About Yannick Plamondon's Composition

                    Esprit Orchestra commissioned (with support from Canada Council for the Arts) a new musical piece from composer Yannick Plamondon during its 2002/03 Season.

                    Esprit conducted by Alex Pauk gave the World Premiere performance of stark, utter, forego… on Sunday, March 30, 2003, as part of its Time Chant concert, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, Toronto

                    For Russell Banks

                    Above all, as usual, i was thinking about the process of writing. Also in a broader sense, about the complex relations that exist between truth and fiction. I was trying to organize a stream of lines simultaneously leading in and out of the main conceptual frame - blurred lines, self-containined in their complexity.

                    A meditation on identity, a story about the life on the cold banks of wrath and loneliness - wrath and loneliness considered as heroic, but also suspicious, representations of passion and wisdom - I was thinking of Hamilton Stark (Russell Banks), a New Hampshire pipe-fitter, and Captain Werner from 'Das boot.'

                    A pipe-fitter, a sailor, what did i look like ?
What is my territory ? Who's gonna tell me ?

                    Stark, utter, forego…, concerto pour piano et orchestre

                    For Russell Banks

                    Comme toujours, j'avais en tête les processus d'écriture mais aussi plus largement, les relations complexes existant entre vérité et fiction. J'essayais de bâtir des faisceaux de lignes à la fois vers et en dehors de l'idée, en elles-mêmes évasives et fascinées de complexité.

                    Une méditation sur l'identité, une relation de la vie sur les rives froides de la colère et la solitude considérées en tant que représentations héroïques possibles, mais aussi suspectes, de la passion et de la sagesse.

                    Je pensais à Hamilton Stark (Banks), un plombier du New Hampshire et l'habitant unique d'une maison de laquelle il a expulsé sa propre mère. Et aussi… au capitaine (Das boot).

                    Un plombier, un marin, à quoi je peux bien ressembler ?
Quel est mon territoire ? Qui me le dira ?

                    Programme note by Yannick Plamondon