Cultural summer | Meet classical music

Kerson Leong in majesty at the Chamber Music Festival

The Montreal Chamber Music Festival (June 13 to 23) is off to a flying start with a concert featuring the exceptional Canadian violinist Kerson Leong. The latter will begin the evening of June 13 (Bourgie Room) with the second of Sonatas for solo violin by Eugène Ysaÿe, of which he recently engraved a dream complete at Alpha. The musician will continue with the Sonata for violin and piano n^o 2 by Ravel alongside the Ukrainian Illia Ovcharenko, winner of the Honens Competition two years ago at the age of 21. After the break, the two artists will join the Barbican Quartet to perform the Concert for piano, violin and string quartet which Ernest Chausson dedicated to his friend Ysaÿe.

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OM at the foot of Mount Royal and at Domaine Forget

The Orchester Métropolitain, which has just announced the holding of its popular outdoor concert at the foot of Mount Royal on August 6 at 7:30 p.m. – opening with the Suite Carmen n^o 1 by Bizet, extracts from the ballet Fancy Free by Leonard Bernstein and Dances in the Canebrakes by the African-American composer Florence Price and, for piece de resistance, interpretation of the Gaelic Symphony by Amy Beach – will also be present at Quebec festivals this summer, notably the weekend of July 26 and 27, at that of Domaine Forget in Charlevoix (from June 29 to August 24). As two years ago, the ensemble and its conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin will perform alongside star violist Antoine Tamestit (Concerto by Walton) for the first concert, which will also include the interesting Gaelic Symphony by Amy Beach, an American composer from the turn of the 20th century^e century. We will bring out the big Steinway the next afternoon for Marc-André Hamelin (Concerto^o 2 by Liszt), before the orchestra shines in the immortelle Symphony n^o 4 by Brahms. Let us also remember that OM will once again offer free musical evenings this summer in three Montreal parks (Wilfrid-Bastien park in Saint-Léonard, on July 9, LaSalle park in Lachine, on July 10, and at Pilon Park in Montreal-North, on July 13), still at the start of the twilight period (7:30 p.m.).

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An opera of death comes to life in Montreal

After presenting a creation and two operatic rarities last year, the Classica Festival (from May 28 to June 16) is offering another daring proposal on June 6 at the Salle Claude-Champagne: The Emperor of Atlantis (The Kaiser of Atlantis), a one-act opera by Viktor Ullmann composed in captivity in a Hitler camp. Written for seven soloists and thirteen instrumentalists in a style reminiscent of Kurt Weill, the work would not be premiered until 1975. Presented in a concert version with a light staging, it will feature the baritone Pierre-Yves Pruvot, the mezzo-soprano Florence Bourget, soprano Sophie Naubert, basses Tomislav Lavoie and Frédéric Caton and tenors Emmanuel Hasler and Eric Laporte. A chamber symphony by Montrealer Jaap Nico Hamburger will also be played.

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Handel in the name of diversity

The Montréal Baroque festival (June 13 to 16) this year aims to be “a celebration of inclusiveness, openness and diversity in music.” Among the twenty events, the concert stands out Operative fluidity which, on June 15 (Notre-Dame-du-Bonsecours chapel), will allow us to hear the impressive contralto Rose Naggar-Tremblay, as well as Ian Sabourin, who last year became the first countertenor admitted to the Lyric Workshop of the Montreal Opera. With Arion Baroque Orchestra (conductor Hank Knox), they will interweave various arias by Handel with “the voices and stories of members of the 2SLGBTQI+ community in Montreal”, all in a production by Thomas Ayouti.

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William Christie at the Lanaudière Festival, take 3

The association between the Lanaudière Festival (from July 6 to August 4) and British chef William Christie since 2022 is among the most fruitful partnerships recently forged by the Joliette institution. After having mainly looked towards Handel in other years, the musician and his flourishing Arts return to us on July 13 (Amphithéâtre Fernand-Lindsay) with the delicious semi-opera The Fairy Queen by Purcell, inspired by Dream of a summer night by Shakespeare. There is no doubt that the team of young singers and dancers will impress under the stars of Lanaudière. The conductor and his ensemble will also give a concert of English baroque choral music two days later at the Saint-Ambroise-de-Kildare church.

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The rich hours of the OSM at the Lanaudière Festival

If the absence of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and its conductor Rafael Payare at the opening of the Lanaudière Festival has surely disappointed some, they will be amply consoled by their presence on the weekends of July 19 and 20 and 2 and August 3. Their first concert alone is worth it, since it will allow you to hear Thus spoke Zarathustra by Richard Strauss, a composer who fits the Venezuelan conductor like a glove. The intervention of the immense baritone Matthias Goerne for the Farewells of Wotan (from The Valkyrie by Wagner) will give the evening an extra touch of grandeur. We will stick around to hear the orchestra accompany the young virtuoso Yoav Levanon the next afternoon in the Piano Concerto^o 1 by Tchaikovsky.

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The hour mark in Orford

Collectif 9 is one of the most fascinating classical ensembles formed in Quebec in recent years. This string nonet, an unusual formation, reinvents the concert experience with its embodied interpretations of a diverse repertoire mixing creations and arrangements. They will be visiting the Orford Musique festival on the afternoon of July 27 (from June 12 to August 10). Debussy will be in the spotlight, with transcriptions for strings of The seaof the Bergamo Suite and other works. Two commissions made to Luna Pearl Woolf and Tom Morrison will also allow a dialogue with Debussy against the backdrop of climate change.

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A sparkling operetta in the capital

The Quebec Opera Festival (July 24 to August 4) continues to promote French-speaking opera with Parisian life by Offenbach (from August 2 to 4), a masterpiece of French operetta that goes so well with summer carefreeness. The occasion will mark the return of French director Jean-Romain Vesperini (at the head of Faust by Gounod two years ago), but also from the young chef Thomas Le Duc-Moreau, who will make his debut in the large pit of the Louis-Fréchette room. We will hear the best of Quebec singing (Julie Boulianne, Marie-Ève ​​Munger and several others), but also some French singers, including the baritone Christophe Gay, who made a strong impression last summer in Romeo and Juliet.

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