Young conductor Francis Choinière continues to perform at the Maison symphonique. With his Orchester FILMHarmonique he measured himself on Saturday at nothing less than the fantastic symphony of Berlioz and the Bolero by Ravel. With success.
As surprising as it may seem, Francis Choinière, conductor and entrepreneur in his mid-twenties, has been conducting as many concerts lately at Maison symphonique as the OSM has programmed. While the public is still hesitant about its choice of outings, the subject is necessarily interesting and deserves attention.
After the Requiem by Fauré and Duruflé in version with organ, the programming of scores as associated with great successes, here, as the FantasticI’sorcerer’s apprentice and the Bolero could have been the sign of an excess of ambition and temerity. Well, not at all.
An unusual ball
During this evening dedicated to Boris Brott, “musician and humanist”, Francis Choinière conducted with poise and assurance an orchestra made up of local musicians and led on first violin by the excellent Jean-Sébastien Roy of the OSM, the chief of attack the 2nd violins being Marie-Josée Arpn, concertmaster of the orchestra of Trois-Rivières. We recognized the flute Albert Brouwer of the OSM, the clarinet Simon Aldrich of the OM. In short, the orchestra composed by Denis Chabot, associate of the Choinière brothers in GFN Productions, was as solid as during the show The Lord of the Rings that we had seen at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier. If we try to nitpick, we could boost the horns, give a little more sparkle and bite to the trumpets and aplomb to the harps. But André Leroux’s saxophone solo in the Bolero (among other things, by the way) we will remember. If Giulini had directed this, half-heartedly, he would have said a “thank you” afterwards…
Pleasant concert, well kept, in short all you need at the end of the week after a week of work thinking of us, of our ears, and not of some metaphysical expressive necessity of a creator, eager. to transmit to the listener the relationship between his inner self, the cosmos and the environment in the intertwining of the intersecting values of his multiple identities, cultures and values — to paraphrase the fashionable hodgepodge.
In the Fantastic, Choinière distinguished himself by having the version with solo cornet of the “Bal” finally heard in Montreal. However, he did not really know what to do with this exogenous instrument, which sounded like an addition of clumsy countermelodies rather than an isolated character (Berlioz) who fails to fit into the whirlwind.
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice was well conducted, rather quickly and without too much theatrics or suspense (the “restrained” after the broomstick break in Fantasia). Excellent Bolerowith regular gradation without the effect of sleeves and the clever and impressive contribution of two film scores.
Over the whole evening, which was very satisfying, there were certainly no major interpretative ideas, but no diversion of meaning or flop. The audience, quite unusual, was happy.