This album is the recording of the inaugural concert of the Grand Orgue Pierre-Béique at the Maison Symphonique in Montreal. For grandeur, majesty and sheer tonal opulence, few symphonies can stand beside the Third Symphony of Saint-Saëns. The prominent contribution from the organ, the “King of Instruments,” provides an additional measure of imposing sonority to the work.

The entire symphony is based on the principle of continual transformation of a “motto” theme. This theme makes its first full appearance in the restless series of short detached notes in the violins, following the slow, mysterious introduction. The attentive ear will pick out this theme in its rhythmic and coloristic metamorphoses throughout the symphony – at varying times flowing and lyrical, detached and fragmented, broad and noble, or agitated and restless.

Olivier Latry is organist at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris and organ professor at the Paris Conservatory. His appointment to France’s premier cathedral in 1985 at the age of 23 propelled him onto the international scene: he has appeared in more than 50 countries and on all five continents, as a recitalist or with orchestra.

Classical Music

For as long as I can remember, music has been part of my life. Through music, I have expressed myself and travelled the world; it nourishes me every day. 2017 marks both the 40th year of my musical career and the 20th anniversary of La Pietà. This recording is also my 40th. With so many round and festive numbers, and after so many musical encounters with you, I owed this recording to you. I therefore thought I would listen to the many requests I get to record another album of film music – and in fact go one better and do a double album. There is so much incredible material to choose from, but I found myself drawn to music that is at once beautiful, powerful, and evocative, even when removed from its original context. Some of these melodies are rather sweet; others are more salty. Together, they cover an entire range of emotions. I personally researched this repertoire and selected a variety of fi lm score excerpts with the notion of taking a fresh look at the original versions and adding a new dimension with my violin and the wonderful musicians of La Pietà. I also worked closely with arrangers and composers of this new recording. They have my gratitude and admiration. I also wish to thank the team at Analekta for their trust over the years, their support, and their world-class expertise. But my raison d’être as a musician is my audience, and it is to you that I dedicate this 40th – though I guess since it’s a double, 41st – album. Thank you for listening all these years! Angèle Dubeau, O.C., C.Q., DFA

RODRIGO: Concierto de Aranjuez / GUILIANI: Guitar Concerto N

One of Canada’s fastest rising and most promising young artists, 23-year-old violinist Blake Pouliot was the Grand Prize winner of the 2016 Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM) Manulife Competition. Mr. Pouliot has been described by the Toronto Star as “one of those special talents that come along once in a lifetime,” and after his performance of the Korngold Violin Concerto at his OSM debut under conductor Vasily Petrenko in February 2017, he was described by Montréal’s La Presse as “Clearly. Absolutely. Undoubtedly virtuoso...” On this first album, violinist Blake Pouliot and pianist Hsin-I Huang perform works by two great French composers of the first half of the 20th century – Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy – who both wrote sonatas for violin and piano. And while both are mature and refined masterworks, they nevertheless give the musicians an opportunity to show their sensitivity and virtuosity.

"A pulsation marks time, it infuses its rhythm in it and also evokes the heart. Just like those composers whose music calls out to me and who, with their unique signatures, mark time, our time; Olafur Arnalds, Jean-Michel Blais, Ludovico Einaudi, Alex Baranowski, Craig Armstrong, Peter Gregson, Yann Tiersen, Abel Korzeniowski, Johan Johannsson, Max Richter, Dalal..." (Angèle Dubeau) One of the most prominent violin virtuosos of her generation, Angele Dubeau has been leading an exceptional career for over 40 years in the great concert halls of the world. While her virtuosity and musicality have seduced critics, the public has adopted Angele Dubeau for her captivating music, her uncommon gift as a communicator, her generosity and her outstanding ability to connect with her audience. She has garnered many awards over the years, and she is one of the rare classical violinists in the world to have been awarded gold records. She has sold over 600,000 albums in her career and the works from the violinist’s discography have been streamed over 75 million times across more than 100 countries.

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REVIEWS:

The rhythmic cycles and the melodic-harmonic motifs of many of these compositions are now part of the musical imagination, the characteristics of which are found in several film scores ... and in this album perfectly representative of the trend, interpreted with inspiration, accuracy and virtuosity by Angèle Dubeau and her ensemble.

– LaPresse.ca (Alain Brunet)

Pulsations brings together works that evoke strong images and possess a profound emotional intensity. She has a flair for finding and recording the works of remarkable composers, thus placing her at the center of the post-minimalist movement, one of the most relevant musical genres of our time.

