Victoria-based Aventa Ensemble provides an intense program of works by the esteemed Quebec composer Gilles Tremblay, featuring pianist Louise Bessette in the World premiere recording of the composer’s piano concerto Envoi. As well, the two other works – Le signe du lion and Solstices – mark the first commercial release of these pieces since the era of vinyl recordings.

THE COMPOSER

Gilles Tremblay has travelled an exemplary route. The Quebec pianist and composer has never stopped pushing back the frontiers of his research. His contribution to contemporary music is remarkable, distinguished as it is by an exceptional open-mindedness and a keen awareness of the very nature of sound.

Gilles Tremblay received his early music training in Montreal from Jocelyne Binet, Edmond Trudel and Gabriel Cusson; later on, he attended the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal where he studied piano with Germaine Malépart and composition with Claude Champagne. In 1954, he took part in the first genuine new music concert organized in Montreal. He pursued his studies in Paris with Olivier Messiaen, Yvonne Loriod, Maurice Martenot and Andrée Vaurabourg-Honegger, receiving a First Prize in musical analysis as well as a First Medal in ondes Martenot at the Conservatoire de Paris. While in Europe he met Pierre Boulez, Iannis Xenakis and Karlheinz Stockhausen, and he was introduced to electroacoustic techniques through Pierre Schaeffer’s Groupe de recherche musicale.

Upon his return to Quebec, Gilles Tremblay undertook numerous activities, dividing his time between teaching — he is a professor at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec —, lecturing and working for CBC radio where he hosted the Festivals series and took part in several programs with Fernand Ouellette. In spite of his busy schedule, he pursued his own research, composed music, received many commissions and dedicated much time to the sound installation for the Quebec Pavilion at Expo ’67, which won him the Calixa-Lavallée Prize. Major works were composed several years later, including Fleuves (1976), Vers le Soleil (1978) and Compostelle I (1978), a tribute to Messiaen on his 70th birthday.

Acclaimed for its richness of sound and aesthetics, Tremblay’s music has earned an international reputation and strongly influenced the development of music and contemporary art in Quebec. A recipient of the Prix Serge-Garant of the Fondation Émile-Nelligan, Gilles Tremblay remains very active, as passionate as ever about research and dedicated to constantly refining his experiments. His latest compositions include AVEC — Wampum symphonique, written for the 350th anniversary of the founding of Montreal; L’espace du cœur (1997), based on intersecting poems by Guillaume de Machaut and Gaston Miron; À quelle heure commence le temps? (1999), a lyrical monodrama based on a text by Bernard Lévy; and Les Pierres crieront, a work for large orchestra and solo cello premiered by the Orchestre national de France.

Other Centrediscs recordings featuring the music of Gilles Tremblay include Envol (CMCCD 5094) and Canadian Composers Portraits: Gilles Tremblay (CMCCD 9003).

THE COMPOSITIONS

Le signe du lion (1981) - The composer has supplied the following notes on his work: “The initial impetus for this work arose from the desire of a group of composers belonging to the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec to honour Maryvonne Kendergi, musician and president of the Société, on the occasion of her sixty-fifth birthday. Each of the pieces of Portrait en boucle, as we had agreed to call the work, is linked to the others by the musical notes contained in the letters of her name (mAryvonnE kEnDErGi), with each note serving both as a starting and finishing point. However, this was as far as any attempt at collective collaboration went, since each composition is an autonomous work.

The title was provided by the date of birth, August 15th, right under the sign of Leo. It is not actually a descriptive portrait of a person, but it is rather more concerned with the Lion as an inspirational sign. Thus it employs two instruments, which by their grandeur and energy are in keeping with the character of a Leo: the French horn and the tam-tam.

All is contained in the first moments:
1. the musical “name” on the French horn,
2. the Hindu rhythm “simahvikridita”, which means the “pounce of the lion” on the tam-tam,
3. the glissando-roar on the horn, tremendous energy.

This “simahvikridita” rhythm is made up of two symbolic elements; 3 the horizon; 1-2-3-2-1 the curve, a leap limited by the horizon followed by a fall. The whole combined results in 1-3, 2-3, 3-3, 2-3, 1-3. Relinquishing the numbers and their ratios, I abstracted the idea of the momentum, of falling and of boundaries: extremely high and low-pitched sounds; slowness speed; effort required of the horn player. Thresholds within which energy is released.

Le signe du lion was premiered on October 8, 1981 at Pollack Hall, in Montreal, at the opening concert of the 1981-82 season of the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec.

