A visionary recording uniting Canadian artistic excellence

Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Now available – Jacques Hétu’s Symphony No. 5 by Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir led by Alexander Shelley

Performing live on tour at Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall, led by music director Alexander Shelley © Greggory Clark This project is more than a recording – it is a celebration of Canadian artistic excellence, a tribute to the late Jacques Hétu, and a reflection on the power of music to unite, inspire, and transcend. Two Orchestras, One Symphony is a benchmark performance of Jacques Hétu’s Symphony No. 5, his final work and a new milestone in Canadian orchestral music. The album is a tribute to Hétu’s epic composition and a testament to the unity and strength of Canada’s orchestral music community.

Celebrating the legacy of a final masterpiece

Symphony No.5 is undoubtedly one of internationally renowned Québecois composer Jacques Hétu’s most significant achievements. His final work draws inspiration from Paul Éluard’s Second World War poem Liberté, which explores themes of freedom and hope, to portray Nazi-occupied Paris, concluding with a choral setting of Éluard’s poem, celebrating the liberation of France. Unfortunately, Hétu never heard his masterwork performed live. He died three weeks shy of its world premiere by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 2010. 

This landmark recording reimagines Symphony No. 5, featuring over 200 artists from the NAC Orchestra, the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. The result is a sweeping, emotionally charged performance that breathes new life into Hétu’s masterpiece.

This project was an incredibly fulfilling endeavour for Alexander Shelley, now in his tenth season as the NAC Orchestra’s music director. Shelley commented: ‘Hétu’s music has a refined elegance and craftsmanship that is both challenging and rewarding to explore. Bringing together two orchestras and a full choir for this recording was a thrilling experience, and the result is something truly special.’

A powerful collaboration

Having guest conducted the OSQ in several concerts, Shelley envisioned a collaborative project that would showcase the unique strengths of both orchestras. The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, one of Canada’s oldest and most revered choral groups, added another layer of richness to the project. 

"It’s not often that we can bring together so many talented artists from different parts of the country. The combined energy and passion of the NAC Orchestra, OSQ, and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir made this project something truly remarkable"

Alexander Shelley, NAC Orchestra music director

Following a critically acclaimed tour in Québec and Ontario, this new recording took place in March 2024 in Southam Hall at the National Arts Centre. The monumental effort involved hundreds of musicians and singers performing under Shelley’s inspired direction. The result is a technical achievement that symbolizes the unity in Canadian music, bridging different regions and musical traditions to create a shared work of art.

Opening night at the Grand Théâtre de Québec, the first stop on the Two Orchestras, One Symphony tour © Greggory Clark

A lasting tribute to Jacques Hétu

One of Canada’s most esteemed and frequently performed composers, Hétu’s catalogue includes some 70 works, including symphonies, operas, choral and chamber music, and concertos for numerous instruments. 

"It was a remarkable journey, one that not only honoured Jacques Hétu’s memory but also strengthened our artistic bonds. In these challenging times, Hétu’s work offers a profound sense of comfort and inspiration."

Astrid Chouinard, President and CEO of the Orchestre symphonique de Québec

 Hétu’s relationship with the NAC Orchestra stretches back nearly five decades. In 1977, the Orchestra commissioned Antinomi and performed the piece under former music director Mario Bernardi. Later, under Pinchas Zukerman, Hétu’s works featured prominently on the Orchestra’s European tour in 1990 and its Québec tour in 2006. This enduring partnership laid the groundwork for this grand-scale interpretation of Symphony No. 5, which marks a fitting conclusion to Hétu’s legacy.

A showcase of leading Canadian ensembles, Two Orchestras, One Symphony has the potential to make a lasting impression on listeners worldwide. Set for release on the Analekta music label, the new album is now available for purchase and streaming across all major platforms.

• CBC

  "collectif9 are not only one of the most exciting chamber ensembles in Canada, for my money they are one of the most exciting in the world. The way they play is just electric [...] Outstanding new record."

• Panm360.com

  "It’s an album of music that’s soothing and nourishing, emotionally, intellectually and even spiritually."

