The 15th gala of the Prix Opus was held yesterday afternoon in the very beautiful Salle Bourgie of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. No less than 28 awards were given out during this celebration of concert music, which coincided with the 25th anniversary of the Conseil québécois de la musique.

Several musical performances were included throughout the gala. The audience heard the Zaldivar Trio, the Bozzini Quartet in an excerpt from an Ana Sokolovic work to be premiered in October, composer Jean-François Laporte in Rituel, an intriguing and rather poetic work for flying can, the Fanfarniente, harpist Valérie Milot in two movements from a piece by Glenn Buhr, as well as a baroque group with Marie-Nathalie Lacoursière, Olivier Brault, and actors Jean-François Gagnon and Carl Béchard.

A very moving homage was rendered to Yuli Turovsky, who left I Musici’s musical direction last May for health reasons.  From the long list of winners, let’s mention the program The Art of François Couperin, a Clavecin en concert production, led by Luc Beauséjour, (“Concert of the year – medieval, Renaissance, baroque repertoires”), On n’est jamais trop classique, a youth program from the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (“Young audience production”) and pianist Louise Bessette, who celebrates in 2012 her first 30 years of career, nominated twice in the category “Disc of the year – modern, contemporary repertoires” who went home with the precious prize for her Serge Arcuri project.

Cloé Palacio-Quintin becomes “composer of the year” and  baroque flutist Vincent Lauzer (who has worked with Matthias Maute and Sophie Larivière of Ensemble Caprice) “upcoming artist”. Julie Boulianne’s work on the international stage was as well saluted.

Congratulations to all!

Young Canadian cellist Stéphane Tétreault just learned that he will now have the privilege to play on a Stradivarius, the “Paganini, Countess of Stainlein”, owned until he passed away on May 13 by Bernard Greenhouse, venerable member of the Beaux-Arts Trio.

The instrument was sold by Reuning & Son Violins to a patroness of the arts from Montreal, who whishes to remain anonymous, for a little over  6 millions  dollars.

“I am immensely touched and humbled to have been chosen to play an instrument that was cherished for so many years by Bernard Greenhouse, who has always had my great respect and admiration,” Tétreault stated in a press release.

The 18-year-old cellist studies at Université de Montréal with Yuli Turovsky. He will give a recital on February 4, at 2:30 p.m., at Théâtre Outremont.  The concert will be recorded by Espace musique and available on the Internet from March 2 on at www.radio-canada.ca/revelations.

An article from The Gazette and one from The  New York Times.

There is no doubt about it, the Stradivarii are still a very hot topic. Have scientists finally discover the mysterious “secret” behing their exceptional qualities? Not really… Indeed, a recent study by French acoustician Claudia Fritz, from Université Paris-VI, hints that the instruments may not be as wonderful as everyone seems to think. During the 2010 edition of the Indianapolis International Violin Competition, she led a blind test with 21 very high level violinists: several competitors of course, as well as some experts and a couple of experienced instrumentalists. Throughout the process, participants wore welder’s glasses to mask any distinct caracteristics of the instrument and the room was filled with perfume so that the typical old wood scent wouldn’t be able to influence the violinists’ answers.

The study was two-folded. First, participants were invited to play, in a random order, on three modern violins made by famous luthiers, two Stradivarii and one Guarnerius del Gesu. Afterwards, they indicated which instrument they would  bring home with them. Secondly, two violins were shown and they simply had to find which one of the two was the 18th century one. Here, most failed miserably and, when came time to pick “their” instrument, only 8 out of the 21 picked one of the three “famous” ones. The instrument which appealed to most was a modern one and the one least chosen was… a Strad circa 1700.

When the study was published, early this month, many detractors stated that it was ridiculous to consider “taming” an instrument in a hotel room, in a few short minutes and that the qualities of an instrument would be revealed much later on. It so happens that I recently spoke with violist Antoine Tamestit who explained to me that the encounter he had with his Strad was far from love at first sight, that he considered on several occasions givin g it back to the Habisreutinger Foundation and that it took him more than a year before he developed a close connection with the instrument!

One thing is for certain: these mystical instruments have not revealed yet quite yet…

An article from The Star to read about this…

The cellist and conductor Yuli Turovsky, who founded in 1983I Musici de Montréal and, last May,  the Nouvelle Génération Orchestra, “to ensure the learning, assimilation, development and continuity of the artistic principles and specific chamber music school that had been established by him,” was just appointed Officer of the Order of Canada “for his contributions to the promotion of Canada’s musical excellence as a teacher, and as an internationally renowned cellist and conductor.”

Congratulations, maestro!