After leaving an indelible impression with his 2022 Earth Gala concert, dedicated to 3rd Symphony by Mahler, Nicolas Ellis and the Agora Orchestra competed on Wednesday against the Alpine Symphony by Richard Strauss with a new colossal success to boot.
Let’s not beat around the bush: Nicolas Ellis and the Agora Orchestra gave us Wednesday evening at the Maison symphonique quite precisely the Alpine Symphony by Richard Strauss exhilarating that we expected so much from Yannick Nézet-Séguin in Lanaudière last summer.
As we wrote then, we hoped for even more orgies of sound that evening, even if the performance of the Metropolitan and his leader had been logical and without any particular blemish. We had this debauchery with Nicolas Ellis and his orchestra, whether in the stature of “Arrival on the Glacier” or in a positively delirious “Tempête”, in which the conductor was not content to let play everyone was loud, but articulated dynamic gradations and relays of primacy between the brass, piccolos and percussion. On the narrative level, everything was really designed in a storm, but with an effectiveness that would literally give you chills.
Orchestral quality
This chef is a truly extraordinary talent (at this age). It is also exciting now to anticipate what Rafael Payare and the OSM, who will go on tour with this work, will still be able to add to this. The OSM bonus will undoubtedly be found in the softness of the strings, making the creamy side of Strauss even more apparent in the respite episodes. But, really, just like in the 3rd Symphony by Mahler in 2022, we were left speechless by the quality of this group of purely Quebec musicians. For example, the very exposed horn or trombone stands were absolutely sensational on Wednesday evening. But not just them. There is, for example, towards the end a set of four flutes with the organ, which was of precious homogeneity and admirable beauty. Same for woodwinds like clarinets.
Nicolas Ellis had chosen to let the organ unfold with a lot of presence, but the off-stage horns of the ascension were a little too subdued. The episodes of the mountainous journey were highlighted by lighting adapted to the atmosphere: an excellent idea.
In the first part, the Beluga song by Claudie Bertounesque, with a children’s choir and three interstitial poems in Innu said by Natasha Kanapé Fontaine, possessed real poetic virtues, with a successful integration of whale songs into an orchestral sound framework. The work is perfectly in line with the ecological aims of such a gala.
As to Wesendonck-Lieder of Wagner with Élisabeth St-Gelais, it did not take long to understand that we were hearing the voice of this exceptional singer in her future natural element. Lieder I and V (The Angel and Dreams), in particular, however, confirmed what we had felt during the recent Mozart evening of the Classica Festival. There is, with Élisabeth St-Gelais, a psycho-sensory effect upon hearing which is close to what we sometimes felt with Jessye Norman. As the vocal emission is very round, rich and quite covered, we are sometimes at the lower limit of the note. The young artist will have to be wary of this.
But what a pleasure to discover the fullness of this timbre which will become even richer. It’s a shame that the two artists didn’t take more time to deploy the magic of the 3rd Lied, Im Treibhaus (in the greenhouse).
To watch on video
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