• Online Merker

  "Mit „Rituæls“ hat collectif9 ein Album geschaffen, das in seiner Dramaturgie und musikalischen Vielfalt beeindruckt. Die kunstvolle Verknüpfung von Stücken aus verschiedenen Epochen und ihre fesselnde Interpretation lassen den rituellen Charakter der Musik deutlich hervortreten. Jede Komposition erhält durch das Ensemble eine eigene, tief empfundene Farbe, und gemeinsam formen sie eine Klanglandschaft, die den Zuhörer auf eine intensive, fast spirituelle Reise mitnimmt."

All Music review

Chamber Works by Frederick Block Review by James Manheim

Frederick Block was born Friedrich Bloch in Vienna and fled to England and then America as work for Jews rapidly dried up after Nazi Anschluss. Other Jewish composers headed for Hollywood and studied the language of American popular music, but Block went his own way. Writer Helmut Flechtner is quoted in the booklet here with a nice summary of his career: "He was a composer who didn't belong to any school of movement, who didn't want to prove anything by his composing, who was not abstract or romantic, but who with indefatigable industry finished work after work unconcerned about criticism..." Indeed, the chamber music here gives the listener the sense of entering a composer's particular little world. His music, even that written in America, has a Viennese flavor, and one influence is Mahler; if that composer had written more than a youthful essay in chamber music, it might have sounded a bit like this. Block can shift directions in the midst of a movement in an attempt to suggest a large canvas for small music, but he can also be quite concise. Sample the Suite for clarinet and piano, Op. 73, whose five movements take up less than eight minutes. Each work is different in structure, but there is a thread of Viennese lyricism connecting everything. Any one of the four pieces here would enhance a chamber music recital, and the ARC Ensemble deserves credit for its revival of Block's music in the Chandos label's "Exiles" series.

Music web international

All the works are beautifully performed and the recording has been splendidly balanced. The director of the ensemble, Simon Wynberg, he has contributed the customarily fine booklet notes, to which I’m indebted for all biographical details. Block seems to have been a composer with nothing much to prove. He is lyric, occasionally puckish, always professional. That said,  I can’t always detect real personality in his writing but perhaps I’ve not lived long enough with it.

Jonathan Woolf

Music Web International

I am very attached to Verklärte Nacht, the shorter of the two works here, and produced a survey of the major recordings in 2021. I have since endorsed a recording on the album Through the Night by the United Strings of Europe (review), and am always ready to audition a new version. I am much less familiar with the symphonic poem Pelleas und Melisande, evidence of the hold which Maeterlinck’s Symbolist play exercised over composers around the turn of the 19C into the 20C, but my go-to recording has been Karajan with the BPO in 1974.

This new release sounds every bit as voluptuously played and the digital sound is markedly superior, with individual instrumental strands more distinctly defined and greater depth. The surging climax to the violent second track (1b, Principal Theme) is just as telling and the whole score is suffused with a languorous eroticism alternating with explosive outbursts; the Love Scene which ends with Golaud killing Pelleas (iii b, track 7) and the ensuing Reprise (track 8) are taut with a mounting, ambivalent suspense hovering between the passionate and the violent. The eerie, descending flute figures, played against a brass chorale, depicting Melisande’s death chamber, are especially atmospheric here, then in the Epilogue, Payare manages to re-build a sense of tragic grandeur, with brass snarling over grumbling lower strings.

To my ears, the opening to Verklärte Nacht is decidedly more “Bewegt” than its marking, “Grave”, but that is characteristic of the way the piece as a whole is delivered here, its timing of 29 minutes indicating that this is one of the more propulsive performances. The sonority of the orchestra and engineered sound, however, mostly offset any sense of undue spareness, even if my own taste veers towards something a little more upholstered. The drama of the scenario is particularly emphasised but that does not prevent Payare really pulling back for the “Molto rallentando” second section to revel in its sensuousness. The “forgiveness” movement is tenderly played and concertmaster Andrew Wan’s solo is truly and sweetly intoned. When we come to the climax of redemption and transfiguration in the penultimate track it is clear how carefully Payare has gauged the gradual accumulation of tension and the coda is exquisitely delicate: the aural equivalent of sparkling flakes of starlight – just beautiful.

