THE 32ND FESTIVAL DE LANAUDIÈRE
JULY 4 TO AUGUST 2, 2009

Montreal, May 6, 2009 – From Saturday, July 4 to Sunday, August 2, the region around Joliette will resound with the Festival spirit. For the 32nd time, spanning the period of a month, musicians and music lovers will gather at the Festival de Lanaudière. The events of the 2009 Festival, carefully assembled by its director of programming Alex Benjamin, promise a joyful season in an enchanting environment. Pianist Alain Lefèvre, who proudly bears the title of Artistic Ambassador to the Festival, is delighted to be part of the upcoming season of the most important classical music summer festival in Canada.

Lanaudière has become a prime destination for top-flight musicians and for adventurous, open-minded, congenial audiences. Once again this year, in a unique setting all its own, the Festival offers unforgettable events featuring local artists who are regularly making their mark on foreign stages: Karina GAUVIN, Alain LEFÈVRE, Marie-Nicole LEMIEUX, Yannick NÉZET-SÉGUIN and others. In addition, there is the joy of discovering brilliantly inspired, self-assured musicians and of admiring the extraordinary talent of artists who will become the stars of tomorrow.

At the Amphitheatre, as in the magnificent churches of the region, there is as much pleasure to be had in discovering new music as there is in reacquainting oneself with familiar old masterpieces that delight, seduce, entertain or even disturb us.

A unique Festival Opening, varied in content and bursting with excitement
July 4 promises to be a true summit meeting high in emotional content. Yannick NÉZET-SÉGUIN and the ORCHESTRE MÉTROPOLITAIN will be joined by Alain LEFÈVRE for a performance of Gershwin’s exciting Concerto in F, a snazzy, jazzy work that will set the tone for a summer of music-making. Two works by Stravinsky are also on the program, the complete ballet score for Pulcinella and the towering Rite of Spring, which Quebecer Nézet-Séguin, now an international star, will be conducting for the first time.

In upholding their mandate to foster the younger generation of musicians, the Festival and its Artistic Ambassador Alain Lefèvre will present a pre-opening attraction with something for everyone. Conductor Stéphane LAFOREST and the SINFONIA DE LANAUDIÈRE will be joined by four highly talented violinists – Caroline CHÉHADÉ, Ewald CHEUNG, Jean-Sébastien ROY and Aaron SCHWEBEL – each featured in one of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. These violinists also join forces in one of the same composer’s concertos for four violins. To round out the program, Alain Lefèvre, host of the concert, will perform for the first time in Quebec André Mathieu’s Concertino No. 2 with the Sinfonia.

An Invitation to travel
Throughout 2009, the Festival invites you to travel through music. The most exotic destination will be China, setting for The Map by Tan Dun, who won an Oscar for his film score for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The Map, a work to be seen as well as heard, ranks among the most original musical creations in recent times. Wherever it is performed, it never fails to touch hearts and stimulate minds. In preparing to write this work, the composer returned to the region where he was born to capture on video songs and examples of instrumental performance practice, some of them quite old. The result was sensational. These images, along with the sound track, will be projected on a giant screen while, on the Amphitheatre stage, Jean-Marie ZEITOUNI conducts the Festival Orchestra and cellist Matthew BARLEY. Definitely something out of the ordinary!

Another musical journey will take you to the Belle Époque and the Roaring Twenties, when cabaret and the music hall were at their height of popularity. Three marvellous musicians will be your guides: the exquisite Karina GAUVIN sings of Paris in jaunty songs and sentimental waltzes by Érik Satie and Francis Poulenc, the magnificent Catherine MAJOR is heard in some of Kurt Weill’s most popular songs, and the brilliant Angélique DURUISSEAU delivers disconcerting yet entertaining numbers from Marie Galant (also by Weill).

The special thrill of choral music
Choral music, often stirring and always impressive, has always held an honored place in Festival programming.

Of primary interest this year is the Messa per Rossini, a large-scale requiem with a fascinating story behind it. Dedicated to the memory of the famous composer, it was written in 1869 by thirteen leading Italian composers of the day, all under the general direction of Verdi. However, this ambitious project fell through and the music, though completed, disappeared for more than a century. It was rediscovered only in the 1980s and is now being given for the first time in Canada. Five major singers, including Manon FAUBEL, who recently won acclaim at La Scala in Milan, and a chorus of two hundred voices will be under the direction of Jean-Marie Zeitouni.

Brahms’s German Requiem, one of the towering peaks of the choral repertory, will be heard on the closing weekend of the Festival (August 1). Kent Nagano will conduct the Montreal Symphony and the St. Lawrence Choir in this sublime work. On July 18, the Choir of the Orchestre Métropolitain under Yannick Nézet-Séguin will present a program of German operatic choruses drawn from works by Mozart (The Magic Flute), Beethoven (Fidelio), Weber (Der Freischütz) and Wagner (Die Meistersinger, Lohengrin and Tannhäuser). Also on the program is Berlioz’ Symphonie fantastique.

