Orchestre Métropolitain presents

A Nordic Tale

The great Romantic-style musical fresco Concerto de Québec, written by local composer André Mathieu, is a piece that demands virtuosity. Yannick Nézet-Séguin will also be conducting Isabelle Panneton’s Promenade, a piece commissioned by the Orchestre Métropolitain, showcasing the Quebec composer’s refined harmonic style.

Can one find the sublime at the heights of despair? Sibelius’s Symphony No. 4—gloomy and dominated by the tritone, an interval suggestive of evil spirits—masterfully expresses human emotions like fear, rage and doubt in a way that words cannot.

Artists
Orchestre Métropolitain
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor
Jean-Philippe Sylvestre, piano

In 2008, Jean-Philippe Sylvestre was awarded the prestigious Virginia Parker Prize, the highest distinction awarded by the Canada Council for the Arts. Recipient of the first prize and the people’s choice award at the Montreal Symphony Orchestra’s competition, he is also a laureate of the CBC’s National Competition for Young Performers, the people’s choice award and the Concertino Praga International Competition. He won the first prize of the Canadian Music Competition three times and the highest score of the competition on one of these occasions. In 2015, he won the prize from the Quebec Council for the art for a 6 months residency in Paris. Mr. Sylvestre has made two recordings with Metropolitain Orchestra and Alain Trudel, performing concertos by André Mathieu and Rachmaninov. He recently appeared with Quebec Symphony Orchestra, at Bourgie Hall and Place des Arts in Montreal, at auditorium St-Pierre des Cuisines in Toulouse, at Salle Cortot in Paris, and at Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels. Renowned conductor Yannick Nézet Séguin deemed him a poet of the piano.

Program
Isabelle PANNETON, Promenade

Isabelle Panneton is a Canadian composer of mostly orchestral and chamber works that have been performed throughout the Americas and Europe.

Ms. Panneton studied piano with Irène Ducharme from 1964–73 and studied sciences for three years before she studied counterpoint, fugue and harmony with Magdeleine Martin at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal from 1975–80 and analysis and composition with Gilles Tremblay there from 1980–84. She studied in Europe from 1984–87, on grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the government of Québec. Her primary teacher was Philippe Boesmans in Belgium, but she also attended seminars at IRCAM in Paris in 1986, where she returned in 1994, on a grant from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.

Among her honours is the Prix de musique de chambre from SOCAN (1985, for Surimpression). In addition, her works have twice represented Canada at the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers (1984, Voilage; 1999, Volando).

She taught at Concordia University in Montréal from 1987–95 and has been an associate professor of composition and music theory at the Université de Montréal since 1995.

André MATHIEU, Concerto de Québec
SIBELIUS, Symphony No. 4

Live webcast
Friday, February 11, 2022 at 7:30pm

On Demand webcast
February 11 at 7:30 pm to February 13 at 11:59 pm.

To purchase your virtual ticket visit: www.placedesarts.com