Ralph Moore

It’s a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ star review for Winterreise from @lascenamusicale !

La Scena Musicale 5 étoiles

Gianmarco Segato on 8 November 2024

Fenlon is Berlin-based and her longtime German immersion pays off in diction that is idiomatic and clear. She has found a niche for her art, giving self-accompanied recitals all over Europe and Canada. As former Canadian Opera Company and current Paris Opera director Alexander Neef writes in his excellent program notes: “Fenlon’s performance echoes the Vienna of 1827 when Schubert first performed the cycle for his friends, accompanying himself on the piano.” The recording, produced and engineered by Carl Talbot at Le Domaine Forget de Charlevoix in May 2023, offers a wonderful ambience, well balanced between voice and piano. A beautiful, fresh addition to the Winterreise recorded legacy. 

BBC Radio

Classic 107

I feel especially touched by this: “Fenlon makes you feel as though you have someone who has experienced the depression and loneliness that the winter can bring, and can relate to your own seasonal struggles”. …. Because if someone can feel that in this record, then I couldn’t ask for anything more.

You can hear excerpts of Winterreise on Morning light every Wednesday this month at 7:30am on @classic107fm with @nolan_kehler

Virtuosi

A soprano e pianista Rachel Fenlon chega diretamente da Alemanha para trazer sua arte singular ao Festival Virtuosi. 🎶 Reconhecida por se acompanhar ao piano, Rachel apresenta o icônico ciclo Winterreise de Schubert, combinando técnica apurada e sensibilidade musical em uma performance memorável.

OPERA Wire

RF: Such a key question, thanks for asking that! So, the model for many record labels these days is such that the artist has to financially back a huge chunk of the recording and post production costs. Once I had decided I would record “Winterreise” and had secured the sound engineer and producer I wanted to work with–Carl Talbot, a Canadian legend–I got working on fundraising. I raised most of the funds for the album through a Kickstarter campaign, which was a huge gamble, because you only get funded on Kickstarter if you meet your fundraising goal. I had the fortune of having an exceptionally generous patron of the arts say he would match whatever the total of my campaign amount was so that I would meet my goal. In the end, I raised a total of $16,000 for the album. I have to say, I am pretty proud of that!

My Scena

François Dompierre’s Requiem is nothing short of cinematic in nature. Its 12 liturgical texts are set in a manner that takes the listener on a journey through a plethora of sonic environments that are unexpected but seamlessly blend with the character of the Requiem genre. The French horn carries the opening Kyrie with its moving response gestures to the choir. This, of course, comes after the magnificent string opening—two broken dissonant chords are closed by a grand perfect cadence before the choir enters. This setting preserves the ancient text with familiar conventions but explores new musical textures and timbres.

Strauss: Ein Heldenleben; Mahler: Rückert-Lieder Review by James Manheim

The Strauss and Mahler works on this 2024 release are both relatively often recorded, and listeners may have been surprised to see the album show up on classical best-seller lists in the spring of that year. There is the consideration that Rafael Payare and his abundant Afro are landing on many lists of acts to watch, and he shows signs of jelling with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal in the Richard Strauss autobiographical tone poem Ein Heldenleben. Hear the superb solo work from violinist Andrew Wan in the third movement, representing Strauss' wife, Pauline de Ahna, but the big news here, and what is probably drawing buyers, is the other work on the album, Mahler's Rückert-Lieder, which receive a revelatory performance from soprano Sonya Yoncheva. It is a distinctly different flavor from the usual Wagnerian sound, adding operatic emotionalism to Um Mitternacht and the gorgeous finale, Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen. Yoncheva was an inspired choice, whether by Payare or someone else, and the album is worth time and money for her alone. The PentaTone label adds nicely transparent sound from the Maison Symphonique de Montréal to the mix.

April 2024

An enthusiastic podium presence, Payare gets results that are by no means ‘flash’. He takes nearly 47 minutes to negotiate a score which Carlos Kleiber and the composer himself get through in under 40. The argument flows nicely if not always with galvanic force.

