Reviews – Press Excerpts

Review: National Broadcast Orchestra, VSO shine in separate showcases
BY DAVID GORDON DUKE, SPECIAL TO THE VANCOUVER SUN
Vancouver listeners — and radio listeners nationwide — can share some optimism that reports of the demise of the CBC Radio Orchestra will prove premature. In its new avatar as the National Broadcast Orchestra, the ensemble played a gala benefit concert (with services of the artists donated) at the Chan Centre Friday. This official début became a striking affirmation of the importance of the ensemble to Canadian music; it also tacitly acknowledged the new political reality of cultural responsibilities being downloaded to the private sector by announcing the first NBO corporate sponsor, Montreal’s Stingray Digital Group.
Conductor Alain Trudel began the evening with a crisp interpretation of Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony that persuasively demonstrated the NBO’s potential as an agile chamber orchestra.
…this is exactly the sort of project that is part of the orchestra’s mandate, and exactly the sort of proposition that makes sense for broadcast or internet diffusion rather than regular concert presentation.
…The Sparrow’s Ledger, a NBO commission funded by CBC Radio. Unusually for a composer born in the late 1960s, Oesterle’s work is deeply Stravinskian, redolent of the Russian master’s pre-World War II neoclassicism. This is a compliment, not a criticism: Oesterle’s crystalline textures, enigmatic sense of line. and contrapuntal flair make this a distinguished addition to the Canadian symphonic repertoire—the sort of work that would never see the light of day without a national ensemble committed to the music of our own composers.

Opéra de Montréal 30th anniversary Gala, décembre 2009
La Presse, Lundi le 7 décembre 2009
Claude Gingras
… Alain Trudel et l’Orchestre Métropolitain ont accompli un travail de géant dans leur accompagnement des chanteurs. Mention aussi au Choeur de l’Opéra de Montréal, surtout pour l’extrait de Tosca.

The Gazette December 7, 2009
Opera gala goes Canadian
ARTHUR KAPTAINIS
… Everyone had the advantage of Alain Trudel, a sympathetic conductor, who knew how to regulate the Orchestre Métropolitain and OdM Chorus.

La Scena Musicale, Monday, December 7, 200914th
Le Gala Delivers Vocal Delights
Wah Keung Chan
.. It’s a credit to the depth of Canada’s vocal talent that Montreal Opera’s 14th annual Le Galasucceeded yesterday afternoon with an all-Canadian cast. Twenty-eight singers and full opera chorus treated the capacity crowd of 2800 to 35 operatic solos, ensembles and chorus lasting over four pleasure-filled hours… Conductor Alain Trudel and the Orchestre Métropolitain provided fine support throughout, and the chorus was excellent.

Opéra de Montréal : Die zauberföte, november 2009
Enfin Mozart dans la tradition.
Claude Gingras, La Presse le 9 novembre 2009
… Alain Trudel se révèle un chef lyrique de premier ordre et l’Orchestre Métropolitain sonne bien.

Mozart’s Magic done just right
Arthur Kaptainis, The Gazette
November 9, 2009
… Alain Trudel, making his company debut, cut the singers plenty of slack. Tempos were never pushed.
… Anyone seeking layers of meanings in The Magic Flute are welcome to seek them in this balanced and agreeable presentation.

Oreilles ravies
Réjean Beaucage,  Voir Montréal le 12 novembre 2009
… Avec la musique de Mozart, bien sûr, que l’Orchestre Métropolitain rend avec brio sous la baguette d’Alain Trudel.

La Flûte enchantée
Un conte jouissif Jacques Hétu , Resmusica.com  10 novembre, 2009
C’est une approche toute en reliefs, du haut des airs, cartographiée et colorée mais qui n’exclut en rien la profondeur du propos, ni la pensée humaniste. Et cela semble s’accorder à la conception aérienne du chef d’orchestre. Il n’appuie pas. C’est en nacelle, à l’instar des Trois Garçons, qu’Alain Trudel survole la topographie de l’œuvre, évitant les aspérités trop crues, toujours porté par une brise bienveillante sous un ciel radieux. Nous défions quiconque de bouder son plaisir devant un tel spectacle. Aucun accident de parcours à signaler et qui viendrait perturber cette marche vers la lumière.
… À la tête de l’Orchestre Métropolitain, Alain Trudel propose une direction vive, topographique de l’ultime chef-d’œuvre de Mozart.