Solstices (ou Les jours et les saisons tournent) (1971) - 1971 was a very productive year for Gilles Tremblay. Following …Ie sifflement des vents porteurs de l'amour…, he completed Solstices or Les Jours et les saisons tournent (‘the days and seasons revolve’). This work was commissioned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for the Communauté radiophonique des programmes de langue française. Solstices was first performed on May 17, 1972 under the composer's direction and broadcast July 22 on a special program linking two continents. As with Kekoba, Solstices was presented at the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris on June 24th 1972. Concerning Solstices, the composer has written as follows: “The days and nights in their inverse progressions experience two opposing moments of growth, that of the longest nights occurring at the end of December (winter solstice) and that of the longest days occurring at the end of June (summer solstice). Hence, the title is in plural form. As with this yearly cycle of nocturnal and diurnal progression, music is governed by two opposite and complementary poles: thus moments of least activity coincide with the winter solstice, while the greatest activity occurs with the summer solstice.

“Like the terrestrial year with its intermediate degrees between two extreme states, the music is divided into four zones corresponding to the four seasons. Each season-zone is assigned to a particular player (characterized by sustained sound): the French horn for winter, the flute for spring, the clarinet for summer and the double bass for autumn. The percussion instruments serve mainly as commentary and to maintain a harmonic link. Since the actual duration of the work reflects the year whose image it is in miniature, the time and date of the performance will deeply affect its character. Thus, a winter performance will have a completely different physiognomy from a summer performance. Indeed, the time and date of performance determine a focus which I call a dominant trait. This is injected into the other zones and affects them either through replacement or by forming a hybrid relationship with the traversed zone. Furthermore, the time of performance also has a role to play. By fixing the starting point, it determines the way in which the work will unfold. Thus, by joining with the present moment, the music becomes in tune, as it were, with the earth's movements, with its play of light and shadow. It becomes its reflection in sound. The two chief modes of interplay between the players are the 'relay' and the 'reflex-reaction'. These two principles may be employed from one group to another in a performance of the work involving several ensembles (which is both possible and desirable) either in public within the same space a or in multiplex via satellite between towns (up to a maximum of four).

“Long sustained sounds (varying with each performance and determined by the player concerned) punctuate the duration by inserting a duration of another kind, as if suspended beyond itself. Although Solstices may be performed by one, two, three or four ensembles, the version recorded here employs only one. However, Solstices: version spatiale for two ensembles was performed in Paris in March 1973 at the Domaine musical and in Montreal in October 1975 as part of World Music Week, under the aegis of the International Music Council. On that occasion, Jacques Lonchampt of the Paris daily Le Monde commented on the work as follows: "Solstices is a closed work, being based on the recurring cycle of seasons and hours, whose course may be charted beginning at any given moment of the year. However, the departure point will have a defining effect on the whole sweep of the work, in which the winter solstice, with its minimum of contrasts, of intensity, density and movement, is opposed to the maximum of these same elements as represented by the summer solstice. A degree of free interplay between the players and the two orchestral groups lends variety to the score, which mirrors a kind of poetry of the seasons (. . .)".

Envoi: concerto pour piano et quinze instrumentistes (1982-83) - The piano is the core of Envoi. It is the piano that throws off the ideas and launches the music right from its opening solo. The rest of the work is the consequence of this initial gesture, hence the title (Envoi = send off).

The piano acts as, of course, a “piano-orchestra”, which both calls out and responds to the orchestral instruments: xylophones, crotales, gongs, trombones (in the medium and low registers), a voluble clarinet…the points of contact being similarities in timbre and attack which are multiple and occur at varying degrees. The piano imitates orchestral tenuto sounds by less obvious means. Such is the case with the slow horn melody, in which the low sonorities of the piano converge by different harmonic relationships toward the principal melodic axis (F#).

Emission, reception, identity (mimetic) and otherness (contrast) are the axes of concerted interplay. The relationships are those of fusion or dialogue rather than marked rivalry between antagonists – an aesthetic to be rejected. Paradoxically, for this could seem surprising given the language being used, I would refer to the spirit of the Mozart concerti because of the multiplicity of ideas (some sections have up to eight themes), which are completely integrated within the form. Balance is created through the completeness of these exchanges.

This one-movement concerto is organized using three strongly differentiated, yet related materials:

1. Groups of instruments, split into all registers using transpositions on the 3rd and 7th harmonics, are treated as a large rhythmic circle (which I call “tala”, an analogous word in Indian music);
2. A fluid network, with permuted formants, can be used to create waves, giving birth to a melodic sign (neuma). This “low-high-low” (the torculus) becomes more and more important;

3. Accumulation of intervals that evolve in a spiral (found in the two toccatas). Subsidiary material is grafted onto this or diverges from it in capricious meanderings. Throughout this, sympathetic harmonic resonances create a non-tempered universe - a bridge between sound and silence, open to the elsewhere, an essential part of the concerto form.

Finally, a long progression of appearances by the clarinet goes across the work. Appearances, projections, openings and cross currents are the leading forces which create the form whose main points are:

- Cadenza (tala I; wandering, wave, premises of a toccata)

- Physical Duration I (main entry of instruments)

- Emergence of the horn melody (slow melisma) ; sudden appearance of the clarinet (fast melisma)

- Concert I (on the first idea)

- Large Progression (led by the clarinet with openings leading to musics of astonishment, exclamations, precious objects, reflexes, echoing trumpets, a first performance)

- Toccata (split groups with polished resonances, a dialogue on the three formants of the wave within a limited register)

- Physical Durations II

- Double – amplified and developed (tala II, wandering, development of the horn melody, development of the main wave).

