Innovations en concert is delighted to present visions of spirituality in music, in collaboration with the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec, at the 2023 Festival Montréal/Nouvelles Musiques !

This concert was born from conversations between Simon Bertrand and Isak Goldschneider around a conceptual line resulting from a shift in spiritual thought from the collective to the individual. Here Tremblay represents spirituality as a community and religious phenomenon; at the opposite pole, we find Feldman, for whom spirituality is a individual and ineffable expression. Between them, a work by Simon Bertrand echoes Zen Buddhism, while one of Arvo Pärt’s most iconic pieces completes a panorama rife with mystical fervor.

Programme:

Gilles Tremblay – Cèdres en voiles (Thrène pour le Liban) (1989), for solo cello

Arvo Pärt – Fratres (1977-80), for viola and piano (arr. Lars Anders Tomter)

Simon Bertrand – Reibo ( 霊慕 ) — in memoriam José Evangelista, for viola and Tibetan singing bowls (world premiere)

Morton Feldman – Rothko Chapel (1971), for choir, viola, celesta et percussion

Performers:

Marina Thibeault, viola

Natsuki Hiratsuka, piano and celesta

Noam Bierstone, percussion

Cameron Crozman, cello

Voces Boreales, choir

Andrew Gray, conductor

A co-production of Innovations en concert and Festival Montréal/Nouvelles Musiques

We would like to thank the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Conseil des arts de Montréal and the SOCAN Foundation for their support.

[Photograph: Jurjen Veerman – Shutterstock.com]