Montréal international voice competition
Opera Canada 50th anniversary issue
Fall 2009
Another byproduct of the Montréal  International Vocal Competition was Alain Trudel, the remarkably sensitive leader of Orchestre Metropolitain. Add his name to the rapidly expanding pantheon of French-Canadian conductors of international calibre.

National Youth Orchestra of Canada
Alain Trudel au National Youth : du grand Mahler.
Claude Gingras, La Presse, août 2009
… Trudel a la partition devant lui mais la consulte à peine. Il est clair qu’il en possède la lettre et l’esprit. Il fait la longue reprise de 20 pages indiquée au premier mouvement et l’effet est saisissant – comme si la symphonie commençait deux fois! Il prolonge le climat démentiel en laissant le Scherzo en deuxième place, même si Mahler modifia cet ordre après la publication de son oeuvre. Le mouvement lent vient ensuite, avec ses thèmes irrésistibles dont s’est emparé le cinéma. Retour au délire général avec le finale. Le compositeur en élimina le troisième – et fatal – coup de massue et, cette fois, on regrette que Trudel suive cette décision que maints chefs et spécialistes de Mahler jugent erronée.
Mais c’est là un détail dans un ensemble qui totalise 78 minutes absolument passionnantes. Trudel pousse ses jeunes musiciens aux limites de leurs instruments, l’exécution pourrait être signée d’une formation professionnelle et, par-dessus tout, la Sixième de Mahler explose dans toute sa dimension, celle d’une symphonie du désespoir.
En total contraste, le chef invité termine le concert en demandant à ses jeunes de chanter comme des anges…

National Youth Orchestra at full power
By ARTHUR KAPTAINIS, The Gazette, August 5, 2009
… Conductor Alain Trudel harnessed the energy in the martial first movement of this 78-minute goliath by choosing a fast tempo and enforcing a firm rhythm. There was more sweep and imagination in his treatment of the Scherzo, so rich in textual nuance. Strings sounded exultant in the slow movement (if those are the words for an Andante moderato).
The lengthy finale can challenge the pros, let alone teens and 20-somethings, but the fabric never weakened. There were rich sounds from the lower brass, and the horns (whose principal had already furnished eloquent solos) were sturdy.
All the vehemence rendered the conclusion more a collapse from exhaustion than a defeat at the hands of fate. In any case, this was an impressive performance, needing just a bit more respiration in the outer movements.
A natural figure on the podium, Trudel did without a baton in a vivacious Haydn Symphony No. 96. Samy Moussa’s Cyclus, the mandatory Canadian work, was more compelling than most atonal essays of its ilk. The orchestration was lucid. Still, I worry about scores with so many repeated notes and open intervals. Melody and harmony were invented for a reason. Ask Mahler.

MUSIC: La relève
By Paul Wells Macleans Magazine, Wednesday, August 5, 2009
… This was one of the best concerts I’ve heard all year, with repertoire that let the musicians stretch — Rob Teehan’s fresh, tuneful Dreams of Flying; Haydn’s Symphony No. 96; Mahler’s sprawling, chilling Symphony No. 6 — and, in Alain Trudel, a conductor who is unabashedly his musicians’ friend and champion. ..
The Haydn symphony was light, funny and precise. The third movement is a kind of rondo built around a solo oboe part that Edmonton’s Lindsay Roberts carried off with panache. The Mahler is obviously an endurance marathon, but the NYOC brought out its logic and the delicacy that might otherwise have been buried under the fireworks. ..
When it was over Trudel led the orchestra in two pieces they sang, every one of them, in four- (or five?) part harmony, one in French — Orlande de Lassus’ Mon Coeur se recommande à vous — and one in English. It was utterly charming, and I bet having to learn to be a choir helped make these folks a better orchestra.
I’ll be back to see the NYOC when they come through town next year. I can heartily recommend the band to readers in Kitchener-Waterloo and Toronto. And when the NAC Orchestra needs to shop for a new artistic director in a few years, it could hardly do better than to take a good hard look at Alain Trudel.