Another pinnacle of the choral literature is the Lagrime di San Pietro (The Tears of St. Peter), a cycle of madrigals by Orlando di Lasso. This will be performed in a church setting by the choir of the STUDIO DE MUSIQUE ANCIENNE DE MONTRÉAL conducted by CHRISTOPHER JACKSON.

And finally, for something on the lighter side, the combined choirs of LES PETITS CHANTEURS DE LAVAL and LES VOIX BORÉALES offer a program of music ranging from the Renaissance to present-day popular songs.

Old friends and new acquaintances
Music lovers will enjoy, both at the Amphitheatre and in the churches, repeat appearances by some of the artists who have left memorable impressions at their Festival visits in recent years. Marie-Nicole LEMIEUX, accompanied by Bernard LABADIE and LES VIOLONS DU ROY, will present arias by Mozart, Haydn and Gluck. We welcome back the Ukrainian pianist Valentina LISITSA, whose dazzling virtuosity impressed more than one listener during her visit in 2008. She will perform first a recital of music by Beethoven, Schubert, Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich; then, at the Amphitheatre, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3. British pianist Paul Lewis, whom we heard in 2007, will offer two Mozart concertos, which he will perform with a newly-formed group, the FILARMONIA. Other returning artists include the harpist Catrin FINCH, who will perform her own transcription of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, violinist Corey CEROVSEK in the Korngold concerto and harpsichordist Blandine RANNOU.

Among the highly-talented musicians making Festival debuts are pianist Jonathan BISS, whose recent recordings have won high praise from international critics; pianist Nareh ARGHAMANYAN, first prize winner at the 2008 Montreal International Musical Competition; violinist Rachel BARTON PINE, a virtuoso specializing in unusual repertory; cellist Alisa WEILERSTEIN, the new American sensation; Quebec harpist Valerie MILOT, winner of the :Prix d’Europe; the ALLIAGE QUINTET (saxophones and piano); and conductor Julian KUERTI, who leads a brilliant program at the helm of the OSM.

Sundry Sundays
Listeners with a special fondness for ethnic music will be thrilled with the virtuosity of Roby LAKATOS, the greatest gypsy violinist in the world. After an absence of many years, he finally makes a return visit to dazzle us with his stunning virtuosity, his infectious joy in music-making and devilish rhythmic élan. In a more classically-oriented concert, Alexandre DA COSTA sets his Stradivarius a-singing with the Viennese delights of Fritz Kreisler. Another performance of pure pleasure will come from the MOONLIGHT GIRLS, a vocal jazz trio which recreates the swing era of the forties. Finally, the Festival pays tribute to bassist Michel DONATO by giving him carte blanche for his program.

Loto-Québec's open air cinema
For the fourth year in a row, the Festival Lanaudière brings you free open-air cinema presentations on Tuesday evenings. Well protected from the elements under the Amphitheatre roof, film buffs can watch Mélodie du bonheur (The Sound of Music), Élève de Beethoven (Copying Beethoven), Faubourg 36 (Paris 36) and Mamma Mia! (Films shown in French only.) The Festival thanks its partners Loto-Québec, Place des Arts and the cities of Joliette, Saint-Charles-Borromée and Notre-Dame-des-Prairies for their support in this venture.

Bistro SAQ
The Bistro SAQ is a lively spot where music lovers congregate during the Festival. Come taste selected wines, enjoy a light meal or take part in one of the dinner talks under the big top with artists like Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Kent Nagano and Alain Lefèvre. In addition this year, a chef specializing in Asian cuisine, Jean Chen, invites you to a grand Chinese gastronomic adventure.

The upcoming season promises to follow the pattern of those in the past in dazzling displays of virtuosity, moments of poetic reverie and outbursts of passion. It is the kind of programming that would have made the late Father Fernand Lindsay, founding artistic director of the Festival, proud. So, here is what music lovers have to look forward to at the Festival de Lanaudière’s glittering 32nd season, which runs from Saturday, July 4 to Sunday, August 2.

Box office openings

May 6
Amphitheatre box office     450 759-4343 / 1 800 561-4343   www.lanaudiere.org

May 6
Place des Arts box office    514 842-2112 / 1 866 842-2112   www.pda.qc.ca

On Fridays and Saturdays, the Festival Express operates a shuttle service between the Infotourist Centre on Peel Street in Montreal and the Amphitheatre. For information and reservations, call 1-800-561-4343 

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Source :
Festival de Lanaudière
450 759-7636
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