CLASSICAL / BADER & OVERTON COMPETITION ALUMNI DOMINIQUE BEAUSÉJOUR- OSTIGUY, cellist and composer, <strong>with</strong> JEAN-MICHEL DUBÉ, pianist JANUARY <strong>28</strong>, <strong>2024</strong>, AT 2:30 PM OF TWO HEMISPHERES This concert has no intermission. RACHMANINOFF Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14 FAURE Elegie, Op. 24 PIAZZOLLA Grand Tango BEAUSEJOUR-OSTIGUY Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 2 in G Minor Allegro moderato Elegie Andante – Allegro BEAUSEJOUR-OSTIGUY Do Mi Si La Do Ré BEAUSEJOUR-OSTIGUY Voltige
PROGRAM NOTES The performers have titled today’s concert, “Of Two Hemispheres,” to indicate their intent to immerse the audience in the passionate lyricism of post-Romantic composers, Rachmaninoff and Fauré, before heading to Argentina for Piazzolla’s tango-inspired music. They end in Canada <strong>with</strong> <strong>Dominique</strong>’s own compositions inspired by both hemispheres. As the title suggests, the Vocalise of Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943) was originally written for textless solo voice <strong>with</strong> <strong>piano</strong> accompaniment. This piece gained immediate popularity <strong>with</strong> many transcriptions appearing over the years for different solo instruments and <strong>piano</strong>. Rachmaninoff even made two arrangements himself, one for soprano and orchestra and another for orchestra alone. Gabrielle Fauré (1845-1924) was a French composer whose life straddled the Romantic period and early 20th-century explorations into different compositional approaches. He began his career <strong>with</strong> his compositions often being labelled too progressive, while later, as the director of the Paris Conservatoire, his tastes were viewed as being too conservative. Many of his compositions have become mainstays of the concert hall, including this Elegie, which was originally written for solo cello and orchestra. Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) was born in Argentina to Italian immigrant parents who moved to New York when Astor was four. Growing up listening to his parents’ records, Astor was immersed in the many approaches to the tango. At the age of eight, this interest was further supported by his father’s gift of a bandoneon (an accordion-like instrument integral to Argentinian music). Astor returned to Argentina <strong>with</strong> his family in 1936 and moved by himself to Buenos Aires at the age of 17 to begin playing in tango orchestras and writing his own music. Eventually studying composition <strong>with</strong> the great Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera, Piazzolla would go on to incorporate more modernistic tendencies into the tango. His highly virtuosic Grand Tango was composed in 1982 and dedicated to the world-famous cellist, Mstislav Rostropovich. Upon receiving this unsolicited score, it took Rostropovich some time to learn more about the composer and his music, but to his credit, Rostropovich premiered this highly demanding piece in 1990. It is always a privilege to hear a composer/ soloist perform their own music, and the threemovement sonata by <strong>Dominique</strong> <strong>Beauséjour</strong>- <strong>Ostiguy</strong> (b.1994) is certainly the most significant work on this program. A neo-Romantic work, it makes use of the rich <strong>piano</strong> figuration that encourages the cello to soar to wonderful melodic heights. The central movement, Elegie, is notable for the very stark C-minor theme that is initially presented by the solo cello, and then in the six variations that follow, gains significant emotional and virtuosic depth. Do Mi Si La Do Ré (the note names: C-E-B-A- C-D) is a rhapsodically compact piece that places these notes in sharp profile while the texture, mood and harmonizations constantly cast the notes in different hues. Voltige (French for “Acrobatics”) utilizes significant syncopation and shifting meters, building to a powerful ending. The <strong>piano</strong>, for the most part, maintains a constant sixteenth-note pulse while the cello presents longer melodic lines, but towards the end, the cello takes over and participates in the sixteenth-note patterns. ©<strong>2024</strong> by John Burge for the Isabel ABOUT DOMINIQUE BEAUSÉJOUR-OSTIGUY A two-time winner in the Canadian Music Canadian Music Competition, a semi-finalist of the 2020 Bader & Overton Canadian Cello Competition, and a recipient of the 2018 Prix d’Europe, the 2021 Choquette-Symcox Award, and the 2017 Peter Mendell Award, cellist <strong>Dominique</strong> <strong>Beauséjour</strong>-<strong>Ostiguy</strong> also ranked among CBC Music’s “30 hot Canadian classical musicians under 30” in 2018. A sought-after chamber player, he founded the Trio de l’Île and the Andara Quartet, and in 2018, became
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