Pictures at an
Exhibition
Date
Thursday, March 6, 2025
7:30 pm
Venue
Salle Pierre-Mercure
Centre Pierre-Péladeau
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With
Alexandre Tharaud, Piano
Keiko Devaux, Composer
Jean-François Rivest, Conductor
One of the most striking examples of the program music genre is Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. From the Gnome to the witch Baba Yaga, from the Garden of the Tuileries to the Old Castle in Italy, from the Catacombs to the Great Gate of Kiev, this stellar masterpiece, accompanied the magnificently animated film Tableaux dansants (Dancing Pictures) by Natasha Turovsky, will transport you to the outer limits of your imagination. Alexandre Tharaud is one of the most outstanding and popular pianists on the international scene today. The concert also features Part 2 of Keiko Devaux’s Création, with the emphasis on nature’s remarkable resilience in the wake of waterborne noise pollution.
– Jean-François Rivest
Program
K. Devaux
Création, Part 2
(12 minutes)
F. J. Haydn
Piano Concerto in D Major, Hob. XVIII:11
(20 minutes)
Intermission
M. Mussorgsky
Pictures at an Exhibition (Arrangement by Yuli Turovsky)
Accompanied by the animated film Tableaux dansants (Dancing Pictures) by Natasha Turovsky
(36 minutes)
Artists
Alexandre Tharaud
Piano
Biography
His extraordinary discography of over 25 solo albums, most of which received major awards from the music press, features repertoire ranging from Couperin, Bach and Scarlatti, through Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Brahms, and Rachmaninov to the major 20th century French composers. The breadth of his artistic endeavours is also reflected in collaborations with theatre makers, dancers, choreographers, writers and film makers, as well as with singer-songwriters and musicians outside the realm of classical music.
Alexandre is a sought-after soloist, appearing with many of the world’s leading orchestras: upcoming highlights include concerto performances with the Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, NAC Orchestra Ottawa, Les Violons du Roy, BBC Scottish Symphony, Beethoven Orchester Bonn, Zurich Kammerorchester, and the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra. Recent concerto engagements include the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Royal Concertgebouworkest, Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, Cincinnati Symphony, Aurora Orchestra, London Philharmonic, hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, and Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.
As a recitalist, Alexandre Tharaud is a regular guest at the world’s most prestigious venues. This and next season’s highlights include recitals at the Philharmonie de Paris, King’s Place London, Frankfurt Alte Oper, Bayreuth, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Casa da Música Porto, Zankel Hall and extensive touring in Japan, China and Korea.
Alexandre is an exclusive recording artist of Warner Classics. His most recent disc of Ravel Piano Concerti with Orchestre National de France & Louis Langree has received critical acclaim. Over the course of his career he has made recordings of Rameau, Scarlatti, Bach’s Goldberg Variations and Italian Concerto, Beethoven’s three final sonatas, Chopin’s 24 Preludes, and Ravel’s complete piano works.
In 2017, Alexandre published Montrez-moi vos mains, an introspective and engaging account of daily life as a pianist. He had previously co-authored Piano Intime, with journalist Nicolas Southon. He is the subject of a film directed by Swiss film maker Raphaëlle Aellig-Régnier: Alexandre Tharaud, Le Temps Dérobé, and appeared in the role of the pianist “Alexandre” in Michael Hanneke’s celebrated 2012 film Amour.
Keiko Devaux
Composer
Biography
Keiko Devaux (b. 1982) is a contemporary music composer based in Montréal.
Her approach embraces a love of electroacoustic sounds and methodology by manipulating and distorting acoustic sound with digital tools, and then transcribing or re-translating these back into musical notation and the acoustic realm. Her interests include emotional experience and affect, auto-organizational phenomena in nature and living beings, as well as ‘genre-blurring’ by layering and juxtaposing contrasting melodic/harmonic skeletal elements of highly contrasting sonic sources.
Her works have been performed in Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, the United States and Israel by various ensembles including Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Quatuor Molinari, Trio Fibonacci, Ensemble Arkea, Quartetto Prometeo, musica assoluta, l’ensemble Sturm und Klang, the Jasper String Quartet, the Rolston String Quartet, the Talea Ensemble and the Israel Contemporary Players among many others.
