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Principal Conductor Bernard Labadie leads the Orchestra of St Luke’s in a superbly sung and played performance of Bach’s fiery and dramatic St John Passion. 

Marie-Nicole Lemieux and Karina Gauvin star in Mozart concert arias before a very gentle Pastoral Symphony at the Maison symphonique.

A rare Bach devotee among today's immensely talented crop of under-thirty pianists, Beatrice Rana interpreted both concertos with great incisiveness.

The Orchestra of St. Luke's and Bernard Labadie came up with the excellent idea of a Bach-centered festival in New York. 

Despite an abundance of incongruous symbols, this Toronto performance was remarkable for its outstanding singing.

As part of their swing through some of America’s top concert halls, Isabelle Faust joined Les Violons du Roy to bring Bach and Handel to Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Guest conductor Bernard Labadie introduced Henri-Joseph Rigel’s music to Cleveland, as well as leading Mozart’s Symphony no. 40, K550.

The Canadian chamber orchestra Les Violons du Roy, using baroque bows on metal strings at modern pitch, came to Walt Disney Concert Hall, backing Alexandre Tharaud on a big beautiful Steinway.

Labadie made a noteworthy return to the Chicago Symphony in a satisfying performance of Handel's Messiah.

Beautiful sacred vocal music by Vivaldi and Pergolesi, performed by Roberta Invernizzi, Sonia Prina and the English Concert.

Handel's Solomon is given a revelatory performance by an all-star cast of principles, La Chapelle de Québec and the Violons du Roy under the direction of Bernard Labadie.

A concert of music by Rameau and Gluck featuring Bernard Labadie and his Violons du Roy provided respite from a cold winter’s night in Montreal.

Stephanie Blythe appeared in recital with Les Violons du Roy Saturday evening at the Maison Symphonique de Montréal, the second stop in a seven-city tour that the renowned mezzo-soprano is taking with the ensemble this fall. Blythe performed Haydn’s infrequently heard cantata Arianna a Naxos and favorite arias from Handel’s Giulio Cesare.

While this concert’s marketing was focused on Mozart’s Requiem, it was Haydn in the first half that made the greater impact, in the form of an ecstatically virtuosic performance of his Cello Concerto no. 1 with soloist Alban Gerhardt. Passagework was everywhere immaculately tuned and played with perfect dexterity, Gerhardt’s fingers dancing up and down the instrument with tremendous velocity.

Saturday night’s performance of Handel’s oratorio Theodora at La Maison Symphonique in Montréal was magnificent, probably the best concert I’ve seen this season. Les Violons du Roy, La Chapelle de Québec, as well as a handful of soloists from Québec and England, all under the masterful direction of Bernard Labadie, brought this somewhat obscure work vividly to life.

Sometimes, glancing through reviews and recordings of Baroque opera arias, one might be forgiven for wondering whether tenors and basses ever appeared on the 18th-century stage – the genre seems dominated by the exotic lives of the castrati and the incredibly exciting music that was written for them.

An outstanding lineup of soloists joined Bernard Labadie at Carnegie Hall Sunday for a performance of J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion. Hearing Labadie conduct his own ensemble Les Violons du Roy and the chamber choir La Chapelle de Québec with such a superb group of soloists was truly a treat indeed.