A new year begins, a creative cycle ends for Jean-Michel Blais, who will present the concert Thursday and Friday at the Maison symphonique Symphonic aubades with the Agora Orchestra, under the direction of its co-founder Nicolas Ellis. “And we start show with a piece called Closing ! » notes the composer, who will take a break after the concert on March 14 at the Grand Théâtre de Québec to “see where [il s’en va], after a more electro album and a more orchestral album. “It’s exciting, I can’t wait to have time to create,” he adds, admitting to not knowing which of the ten projects he has in mind he will start composing with again.
Published in February 2022, Aubades, his third album, showed Blais the composer-arranger accompanied for the first time by a chamber orchestra, conducted in the studio by Nicolas Ellis. “At the time of recording, I was assured that I could conduct the orchestra myself, but I found that it made no sense to break new compositions myself, with my first arrangements,” recalls Jean -Michael. I needed a conductor, and someone who was fairly open-minded. With Nicolas, I had the feeling that it would be a good fit human, since that is what is important, basically. »
Two years and dozens of concerts later — including this memorable performance delivered last summer on Place des Festivals, on the bill for the Montreal International Jazz Festival — Blais will finally take the stage with Ellis, whose busy schedule had until then prevented the two musicians from meeting in concert. “I feel like I’m in a buffet of music, I taste all the styles,” says the 32-year-old maestro, who has just accepted the position of conductor of the Orchester national de Bretagne, in addition to his mandates with the Agora Orchestra and the Les Violons du Roy ensemble.
“With Agora, we put on lots of different programs; with Les Violons du Roy, we play a lot of music from the 18th centurye century, but I am also asked to expand the repertoire to the 19the and XXe centuries, Ellis continues. I think one of the things I’m asked for is my versatility, but at the end of the day, it’s music: we do the projects that tempt us. For now, I’m having a lot of fun navigating through all these repertoires, and that’s the beauty of classical music: being able to wander through 400 years and then make connections between different generations of composers. »
Musical conversation
“Which brings me to talk aboutSymphonic aubades, since that was the concept,” adds the young conductor. “Like any composer, Jean-Michel was influenced and inspired by the sound universes of several others. That’s what the concert is: in addition to the works of Jean-Michel, we draw on other repertoires to spark a dialogue between his own compositions and those, say, of Erik Satie, Claude Debussy, Max Richter . All this music is in conversation. »
Jean-Michel Blais: “That was my intention with this concert. Today, that’s how I listen to music, by creating playlists. We move like that from one artist to another. [Dans le concert Aubades symphoniques], we will hear a work by Satie arranged by Debussy, Richter who quotes Vivaldi, all to show that this play of influences is part of the history of music. It’s a way of saying that we’re not inventing anything. We make quilts. » Not without a touch of humor in the choice of pieces, like the personality of Jean-Michel Blais.
And then, he agrees, “as long as I work with such an orchestra, it’s not true that I was going to take the same show which I had already given. It’s a bit of my guilty pleasure to add works from the repertoire, such as a work by the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884), who greatly influenced the creation ofAubades. “I then become a sort of curator” of the evening.
By listening again Aubades, we remember the lightness of the orchestrations: never too many violins, rarely used as a harmonic background layer, the softness of the strings matching their dynamism. “I find it’s a slippery slope, orchestral versions. Everyone does, Blais admits. But we also found that, in Aubades, it was intrinsic to the work. Everything is already pre-orchestrated,” even though certain pieces had been imagined by its composer for a full orchestra. “So, we didn’t completely rewrite everything. The basis was there, we only added — I’m talking about “we”, but it’s the arranger François Vallières [membre du Nouvel Ensemble moderne] who did most of the work. He took the compositions to another level, but it seems like that was the very nature ofAubades to get there. »
“For me,” summarizes Nicolas Ellis, “the pleasure of embarking on Jean-Michel’s music is to hear both the influences of these composers that we have included in the concert program, but above all to hear something very personal to him. Jean-Michel communicates something very sincere in his music. Everyone is inspired by someone else, the important thing is to recognize this element of sincerity. We feel it in his music, and it’s what the whole orchestra feels too. What he does transcends labels, such as neoclassical. It sounds like Jean-Michel. »