Rufus Wainwright Shakes It Up On Live Album With Amsterdam Sinfonietta

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“I’m a little behind,” Rufus Wainwright said.

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He could have been talking about many things: his return to the stage, after the pandemic; or his new album, Rufus Wainwright and Amsterdam Sinfonietta Live, which we’ll get to in a moment. But he was referring to his hometown.

Over the phone from his home in Los Angeles, the beloved Montreal singer-songwriter spoke fondly of his recent return to our city, where he jumped on stage with his sister Martha during their performance at the Outremont Theater, and where he decided it was time to make it a time. again have a pied-à-terre.

“I just got a little room in an apartment on Esplanade and was getting it ready,” Wainwright said. “I feel the need to be close to Montreal. I hadn’t seen my family in about three years. During the pandemic, I definitely experienced a lot of yearning for Montreal, not to go back there permanently, but to further develop a foothold in that part of the world.

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“I also sold my apartment in New York. I gave up Manhattan and felt good about it. Then this need for Montreal resurfaced. My aunts are getting on there, I want to go see them more. And certainly taking a break from the US is good for the old mental health. “

Wainwright rents a room in an apartment that belongs to some friends. And while it won’t be here all the time, we should see it more. Perhaps he was inspired by Martha, who has been living here again for the past few years, including opening her own Mile End cafe and music venue, Ursa, where Rufus has participated in some hot ticket fundraising concerts.

Speaking of concerts, his new album was inspired by a 2017 mini-tour of the Netherlands with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta string ensemble. The shows found Wainwright browsing through his own repertoire and some of his favorite songs from across the musical spectrum. The collaboration happened by chance.

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“I had this amazing agent for years, David Chumbley, who was my first European agent,” Wainwright said. Sadly, he passed away from cancer (later in 2017). He always got me really cool shows, and I have to say he was a bit of a mobster too, he could be really tough and scary, which is appreciated in an agent.

“At one point an offer came to work with an orchestra, the Amsterdam Sinfonietta. I had never heard of them, but I trusted my agent and went in and we put together a game. I let them make all the arrangements. It was a true leap of faith. When I arrived and we started going over the songs with the orchestra, I was dumbfounded by how great the whole situation was: the musicians and the arrangements. “

Rufus Wainwright and Amsterdam Sinfonietta Live is the document of that meeting, providing a fresh perspective on the singer-songwriter’s wide musical range, covering everyone from Irving Berlin to Leonard Cohen, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Hector Berlioz, Joni Mitchell and Lhasa de Sela. , interspersed with a variety of his own melodies.

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“It’s a real medley of stuff,” Wainwright said. “I just felt this need to (show) the wide variety of material that I have covered over the years, and have it all recorded, all framed in a similar wood, say, with a string section.

“I think, look, I wouldn’t say it’s a cool move, but in hindsight it’s a very solid proposition.”

Bringing the various styles together is Wainwright’s distinctive voice, notable for its range, power, and technical prowess, yet entirely unconventional. As a singer, he feels at home wherever he goes, never losing the idiosyncratic qualities that Rufus makes him.

“If anything, (this album) shows that my voice has an uncanny multi-faceted ability where it can transform in all these different areas but still maintain its identity,” Wainwright said. “When I sing classical, I still sing like Rufus Wainwright. And the same with jazz or with my own material; although I am respectful of the gender, I am not ruling it out. I am deeply rooted in the material. It’s a balance between keeping my personality and serving the music. “

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And so a solemn rendition of Cohen’s Who By Fire is followed by a dizzying rendition of Mitchell’s All I Want; while a heartbreaking nine-minute version of Sela’s Lhasa death acceptance ode I’m Going In gives way to an energetic tackling of Berlioz’s L’Île inconnue.

The Lhasa piece, which Wainwright calls “the one I am most proud of,” has special meaning to him, as the late Montreal singer died just weeks before his mother, Kate McGarrigle, in 2010.

“That song became a real anthem for me at that time,” he said. “It helped me understand what my mother was dealing with, without her having to tell me.”

During his career of more than two decades, Wainwright has recorded pop albums, a tribute to Judy Garland, an album of Shakespearean sonnets set to music, and has composed a couple of operas. Although it is far from being a compendium of all that activity, the new album is emblematic of it.

“I don’t think there should be boundaries between music,” Wainwright said. “I believe a lot in the autonomy of the types of music, but they should all be climbable mountains for everyone.”

AT A GLANCE: Rufus Wainwright and Amsterdam Sinfonietta Live came out on Friday.

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