She has received numerous prizes and awards, notably the Juno Award for Classical composition of the year, the Prix Opus for Composer of the year, the inaugural Azrieli Commission for Canadian Music, the Jan V. Matejcek New Classical Music Award, the Rotary Club Siena Award, the OUM composition prize, and the Jury and Public prizes of the Accès Arkea competitiom.
From 2016 to 2018, she was the composer in residence with Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (Montréal). From 2020 to 2022, she was in residence with the NAC Orchestra (Ottawa) as a Carrefour composer. She is an associate composer with the Canadian Music Centre, former president of the board of directors of Codes d’accès, and past organizer of the Montréal Contemporary Music Lab.
Jean-François Rivest
Conductor
Biography
Québec conductor Jean-François Rivest is renowned for his energy, his extremely precise technique, his style, which is passionate, moving and deeply involved, and his great communication skills. His discography serves as proof to the ease with which he masters a large variety of musical genres ranging from the baroque eraup to today.
Regularly invited by orchestras in Montreal, in Canada and around the world (USA, Mexico, Peru, France, Switzerland, Spain, Russia, and South Korea), he has been Artistic Director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Laval, (10 years) and of Ottawa’s Thirteen Strings Ensemble, (5 years), as well as Conductor in Residence of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (OSM) where his tenure has been particularly significant. In the last months of 2021, while the Pandemic was widespread, he conducted at the Opéra de Lausanne and Opéra de Fribourg, in Switzerland, followed by 8 concerts with the Orchestre Symphonique du Pays Basque, in France.
Nominated as Principal Guest Conductor at first, in 2021, he was just recently appointed Artistic Director of the prestigious chamber orchestra I Musici de Montréal. As Christophe Huss said in Le Devoir, it is ‘a logical nomination because since his arrival, the symbiosis has been great between the conductor and the musicians’.
Jean-François Rivest firmly believes that the next generation of musicians must rely on performers that are also active as pedagogues. He has worked for several institutions and has been teaching violin, orchestral conducting as well as a variety of advanced performance classes at Université de Montréal. He is the founder, Artistic Director and principal conductor of the Orchestre de l’Université de Montréal (OUM).
From 2009 to 2015, he has been Artistic Director of the Orford Arts Centre, (now Orford Music), nearbyMontréal where he presided over the destiny of Orford’s prestigious International Academy and Festival. His period at the head of the Arts Center is unanimously seen as a time of tremendous artistic renewal and growth. In the 2012 Opus Prizes Awards ceremony, he was given the Opus Prize for the Artistic Director of the year (2011).
Mr. Rivest, who trained at the Conservatoire de Montréal and at the Juilliard School in New York, quickly established himself as one of the foremostQuebec violinists of his generation. His main teachers were Sonia Jelinkova, Ivan Galamian and Dorothy DeLay.
Being the father of four children, family is at the center of his life. He is passionate about nature and outdoor activities, such as scuba diving, kayak, climbing, trekking and photography. He has even participated in several expeditions of a challenging level. He holds a Private Pilot License and flies his good old Cessna regularly. Jean-François Rivest believes that the many facets of nature are a vital source of artistic inspiration!
Julie Triquet plays on a Giuseppe Odoardi 1726 violin, generously loaned by Mr. David B. Sela.
Christian Prévost plays on a Rafelle and Antonio Gagliano violin, Naples (ca.18xx) and a Jean Joseph Martin bow (ca.1880), kindly lent by CANIMEX.
Amélie Benoit Bastien plays a Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume violin, Paris, ca. 1845, number 1672, Stradivarius model and a Eugène Sartory bow, Paris, ca. 1935, courtesy of CANIMEX.
Annie Guénette plays on a Josef Gagliano 1768 violin and a Lamy bow, generously loaned by CANIMEX.
Tim Halliday plays the 2014 Kolia cello by Mira Gruszow and Gideon Baumblatt, generously on loan from Mr. David B. Sela.
