Glasperlenspiel Music Festival
Sun, July 13th at 9 pm, St. John’s church (Jaani Str. 5, Tartu)
MYSTICAL UNITING
Rémi Boucher (guitar, Canada) & Peeter Vähi (composer, tānpūrā). Guest performers Heili Rosin-Leivategija (flute) and Marie-Helen Aavakivi (violin), also Johannes Vähi (tānpūrā)
Program: Rodrigo, Vähi, Boucher, Lecuona… including Concierto de Aranjuez and Mystical Uniting.
Rémi Boucher was born in 1964 in Rouyn-Noranda (Québec, Canada). He studied the classical guitar in the Montreal Conservatory with Jean Vallières and afterwards completed his studies in Spain (with J. Henriquez, J. L. Rodrigo, V. Mikulka, David Russell, M. Barrueco), in Belgium at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp (with V. van Puijenbroeck) and in Switzerland at the Basel Academy with O. Ghiglia. Those travels would not have been accomplished without the aid of the “Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec” and the Canada Council, which not only offered him many grants, but the Sylva Gelber Award, making Rémi Boucher the first guitarist in 30 years to have won this honor!
In addition to his many national and international prices, in less than 18 months, Rémi Boucher has conquered Europe, America and Asia winning at the unanimity the first prize of five of the most important international music competitions (Alessandria in Italy, Andrès Segovia in Palma de Mallorca in Spain, Havana in Cuba, Mauro Guiliani in Turin, and Fernando Sor in Roma).
Since that great success, he was invited by many major symphony orchestras in all over the world, which gave him the opportunities to play up to ten of the greatest guitar concertos conducted in some cases by the famous Cuban composer Léo Brouwer. Because of the success coming out of his concerts his career expanded very fast and allowed him to play, to gives master classes and to participate as member of international juries in many of the most important competitions, music festivals and universities of the world with regularly renewed invitations.
His love and relationship with other cultures, his interest for all kinds of instruments and his work to create new ideas, brought him to discover new technical possibilities, which allow him to enlarge the capabilities of the instrument. Pioneer in that domain, he collaborated closely with conductors to create a repertory that could serve those new musical possibilities. To study those techniques Rémi Boucher has also created a series of his own compositions and a new technical method. His last success was a fruit of 7 years of works in collaboration with his favorite conductor and pianist Jacques Marchand from Canada that composed for him one of the biggest and most impressive concerto ever composed for classical guitar and symphony orchestra. The concerto is now published in two versions, one for guitar and symphony orchestra and the other for solo guitar. His last critics in Austria told that Rémi Boucher has no technical and musical limits, the concerto of Marchand was sub-titled “concerto for three hands…”!
His repertoire also includes all of the most famous guitar concertos (Rodrigo, Villa-Lobos, Tedesco, Ponce, Torroba, Brouwer, Rodrigo, Abril, Guiliani, Vivaldi) just as well as the most interesting works for solo guitar from the Renaissance to the Modern music. In 2012, he premiered Peeter Vähi’s Guitar Concerto No. 2 (Antarctic Concerto). Rémi Boucher is especially known for his excellent interpretation of impressionist and Spanish music that were strongly acclaimed by the critics in all over the world.
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of India’s independence, Rémi Boucher was invited by the Canadian Governor General to perform in concert. As a representative of Canadian artists, he was also invited by the President of India for a meeting between both countries. These stupendous and rarely seen successes have definitely set the pace for Rémi’s brilliant career.
“Rémi Boucher has fire, passion, zest and poetry and he has them in spades. There is hope for the guitar when it is play like this…” (International Guitar Magazine)
Rémi Boucher plays on a guitar built by Joachim Schneider, Germany.