Richard Strauss’s critics – baiting 1898 tone poem Ein Heldenleben, so exquisite one minute, so overwrought the next, receives a middling performance by the Montreal Orchestra under Payare. There is an epic sweep to their playing in Des Helden Weltflucht und Vollendung and the orchestra leader Andrew Wan is superb in the passages for solo violin. But their account lacks a certain effervesance, although the recording balance is spot on. The Bulgarian operatic soprano Yoncheva’s reading of Mahler’s Ruckert-Lieder is a similarly mixed bag – haunting in Um Mitternacht and Ich bin der Welt abhanden Gekommen, perhaps a little too light in tone elsewhere. Much to enjoy though.

C’est à la Cinquième salle de la Place des Arts que Nadia Labrie lançait son projet Flûte passion : Claude Bolling-Suite pour flûte et trio piano jazz.

La présentation de la soirée fut prise en charge par Jeannot Painchaud, fondateur du cirque et des productions Eloize, qui exprimait toute sa fierté d’avoir collaboré au projet, à cette soirée de lancement, et surtout d’être l’heureux époux de la talentueuse interprète. Avec cet album, Nadia Labrie en est à sa première gravure sur l’étiquette Atma Classique. 

Elle compte sept albums qui précèdent ce tout récent Bolling, tous parus sous l’étiquette Analekta, dont les trois plus récents, aussi sous l’intitulé de Flûte Passion dont, Flûte Passion: Schubert (2018), Flûte Passion: Bach (2020), et Flûte Passion: Mozart (2021). Labrie cumule de nombreuses nominations et plusieurs prix, dont une 2e place aux finales nationales du Concours de Musique du Canada (1995), le Félix album Instrumental au Gala de l’ADISQ pour Similia Nota del Sol (2004), et deux distinctions dignes de mention : Médaille Gouverneur Général du Canada (1998) et Relève Citoyenne − Lieutenant Gouverneur Général Québec (2005).

Flûte passion : Claude Bolling-Suite pour flûte et trio piano jazz

Sur l’album Labrie s’entoure d’un trio d’excellents musiciens: Jonathan Turgeon au piano, Dominic Girard à la contrebasse et Bernard Riche à la batterie. Lors de cette soirée de lancement, ces deux derniers étaient à leurs partitions, Turgeon était remplacé par John Roney. Chaque pièce a été interprétée dans l’ordre de l’album  − qui est exactement le même que l’album de Rampal, Claude Bolling, composé en 1973, enregistré et imprimé sur vinyle en 1975.

La suite dans sa forme de microsillon : face A: Baroque and Blue – 5:18 (5:51) Sentimentale – 7:45 (8:41) Javanaise – 5:15 (5:09). face B : Fugace – 3:50 (3:50) Irlandaise – 2:59 (3:25) Versatile – 5:07 (5:47) Véloce – 3:40 (4:01). Les temps entre parenthèse sont ceux des arrangements de Nadia Labrie. De l’album vinyle au CD de Bolling, les temps diffèrent aussi de quelques secondes.  

Nadia Labrie

On peut voir par les temps, très fidèles aux partitions, que Labrie y a mis toute son expérience, son talent ainsi que sa touche personnelle sans toutefois enlever de l’originalité aux travaux initiaux. Quels travaux elle a accomplis et ce n’est pas terminé. Elle nous parle non seulement de l’enregistrement et de cette représentation en concert de La Suite #1, qui est déjà un évènement en soi, mais aussi de la progression de son projet « Hommage à Claude Bolling », qui comptera 3 albums pour la fin de 2025.

Elle le fait en nous offrant en rappel une Espiègle parfaitement exécutée, première pièce de La Suite #2 sorti en 1987. Quel sera le troisième ? Picnic Suite for Flute, Guitar and Jazz Piano Trio: III ? Et qui se mesurera aux partitions de Claude Bolling au piano et à celles d’Alexandre Lagoya à la guitare ? Ce qui est certain c’est que Labrie n’a pas chômé depuis la sortie de Flûte Passion: Mozart (2021) et qu’elle n’est pas prête de le faire. C’est une artiste qui nous réserve encore bien d’autres passions à suivre. 

