Les Violons du Roy presents

Bach, les premières cantates et Bernard Labadie

These works are the first of one of the most important musical collections in the whole of the western world, delivered in all their splendour in this concert with La Chapelle de Québec.

It is easy to imagine the great Johann Sebastian Bach almost exclusively as an elderly man, steeped in the greatest musical knowledge that only time and experience can bring. Yet it was a young man in his early twenties who handed down to us the powerful, true masterpieces that comprise his very first sacred cantatas.

Artists
Bernard Labadie, conductor

Bernard Labadie, an internationally recognized specialist in the baroque and classical repertoires, is the founding conductor of Les Violons du Roy. He was the ensemble’s music director from 1984 to 2014 and remains the music director of La Chapelle de Québec, which he founded in 1985.

As head of both ensembles, he has toured Europe and North America performing at some of the most illustrious concert halls and festivals: Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center (New York), Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), Kennedy Center (Washington), the Barbican (London), Berlin Philharmonie, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (Paris), Brussels’ Centre for Fine Arts, and the Salzburg, Bergen, Rheingau, and Schleswig-Holstein festivals.

Myriam Leblanc, soprano

The soprano Myriam Leblanc is the recipient of several prizes: first prize and Audience Choice Award at the Trois-Rivières Symphony Orchestra Competition, winner of an Audience Choice Award in the Center Stage competition of the Canadian Opera Company, winner of the excellence grant awarded annually by the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal and the first prize at the Mathieu Duguay Early Music Competition at the Lamèque International Baroque Music Festival in 2017. Myriam Leblanc is a versatile artist who works as much in the classical world as in the bel canto, as in the baroque. She is recognized for her timbre of great purity, for her supple and warm voice and her great mastery in both technical and musical expressiveness.

Daniel Moody, countertenor

Lauded for his “profoundly startling vocal resonance” (The New York Times) and “sweet and melancholy sound” (The Washington Post), Daniel Moody is celebrated for his interpretations of contemporary and baroque opera and as a soloist with orchestra.

Moody recently made debuts at the Metropolitan Opera in Brett Dean’s Hamlet as Rosencrantz, Atlanta Opera as Tolomeo in Giulio Cesare, and Cincinnati Opera as Nerone in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, where the American Record Guide praised his performance for its “utter beauty…where he would start singing ever so sweetly and then just let his voice blossom out into something big and round and smooth.”

Hugo Hymas, tenor

British tenor Hugo Hymas is in much demand for his interpretations of the baroque and renaissance repertoire and enjoys collaborations with the foremost practitioners of the genre.​ His 24/25 season reflects many established relationships: he sings Bach St John Passion with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Jonathan Cohen as well making his début with Les Violons du Roy with the same conductor. He joins John Butt for Handel Esther with The English Concert and for Bach with the Dunedin Consort and he sings Messiah with both the Sinfonieorchester Basel and the Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich under Ivor Bolton. Hymas will make his Bergen Philharmonic debut with Bach Weihnachts-Oratorium under Dinis Sousa.

Stephen Hegedus, Bass-baritone

Hailed by the Ottawa Citizen as a singer possessing “…an instrument of rare beauty, majestic and commanding from the bottom of his range to the top…”, bass-baritone Stephen Hegedus is frequently heard with leading orchestras and opera companies in Canada and abroad.

His 2024/2025 season includes apperances as Publio in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito with Pacific Opera Victoria, Achis in Charpentier’s David et Jonathas with Opera Atelier, Mozart’s Coronation Mass with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, this all Bach program with Les Violons du Roy, and a return to the National Arts Centre to perform Handel’s Messiah.

Chapelle de Québec

Created in 1985 by founding conductor and music director Bernard Labadie, La Chapelle de Québec is one of North America’s premiere voice ensembles. The group is made up exclusively of professional singers who are hand picked from all over Canada. This unique chamber choir specializes in the choral/orchestral repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries. The choir performs regularly with its other half, chamber orchestra Les Violons du Roy, and as a guest choir with some of the finest orchestras in North America. Its interpretations of the oratorios, requiems, masses, and cantatas of Bach, Handel, Mozart, and Haydn, as well as Fauré and Duruflé, are frequently hailed in the Canadian and international press.

Program
J.S. BACH
Cantate Christ lag in Todes Banden, BWV 4
Cantate Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit, BWV 106
Cantate Aus der Tiefe rufe ich, Herr, zu dir, BWV 131
Cantate Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, BWV 150

Pre-concert conversation at 6:45pm
Kelly Rice will share some thoughts and listening tips for the evening’s program.

Maison symphonique
Saturday, March 8, 2025 at 7:30pm

To purchase your tickets, visit: www.placedesarts.com