NEWS

The celebration of baroque music to begin in a month on Lamèque Island


Lamèque, NB, Monday, June 23, 2014:  The Lamèque International Baroque Music Festival will being in a month, as violins, flutes, harpsichord, oboes and singers will bring to life the music of great composers.  Three concerts will be presented between July 24 and July  26, 2014 at the Sainte-Cécile Church in Petite-Rivière-de-l’Île.  Also on the program for festival goers this year, an informal lecture and free mini-recital to discover the Festival’s harpsichord and an art exhibit from Lamèque-born artist Nicole Haché.

A little more than 20 musicians will take part in the Festival this year to present music from 4 of the greatest musicians of the baroque era, namely Bach, Vivaldi, Handel and Rameau.  What is special this year is the return of longstanding partners of the Festival.  Many exceptional musicians will be back in Lamèque, of whom flutist Claire Guimond, violinist Chantal Rémillard, and harpsichordist Hank Knox.  The 2014 program was developed by the Festival artistic director, bassoonist Mathieu Lussier, who will also be conducting the grand concert featuring the Festival’s choir and orchestra.

“At the heart of music” with the works of great composers

The opening concert of Thursday, July 24, 2014 will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the death of Jean-Philippe Rameau, master of French baroque music.  According to the artistic director, Mathieu Lussier, the evening will also be an opportunity to show-off the Festival’s magnificent harpsichord.  “The concert will star musicians from Arion Orchestre Baroque, of whom flutist Claire Guimond, former artistic director of the Festival, violinist Chantal Rémillard, member of the Festival’s orchestra for many years, and harpsichordist Hank Knox, long-time friend of the Festival.  Mr. Knox will perform Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto no. 5 and Chromatic fantasia and fugue, two works written for a harpsichord similar to the one owned by the Festival “ he stated.  

The concert presented on Friday, July 25, 2014, will feature the ensemble Flûte Alors!, Canada’s only professional recorder quartet. This dynamic and versatile group is comprised of 4 young musicians part of the rising generation (of whom Vincent Lauzer, first winner of the Mathieu Duguay Early Music Competition in 2010).    The concert program presents an intelligent combination of several masterworks by the great Bach and well-known jazz standards everyone will enjoy. The group will also present a few arrangements of their own.

For the closing concert of Saturday, July 26, 2014, the Mission Saint-Charles Choir and Orchestra will present two of G. F. Handel’s choral masterworks: the brilliant Dixit Dominus, written as a tribute to Vivaldi’s music, and Let thy hand be strengthened, one of the Coronation Anthems. Also on the program, a powerful work not presented often in concert, the Miserere by Bohemian composer J. D. Zelenka, as well as a beautiful motet by Vivaldi, In Furore lustissimae Ira, sung by soprano Florie Valiquette, a rising star of the Canadian opera scene. Also present, will be the Acadian bass singer Normand Richard.  Radio-Canada will be present to record the concert for further broadcasting across Canada. 

Details of all concert programs are available on the newly redesigned Festival Web Site at: www.festivalbaroque.com.  Concert tickets are available for purchase.