Works by Dalbavie, Dusapin, Lesage and Pépin.

Completed in April of 1973, Clermont Pépin’s Chroma was premiered as part of the Guelph Festival in the same year, by the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, under the direction of Pierre Dervaux. In the words of the composer, it is, “a play of sonic colour, pulsing beats, and sinuous rhythms.” Inspired by the novel of the same title by Samuel Beckett, as well as jazz music and the artistry of Xenakis and Varèse, Watt by Pascal Dusapin was premiered in 1995 by Alain Trudel and the Nevada Symphony Orchestra and singled out for an award at the 1998 UNESCO Tribune internationale des compositeurs. Les Mécanismes multiples de l’ivresse et de la nostalgie by Jean Lesage is less an evocation of “a return to music’s paradise lost” as a “utopic idea of bringing all times together in a single instant.” Marked by the influences of contemporary literature and visual art, Marc-André Dalbavie’s Sinfonietta was also written as a tribute to Leos Janácek, with references to the symphonic genre. Four prolific composers, four universes, four works to remember.

Presented by Morneau Sobeco