On June 7, the Orchester symphonique de Laval announced the departure of its musical director, Alain Trudel. Since this surprising decision, the orchestra has been looking for a new conductor. Several will be tested this season. Nicolas Ellis, the first, immediately set the bar very high on Wednesday.
The most amazing surprise concerning Nicolas Ellis is not seeing him in the final selection process for the new musical director of the Orchester symphonique de Québec. The OSQ really had a serious game to play with the “new Yannick” of Quebec to redo 20 years away the coup succeeded by the Metropolitan with Yannick. But hey, if they prefer the Finnish Emilia Hoving, Nicolas Ellis will recover. He began his “cure” Wednesday evening in Laval with an exciting concert on the theme of dance.
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The evening began with a tribute to Lise Beauchamp. The oboist also worked in Laval and the score chosen was admirable: the theme “Gabriel’s Oboe” from the film Assignmentmusic by Ennio Morricone to twist the heart.
Unlike Anne Queffélec in Bourgie the day before, Ellis then gave an example of how one speaks to an audience before a work, Cinderella of Prokofiev, in simple, direct words and clear illustrations allowing the listener to find his way effectively in the six stages of the 2nd Suite.
The orchestra and the conductor immediately found common ground, despite difficult passages to manage. It is true that the direction of Nicolas Ellis goes to the essentials: he does not pour out too much, asks for the right desks, gets what he wants. The Galop (6th part) was well negotiated and from there everything went crescendo.
The orchestral outfit of the OSL in the Suite of Fire Bird deserves a big thumbs up. There too, the effectiveness of the direction was confirmed at the beginning of the Infernal Dance; no superfluous gesture for a remarkable orchestral cohesion. Superb Lullaby-Finale transition, too, and remarkable rise in power of the latter.
But all this was only an aperitif in the face of the true collective exaltation that conductor and orchestra shared in the eight excerpts from the Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky. The firmness, the sound density, the orchestral performance, the momentum of the dances (Hungarian, Spanish, Neapolitan), the behavior of the violin desk led by an Antoine Bareil who left nothing to chance: all this was a pleasure to see.
The conductor played on velvet, since he is known to many musicians who are also part of the Metropolitan and therefore already have musical reflexes with him. The Tchaikovsky, really, did everything except “suburban orchestra” and Ellis set the bar very high on Wednesday evening, before the appearances of Jean-Michel Malouf, Julien Proulx and Mélanie Léonard.
Double construction site
Marc-André Nadon, vice-president of the Board of Directors, introduced the conductor before the concert. The duty met Mr. Nadon during the break to confirm the departure of General Manager Tatiana de Burbure. In office since November 2021, she left her job in August 2022, two and a half months after the musical director Alain Trudel, whoseEcho of Laval, in its edition dated December 23, 2021, had however announced the renewal for 5 additional years!
Since the departure of Marie-Pierre Rolland from the general management in October 2019, the OSL has therefore exhausted four general managers in less than three years. Certainly not all of them left for the same reasons, but Maude Brunet, Charles Decroix, Sarah Belleville and Tatiana de Burbure succeeded each other in the highest position.
Mr. Marc-André Nadon confirmed on Wednesday at To have to that the position of general manager will be filled before the musical director, probably before the holidays. Furthermore, Jean Letarte, a former member of the OSM and the OSQ, has meanwhile been hired as a “music advisor”.
In the succession process for Alain Trudel, who had been in post in Laval since 2006, the musicians were assured of being able to give their opinion. This is a major issue in order to avoid the imposition of a parachuted candidacy, artistically much less attractive, but which would, for example, be supported by a powerful sponsor or various connections.