The London Free Press
By James Reaney
… Trudel conveys a great joy in leading his young charges into battle . . . . during the intermission Brassroots guru Bram Gregson came over & said Alain Trudel (a terrific trombone player, too) is one of the easiest people he has ever worked with. That’s been on three or four occasions with Intrada (Bram’s Toronto ensemble) and Brassroots.
Then, it was time for Rite of Spring . . . I feel great joy in reporting that a surging & surprisingly tender at times Rite – the same work that provoked fisticuffs at its Paris premiere in 1913 – produced a standing ovation at Aluminum Hall a mere 96 years later. Trudel and company brought new dimensions to a masterpiece I have previously enjoyed on the gramophone many a time. Bravo.
There were several encores . . . Stravinsky’s delightful happy side of Petrouchka-esque Scherzo a la Russe (commissioned by Paul Whiteman, it turns out) . . . & two majestic madrigals, one in French, then one in English, showcased the youth orchestra’s choral skills.

Orchestre Symphonique de Québec
Bel aperçu du charme slave
Richard Boisvert, Le Soleil, Québec, décembre 2008
(Québec) Dans le genre d’initiation à la musique symphonique, on peut considérer le concert offert au Palais Montcalm par l’Orchestre symphonique de Québec, hier soir, comme un exemple à suivre. Composé uniquement de pièces en un seul mouvement, facile d’accès mais nullement racoleur, le programme a été livré avec une énergie et une détermination sans failles. La foule, qui était d’ailleurs venue nombreuse, a vécu une expérience emballante.
La présence du chef invité Alain Trudel, à ses débuts à l’OSQ, y est certainement pour beaucoup. Sa technique est un peu sommaire, mais son sens infaillible du mouvement et sa rigueur compensent largement. L’esprit slave, ce charme coloré et brillant qui habitait chacune des oeuvres, a fait le reste.
Le début de La fiancée vendue de Smetana, nerveux et bien nuancé, a donné le ton à la soirée. Une série de mesures rythmées et rapides que le chef réussit à garder dans la nuance piano ont été suivies d’un forte triomphant qui a semblé jaillir comme une acclamation. Cette musique s’écoutait comme elle était présentée, c’est-à-dire sur le bout de la chaise.

Victoria symphony Orchestra
Maestro Trudel, pianist Rowe pack the house
Sarah Petrescu, Times Colonist, Monday, October 06, 2008
… It’s hard to pinpoint the crowning moment of yesterday’s program, which was entirely pleasurable but didn’t extend the emotions too far. The overall highlight was the connection and energy of the musicians and the prominence of rhythm. Not a surprise with Beethoven — the original rocker — starting and ending the concert with the Overture to Coriolan, op. 62 and Symphony No. 1 in C Major, op. 21. Beethoven is also one of Trudel’s favourite composers to conduct.
It is always a treat to see a Beethoven Symphony performed. The First is not his most famous and begins with an awkward minor chord that gives it the feeling of being in medias res. Kudos to the violin section on this one — their tight, legato lines were electrifying.

National  Arts Center Orchestra
Music review: Opera Under the Stars
The Ottawa Citizen, July 18,
… The audience of thousands was larger than this listener knows how to count. Despite gloomy prophecies from the weather prophets earlier in the day, the evening was mild and altogether lovely. As befits a free, outdoor concert, the program was made up of short selections, arias, duets, choruses and orchestral numbers. Everything was relatively familiar and if chestnuts like Va, pensiero and the Ride of the Walku(umlaut)re were inevitable, who¹s to object. Certainly a Nessum dorma, delivered as passionately as Margison sang it, is welcome any time, any place.
Conductor Alain Trudel and the NAC orchestra opened the concert with the overture to Verdi’s La Forza del Destino. Not surprisingly, the playing was very solid and if the massive sound system didn’t convey all its riches or its balance, the amplification was fairly good as these things go…. Wagner got his share of the program as well, beginning with the Ride of  the Walkure excerpt, suitably electrifying under Trudel’s baton. Then Bruggergosman sang a most convincing Dich, teure Halle from Tannhauser.