A selection of review fragments (in original languages) about the work that gave the concert its name
Tema kammerteoste imaginaarne alge, Ida traditsioonilise muusika põimumine Lääne klassikalise traditsiooniga, New Age‘ile iseloomulik tolerants esoteeriliste religioonide vastu – kõik see annab põhjust Peeter Vähi loomingus näha müstilist ühinemist erinevate maade ja ajastute vaimukultuuriga, sisseelamisvõimet pealtnäha eksootilisse kultuurikonteksti. Ning eks ole ju helilooja kirjutanud tähendusrikka pealkirjaga teose Mystical Uniting… milles võib soovi korral näha isegi teatud programmilist manifesti. (Igor Garšnek, 1998, Estonia)
Vähi ja tema budism on albumi nimiloos täiesti tuntav, kui nii flööt kui ka kitarr imiteerivad orientaalseid pille ja teiselt poolt maakera pärit müstilisi tundmusi. (Postimees, 2000, Estonia)
Ja ei puudunud sel kontserdil ka need teosed, mida kuulates oli võimalik iseendasse süüvida või omaenese minast hoopis kaugemale vaadata (Müstiline ühinemine…). Tõeliselt vastutulelik publik tajub sääraseid hoovusi lennult. (Meelespea, 2000)
Mystical Uniting − a composition which includes rock elements and meditative passages. (Öffentlicher Anzeiger Bad Kreuznach, 2005, Germany)
Klänge wie kreischende spitze Schreie, dazu beunruhigende klopfende Töne: Die Ausstellungseröffnung endete mit dem Stück Mystical Uniting… (Evangelische Kirche in Rheinland, 2005, Germany)
Müstiline ühinemine… teosest selgub, et viiuli ja kitarri ühenduses peitub emotsioon, mille baasiks kirg ja kirglikkus, et see duo võib olla ülidünaamiliselt temperamentne ja värvikirev… (Muusika, 2005, Estonia)
Müstiline ühinemine flöödile, viiulile, kitarrile, kahele tānpūrā’le ja keelpillidele algab vaiksete tānpūrā-helidega ning järk-järgult kasvatab helilooja n-ö liha luude ümber. Selles teoses kohtame rokiomaseid rütmilisi kujundeid, harmooniaid, millega segunevad idamaised meeleolud ja tunnetuslikkus. (Sirp, 2006, Estonia)
Mystical Uniting… contains a variety ornamentation and extended techniques. Some of these techniques include slides, tongue slaps, and flutter tonguing in the flute part and harmonics, muffled sound, tamboura, and golpe in the guitar part. Both instruments have solo and melodic material throughout. Rhythmic difficulty includes simple meter changes and the use of triplets, and thirty-second notes. The flute part features a cadenza. (Annotated guide to flute and guitar music, 2010, USA)
Mystical Uniting für dieselbe Besetzung dürften aber zum Schönsten gehören, was in Estland bislang für die Gitarre geschrieben wurde. (Magazin für Kammermusik, 2011, Germany)
Als eine Art Kontrapunkt, dabei allerdings ebenfalls als Ausdruck des breit gefächerten Spektrums der Interpreten, kam das folgende Mystical Uniting aus der Feder von Peeter Vähi… daher. Die Komposition kombiniert sowohl Elemente des Rock als auch der Technomusik sowie herkömmliche Rhythmen miteinander. Das Duo brachte sie auf untraditionelle Weise mit musikalischem “Knalleffekt” zu Gehör. (come-on.de, 2011, Germany)
… huvi idamaise muusika ja filosoofia vastu peegeldub ilmekalt Müstilises ühinemises − teoses, mis on Euroopa kammermuusikute hulgas saavutanud populaarsuse. Kaugelevaatav, kosmopoliitiline, ent siiski idamaiselt minimalistlik, koputustega kõlalauale ning pizzicatodega perkussiivseid efekte tarvitades saabuski see müstiline ühinemine. (Estonian Life, 2011, Kanada)
Mystical Uniting… Charakteristisch sind für Peeter Vähi schlichte und interessante Klänge. (General-Anzeiger, 2013, Germany)
Atemlose Stille herrschte… in der Gnadenkirche… Gleich zu Beginn zeigten die beiden Musiker mit Mystical Uniting… ihre Liebe zu ungewöhnlicher Musik. Fernöstliche Klänge schwirrten mal meditativ, mal aufwühlend durch den Kirchenraum. Dabei wurde der weiche Ton der Altquerflöte. zu einem wahren Hörgenuss. (General-Anzeiger, 2014, Germany)
Die Auftaktveranstaltung des Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festivals auf Föhr entführte das Publikum nach Estland… forderte Mystical Uniting… geradezu heraus, nach “dem” Stil zu suchen, da sich in dieser Komposition europäische Klassik mit Rock- und orientalischer Musik ein Stelldichein geben. (shz.de, Germany)
Müstiline ühinemine… milles peegeldub kõige selgemalt Peeter Vähi huvi idamaise muusika ja filosoofia vastu. Vähi ja tema budism on albumi nimiloos täiesti tuntav, kui nii flööt kui ka kitarr imiteerivad orientaalseid pille ja teiselt poolt maakera pärit müstilisi tundmusi. (Koit, 2014, Estonia)
Mystical Uniting heißt das Stück… der sich im Verlauf seiner komponistischen Tätigkeit immer mehr japanischer und tibetischer Musik zuwandte. Durch die erläuterten Worte der beiden Interpreten eingestimmt, fiel es den Zuhörern nicht schwer, vor allem Anklänge indisch-tibetischer Musik herauszuhören. (Blick Aktuell, 2015, Germany)
Organizers:
Tiina Jokinen – executive director
Kadri Kiis – producer, accountant
Meeta Vardja – musicologist, editor of festival booklet
Mart Kivisild – design
Olavi Sööt – co-producer, logistics
Reno Hekkonens – marketing director, PR
Johannes Vähi – co-producer, webmaster, sound engineering, logistics
Rebeca Birk – social media
Special thanks: Tartu City Government, Urmas Klaas, Triin Käpp, Jana Raud, Ministry of Culture of Estonia, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Canon and Overall, Toyota, St John’s church, Kaupo Kiis, Kristel Leppik, volunteers
Previous festivals: 2024; 2023; 2022; 2021; 2020; 2019; 2018; 2017; 2016; 2015; 2014; 2013; 2012; 2011; 2010; 2009; 2008; 2007; 2006; 2005; Archives: Glasperlenspiel 2003 and 2004