: in September, it notably shared the Cogeco Amphitheater with Diane Dufresne.
Phenomenal sales
Stories Without Words – Symphonic Harmonium was born under the leadership of Nicolas Lemieux, producer and president of the Montreal label GSI Musique. The double disc has sold over 100,000 copies – a phenomenal success in the digital age – since December 3, 2020.
“When we finished the album, I listened to it every day, recalls Serge Fiori. I looked like a complete selfish person, but that’s not it: that’s what Simon Leclerc did, is to hear those textures. ”
At the same time, Nicolas Lemieux was working in relative secrecy on “a great 140-minute mass” on stage, “a kind of Notre Dame of Paris “. The producer and artistic director explains that he made his choice on the Cogeco Amphitheater in Trois-Rivières after attending a tribute show to the Cowboys Fringants designed by Cirque du Soleil. “When I got home I was like, ‘Wow, what a place! We’re not easy to impress: it’s our job. We can see rooms! ” “It is especially the quality of the sound, essential to the” Harmonium project “, which amazed him, he explains.
Visual designer Marcella Grimaux, staging, wants to let the music speak, but the presence of the instrumentalists will be enhanced by psychedelic projections inspired by synesthesia – sounds will generate colors – and tableaux vivants “imbued with lyricism and poetry ”.
One of the big challenges was to work with a mass of musicians. By putting them forward, it was a way of getting out of it, of combining the universes.
Marcella Grimaux, visual designer
Previously, the founder of Noisy Head Studio collaborated with Harmonium Brain among others on Come see the landscape – The Heptad musical film. “I have total confidence in Marcella Grimaux,” said Serge Fiori. I have often worked with her. She is a wonderful girl. ”
The musician did not want to get involved in the creation of the concert, preferring by far the role of spectator. “I don’t listen to my music. I listen to a good show esti which envelops and envelops me. At the end, I realize: “Ah, O. K., I wrote that, but I don’t care.” The important thing is to be there and to live it. ”
Serge Fiori is not yet certain to attend the premiere, on May 24, for fear of collapsing in the room and stealing the show. “I’m going to have to take some Benadryl,” he jokes.
Tickets will be available online starting Friday at 11 a.m.