Review: Baroque By Request
Vancouver Sun Sunday, January 08, 2008 by Lloyd Dykk
CBC Radio Orchestra
Nothing had the feeling of being a knock-off or a no-brainer, it was beautiful playing overseen by conductor Alain Trudel, who is probably the best thing that’s ever happened to the orchestra since it was founded 70 years ago by Jack Avison. The music was overridden by a sense of style just as it was informed by a precision in such little matters as agogics, the little accentuations that are too small to be notated on paper.
No tempo is marked for the beginning of the third Brandenburg but Trudel’s speed was just right, as was the balance between violins, violas and cellos for which this concerto democratically devotes its reason for being…
Handel’s Water Music Suite No. 1 ended the program. It would be hard to come up with a more top-of-the-pops piece of music than this one and it all sounded fresh: yet more exqusite work from Cole, the stately French pauses and the infectious speeds, some of them taken to the maximum.

To have and have not
A review of the Vancouver classical music scene in the Montréal Gazette, Febuary 16th 2008 by Arthur Kaptainis
On Sunday afternoon, I heard the CBC Radio Orchestra under the baton of Alain Trudel…The crowd was middle-aged and tweedy, clearly well fortified with UBC types and CBC Radio 2 listeners.
They were very quiet, as well they might have been, during a Valentines “love” theme concert that boasted some of the smoothest, most luminous and –bottom line – best-tuned string playing I have heard in years…Mahler’s Adagietto, Respighi’s Il Tramonto (Anita Krause was the rich and expressive mezzo-soprano) Schoenberg’s Transfigured night and Aaron Jay Kernis’s agreeably minimalist Musica Celestis…
A boyish figure on stage – no one would confuse him with Otto Klemperer – Trudel can communicate romance with his expressive left hand. He appears to enjoy the trust and affection of his orchestra. Note to self: Check out his work in Laval.

Manitoba Chamber Orchestra acts as tour guide on exotic musical journey
Winnipeg Free Press, December 6th, 2007
Trudel kept the mood light but purposeful, and the orchestra responded with very sensitive playing. The kick-up-your-heels country-dance ending was almost a jig, with violins fairly prancing through the playful score…The evening finished with Albert Roussel’s Sinfonietta for Strings, Op. 52. The MCO gave this vigorous and often dissonant work a polished reading, with Trudel precise and controlled in his direction. Plaudits must go to the violin section for their cohesive playing, despite tricky intervals and unusual twist and turns.

National Arts Center Orchestra review from October 16, 2007
The Ottawa Citizen, October 05, 2007 by Richard Todd Friday
The National Arts Centre’s Southam Hall was barely half full last night for one of the most interesting concerts given there in recent memory.
Zukerman played the violin, but did not lead the performance. That task fell to Montreal conductor Alain Trudel. A conductor at the head of a seven-piece ensemble is an odd sight, but never mind. There was little left to be desired in the interpretation or the playing. The tiny ensemble of NAC Orchestra principals was simply outstanding.

Review of the CRO in the L.A. Times
O Canada! Long may you play
The last of a breed, the CBC Radio Orchestra sounds vibrantly alive.
CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK, October 24, 2006 by Mark Swed, Times Staff Writer
The ensemble’s new young, adventurous French Canadian music director, Alain Trudel, conducted an engaging, unusual, multicultural program with enthusiastic verve. But if it was a medical marvel that Trudel was there, it was a marvel of musical ecology that anyone at all was on stage.
The CBC Radio Orchestra is the last of its breed in North America. Supported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., this is the only surviving radio orchestra on the continent….
Trudel, who conducts without a baton, hands flat, Boulez style, but with great birdlike gestures as if trying to get the music to fly out of the hall, began the program with Bartok’s Romanian Dances, light, lithe and danceable. Everything, when it came down to it, was light, lithe and danceable…
The CBC Radio Orchestra may be a long-standing lone survivor on our continent, but it isn’t a dinosaur.

