It is the Festival de Lanaudière that kicks off the ball for summer classical music programming in Quebec. Discussion with its artistic director Renaud Loranger.
“The musical environment works both in slow motion and in seventh gear. We haven’t quite found our bearings. There are a lot of things that don’t work exactly the way they did before the pandemic, a lot of mechanics that are a lot less fluid, but I feel like everyone is trying to act like nothing happened.” , summarizes the administrator.
He nevertheless says he is “very proud of what is happening in Lanaudière this year. There are still several blockbusters in the season.
The structure of the Lanaudois summer, which will take place from July 7 to August 6, is the same as in previous years, with an opening weekend provided by the Orchester symphonique de Montréal and a closing concert with the Metropolitan Orchestra.
PHOTO ANNIE BIGRAS, PROVIDED BY THE FESTIVAL DE LANAUDIÈRE
Rafael Payare and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra
In the first case, Rafael Payare will lead not Mahler, as in the three previous editions, but the beloved Symphony noh 9 in D minor by Beethoven, which he gave last June at the Maison symphonique. The work has not been performed at the festival since 2007. The next day, we will be entitled to the concerto for orchestra of Bartók, but especially at the beginning, in the Concerto noh 2 in C minor by Rachmaninov, by the young Russian pianist Denis Kojoukhine, who will also play Schubert and Liszt solo on July 10.
“He belongs to this absolutely extraordinary generation of Russian virtuosos. He is a boy who does not look like the others, who has an extraordinary technique, a sound of a thickness that makes one think of Emil Gilels. It’s not an aesthetic that we often hear today,” says Renaud Loranger, who worked with him as vice-president at Pentatone.
PHOTO MARCO BORGGREVE, ARCHIVES PROVIDED BY THE FESTIVAL DE LANAUDIÈRE
The young Russian pianist Denis Kojoukhine
We’ll be back with the OSM and its conductor on August 4 and 5, first for a complete Fire Bird by Stravinsky and the harp concerto by Reinhold Glière with the virtuoso Xavier de Maistre (also solo on August 2), then for the Symphony noh 2 in C major of Schumann and the Wesendonck-Lieder by Wagner with mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill, a regular at the OSM.
As for the closing concert, Yannick Nézet-Séguin will be in charge of OM in the Symphony noh 6 in B minor, called “Pathetic”, by Tchaikovsky, given last summer at the Domaine Forget, but also the Piano concerto no.oh 1 in E minor of Chopin with the South Korean Seong-Jin Cho, a frequent partner of the Quebec chef.
OM and Nézet-Séguin will have had the opportunity, the previous weekend, to give the monumental Alpine Symphony of Strauss and the very athletic Konzertstück for four horns and orchestra by Schumann, before The pines of Rome of Respighi and the Piano concerto no.oh 3 in D minor by Rachmaninoff with Marc-André Hamelin.
two poles
Between the beginning and the end of the festival, music lovers will also have the opportunity to hear the legendary William Christie and his flourishing Arts again, this time in the rare opera Partenope by Haendel, but also the phenomenal Leonardo García Alarcón, for the first time here with his Capella Mediterranea (in addition to the Chœur de chambre de Namur) for nothing less than The Orfeo and the Vespers of the Virgin by Monteverdi.
On the orchestral side, we will also be entitled to Les Violons du Roy (July 14) in an all-Haydn program and to the National Youth Orchestra of the USA under the direction of seasoned Andrew Davis (July 16), which will give the fantastic symphony of Berlioz, then the Violin Concerto of Barber with the immense Gil Shaham.
As for solo recitals and small ensembles, note the arrival of the great accordionist Richard Galliano (July 9), a Brahms concert with pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin, violinist Andrew Wan and cellist Alisa Weilerstein (July 11), but also appearances by the Calder Quartet in Beethoven (July 18) and pianist Angela Hewitt in Bach (July 27).
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE FESTIVAL DE LANAUDIÈRE
Renaud Loranger, artistic director of the Festival de Lanaudière
As Renaud Loranger summarizes, “there are two tutelary figures in the season: Monteverdi and Rachmaninov. We have two extreme poles: absolute hubris with Rachmaninoff; asceticism, renunciation with The Orfeo. Handel and Haydn fit roughly in the middle of this, as a counterpoint to the extremes, through humor or transcendence”.
“All this can allow, as Fernand Lindsay hoped [fondateur du festival] during his lifetime, to offer avenues to the public to, in the best of cases, move towards the good life”, he concludes philosophically.