Alexandra Stréliski presents nothing less than three concerts in a row in the beautiful setting of the Fernand-Lindsay amphitheater, in Joliette, since Thursday. After the last performance this Saturday, more than 10,000 people will have attended this large-scale show, in the scenography, but above all in the power of the emotions conveyed. On the first evening, the Montreal pianist and composer even managed to stop the rain.
Like summer, the end of the day was uncertain on Thursday and it was under a little drizzle that the public gradually arrived inside the amphitheater. Many were well equipped and ready for all weather, with their chairs, raincoats and umbrellas: the reserved places on the lawn, unlike the parterre composed of seats, are not protected by a roof.
It was raining hard when Flore Laurentienne, who provided the first part, went on stage a little after 7:30 p.m. Mathieu David Gagnon, who is the soul of this project, smiled while looking at the impressive crowd. “Thank you for coming in large numbers for me!” “, he had fun between two rooms. Of course, he was not fooled: “It won’t be long, don’t worry, Alexandra is coming.” »
In a few pieces that created a soaring atmosphere full of textures and maritime evocations, Flore Laurentienne did not take long to captivate the public, who gave her a more than warm welcome.
“I didn’t know him, what a find, he’s so good!” “, exclaimed Carole Freeman, met during the break. She was sitting on her little chair, with her daughter Evelyne Freeman-Joncas and her two grandchildren, the cute twins Henri and Anna.
“We came today from Montreal and Saint-Lambert,” explains Evelyne. We wanted to show a classical music show to the children, but on the lawn so that they could move around a bit. And the rain, which had been falling steadily since early evening? Not a problem, assured Carole.
Behind, two friends, Audrey Desrosiers and Caroline Guimont, had also traveled from Montreal to attend the concert. “We arrived at 5 p.m.!” explains Caroline. Audrey motivated me to do this outing, leaving Montreal, with the traffic, it’s not easy… but it’s great fun. »
Fan of Flore Laurentienne, Audrey Desrosiers was pleasantly surprised when she learned when she arrived that he was the opening act. “I split in two!” It’s an intervention of the Holy Spirit… We’re in a natural amphitheater, it’s raining, the two of them are artists I listen to, it couldn’t be more perfect. »
Caroline adds. “The rain doesn’t stop us, it just looks prettier. There’s just the lady with the pink umbrella, there, who hides us a bit. Can you go talk to him? »
While the two friends laughed, we left them to return to the shelter under the roof of the amphitheater. Shortly after, the star of the evening arrived, simply dressed in a white suit, crossing the main stage alone with a determined step and greeted like a rock star – she gave the rock sign briefly. n’roll before sitting down at the piano.
“Well, that’s where we cry,” sighed a lady sitting next to the photographer from La Presse, when the pianist had just arrived. This mixture of fervor and skin-deep emotion is a reflection of the evening when the current passed from the stage to the public, and vice versa.
“Hello, you’re quite the gang!” “, launched the pianist after playing a first piece, Un air de famille, which appears on his most recent album, Néo-Romance.
A few tracks later, after the grandiose finale of Burnout fugue, a major track on her previous album Inscape, Alexandra Stréliski asked the audience if that had been enough to stop the rain… and the answer was yes.
During this concert of about 1h30, the pianist makes some interventions (quite funny) and puts them in context, but presents her pieces very little and that’s not a big deal: we navigate between those of her two most recent albums by letting ourselves carried by the atmospheres, contemplative or sad, melancholic or joyful, filled with hope or tormented.
She is mostly solo, sometimes abandons the grand piano to settle on the upright piano, and is occasionally supported by the Karski string duo, made up of two Polish musicians. Their nuanced presence gives an extra touch to the neo-romantic music of Alexandra Stréliski w and is sometimes even absolutely necessary, as on the so sad and so beautiful Élégie.
Alexandra Stréliski is back on tour this fall in a technically lighter version of this show. But for those who are presented on the big stages like in Joliette – Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier in Montreal, Grand Théâtre de Québec, Cogeco amphitheater, among others – the musician is surrounded by an imposing scenography, created by the French designers of Cirque Red.
The space around and behind the pianist is adorned by two huge frames where, at the start of the show, a work separated into two parts is integrated – more precisely Diana and Apollo piercing with their arrows the children of Niobé by Jacques-Louis David, who is associated with the neo-romantic movement. The two structures then transform and are moved from one painting to another, becoming giant cubicles where their companions play in the shadows, the windows of an apartment, a dense forest that grows towards the light.
If we have a criticism to make, it may be the too many manipulations involved in these multiple movements, which create a distraction. Moreover, the more the show progresses, the more we tend towards stripping and the more we have the impression of being at the very heart of the emotion. A last sequence on the upright piano, where the pianist is alone in front of a yellow then red background, under a white beam of light, is so busy that she herself will take a little time before getting up from her bench.
Then, as an encore, she invites a young spectator, Antoine, 10 years old, to come and play her great success Earlier, in a touching moment full of empathy.
The show ends with Neo-Romance, “a little love song”, because in this world of tensions, what we have left, “is just love”, believes the musician. “Although it’s cliché to say so. »
“Thank you for the gift, it was really beautiful,” a dad whispered to his adult son right next to us as we left the amphitheater in a serene atmosphere. He put his hand on her shoulder, and in the cool dampness of that late August evening, all the love in the world was expressed in an instant, through the power of music. A power even greater than stopping the rain.