Conductor Trudel’s gamble pays off
Scotia Festival wraps up with big orchestral blow-out
Chronicle-Herald The Mail Star, June 15, 2007 by Stephen Pedersen
Conductor Alain Trudel explained to host Heidi Petracek that since Hatzis’s Tongues of Fire with solo percussionist Beverley Johnston and his Rebirth with solo violist Steven Dann were both concertos, he thought he should program a concerto for the orchestra alone. Thus the fiercely difficult Bartok, which features all the instrumental sections of the orchestra in both individual and ensemble solos.
It was a daring choice. The Scotia Festival Orchestra is made up of master players and students and is, essentially, a pick-up orchestra whose rehearsal time is limited. But the gamble paid off. While a little scuffed around the edges, the Bartok scored a tour-de-force for the orchestra, featuring some truly outstanding solo work from the many experienced players, including a large contingent of Symphony Nova Scotia’s brightest and best and bringing the audience to its feet for multiple curtain calls…
Rebirth is a reworking of a previous version for tape and viola, with the orchestra taking the place of the tape. Steven Dann played it with extraordinary confidence and power and rich sound. It is an extremely difficult work for the conductor, let alone the players, but Trudel showed real confidence in resolving its complexities.

Opera York / Hänsel & Gretel
OperaCanada, Jan/Feb  2006 by Joseph So
….But Perhaps the biggest coup of all was engaging Alain Trudel as conductor. Given the positively Wagnerian scoring for the orchestra, Trudel worked wonders by drawing a big yet refined sound from the musicians. The orchestra has made enormous strides since last season’s La bohème….

French ‘tour’ a fitting opener to CBC orchestra’s spring season
Vancouver Sun, February 26, 2007 by David Gordon Duke
Darius Milhaud’s Suite Francaise, purportedly a sort of musical travelogue in five movements suggesting various French regions, proved an entertaining curtain-raiser….The orchestra delivered with both brilliance and stylish verve.
…Soprano Measha Brueggergosman was in fine voice, well attuned to Duparc’s idiomatic brand of Wagner-with-a-French-accent. She demonstrated more than enough power and character to cut through the luscious orchestral accompaniments, presented with taste and sensitivity by conductor Alain Trudel.
The afternoon concluded with Ernest Chausson’s Poeme de l’amour et de la mer, more hothouse Wagner a la francais but perhaps lacking a measure of the refinement of Duparc. Once again, Brueggergosman & Trudel handled this somewhat derivative music with sensitivity and dramatic awareness.

New works celebrate Shostakovich’s birthday: Compositions in tribute to the artist lead up to beautiful performance
Vancouver Sun, November 21, 2006 by Lloyd Dykk
…You could probably call The Shostakovich Project, Sunday at the Chan Centre, a post-structuralist exercise: The CBC Radio Orchestra’scommissioning each of 10 Canadian composers to write a three-minute work based on DSCH as a tribute to Shostakovich on the 100th year since hisbirth… Shakespeare was among Stalin’s special hatreds. This isn’t important music but it’s witty and likable. If it’s like a footnote to his career,this is important in itself, and the orchestra didn’t stint on expression, proving again what a fine conductor Alain Trudel is.

TRUDEL BRIGHTENS SNS PODIUM
Chronicle-Herald The Mail Star, January 2006 by Stephen Pedersen
In a program of Mozart, Elgar, Schumann and contemporary Quebecoise composer Linda Bouchard, Alain Trudel brought to the podium the same clarity of design and surety of musical purpose that distinguish his extraordinary trombone playingTrudel and the orchestra, clearly hanging on to every note of the cello at crucial take-over passages, caught the crescendos and diminuendos with a gossamer touch — particularly the violas in the opening adagio, and later, in the turn from the middle adagio movement into the second allegro — the horns…In Vertige by Linda Bouchard, Trudel paced the orchestra with cool nerve born of his vast experience in the fiery core of contemporary music’s often chaotic heart…
The final work, Schumann’s hoary old fourth symphony, never a favourite of mine, took on an entirely different effect under Trudel’s direction. Where it is often heavy and oppressive with its endlessly churning arpeggiated main theme, it sounded light in both senses of the word—weight and illumination.Under those circumstances the reasons the fourth is one of Schumann’s most admired symphonies became clear to me at last. Clarify the orchestrational murk and the ear catches heart-breaking hints of Schubert at his sunniest, lending poignant colour to deepen Schumann’s expressive anguish.

Orchestre Métropolitain, MontréalLa Presse, Le mardi 20 avril 2004
Belles images, belle musique
…Trudel allait secouer l’orchestre et obtenir des lectures très vivantes de deux Danses hongroises de Brahms. J’ai même été étonné du relief et du contraste apportés à l’ouverture des Vêpres siciliennes, des accents nouveaux imprimés à la première Suite de Carmen et du dramatisme qui habitait Finlandia.      …l’orchestre sonnait bien et même très bien.

