Tag Archives: dutilleux

Midday mélodies: Canada meets France

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Tuesday’s concert in the RBA was given by students from the France-Canada Academy of Vocal Arts currently being hosted by the UoT Faculty of Music. The music was a range of mélodies, all in French, by French and Canadian composers.

Soprano Mélina Gerbith and pianist Olivier Seuzaret performed first. Achille Fortier’s ici-bas was followed by Francis Poulenc’s Trois poèmes de Louise de Vilmorin. The Poulenc seemed particularly well suited to Mélina’s rather bright soprano. There was plenty of scope to be playful and she did show off some interesting colours lower in the voice.

Mezzo-soprano Aimée Harness accompanied by Zhilin Xiao gave us Maurice Ravel’s “La flûte enchantée” from Shéhéazade and Poulenc’s Miroirs brûlants. Aimée sang with really good diction and was appropriately dramatic in the Poulenc while maintaining excellent control. Really nice.

Next up were mezzo Taline Yeremian and pianist Rebeca Lluveras Matos with quite a varied set. Auguste Descarries’ En sourdine and Jules Massenet’s Les mains are quite solemn pieces and were sung in quite a bright tone but with some gravitas. I thought though that Yeremine sounded more at home in the much livelier “Villanelle” from Hector Berlioz’ Les nuits d’été, which was sung with appropriate vivacity.  All in all, a nicely contrasted set of songs.

And so on to soprano Marion Germain accompanied by Ludovic Rochon. It was a nicely contrasting set. The two songs from Jacques Hétu’s Les Clartés de la nuit were very different. “Thème sentimental” is quite pastoral and sat nicely for Marion’s bright soprano. “Les corbeaux” is much darker and more dramatic and she brought out those qualities very  well too. The set closed with Henri Dutilleux’ San Francisco Night which was also pretty dark and gritty and sung with pleasing restraint..

Last to sing was our third mezzo Kyrsten Chambers-Jones accompanied by Brock Tjosvold. Lots of contrast again in two songs from Poulenc’s Cinq Poèmes de Pierre Ronsard. “Le tombeau” is essentially a meditation on death and got treated appropriately. “Ballet”, on the other hand, is pretty playful, even cheeky, and Kyrsten changed up accordingly. She finished up with two songs from Keith Bissel’s Quatre chansons sur des poèmes du vieux français. “D’un vanneur de blé, aux vents” feels quite “Amertican” in some ways and it has a lovely melody sung quite beautifully. “Sonnet pour Hélène” is also rather beautiful but it’s also darker and more dramatic allowing Kyrsten to show off quite a bit of well controlled power.

All in all an enjoyable hour of well chosen songs performed really rather well.

Photo credit: Karen E. Reeves

Tea For Two

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Last Friday’s lunchtime concert in the RBA was given by the France-Canada Academy of Vocal Arts at the University of Toronto.  That mouthful is the moniker of a collaboration between the Faculty of Music and the Académie Francis Poulenc.  So this last week members of the AFP had been in Toronto working with students and faculty here on French chansons and canadian art song.  Fridays concert showcased six singer/pianist teams singing French song rep from both sides of the Canadian Channel.

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Hannigan and Storgårds

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The TSO’s opening concert of the season at Roy Thomson Hall was quite boldly conceived.  Basically hand the evening over to the powerhouse duo of soprano/conductor Barbara Hannigan and violinist/conductor John Storgårds and see what they come up with.  It was an excitingly eclectic programme which produced some great performances but a sadly disappointing turn out.

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Call of Dutilleux

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I suppose it’s a bit odd to go out to a symphony concert on a cold night out of interest in one twenty minute piece on the program but that’s what I did last night.  The item of interest was Henri Dutilleux’ Correspondances and the attraction was that the soloist was Barbara Hannigan.  It’s an unusual piece.  The five texts include, conventionally enough, three poems; two by Rilke and one by Prithwindra Mukherjee.  The two longer texts are letters; one from Solzhenitsyn to the Rostropoviches and one from Vincent Van Gogh to his brother.  The music is atmospheric and covers a wide range of moods from ecstatic to despairing.  It’s heavy on percussion and makes considerable demands on the vocal soloist.  Parts of it lie very high and it really needs the exquisite attention to each syllable of the text that is Hannigan’s trademark.  Little shifts in the vowels, the occasional drop into something approaching Sprechstimme and so on.  I thought the TSO and Peter Oundjian were really quite impressive here too.  The piece got the clarity and transparency it needs.  That said, it’s one of those pieces that few people, I think, will fully appreciate on one hearing.  Fortunately there is a very good recording of Hannigan singing it with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Barbara Hannigan, Peter Oundjian 2 (Malcolm Cook photo)

The piece was bookended by Sibelius’ Swan of Tuonela and Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique.  The Sibelius was extremely well played with some lovely playing in particular from the cor anglais.  The Berlioz isn’t a piece I much care for and both of us were a bit under the weather so we skipped out after the Dutilleux.  If you missed last night’s performance it’s on again tonight at 8pm.

Photo credit: Malcolm Cook.