Pierre Simard and the HPO spotlight music from the City of Light
Mozart ain’t easy to play.
Just ask Pierre Simard who’ll guest conduct the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra for their “Mozart in Paris” concert on Saturday, March 25 at 7:30 p.m. in FirstOntario Concert Hall.
“Across the board all agree on one thing: there is such perfection in his music that there isn’t much margin for error,” said Simard. “All aspects of performance must be pristine: intonation, precision of articulations, phrasing, dynamic shadings, etc.”
However, when it comes to historical performance practice and the question of whether to perform Mozart on period instruments or on modern instruments, Simard looks for a happy medium between the two.
“I do not concern myself too much with the modern instruments question,” said Simard. “In fact, I embrace and emphasize it, believing that Mozart would also have been pleased with the enhanced possibilities which their development entailed. For stylistic purposes and performance practice, I choose something of a middleground position, integrating elements which have been brought to light by period instrument ensembles all the while finding ways to keep Mozart’s music relevant in our own times.”
The lone Mozart work on the “Mozart in Paris” bill is his resplendent “Symphony No. 31,” the socalled “Paris Symphony,” one of the few bright spots of the composer’s six-month sojourn in “la Ville Lumière” in 1788.
The bill contains two other works by composers with far deeper Parisian connections than Mozart, Maurice Ravel’s 1910 orchestral version of his ravishing “Pavane pour une infante défunte” (Pavane for a dead Spanish princess)-don’t be put off by that title, Ravel claimed that he chose it for its alliterationand Jacques Ibert’s 1932 “Flute Concerto” featuring HPO principal flute Leslie Newman.
This won’t be Newman’s first rodeo with the Ibert. She played it as an undergrad and later once professionally. Naturally, repeated encounters give different perspectives.
“Each time I return to a piece I find different parts are challenging for different reasons,” said Newman. “Ibert was writing for one of the greatest flute players of the era, Marcel Moyse, and was able to explore both the technical and expressive limits of the instrument. So, although there are many technically fierce passages that will always need slow and careful work, I am finding, this time around, how much potential there is for expression and lyricism even while the notes are flying by so swiftly.”
The bill also includes two Canadian works, Samy Moussa’s 2008 “Polarlicht: Etude No. 2 for Orchestra,” and HPO 2021-2022 composer fellow Jesse Plessis’s “Forma Divina.”
Moussa’s piece goes beyond mere musical imitation of the Northern Lights.
“The (musical) atmosphere is made up of violent dynamic contrasts, constantly shifting tempi, and strange and unexpected orchestral colours,” said Simard. “I believe his interest in creating new, highly contrasted, imaginative orchestral colours overrides the implied association which the astronomical title implies.”
The HPO is pleased to partner with Toronto-based Tapestry Opera’s Women in Musical Leadership, a nation-wide three-year program designed to develop the next generation of female and non-binary conductors. For this concert, the HPO’s conductor fellow will be Juliane Gallant who’ll work alongside Simard, Plessis and HPO composer-in-residence Abigail Richardson-Schulte.
Tickets at hpo.org or 905-5267756: $30.10 to $97.90 (all-in).
Saturday, March 18 at 3 p.m. in the Church of St. John the Evangelist, 320 Charlton Ave. W., Hammer Baroque presents the Eybler Quartet in Haydn’s “Quartet in F Minor” op. 20 no. 5, and Mozart’s “Hunt” Quartet. HB’s “Inside the Music” guest musicologist: Harvard’s Suzannah Clark. Suggested donation: $15.
The words “Women, Life, Freedom” were chanted by Kurdish protesters after the death of 22year-old Mahsa Amini in Tehran last September, and are now echoing around the world. On Saturday, March 18 at 4 p.m. in McMaster’s L. R. Wilson Hall, 1280 Main St. W., Guelph-based improviser-composer-teacher Reza Yazdanpanah, formerly on the music faculty at the University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran, leads a “Women Life Freedom” concert with Shelir Ebrahimi, Akiira Charissa Kalumnu Wolfsong, Jocelyn Drainie, Maya Larose, Sally Ludwig, Shannon Kingsbury, Brent Rowan, Gary Diggins, and Tom Wolf to raise funds and awareness of the situation in Iran. Tickets at showpass.com, limited tickets at door: $25, student $12. Donations will go to Amnesty International.