BAIE-SAINT-PAUL | The pianist offered a sublime and great moment of grace this Saturday to festival-goers! come to let themselves be lulled by its divine melodies.
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The sun was beating down on “the most beautiful stage in the world”, at least with certainty the most beautiful in Baie Saint-Paul and the Festif! … A little earlier, Gawbé had skillfully set the table on the quay by presenting a show relying on arrangements in a more “smooth morning” spirit rather than his usual more rock performances. At the mouth of the Gouffre and the river, about twenty people had paddled to come and watch the concert from the river, from their kayaks, canoes or comfortably seated on their paddle boards. The standing crowd, more than large, literally overflowed, untied their legs in sweet expectation.
Credit Samuel Gaudreault
The context was just perfect. Everything was ready for the magic to happen.
For the first time in Baie-Saint-Paul, the long-awaited Jean-Michel Blais has settled down alone behind his piano, beginning the first notes of the slow Ad Claritatem Domine. Time stood still, there was only the essential: the rustle of the wind, the laughter of children in the distance, the gentle crash of the waves and the immense beauty of his music.
Credit SamuelGaudreault
His musicians, Nadia Monczak (violin), Lorraine Gauthier-Giroux (cello) and Benjamin Deschamps (clarinet, bass clarinet, transverse flute and soprano saxophone) then quietly joined him as they gently began the piece Absinthe.
“There are so many people! I thought there was going to be nobody to see the world up late last night! exclaimed half-charming, half-mocking the pianist before ironically apologizing for the superb setting sun when the forecast announced rain.
Credit Samuel Gaudreault
All the elements seemed to have aligned to offer festival-goers this moment of great beauty. “We are outdoors and experiencing something truly unique, feel free to embrace the ambient noises,” he recalled.
The quartet offered several pieces from their latest album Aubades, released in 2022, where “each piece is intended to be an awakening” to an admirably silent, grateful and attentive crowd. Murmures, a piece where he wanted to introduce each instrument one by one, turned out to be another moment of grace; the luminous Flâneur, evoking that moment when one wanders at dawn; the spruce and elegant Passepied, both inspired by Debussy and inspired by a baroque dance. Many were the smiles on the delighted faces during this heartfelt interpretation which was warmly applauded.
Credit Samuel Gaudreault
The complicity was palpable between the 39-year-old artist and his musicians, whom he liked to tease. We felt it all the more during the finale of Nina, where he somehow draws a parallel between the difficulty of learning to write for other instruments and a child learning his first steps. In turn, the cellist, the wind multi-instrumentalist and the violinist approached to delicately complete the last bars of the piece with him on the piano. A moment full of charm and complicity that enchanted.
Jean-Michel Blais then performed Outsiders alone on the piano. The silence was such that it seemed as if the rustle of the waves accompanied it.
Credit Samuel Gaudreault
When the quartet performed the magnificent piece Le Souper, the sky had clouded over, the breeze was getting cooler. Some were no doubt aware that a veritable window of glorious weather had opened to allow the artist to offer this moment imbued with great beauty. Doux, then Nostos as an encore, finally came to complete this unique concert.
Inevitably, Jean-Michel Blais had seduced.