The 3rd decade of Les Violons du Roy

The third decade of Les Violons du Roy's existence is reminiscent of the quote attributed to Mark Twain, Marcel Pagnol and others: “They didn't know it was impossible, so they did it." Indeed, from autumn 2004 to spring 2014, Les Violons du Roy will embark on 18 international tours, numerous tours of Quebec and Canada, and record 16 albums!

The international renown of Les Violons du Roy and La Chapelle de Québec

During this period, Les Violons du Roy embark on three major European tours, with Vivica Genaux, Alexandre Tharaud and Magdalena Kožená respectively. There will also be three short tours of Mexico and another, equally brief and unique to date, in Israel. Les Violons du Roy will make no fewer than 11 American tours, including three with La Chapelle de Québec. These tours include debuts at New York's Carnegie Hall, Washington's Kennedy Center and Los Angeles' Walt Disney Concert Hall. From 2011, U.S. tours will be handled by New York-based Opus 3 Artists. They will feature collaborations with great artists such as Ian Bostridge, Emmanuel Pahud, Stephanie Blythe, Maurice Steger and others.

La Chapelle de Québec itself

In December 2004, La Chapelle de Québec was invited, along with Bernard Labadie, to present Handel's Messiah alongside the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall, newly inaugurated in 2003. The concert is broadcast worldwide on digital radio. La Chapelle de Québec will return to Los Angeles on a number of occasions with Bernard Labadie, either alone or with Les Violons du Roy.

Recordings in abundance

Spring 2005 saw the first recording for an international label, Virgin Classics, with mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux, whom we had met at the Festival de Lanaudière the previous year. Three more recordings followed for this label, which was taken over by Warner in 2013 under the Erato banner: two discs with Alexandre Tharaud, and one with Norwegian cellist Truls Mork. Recordings for Hyperion (Haydn with Marc-André Hamelin) and Naïve (Gluck, Haydn and Mozart with Marie-Nicole Lemieux) have added further prestigious, high-quality milestones to the discography in recent years.

Begun in 2004, the collaboration with ATMA Classique continues and will also undergo marked development with the successive release of seven albums reflecting the broadening of Les Violons du Roy's musical and sonic palette, with the remarkable Piazzolla album (Juno Award) conducted by Jean-Marie Zeitouni. This was followed by albums of Bartók and Britten with the same conductor. As Jean-Marie Zeitouni moved from conductor-in-residence to associate conductor to principal guest conductor, other conductors-in-residence followed, each contributing in their own way to the expansion of the repertoire: Airat Ichmouratov, Eric Paetkau and Mathieu Lussier. In 2013, the latter will record his first album as associate conductor, La Cigale et Les Violons, featuring fables by La Fontaine set to music by Rameau and Gougeon, with Catherine Perrin, who conceived the project.

This will be followed by recordings of performances with the late jazzman Bernard Primeau, and with the great Diane Dufresne under the direction of guest conductors Alain Trudel and Simon Leclerc. Again, these projects reflect the expansion of our repertoire and collaborations.

Despite all these achievements, the most decisive event of the decade for Les Violons du Roy and La Chapelle de Québec was their installation in residence at the completely renovated Palais Montcalm.

An exceptional home base in Quebec City

On the morning of January 30, 2007, the entire Les Violons du Roy team - musicians, administrative staff and Bernard Labadie - experienced one of the most important moments in its history: their very first rehearsal on the stage of the Salle Raoul-Jobin at the Palais Montcalm - Maison de la Musique. The hall is not yet ready - the seats have not yet all been installed, and much finishing work remains to be done. Nevertheless, the stage is set for the concert Une journée avec Haydn (A Day with Haydn) to be given on February 2, 2007 at the Église Saint-Dominique, Les Violons' penultimate concert before the long-awaited reopening of the Palais Montcalm.

The rehearsal begins with Haydn's Symphony no. 26 “Lamentations”, which Les Violons have already played a few times. Immediately, we conclude that the miracle hoped for and awaited for five years (and more!) has indeed materialized: a venue perfectly adapted to the orchestra's needs, and which will at last enable Quebec City to hear the musicians' work as they have the pleasure of presenting it on some of the world's most prestigious stages.

The opening of the new Palais Montcalm will take place in two phases: an evening in which Les Violons du Roy will take part, and a grand concert with La Chapelle de Québec. In both cases, it's Handel's music that resonates: The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba from Salomon on March 17, then the entirety of another oratorio, Israel in Egypt, on March 23 and 24, 2007.

Throughout the spring, Les Violons du Roy presents special programming including Pergolesi's Stabat Mater with Karina Gauvin and Marie-Nicole Lemieux, and concerts featuring the late Jeanne Lamon and Arion Orchestre Baroque. Also launched is the 2007-2008 program, which will be the very first full season presented in the new hall. The four new series are called Grands rendez-vous, Bach avant tout, renamed Baroque avant tout the following season, Plaisirs d'après-midi, at 2 pm, and Chefs-d'œuvre du matin, at 10:30 am. The latter will be discontinued after a few years.

In mid-June, Les Violons and Bernard Labadie record their very first CD in the new hall, for ATMA Classique. This was Handel's complete Water Music, which went on to win a Félix award at the ADISQ Gala the following year.

The final stage of the hall's renovation was slightly delayed by 6 years. On October 4, 2013, the original Casavant organ will be inaugurated by one of Les Violons du Roy's founding members, Richard Paré. He will also be soloist in Poulenc's Concerto pour orgue conducted by Jean-François Rivest in spring 2014.

Ranks filled, then departures

Alongside the move into the new hall and the concerts held there, the decade was also marked by the successive arrival of four new musicians between 2005 and 2013: Annie Morrier, Raphaël McNabney, Raphaël Dubé and Isaac Chalk. All the orchestra's permanent positions are filled, before harpsichordist and organist Richard Paré announces his retirement, to devote himself to his duties at Université Laval's Faculty of Music and Saints-Martyrs-Canadiens Church.

In spring 2013, founding conductor Bernard Labadie announced that he would be stepping down at the end of the 2013-2014 season. However, he wishes to remain music director of La Chapelle de Québec. A committee will be set up to find his successor.

Approximately six months after the committee began its work, in May 2014, Bernard Labadie fell gravely ill while in Germany: a rare form of cancerous lymphoma. At the end of a decade of great richness and many reasons to rejoice, it was on this worrying note that the 2013-2014 season came to a close. We'll have to wait until the following autumn and the start of the 4th decade to know that the founding conductor is out of danger and on the road to a long recovery, which will force him to suspend his career for almost 18 months.

In the meantime, Les Violons du Roy and La Chapelle de Québec are now in residence in one of North America's finest concert halls, just as Bernard Labadie and his musicians dreamed. In addition to this exceptional residency in Quebec City, from autumn 2011 they will also benefit from two new concert halls in the metropolis: the Maison symphonique de Montréal and Salle Bourgie at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, two exceptional concert halls in which Les Violons du Roy and La Chapelle de Québec will now give their Montreal concerts.