Vive la différence
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Angèle Dubeau
I first saw Angèle Dubeau perform in the small Ontario town of Port Hope. It was a curious venue in which to see Canada's most acclaimed violinist: a restored 1930s "Atmospheric" theatre with painted landscapes, faux balconies, and stars projected on the ceiling. It gave the sense of being seated outdoors in a fantastic and somewhat surreal environment - a mood soon intensified by Dubeau and her ensemble La Pietà in a performance that was a marvel of warmth and technical prowess.
Over the course her career, the Julliard School graduate has won several international competitions, numerous Félix awards, and has performed in over 25 countries. She is one of the very few home-grown classical artists to have achieved Gold record status in Canada (by selling over 50,000 copies).
Angèle Dubeau is a familiar face in Québec, of course, where she hosts concerts and music programs on Radio-Canada, and is Artistic Director of the yearly Music in the Mountains event at Mont-Tremblant, which draws thousands of music lovers to the Laurentians over the Labour Day weekend.
She is equally at ease on a Montreal Jazz Festival stage, in a concert hall with the MSO, or on tour with La Pietà, the twelve-woman string ensemble she formed in 1997. Throughout, Dubeau insists on making the performance as enjoyable to young and new listeners as it is for "serious" fans of classical music.
The result is not just a dumbed-down performance of classical pops. It's more a refreshing new approach to the genre, what Dubeau likes call "democratizing" the music. The selection of repertoire may include both familiar and esoteric composers, or forays into jazz and popular music. But where the difference is most marked is in Dubeau's between-tune banter, where stories of her tutelage in Romania or the gossip behind a particular composition set up the music to follow.
On stage, recalling a critic who thought her sound was in no small part due to the Stradivarius she famously plays (it's a 1733 "Des Rosiers" Strad, for you snobs...), Dubeau recounts a story attributed to a violin maverick of a different era, Niccolo Paganini. After receiving similar critical faint praise, Paganini substituted his own Guarneri instrument for a cheap pawn shop violin at the next concert, and played to the same ecstatic reviews and delirious applause as before. For performing artists, stories like this must help make life worthwhile.
Passion, Dubeau's seventh recording with La Pietà, is now on the shelves. This means another round of touring, press, and publicity.
In person, Dubeau is as down to earth as her stage demeanor would suggest. Having just come off a week of concerts in China - Dubeau's first as a soloist with La Pietà - she is back in Montreal to promote the new CD and briefly recharge the batteries.
After a busy press event where she performed two solo numbers, Dubeau has a chance to relax and puffs on a cig, snagging a glass of wine from a passing waiter.
So is she the hardest working woman in show business? "(laughing) No, no - that's not a title that I want! But ... I have been doing this for 25 years."
And the work has drawn a wide range of admirers. In fact, Dubeau just discovered that renowned Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi was not only a big fan, but suggested a tour of Japan for her and La Pietà, playing an entire program of Hisaishi compositions, and to begin immediately.
Though successful musicians must keep touring, this schedule is more hectic than the ensemble is used to. Several of the women in La Pietà are mothers, and Dubeau has a young daughter of her own - they try not to be away from family more than a couple of weeks at a time.
"We were playing in China when the details for a proposed tour of Japan came together," says Dubeau. Bags barely unpacked, Dubeau and the band were off to the city of Sagamioono, Japan, accompanied by Hisaishi, to kick off a four week, 13 city tour.
Memories of the Chinese tour, where they performed in Shanghai and Hangzhou, are still vivid:
"In China, they were applauding like this," Dubeau taps her fingers rapidly on the table, "... almost in unison - and then stopped all at once. It was almost like someone had been pressing a button."
"The Chinese audience is very shy - at first. They are still new to western performers and music and aren't sure how to act." But as the evening continued, the reserved audience began to loosen up.
Theatrical actors often remark on the mood of the audience being a critical factor in a performance What about classical musicians? "Sure, of course. I'm human. And you also have your up days and down days. Your energy might be low, you might have a cold and still have to perform. You just want to make sure that the lowest level, your worst day, is always improving."
Dubeau continues to raise the bar during her current tour of Japan. Passion, on the Analekta label, is available everywhere.
Angèle Dubeau and La Pietà will return to Montreal to premiere her latest recording, Passion, with performances at the Monument national on February 4th and 5th, 2005.
On March 16, the ensemble performs at Salle Albert-Rousseau in Ste-Foy, Québec.
Also, this fall marks the 10th anniversary of Music in the Mountains at Mont-Tremblant, from September 2 to 5, 2005.
Web : angeledubeau.com
[ All Photos © Analekta ]
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