Bourgie Hall, Sunday, May 6th, 2 pm
A Thrilling Group of Guest
Artists
Arion closed its 37th concert season with remarkable vivacity
and outstanding playing – all enhanced by really funny entertaining moments.
Mozart and Haydn are a scintillating match for this magnificent orchestra;
they handle music’s humour with wit; and gravity
with equal emotional understanding.
Guest soprano, Andréanne Brisson Paquin has a voice that beautifully
reaches the high notes. Her tone is exquisite; her animated manner worked well
as she took over the part of Clorinda, singing Mozart’s Air Vorrei spiegarvi, Oh Dio. I loved the oboe seduction that played
out as Daniel Lanthier doubled as oboist and lothario as well. Using his
instrument and his gestures to try to win over Clorinda, was highly
entertaining and illustrative of the scene. Both singer and oboist interpreted
this segment perfectly. Ms. Paquin’s acting was great as witnessed when she
sung Suzanna in Mozart’s Air Al desio di
chi t’adora.
Another colourful treat in this concert was the performance by horn
player, Pierre-Antoine Tremblay. He demonstrated so many different textures
with varied contrasts of expression. His breath control and musicality was most
impressive during his performance of Mozart’s Horn Concerto in E-flat major, K.447.
Arion Baroque Orchestra certainly chose the right guest artist to act out
various parts of the program. Lorenzo Coppola vividly demonstrated musical
moments in various works performed by the orchestra. He enacted anger, sullenness,
pain, love, and more. At one point Mr. Lorenzo galloped across the stage with
an extract form the orchestra to show the instruments rallied together in a
hunting scene with the horn leading the musical fray. At another point he
jumped across and chair, even flung his belly across it miming swimming to show
yet another emotional moment in the music of a particular piece. His historical
clarinet of two registers was also the brunt of jokes he made, but his playing
was anything but funny. He is a true performer whose varied agile talents, both
amuse educate us about various passages. They proved far more enlightening because
of his contextual explanations of the scenes and characters. Next time, a bit
of English interspersed with his many explanations would be most welcome. He is
a character that surely Mozart would have loved.
The final work by Haydn – Symphony
Number 76 in B-flat major showed
dashingly the orchestra’s incredible versatility and musicality. This work is
exciting and technically demanding. The bassoon and flute were inspiring in the
first movement, and it just got more and more godly as the work played on. This
work is not heard as often as is Haydn’s Surprise
Symphony.
Finally, the closing concert had its own personal Arion moment of
sadness. Concertmaster and first violinist Chantal Rémillard is embarking on a
new chapter in her life. The concert was her last with Arion. One of the four founding
members of the orchestra, Ms. Rémillard will be missed by everyone. This concert must have been a deeply bitter sweet
moment for her; she is leaving the orchestra to retire. Her student, Tanya LaPierrière who plays second violin in the orchestra, gave a moving face-to face
farewell to Ms. Rémillard. I just wish this concert had been recorded for it
was absolutely timeless.
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