– LaScena Musicale

As I said in a review of another Philip Glass recording “you know in advance what you are going to get with Philip Glass”. Even more so in the case of this recording, where some of the works - The Hours, Mishima and Company - are already quite known.

The French-Canadian string ensemble La Pietà - all female, in case you hadn’t guessed - and their leader Angèle Dubeau present what is essentially a sampler of the accessible, more recent Glass. Does that mean it will only appeal for someone wishing to hesitantly dip their toe into the Glass pool and be of no interest to the Glass aficionado? Definitely not - the works are all complete as long as you count overtures and opening credits as individual pieces. Some lesser known pieces are included and the performances and acoustics are excellent.

The overture for the “multimedia opera project” La Belle et al Bête (Beauty and the Beast) for piano and strings is the most dramatic and up-tempo music on the disc and gets proceedings off to a fine start. You can see the whole piece performed by Dubeau and La Pietà on Youtube.

I regard the score for The Hours as one of the finest ever written, and this concerto-style arrangement by long-time Glass collaborator Michael Reisman allows a greater continuity than the original itself allows.

I hadn’t heard The Secret Agent film-score before, and based on this haunting cello-dominated extract, I went searching for the complete music, which is available on Nonesuch and I am ordering it as I write. Echorus was written for Yehudi Meuhin and the sleeve-notes describe it as akin to a Baroque chaconne, and quotes Philip Glass “it is meant to evoke feelings of serenity and peace”, which it certainly achieves.

Mishima and Company are respectively string quartets 3 and 2, presented here in their string orchestra versions. The former is more sombre, the latter dominated by the archetypal Glass motoric rhythms and the final eponymously titled movement of Mishima is quite beautiful. The disc ends as it began with piano joining the strings for the elegiac Closing, from Glassworks, and one of the first compositions intended to broaden the audience for Glass’s music.

Detractors will say that there is little variation in atmosphere through the fifteen tracks on the disc, and that is true. However, as I said at the start, you already know that with this composer. In fact, the very constancy of the music’s mood makes this a recording that works at two different levels. Listen to it intently and you are rewarded by glorious melodies and the subtle variations that are his stock-in-trade, or have it playing in the background and soothe your troubled soul.

Suffice to say in conclusion that this is one of the best CDs I have bought this year.

-- David J Barker, MusicWeb International 

Classical Music

“I devote my new Portrait album to Max Richter and his impressive body of powerful and original works. I have selected sixteen works with his unique signature, which I revisit here with my violin and my orchestra, La Pietà.” - Angele Dubeau O.C., C.Q., DFA.

Max Richter is one of the most influential composers of his generation. Inspired by Bach, punk rock and ambient electronic music, he has composed works for more than 50 films, including Waltz for Bashir, Shutter Island by Martin Scorcese and Arrival by Denis Villeneuve, as well as HBO's The Leftovers television series.

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REVIEW:

The playing and recording standards are absolutely top-notch. It’s essentially easy, pleasant – and, yes, introspective – listening that will be warmly welcomed by Dubeau’s many regular admirers.

– The Whole Note

New Baroque Sessions is Luc Beauséjour's second album of Baroque works played on the piano. It includes works by Jean-Sébastien Bach, Domenico Scarlatti, François Couperin, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck and Claude Balbastre. "I have chosen a repertoire that I like and which, while being primarily intended for the harpsichord, lends itself well to interpretation on the piano" says Luc Beauséjour. Beauséjour's playing is inspired and sensitive and the program is wonderful. Essential! He is a highly sought-after musician not only for his virtuosity and the subtlety of his playing, but also for his outgoing personality and the ease with which he communicates with his audiences. Luc Beauséjour leads a very active concertizing career. He has performed as soloist in North and South America as well as in Europe. He was named "2003 Performer of the Year" by the Conseil Québécois de la Musique and has won Félix awards for two different recordings at the Gala de l'ADISQ in Québec (2002 and 2006).

At the start of the 19th century, the guitar repertoire was dominated by the melodic and virtuoso works of Italian composers. For his first album on the Analekta label, Napoli 1810 - Italian Romantic Music, Pascal Valois looks to revive the excitement and wonder sparked by the guitar during that era. “This album is the culmination of many years dedicated to the interpretation of Italian music. This music is inseparable from the bel canto tradition (with its legato, flexibility and agility) in addition to ornamentation and improvised phrases. I incorporated all these elements into my playing and in my new album" says Pascal Valois. The album's repertoire, played on a Cabasse-Bernard guitar (c.1820), consists of magnificent works such as the Grand Sonata for Guitar, M.S.3 by Niccolò Paganini, a major work in the guitar repertoire, the Guitar Sonata, Op. 15 by Mauro Giuliani and three works by composer Ferdinando Carulli, including the World Premiere recordings of the Guitar Sonatina, Op. 59, No. 1 and the Guitar Sonata, Op. 159, No. 1. To use the words of Guitare Classique magazine in its description of Pascal Valois' playing, "The romantic guitar in all its splendor"!

