Learn more about the life and rich career of Jacques Hétu, from a musical rather than a chronological point of view.

Biography

Jacques Hétu died on February 9, 2010, from cancer, at his home in Saint-Hippolyte, near Montreal, surrounded by his family.

Hétu's catalog includes five symphonies, concertos for viola, flute, oboe and English horn, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, piano, organ, ondes Martenot, guitar, marimba and vibraphone and a Triple concerto for violin, cello and piano; several orchestral works including Images de la Révolution, Le Tombeau de Nelligan, Variations concertantes and Légendes; works for voice and orchestra including Les Abîmes du rêve, the Missa pro trecentesimo anno (written for the tercentenary of the birth of JS Bach), the opera Le Prix as well as several works of chamber music.

Pieces

JACQUES HÉTU, born in Trois-Rivières on August 8, 1938, is one of the most performed Canadian composers, here and abroad. He left Collège Brébeuf at age 15 to study music with Jules Martel at the University of Ottawa. From 1956 to 1961, he studied composition with Clermont Pépin at the Montreal Conservatory of Music and, from 1961 to 1963, with Henri Dutilleux at the École Normale de Musique in Paris as well as analysis with Olivier Messiaen at the Paris Conservatory. From 1963 to 1977, he taught composition and analysis at Laval University in Quebec, then from 1979 to 2000, he was professor of analysis at the University of Quebec in Montreal.

The masters

In 1990, Pinchas Zukerman invited the composer on tour with the National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa, to Germany, Denmark and the United Kingdom. Two of his works were chosen from the repertoire for this prestigious tour: his 3rd Symphony and Antinomie. In November of the same year, Charles Dutoit conducted the New York Philharmonic in Images de la Révolution, a commission from the Orchester symphonique de Montréal (OSM) for the bicentenary of the French Revolution. In May 1992, Kurt Masur, the New York Philharmonic and soloist Philip Smith presented the American premiere of his trumpet concerto.

The conductors

Le Tombeau de Nelligan, created in Paris by the Orchester Philharmonique de Radio France, was taken on tour by the OSM and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Furthermore, a recording by the CBC Radio Orchestra, conducted by Mario Bernardi, entirely devoted to the music of Jacques Hétu, released on the Les Disques de Radio-Canada / CBC Records label, won the 2004 Juno Prize for Best Album. classic of the year. This disc brings together four concertos (flute, clarinet, bassoon and the second for piano) performed by the greatest Canadian soloists including the pianist André Laplante to whom the second Piano Concerto is dedicated.

The orchestras

Hétu places an important place on lyricism, poetry, emotion and coherence of speech; he is also sensitive to a plastic sound and the structural rigor of his contemporaries. Within traditional forms, it structures the elements in a cyclical manner arising from the assertive force of the thematic material, the rigor of the writing and the demands of unity. Over the years, he tends towards the simplification of his language through a broadening of the framework, and also towards an ever more lyrical expression. The elements of his style could be defined as follows: neo-classical forms and neo-romantic expression in a language using 20th century techniques.

The music