* Rappelons que Bolling – Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio s’est positionné disque platine, États-Unis et Canada, au Billboard des 40 albums les plus vendus pendant 530 semaines de 1976 à 1986. À cette époque, nombreuses publicités et même des bulletins de nouvelles à Télé Métropole étaient accompagnés des thèmes de cette Suite # 1. 

* La parution d’été 2018 de La Scena Musicale, mettait en vedette, sous la plume de Justin Bernard, cette interprète canadienne de premier plan.  

Avril / Mai 2024

This page is also available in / Cette page est également disponible en: English (Anglais)

La flûtiste québécoise Nadia Labrie est célèbre pour ses enregistrements classiques d’œuvres de Schubert, Bach et Mozart. Son dernier projet, Flûte passion : Claude Bolling – Suite pour flûte et trio piano jazz, célèbre l’œuvre du compositeur français, décédé en 2020 à l’âge de 90 ans. Labrie affirme que la musique de Bolling a enrichi son art. Elle lui rendra hommage dans un concert à la Place des Arts le 2 mai.

Labrie s’est produite en tant que soliste avec divers orchestres, notamment l’Orchestre symphonique de Québec et l’Orchestre symphonique de l’Estuaire. Sa série classique Flûte passion (2018-2021) a été créée à la suite d’une série de circonstances difficiles – le dernier album a été terminé pendant la pandémie de coronavirus. « J’avais besoin d’une lumière dans ma vie », se souvient-elle. Il suffit d’entendre le nom « Mozart » pour sourire. Le projet Bolling est cependant différent. « Je pense que je voulais simplement explorer quelque chose de nouveau. »

Elle a découvert l’œuvre de Bolling par l’intermédiaire de l’oncle de son mari, fan de son célèbre Baroque And Blue. La pièce est le premier des sept mouvements de la Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio, une composition de Bolling de 1973 qui fusionne le classique et le jazz et qui est écrite pour piano, batterie, contrebasse et flûte. Le flûtiste français Jean-Pierre Rampal a enregistré l’œuvre en 1975 (ce qui lui a valu une nomination aux Grammy) et la suite de Bolling Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio No. 2 en 1986. 

Pour Labrie, les enregistrements de Rampal ont été un tremplin. « Lorsque j’écoutais, je me disais : “Oh, mon Dieu, il est tellement bon !” C’est un phrasé absolument parfait, avec beaucoup de caractère et de sentiment. Mais à un moment donné, j’ai commencé à entendre comment moi, je voulais jouer cette musique. »

Le processus d’apprentissage de l’œuvre de Bolling a fortement contrasté avec la formation classique de Labrie. « J’ai joué le répertoire classique toute ma vie, il était donc déjà dans mes doigts, mais avec Bolling, c’était comme si je me demandais ce que je pouvais en faire. Je voulais qu’il ait ma propre sensibilité. »

Son approche individualiste a été renforcée par les musiciens qui ont participé au projet – Jonathan Turgeon au piano, Dominic Girard à la contrebasse et Bernard Riche à la batterie – qui ont interprété la musique de Bolling avec Labrie lors d’une série de concerts l’an dernier. Ils se joindront à elle à la Place des Arts en mai. « Au début, je pensais que je n’y arriverais pas, dit-elle, mais je me suis lancée, et c’est tellement agréable de jouer cette musique ! »

