Schubert / Winterreise
Philippe Sly & Le Chimera Project
Apr 9, 2019
Doors: 6 p.m.Performance: 7:32 p.m.
Arsenal Contemporary Art Montreal invites you to Philippe Sly & Le Chimera Project‘s Schubert: Winterreise – Album Launch.
Philippe Sly and Le Chimera Project revisit Schubert’s Winterreise, and offer a captivating version of this masterpiece. From Schubert’s score, only the vocal part remains intact and bass-baritone Philippe Sly’s reading of it is touching and impressive. The piano part is replaced by the Chimera Project, an ensemble that comprises of trombone, violin, accordion, clarinet and a hurdy-gurdy.
This delightful instrumentation brings this great work into musical territories that are both familiar and foreign by giving it Klezmer / Roma colours. At once joyous and filled with longing, this form of music is associated with both celebration and a collaborative Roma spirit, making it an ideal genre to explore and highlight the intimate relationship between Schubert’s devastating music and Müller’s poetic vision.
This free concert will start at exactly 7:32PM, in time for sunset.
ABOUT PHILIPPE SLY
French Canadian bass-baritone Philippe Sly has gained international recognition for his “beautiful, blooming tone and magnetic stage presence” (San Francisco Chronicle). Mr. Sly, a First Prize winner of the prestigious Concours Musical International de Montréal and a Grand Prize winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, sings the varied repertoire of Mozart, Bach, Handel, Stravinsky, and Wagner. Recently, he was awarded Concert of the Year in Romantic, Post-Romantic and Impressionist Music at the 16th annual ceremony of Québec’s Prix Opus.
ABOUT CHIMERA PROJECT
From its inception in 2017, Le Chimera Project holds as its primary goal to create musical and theatrical performances that transcend the traditional concert hall experience. The group is an eclectic mix of classical, jazz, big band and folk musicians working with a stage designer and director. Key to the ensemble’s philosophy is for all musicians to perform from memory and take part in the staging of any given production, creating a unique blend of the “travelling band ethos” and opera’s articulated aesthetic. Another unique characteristic is that their productions are designed to be performed in and adapted to any acoustic space – further emphasizing the “travelling troupe” ethos at the heart of this collective.