Gaspé Symphony by Claude Champagne. Laval Symphony Orchestra, Alain Trudel. Atma ACD2 2867.

In June 2021, a year before his surprise departure from the musical direction, Alain Trudel recorded, with the Orchestre symphonique de Laval, his 4^e CD for ATMA. Magnificently recorded by Anne-Marie Sylvestre at the Maison symphonique, it gives us more hope than ever that the recruitment process aimed at defining the new musical direction in Laval can be completed positively, without interference or hitches. When we see, on the one hand, the quality and usefulness of this disc and, on the other, what happened with the equivalent orchestra south of the greater Montreal area, we understand the importance of preserving these tools of cultural and musical influence and sources of high-level employment for musicians trained by our best institutions. Gaspé Symphony de Champagne (1891-1965), a little post-d’Indy, is a solid heritage work. Trudel adds to it Celebration by André Prévost, more tense. The orchestra seduces with the clarity of the rhythmic contours of the Dances of Galanta from Kodály and the Dance suite by Bartók.

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