Truth in Our Time: Philip Glass - Symphony No. 13 Review by James Manheim

The title of this live release by Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra is an ambitious one, and online listeners may wonder about the thread connecting the very diverse works on the program. However, physical album buyers will get the scoop. The album's motivations are dual. One is pretty vague; the album seeks to embody the value of truth in an age of disinformation. The second is quite specific; the release pays tribute to the late Canadian broadcast journalist Peter Jennings. The items on the program work for one of these, if not both. The National Arts Centre commissioned the Symphony No. 13 from Philip Glass, who professed an admiration for Jennings, and it is a compact, punchy example of Glass' late style. Under the "truth" rubric comes the Symphony No. 9 in E flat major, Op. 70, of Shostakovich, and the revised version of the Violin Concerto of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, both dating from the end of World War II and obviously having nothing to do with Jennings but embodying the idea of composers' following their own inner dictates (speaking their "truths," as contemporary parlance has it). Both works receive strong performances; the light, neoclassic quality of the Shostakovich, which ticked Stalin off considerably, is caught nicely by conductor Alexander Shelley, and violinist James Ehnes contributes appropriate sentiment in the Korngold concerto. There is also a camera-themed overture by Canadian composer Nicole Lyzée and a nifty bilingual spoken-word item by the singer-songwriter YAO. Certainly of interest not only to Canadian listeners but to those from the south who fondly remember Peter Jennings.

Critique Ottawa citizen

https://ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/local-arts/truth-in-our-time-nac-orchestra-shares-values-music-on-vibrant-new-recording

Globe and mail interview

NAC Orchestra’s Alexander Shelley discusses new album and tribute to Canadian journalist Peter Jennings

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/article-nac-orchestras-alexander-shelley-discusses-new-album-and-tribute-to-a/

Ludwing Van

INTERVIEW | Alexander Shelley Talks About Truth in Our Time — NACO’s Latest Release

Chamber Works by Robert Müller-Hartmann Review by James Manheim

This release by the ARC Ensemble appeared in the Chandos label's Music in Exile series in 2023. This isn't exactly appropriate, for all the music here by the German Jewish composer Robert Müller-Hartmann was composed before 1938 when the composer fled Germany for England. Although he had had a good deal of success in Germany during the Weimar Republic and even stuck it out for a while there teaching in Jewish schools, he was never treated well in England (although Ralph Vaughan Williams appreciated his talent) and was even interned for a time. The excellent notes by ARC Ensemble artistic director Simon Wynberg tell the whole sorry tale, but the key point here is that he was totally forgotten, and all the works here are world premieres. They are well worth rediscovery. The opening Violin Sonata, Op. 5, is an early work from 1923 dedicated to Artur Schnabel. Hear the melodic lilt in the first movement, suggesting Viennese popular music, although Müller-Hartmann was from Hamburg. Perhaps the strongest work is the spare, four-movement Sonata for two violins, Op. 32, which one might easily take for Hindemith if asked to guess. The String Quartet No. 2, Op. 38, is an emotionally rich, rather intense work. Nothing at all is dull or academic here, and the varied forces all benefit from obviously well-prepared performances by members of the ARC Ensemble. Clear sound from Toronto's Koerner Hall is another plus on a recording by a composer who survived the horrors of the age.

Reviews

“…No avant-garde adventurer, Müller-Hartmann looked back to Viennese late-Romanticism for inspiration… Particularly charming is Müller-Hartmann’s Sonata, Op.32 for two violins, four genial, sprightly dance-like movements…”

Michael Schulman – thewholenote.com – 11 February 2024

“…This collection provides us with a portrait of a highly professional and competent composer. The music is superbly well written and adapted to the forces required. There are many passages of considerable expressivity and moments of pathos… The performances on this disc are beyond reproach…”

William Hedley – Musicwebinternational.com – 31 January 2024

“…These first recordings are no less well prepared, scrupulously engineered and sympathetically played than previous volumes in the series…”

Peter Quantrill – Gramophone magazine – January 2024

Performance ****      Recording ****

“… the strongest and most absorbing music comes in the melodically appealing Sonata for Two Violins and particularly in the emotionally probing Second String Quartet. As always, the ARC Ensemble’s committed performances make the best possible case for re-evaluating this neglected composer.”

Erik Levi – BBC Music magazine – January 2024

“…The ARC Ensemble seem to get to the heart of these pieces and present them in sympathetic performances in a good acoustic… An interesting rediscovery reflective of traditional elements in inter-war Germany …”

Jonathan Woolf – Musicweb-international.com – 20 November 2023