The Orchestre de la Francophonie and its new conductor for the summer, Simon Rivard, began their musical journey of five concerts in five days on Wednesday, dedicated to Symphoniesby BeethovenThe tandem can be proud and encouraged by this very good start, particularly in the 1D Symphony.
Seeing the sparse attendance at the Pierre-Mercure Hall, one could not help but think of the analysis by Denis Brott, director of the Chamber Music Festival, on the difficulty of finding an audience today, but also of his reflection on the impermeability between the public coming to attend free events and those who agree to pay for a concert. When you think that in two weeks there will be 50,000 people attending the OM concert at the foot of Mount Royal on a few street corners, it is still a world of difference not to have 500 to go see Symphonies by Beethoven.
Is the price really that scary? If young people want to encourage young people from eleven countries in Quebec to make music in the hall, it’s $32 for those under 34. A family of two adults and two children pays $90 in full; a single adult pays $40. That doesn’t seem exorbitant to live in the coming days Fifththere PastoralL’Heroic or the Seventh in fact. Many musical passions, including ours as a teenager, began like this…
A good choice
If there was any apprehension about the quality of the trainees of the Orchestre de la Francophonie 2024, we can dispel it: we are in the presence of a very good vintage. Among the desks that we notice, the 1D oboist, certainly, the bassoons and clarinets. The trumpets too, who know how to moderate themselves, and the horns I and II which played in the 1st Symphony. These two young men are a cut above their female colleagues working in the Second. On the string side, the double basses carry the piece, especially since their positioning, on the left of the stage, is perfect. There is no real weak point, except that the violins, especially the violins I, “fight” to do well, and that this struggle could be heard in the 2e Symphony.
Moreover, even if we cannot blame him for anything, we have not understood anything, concerning the Symphonies No. 1 And 2to the central positioning at the bottom of the timpani and, in addition, to his choice of rather soft sticks. An acoustic shift, for example by a placement to the left of the trumpeter, and the use of sticks a notch harder would have ensured a clearer build.
By replacing Jean-Philippe Tremblay with Simon Rivard at the last minute, the authorities of the Orchestre de la Francophonie made the right choice. Rivard is a truly inspired conductor who masters his musicians. It was enough to compare the rich, efficient and coherent way in which the orchestra sounded from the first chords of the 1D Symphonyrelative to the opening Coriolanconducted by Mathieu Gaudet, the well-known pianist who became conductor here.
Simon Rivard introduces each work with a short speech, brief but personal and interesting. He takes great care with the articulation and architecture. The First was really successful, from the first two chords, well accentuated and measured. The Second had its more laborious moments on the strings, but it is already clear that the conductor’s musicality will “hold” this integral at an interesting and stylistically relevant level.
Depending on the works that interest you, it is worth a little detour through this room that we will end up believing to be unloved.