Festival de Lanaudière: International stars and prestigious beginnings

The Festival de Lanaudière’s Artistic Director Renaud Loranger has announced four new concerts in the artistic programming of the 42nd edition of the Festival de Lanaudière. They feature the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM), Orchestre Métropolitain (OM), Venice Baroque Orchestra, and violinist Christian Tetzlaff. The Festival runs from July 5 to August 4 this year.

The OSM has been invited to give the Festival’s opening concert on Friday, July 5. Renowned French conductor Alain Altinoglu makes a return appearance at the helm of the OSM after his highly acclaimed performance with this orchestra last fall. Pianist Francesco Piemontesi, who began his career performing throughout Quebec and notably at Lanaudière, is the featured soloist. Some of the great literary classics have inspired the works on this program: Felix Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Piano Concerto No. 1, Richard Wagner’s Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde, and Till Eulenspiegel by Richard Strauss.

On Saturday, July 6, the Amphithéâtre Fernand-Lindsay welcomes the OM and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, along with a great lady of French opera, mezzo-soprano Susan Graham. Audiences will be treated to nineteenth-century composer Louise Farrenc’s Symphony No. 2, after which Susan Graham will join forces with the orchestra to transport us to the world of mythical and legendary characters, with a performance of La mort de Cléopâtre by Hector Berlioz. The concert will conclude with excerpts from Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette and will be the first event in the season to mark the 150th anniversary of Berlioz’s death (#Berlioz150). An evening of pure Romanticism!

On Sunday, July 7, the exceptional Venice Baroque Orchestra makes a long-awaited return to Quebec, leading audiences on a journey from Naples to Venice at the time of Vivaldi. The ensemble will explore the flamboyant beauty of this composer’s works, including the famous Four Seasons, as well as those of his contemporaries. Nothing less than explosive!

Finally, German violinist Christian Tetzlaff will perform at the Église de la Purification in Repentigny on Monday, July 29, in what will be his only summer season concert on Canadian soil. His programme features several essential works from the repertoire for unaccompanied violin: a Sonata for Solo Violin by Eugène Ysaÿe, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sonata for Solo Violin No. 3, several pieces by György Kurtág, as well as Béla Bartók’s Sonata for Solo Violin.

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