Spring Concert at a Private Residence to launch the 30th Anniversary Season of Music in the Vineyards featuring four-hand piano stars Duo Fortin-Poirier.
NUIT BLANCHE
A note from Amélie and Marie-Christine
As the sun slips below the horizon, as the blue-dark, enveloping sky and golden twilight begin their courthship, we feel the approach of night. Some time ago, while we were dreaming up our next concert, both of us were grappling with significant and life-changing events. Marie Christine was welcoming her first child into the world. Amélie was enduring a separation. As contrasting as these circumstances might appear, they united us in one mutual and recurring experience: the nuit blanche! Indeed, we often found ourselves writing to each other in the wee hours of the morning; sometimes notes of support, sometimes just little fragments of what we were experiencing. Through insomnia and its fleet of emotions and sensations, we found our relationship to night deepening. Fatigue and anxiety alternated with waves of delight. Addled and hovering states of mind gave birth to wild reflections – sometimes profound, sometimes absurd. By the light of the night stars, a new and surprising world seemed to reveal itself to us. . Conceived in confinement, driven by an overwhelming urge to reach out and make contact, this concert is the result of many and varied musical discoveries and an homage to all those sleepless nights. We have assembled a program filled to bursting; a blend of tradition and modernity, brimming throughout with the spirit of renewal. Not only, for example, will you hear an arrangement of our own devising, but you’ll get a dash of choreography too, the integration of which has proved a fabulous challenge. We are also thrilled to be sharing a brand-new work by Quebec composer Maggie Ayotte. This magnificent piece, written especially for us, carries the evocative title: Entre la veille et le sommeil (Between Waking and Sleeping). If we say that night brings wisdom, perhaps insomnia scatters a few seeds of magic. With that, we wish you an excellent and musical nuit blanche with us!
Program:
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) : Spanish Rhapsody
Prélude à la nuit, Malagueña. Habanera, Feria
An atmosphere of magic is evoked : the prelude to a night that promises to both upend and soothe our souls. Followed by two dances and a festive finale. All bear the signature Spanish influence of their composer, whose mother was Basque.
W. Gluck (1714-1787) : Ballet from Orpheus and Eurydice (arr. Greg Anderson)
Drawn from the opéra, this famous and heartbreaking melody summons us to bathe in the brackish waters of cruel fate.
Fazil Say (b. 1970) : Night
A captivating, dark, even nightmarish piece by this Turkish pianist/composer and double-recipient of the Beethoven Prize for Human Rights, Peace, Freedom, Poverty Reduction and Inclusion
Maggie Ayotte (b. 1992) :
Entre la veille et le sommeil (Between Waking and Sleeping) *commission
A state of suspension; soft and semi-conscious. A work we commissioned from a young Quebec composer with a fertile imagination, who walks her own path, exploring points of connection between music and the body.
Victor Simon (b. 1966) : Enamorada
Argentine pianist and composer Victor Simon unfailingly reaches our hearts with his inspired, sensual and unifying tangos. Our four hands dance their way through this languid midnight of a piece upon two melodicas, disguised as a bandoneon
Alfonso Peduto (b. 1987) : Nachtmusik IV : Clockwork
An excerpt from a piano suite, both fluid and exacting, dedicated to Night and its myriad archetypal dimensions. Written by a composer who defies classification, who seeks, through his music, to shatter borders and touch our minds and hearts. Here, we venture our own arrangement, uniting our four hands in a choreography inspired by synchronized swimmers!
Shaun Choo (b. 1991) : Fiestravanganza
A joyful, dancing musical celebration with ragtime accents. No shuteye here! Because night has forever been the cradle of festivity, dancing and gathering. Because we’ve missed being together so much lately, we’re gonna cap our ‘nuit blanche’ with a party!
Unless…
*Secret encore
(upon request)
…you prefer to end upon a gentler note?
Sweet Dreams!