“Since I was a little girl, Mozart has always been by my side. His music is my happy place, whether I’m listening to it, playing it, or whistling it. And since the start of the pandemic, Mozart has been a permanent fixture in my home. His joyful, melodic music has given me a way to escape all the worry and anxiety, helping me connect with something deeper and live in the present moment. That’s how this new project was born. The desire to express myself and share some love and hope with the world grew stronger than my feelings of anxiety about the future. This music is my way of sharing a little tenderness, hope, and joy with you. May it bring you the same happiness and peace of mind that it has brought to me. Enjoy!” - Nadia Labrie

In their very first recording together, pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin and the Violons du Roy present Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s piano concertos No. 22 and No. 24 that are replete with passionate outbursts, startling contrasts, rich orchestration and overt emotional fervor. Charles Richard-Hamelin, Silver medalist and winner of the Krystian Zimerman award at the International Chopin Piano Competition in 2015, impresses with his extremely refined playing and the Violons du Roy, under the direction of Jonathan Cohen, offer grandiose performances imbued with dignity and grace. The Violons du Roy is a French-Canadian chamber orchestra based in Quebec City, Quebec. The orchestra's principal venue is the Palais Montcalm in Québec City. The orchestra also performs concerts in Montréal at the Place des Arts, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and St. James United Church.

THE AZRIELI MUSIC PRIZES were established in 2014 by the Azrieli Foundation to offer opportunities for the creation, performance and celebration of high quality new Jewish music. New Jewish Music, Vol. 2 – Azrieli Music Prizes features the world premiere recordings of works by composer Kelly-Marie Murphy, winner of the 2018 Azrieli Commission, and composer Avner Dorman, winner of the 2018 Azrieli Prize. In addition to those, the album also features Seven Tableaux from the Song of Songs composed in 1992 by Srul Irving Glick, arranged for soprano, piano and string orchestra by François Vallières. These wonderful works are performed by the Orchestre classique de Montréal under the direction of Boris Brott, with soloists Sharon Azrieli (soprano), Lara St. John (violin) and the duo Couloir, which consists of Ariel Barnes (violoncello) and Heidi Krutzen (harp).

This new album by the great pianist and composer Alain Lefevre unveils the results of three years of hard work by Jacques Marchand, George Nicholson and Alain Lefevre aimed at restoring Andre Mathieu’s famous Concerto No. 3. Presented as a world premiere in February 2017 in Buffalo, where it was performed by Alain Lefevre and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of the renowned JoAnn Falletta, the reconstituted Concerto No. 3 was enthusiastically received by the audience. Recorded at those performances, the album Andre Mathieu: Concerto No. 3 accurately conveys the brilliance of Alain Lefevre and the enthusiasm of the musicians, aware as they were of sharing a highly emotional and one-of-a-kind moment. JoAnn Falletta had previously collaborated with Alain Lefevre in presenting works by Mathieu – in New York’s Carnegie Hall in 2013, among other settings. It was in the fall of 1942, 75 years ago, that young Quebec prodigy Andre Mathieu, just 13 years old and at the peak of his glory, began writing his Concerto No. 3, which he would finish the following summer. In 2008, George Nicholson discovered the original score of Andre Mathieu’s Concerto No. 3 written in the Quebec composer’s own hand. The differences, which were noteworthy, between this original score and the Concerto de Quebec, the well-known, modified, version of the work, were the starting point for an enormous undertaking aimed at restoring this masterwork of Mathieu’s. The new album also contains George Gershwin’s An American in Paris. Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and premiered in 1928, the work translates into music the vivid impressions of an American visiting Paris, strolling the city streets and soaking up the exuberant atmosphere of the French capital.

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REVIEW:

After languishing unnoticed for several decades, in 2008 the original autograph score for two pianos of Andre Mathieu's Concerto No. 3 was discovered in Ottawa. Since then, composer and conductor Jacques Marchand has prepared a critical edition that is faithful to the original manuscript. This is its first full recording. It has all the sweeping gestures of its period and a devilishly difficult piano part. Lefèvre’s performance at the keyboard is masterful. He and the BPO perform the work with astonishing authenticity, restoring a fascinating chapter to Canadian music history of that period.

– The Whole Note (Canada)