- Toccata II

- Final Point (summit of the clarinet)

- Progression (Tala III; through absence – traces)

- Hymn (without end, in which the vertical and horizontal are mixed, with interventions of a polymorphous torculus; of density, timbre, speed and at the very end, pitch)

- Concert II (trumpets)

- Physical Durations III (slow, perpetual, unifying gyration encompassing everything – even the utopic memory that floats in the future. Temporal mirror. Anticipated echo.)

THE PERFORMERS

Louise Bessette, pianist - Born in Montréal, Louise Bessette began studying piano at the age of five. Admitted to the Montréal Conservatory in 1971, she studied with Georges Savaria and Raoul Sosa. She earned five first prizes, notably a First Prize in Chamber Music in 1979, and a First Prize for Piano in 1980. She subsequently perfected her skills with Eugene List in New York. In 1982, she set her sights on Paris, where she studied with Yvonne Loriod, Claude Helffer, Jay Gottlieb and Dominique Merlet.

January 1986 marked a turning point in the career of Louise Bessette. Since winning the First Prize at the Concours International de Musique Contemporaine in Saint-Germain-en-Laye (France), she has gone on to become recognized as a leading light in the interpretation of twentieth-century music. Most notably, she has added to her list of accomplishments both the First Prize and the Special Prize for Piano at the Rotterdam 1989 International Gaudeamus Competition for Contemporary Music, and the 1991 Flandre-Québec Award in recognition of her contribution to contemporary music. The Conseil québécois de la musique awarded her the Prix Opus 1996-1997 in the category "conductor or soloist of the year" for her recital devoted to the Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus by Olivier Messiaen.

Louise Bessette has made six solo recordings and an additional ten recordings in the company of other artists. In particular, her most recent solo CD Tango Diablo!, produced by her own label Sept Jardins, founded in 2003, and her double solo album for Atma Classique features her internationally acclaimed performance of Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus by Messiaen. As well, on chamber music recordings, she has joined forces with such outstanding artists as Marc-André Hamelin, the Quatuor Alcan, and the London-based Arditti Quartet. In Canada, Louise Bessette has recorded with SNE, CBC Records, Doberman-Yppan, Analekta, Atma Classique, Riche Lieu and Fonovox, in France for the Disques Montaigne and Salabert/Actuels labels, and in the United States for Mode Records.

Composers from all over the world send Louise Bessette their works, while others have created pieces especially for her, including Canadians Serge Provost, André Villeneuve, Raoul Sosa and Serge Arcuri, and French composers Philippe Boivin, Bruno Ducol, Jacques Lejeune et Claude Ballif.

Aventa Ensemble - Aventa is a Victoria-based ensemble with a mandate of performing and fostering new music in British Columbia and Canada. Founded in 2003, the ensemble is under the artistic direction of Bill Linwood and is comprised of musicians drawn from the ranks of the Victoria Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, University of Victoria, University of British Columbia and leading freelance players from Victoria and Vancouver. Aventa frequently premieres British Columbia, national and international works. Highlights from the international repertoire include Sir Peter Maxwell Davies' De Assumtione Beatae Mariae Virginis, Thomas Adès’ Concerto Conciso and Brian Ferneyhough’s Flurries. Canadian highlights include the May 2006 performance and CBC broadcast of Gilles Tremblay’s piano concerto Envoi, with guest soloist Louise Bessette. Web site: www.aventa.ca

Bill Linwood, Artistic Director and conductor - A native of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and a strong advocate for new music, Bill Linwood is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Aventa Ensemble. He has long championed the music of Quebec composer Gilles Tremblay and has led Aventa in several programs devoted to his music. Bill has conducted such classic repertoire as Boulez’ Dérive I and Ligeti’s Chamber Concerto as well as the premieres of a wide variety of Canadian and international repertoire. Highlights include performances of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies' De Assumtione Beatae Mariae Virginis and Thomas Ades' Concerto Conciso with Louis Lortie as piano soloist. Bill’s interest in Scandinavian composition has resulted in several programs featuring this repertoire, including Rolf Wallin’s The Age of Wire and String, the North American premiere of Anders Nordentoft’s opera On this Planet and the US premiere of Poul Ruders Abysm in New York City.

DEDICATION

“Let us point out that the exceptional musician Louise Bessette studied amongst others with the great French pianist Claude Helffer, the one who commissioned Envoi. He premiered it in 1982. The author could not be happier with such an alliance, and by mutual agreement the concert in Victoria which coincided with this recording was dedicated to his memory.

I must also mention the spirit and enthusiasm of the founder of Aventa - William Linwood - as well as of the members of this ensemble. Such a spirit is most precious, it simply reflects the love of Music.” – Gilles Tremblay

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