City Hong-Kong Chamber Orchestra Hong-Kong  mai 2003
A Night in Bologna
The orchestra achieved fluent phrasing, balanced transparency and distinct rhythm with flying colours under the baton of Alain Trudel. Born in Montreal, Mr. Trudel is both a conductor and a trombonist. He has played with Charles Dutoit at the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal. Even his gestures and interpretation showed influences of Dutoit: striking French-style vibrancy and emphasis on accuracy.The concert opened with Rossini’s overture to his opera “Il Signor Bruschino”. In this Piece the strings produced clear and rich tones. The playing on the whole was also lively … The next piece was Introduction, theme and variations also by Rossini. The accompaniment provided by the CCOHK was very energetic. In the next piece, “Il tramonto” by Respighi, the accompaniment provided by the orchestra was very expressive.
The second half of the concert … Trittico Botticelliano was written for a chamber orchestra. Trudel’s interpretation of this piece showed his masterful use of orchestral colours and precise control over the changing moods of the pieces.
“Spring” evoked a calm picture of the pastures. “Adoration of the Magi” (which was based on the well-known Christmas carol “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”) was peaceful and noble, whilst the solo passages played by the woodwinds assumed personalities as distinct as those of the famous portraits. In “Birth of Venus”, the shimmering wave-like figure in the violins supported the silvery strands of sound weaved by the flutes and other wind instruments. Subsequently there was an exchange of roles. The overall effect was very attractive.

Scotia Festival, Halifax, June 9, 2003
Chronicle-Herald The Mail Star by Stephen Pedersen
Performances both stunning and ragged cap Scotiafest
Conductor Alain Trudel conjured a performance bursting with health and vitality and burnished sunlight. Trudel conducted all four works on the program (including Symph. # 14 by Dimitri Schostakovic) with clarity and vigour.

Windsor Symphony, April 8, 2000
The Windsor Star, by Ted ShawPerfect choice for next music director?
“Alain Trudel. Mark that name down in your diary. [..] They may have the perfect choice in Trudel. The Quebec trombonist and conductor is young, eager, a gifted musican, speaks both official languages fluently, and he’s extremely outgoing and charming. He also has the respect of his peers and he’s well-liked by the City Orchestra’s musicians and administration.[..]”

Scotia festival, Halifax, June 3, 2000
Chronicle-Herald The Mail Star by Stephen Pedersen
Concert was more, and less, traditional
“[..] Alain Trudel is this year’s Scotia Festival conductor. His direction of both Messiaen’s exotic aviary of winds are percussion, and Schoenberg’s complex, densely contrapuntal chamber symphony – Trudel call’s it “a Wagner opera in 20 minutes” – was unambiguous, and alert. Trudel’s command of the constantly varying tempos in the Schoenberg, wich make it one of the most difficult works in the repertoire to conduct, was riveting. Helping a large ensemble in the case 16 players, to anticipate these changes early enough to hit them without hesitation, and when reaching the desired speed, indicating the rhythmic groove as well, is the mark of inspired musicanship. I don’t think I have ever heard as lucid a performance of this score as this was. [..]”

Scotia festival, Halifax, June 10, 2000
Chronicle-Herald The Mail Star by Stephen Pedersen
Russians invade for festival finale
“[..] It was a heads-up, car-scouring and wonderfully bracing performance from all hands (Concerto grosso by A.Schnittke). Consonance returned with the final work, Tchaikovsky’s well-know Serenade for String in major, Op. 48. The performance was nobly sonorous and richly powerful, with Trudel bringing the players on and everybody digging in to give everything they had to one of the greatest masterpieces of this repertoire. There were no more than two-dozen players on stage, but my, how they played! An all-out effort combining great skill and passion both, irresistible!.”

Windsor Symphony,The Windsor Star, by Ted Shaw
Youth gives WSO spark
… The other vistuoso in the program was Trudel, one of nine cadidated for the post of artistic director. He conducted a stirring Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and excerpts from a recent composition by a fellow Quebecer, Linda Bouchard, titled Exquite Fires… Trudel is cool and refined on the podium. And those smiles on the musicans’faces show he has their trust and affection, two key elements in an artistic director…