Notes - Théâtre Maisonneuve Enhances Sound

English Version...

For the last two months, concerts in the Théâtre Maisonneuve at Place des Arts in Montreal have had their acoustics enhanced electronically. According to André Carpentier, chief technician at Place des Arts, sound technicians have subtly enhanced the resonance of the hall by adding extra reverberation. Reverberation is the time it takes a sound made in a room to diminish by 60 dB. Maisonneuve has a 1.2 second reverb while a measure of 1.7 to 2.2 second reverb is preferred. The sound is picked up by the hall's suspended microphones, two Neumann TLM 193s mounted as a cross pair 90-degree pattern. The signal is mixed in a Lexicon L 480 reverb console and fed from the hall's built-in PA speakers. A similar system is available at the 5^e Salle. The first enhanced concert was the Gryphon Trio's February 4 recital presented by the Pro Musica Society. The Society's administrative director Monique Dubé sees nothing wrong : "Maisonneuve is not Carnegie Hall. It has dead acoustics and we should do what is practical to give the best possible experience. The difference was remarkable, there was a 200% improvement in the sound." Indeed, the difference can be quite convincing. According to Carpentier soprano Barbara Hendricks's recent successful Montreal Highlights Festival recital on February 15 was acoustically enhanced. As heard by this listener, Hendricks's voice was more resonant and warmer than at her recital in the same hall two years before. Dubé, who had presented Hendricks at the previous concert, was excited. Even critics at the recent concert were fooled. Said Carpentier, "It's up to the presenters to decide if they want to use it. Most who have heard the difference, do choose to use it, like the McGill Chamber Orchestra, I Musici, Orchestre Métropolitain and Pro Musica. Richard Margison didn't need it. And it doesn't cost more because the sound technician is already paid to be there." Sound enhancement and amplification have been tried elsewhere with varying success. The jury is still out on the New York City Opera's two-year-old system, and the Journal of Singing reported in the mid-1990s that an American university music school amplified the consonants (frequencies of 6 to 8kHz) of student singers with tremendous results. The winners in all this are the audience. But the debate remains about amplification at classical music concerts. - Wah Keung Chan

New music at NACO

• On March 19, Pinchas Zukerman unveiled the National Arts Centre New Music Programme, an exciting plan that will develop, promote and support new Canadian orchestral music. The maestro also announced that prominent Canadian composers Denys Bouliane, Gary Kulesha and Alexina Louie were the first three recipients of the National Arts Centre Composer Awards of $75,000 each. Each composer has been commissioned to create three works over a four-year period and will also be involved in a series of new music education initiatives.
• The new Programme will also include the creation of a New Music Ensemble and the establishment of the annual National Arts Centre Young Composers Programme to develop promising Canadian composers. The Programme also features an educational component to develop musical composition curricula in the classroom and on the Internet that will bring composers and musicians closer to children in participating schools in each of the major regions of the country
• Pinchas Zukerman said : "This New Music Programme that we are announcing today is one of the most comprehensive initiatives that I've started here at the National Arts Centre. It's inspired by our ongoing commitment to the broad spectrum of education, and one of its most outstanding aspects is that young people of all ages will be involved. This Programme gives us an opportunity to make a significant difference in the creation, performance and appreciation of new music in Canada."
• Composer Denys Bouliane added : "The National Arts Centre Orchestra has the potential of becoming an important player in the field of new music creation."

New music... elsewhere

• On March 16, in Hamburg, Germany, Valery Gergiev led the chorus and soloists of the Marrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg and the NDR-Sinfonie Orchester in the premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina's St. John Easter. As with the St. John Passion, premiered in September 2000 to commemorate the 250^th anniversary of Bach's death, the Russian-language texts for the work are drawn from the Gospel and the Book of Revelation after St. John. Gubaidulina explained her choice to intertwine both texts to create a symbolic "cross, both physical and temporal. " It is at the conjunction of both of these texts, the Gospel and the Book of Revelation, that I see the underlying symbol of my entire composition. It is the intersection of two stories--the events on earth (the Passion according to the Evangelist) and the events in heaven (Revelation)."
• Two days earlier, on March 14, André Previn's Violin Concerto was given its world premiere by Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Commissioned by the BSO, the concerto was written over a four-month period ending in October 2001. The final movement, subtitled "from a train in Germany", is a set of variations based on the German children's song "If I were a bird, I'd fly back to you,"one of Previn's favourite songs as boy, and showcases the range of the violin. It is the second time Previn collaborated with Mutter --he had also written Tango, Song and Dance for her. The concerto will be recorded on the Deutsche Grammophon label in 2003.
• L'« électropéra » L'Enfant des glaces (musique de Zackl Settel, conception de Pauline Vaillancourt) a été présenté les 13 et 14 mars à Düsseldorf dans le cadre du 6 Tage Oper Festival. Cet « électropéra », une coproduction de Chants Libres et du Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, avait été créé en septembre 2001.

Concours

• La 18^e édition du concours de l'OSTR a couronné des lauréats dans plusieurs catégories. Les premiers prix ont été décernés au pianiste Connor Coady et à la soprano Sophie Bouffard. On a également attribué le prix Thérèse-Hart (concerts avec cachets) à la jeune chanteuse, qui vient de mériter un poste de soprano au sein de l'Atelier lyrique de l'Opéra de Montréal. Le Grand Prix de la Ville de Trois-Rivières, accompagné d'une bourse de 1 500 $ a, quant à lui, été remis à la soprano Frédérique Vézina.
• Après le succès de Marie-Nicole Lemieux au concours Reine-Élisabeth de Belgique en 2001, ce sont les sopranos Hélène Guilmette et Susab Gouthro de Toronto qui ont remporté, le 25 février, un prix au Concours des voix nouvelles 2002. Lors des trois épreuves préliminaires, 11 finalistes (dont 3 Canadiens) furent sélectionnés sur un total de plus de 450 candidats de France, de Belgique et du Canada. Hélène Guilmette a remporté le 3^e prix et Susan Gouthro, le 4^e prix. En plus de bourses, les deux lauréates se sont vu offrir une tournée de concerts en septembre 2002 dans 28 villes de France et de Belgique. Le jury de 28 membres était présidé par Raymond Duffault, directeur général des Chorégies d'Orange et de l'Opéra d'Avignon. Les auditions canadiennes pour la prochaine édition du concours se tiendront à Toronto le 4 mai et à Montréal les 5, 6 et 7 mai 2002. Date limite d'inscription : 18 avril. Info. : (514) 684-7287

Nominations

• M. Yves Lefebvre est devenu, le 25 mars, le directeur général de l'Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal. Ses expériences de travail en gestion des arts, en administration publique et en communications sont autant d'atouts pour l'orchestre. M. Lefebvre a déclaré : « Je suis honoré de cette nomination au sein de l'une de nos plus belles institutions culturelles. Les défis sont clairs et le travail qui nous attend sera des plus stimulants. »
• Le contrebassiste Joel Quarrington vient d'obtenir le poste de contrebasse solo à l'Orchestre du CNA. Sa réputation détenait, tant au pays qu'à l'étranger, n'est plus à faire. M. Quarrington était jusqu'à présent le même poste solo à l'Orchestre de Toronto.

Lucie Renaud

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