Catherine Sénart | Photo: Julie Artacho
I MUSICI ET
LES VIOLONS DU ROY
Under the direction of
Jean-François Rivest
with
Catherine Sénart, actress
± 80 minutes
with intermission
A larger number of string players makes it possible to perform works that our ensemble could not play on their own, in particular Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night, one of the most poetic and Romantic pieces among the repertoire. Transfigured Night was based on a poem by Richard Dehmel, which will be read by the beautiful Catherine Sénart, telling the story of a love relationship that turns souls, anxiety, and darkness into peace and light. Our collaboration will work perfectly for Corelli’s Concerti grossi, as this work benefitted from a large orchestra. You will hear the Concerti grossi in all their brilliancy with our orchestra and the Violons du Roy, topped with a bass continuo made up of harpsichords, organ, guitars, and archlutes. Montréal-based composer Stacey Brown has graciously agreed to compose an unpublished work that will be presented during the concert.
— Jean-François Rivest
Thursday, May 26, 2022, 7:30 p.m.
Montreal – At Salle Pierre-Mercure of Centre Pierre-Péladeau
Save even more
Discover our special rates and our à la carte subscriptions
Catherine Sénart | Photo: Julie Artacho
Catherine Sénart
Actress
Biography
Catherine Sénart has been working in theatre and television for more than two decades. She was seen playing Marguerite Volant in Radio Canada’s eponymous historical television series. She played in Les bracelets rouges, Épidémie, La Promesse, O’, Mon Meilleur Ami. In cinema, she plays Fabiola, in Pieds nus of Francis Leclerc and participated in the film of Yan England, Sam. On stage, Catherine sings as much as she plays; from Eliza Doolittle (My fair lady), to Berthe in Les Filles de Caleb and Stéphane Venne to whom she paid tribute in a solo show.
Violons du Roy | Photo: Marc Giguère
Les Violons du Roy
Chamber orchestra
Biography
Les Violons du Roy takes its name from the celebrated court orchestra of the French kings. It was founded in 1984 by Bernard Labadie, now styled founding conductor, and continues under music director Jonathan Cohen to explore the nearly boundless repertoire of music for chamber orchestra in performances matched as closely as possible to the period of each work’s composition. Its minimum fifteen-member complement plays modern instruments, albeit with period bows for Baroque and Classical music, and its interpretations are deeply informed by the latest research on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century performance practice. The repertoire of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries receives similar attention and figures regularly on the orchestra’s programs.
Les Violons du Roy has been a focal point of Québec City’s musical life since it was founded in 1984, and in 1997 it reached out to enrich the cultural landscape of Montréal as well. In 2007, the orchestra moved into its permanent home base in Québec City’s Palais Montcalm while continuing to build on the worldwide reputation it has acquired in countless concerts and recordings carried by medici.tv, Radio-Canada, CBC, and NPR along with regular appearances on the festival circuit. Les Violons du Roy has performed dozens of times throughout Canada as well as in Germany, the U.K., Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China, Colombia, Ecuador, South Korea, Spain, the United States, France, Israel, Morocco, Mexico, Norway, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Switzerland, in collaboration with such world-renowned soloists as Magdalena Kožená, David Daniels, Vivica Genaux, Alexandre Tharaud, Ian Bostridge, Emmanuel Pahud, Stephanie Blythe, Marc-André Hamelin, Philippe Jaroussky, Anthony Marwood, Isabelle Faust, Julia Lezhneva and Anthony Roth Costanzo. The orchestra has performed at the Berlin Philharmonie and iconic venues in London, Paris, and Brussels, with two performances on invitation at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
Since Les Violons du Roy’s first trip to Washington, D.C., in 1995, its U.S. travels have been enriched with numerous and regular stops in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Its ten appearances at Carnegie Hall include five with La Chapelle de Québec featuring the Messiah, the Christmas Oratorio, and the St. John Passion under Bernard Labadie, founder and music director of the choir, and another featuring Dido and Aeneas under Richard Egarr. Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles has hosted the orchestra three times, once with La Chapelle de Québec in the Messiah, again under Bernard Labadie. Les Violons du Roy is represented by Opus 3 Artists and Askonas Holt.
The thirty-six recordings released thus far by Les Violons du Roy have been met with widespread critical acclaim. The twelve released on the Dorian label include Mozart’s Requiem with La Chapelle de Québec (Juno Award 2002) and of Handel’s Apollo e Dafne with soprano Karina Gauvin (Juno Award 2000). Since 2004, a dozen more have appeared through a partnership between Les Violons du Roy and Quebec’s ATMA label, including Water Music (Félix Award 2008), and Piazzolla (Juno Award 2006). Further recordings on Erato, Naïve, Hyperion, Analekta, and Decca Gold include Vivica Genaux, Truls Mørk, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Alexandre Tharaud, Marc-André Hamelin, Valérie Milot, Anthony Roth Costanzo (Grammy Award 2019 nomination) and Charles Richard-Hamelin (Juno Award 2020 nomination).
Stacey Brown
Stacey Brown
Composer
Biography
Composer, educator, and translator Stacey Brown, originally from Kamloops BC, is newly based in St. John’s, Newfoundland after two decades in Montreal. Her music has been described as “organic” (Le Devoir), “powerfully affecting” (Vancouver Observer), and “showing a gift for skillful orchestration” (Bachtrack). Included in her catalogue are concert works, from solo to orchestra, as well as two operas and collaborations in theatre and dance.
Among her orchestral commissions are the countertenor song cycle L’horreur de constater qu’on nous oubliera (2015), Perspectives (2017), the trumpet concerto En soi, in and of itself (2019), Don’t Touch the Middle Switch (2021), and for chamber orchestra, Still (2021). Recent chamber works include (un)done (2016) for Pierrot ensemble and two singers, Lachrimae Viventium and Lorasirme Ryny Their Galliard (2019) for viol consort, Urgent Solitudes (2019) for various combinations of voice, cello, and piano, and Moment (2020) for clarinet, violin, and piano. Her work has been supported by grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the SOCAN Foundation, and others.
Called “a composer to watch” (Broad Street Review), Brown has won several prizes for her music, including Symphony Nova Scotia’s 2019 Maria Anna Mozart Award. She has had her compositions performed across Canada and in the United States by ensembles including the Orchestre Métropolitain, Les Voix Humaines, the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, working with conductors including Dina Gilbert, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Nicolas Ellis.
Program
Corelli
Concerti grossi, Op. 6
Duration: approx. 13 minutes
Concerti grossi, Op. 6 no 11
Duration: approx. 10 minutes
Concerti grossi, Op. 6 no 8
Duration: approx. 15 minutes
Stacey Brown
Où la nuit – creation
Duration: approx. 12 minutes
Schoenberg
Transfigured Night
Duration: approx. 31 minutes
Julie Triquet plays a Giuseppe Odoardi 1726 violin generously loaned by Mr. David B. Sela.
Amélie Benoit Bastien plays a Nicolas Vuillaume 1850 violin and a bow by Sartory generously loaned by CANIMEX.
Annie Guénette plays a Joseph Gagliano 1768 violin and a bow by Lamy generously loaned by CANIMEX.
Tim Halliday plays a Mira Gruszowand Gideon Baumblatt’s Kolia cello (2014), generously loaned by Mr. David B. Sela
Marieve Bock plays a Maucotel Paris cello (1849), generously loaned by CANIMEX.
