Montreal Symphony’s 2022-23 Season Marks Start of Riveting New Chapter, with Inauguration of “Fireball” Rafael Payare’s Tenure as Music Director
Rafael Payare and the Montreal Symphony (photo: Antoine Saito)
(June 2022)—The 2022-23 season marks the first page of a riveting new chapter for the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (OSM) – the only Canadian nominee in the history of Gramophone’s “Orchestra of the Year” award – when Rafael Payare inaugurates his tenure as Music Director. Always “electric in front of an orchestra” (Los Angeles Times), the Venezuelan conductor leads OSM in 24 concerts at its Montreal home – where highlights include the launch of a new, multi-season Mahler cycle – and eight more over the course of two high-profile international tours, with concerts in Budapest and Zagreb as well as at the Vienna Konzerthaus, Brussels’s BOZAR, London’s Royal Festival Hall, Washington DC’s Kennedy Center and New York’s Carnegie Hall. The season also features the world premieres of four new commissions, a pair of reunions with OSM Conductor Emeritus Kent Nagano, and collaborations with a host of stellar guest conductors, including Osmo Vänskä, Tianyi Lu and Leonardo García Alarcón, all making OSM debuts, and returning favorites Bernard Labadie, Dalia Stasevska and Hannu Lintu. The starry roster of concerto and vocal soloists includes Yefim Bronfman, Michelle DeYoung, Augustin Hadelich, Barbara Hannigan, Angela Hewitt, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Daniil Trifonov, Maxim Vengerov and Alisa Weilerstein. A season-long celebration of choral music and connectedness showcases the OSM Chorus in works ranging from the Christmas Oratorio to the Cantata criolla, while an exploration of “The Mathematics of Music” and a specially adapted concert for children with special needs are among the orchestra’s rich offerings for young audiences. Demonstrating a renewed commitment to community, education and creative programming under Payare’s invigorating leadership, the Montreal Symphony’s 89th season underscores its role as a cultural force on the international scene.
Also serving as Music Director of California’s San Diego Symphony, Principal Conductor of Virginia’s Castleton Festival and Conductor Laureate of Northern Ireland’s Ulster Orchestra, incoming Music Director Rafael Payare is “electric,” declares the Philadelphia Inquirer; “he seems to hit the jackpot wherever he goes.” Styling the conductor “a fireball of energy onstage,” the Wall Street Journal affirms: “He is a musician to watch.” Even before taking up the reins of his new position, the conductor enjoys an affinity with OSM that has already drawn notice. As Gramophone reports, “Payare made his debut with the orchestra in 2018, and the rapport he’s developed with them made him the unanimous choice of the eleven-member selection committee.” When the conductor collaborated with the orchestra last February, their performance prompted a five-star review in Bachtrack, which marveled:
“This was an inspiring and emotional concert that showcased the superb quality of musicianship and beauty of sound of the OSM …, directed with intensity and strength by Rafael Payare.”
With the return to live performance, their relationship looks set to deepen still further. Payare says:
“I am touched by the kindness and warmth I have received since I arrived and have great confidence in my shared future with the orchestra. This season is especially meaningful, since we have designed it to allow everyone to rekindle their enjoyment of concerts fully invested with a human presence, concerts that are welcoming and gratifying to the senses.”
Payare at home and on tour: Mahler, Shostakovich, Mendelssohn, Estévez and more
Payare’s interpretation of Mahler’s First Symphony has been hailed as “spectacular Mahler” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). Now, in the inaugural season of the conductor’s OSM tenure, he and the orchestra launch a multi-year Mahler cycle, over the course of which they will perform the Austrian composer’s complete symphonies and major vocal works. Payare and OSM kick off their season (Sep 14–17) with the late Romantic composer’s choral Second Symphony (“Resurrection”), paired with the world premiere of a new OSM co-commission from Mahler’s countryman, Thomas Larcher, and they draw the 2022-23 season to a close with Mahler’s longest and most life-affirming symphony, the Third (May 31–June 3).
Similarly, Mahler’s Fifth Symphony forms a focal point of both upcoming international tours. They undertake the monumental work this fall at the Vienna Konzerthaus (Oct 24) on their first European tour together, before revisiting it next spring when they return to the United States. With a program that also includes Dorothy Chang’s Precipice and Bartók’s Second Piano Concerto, with Grammy-winning powerhouse pianist Yefim Bronfman as soloist, their U.S. tour takes them to destinations including Washington’s Kennedy Center (March 6) and New York’s Carnegie Hall (March 8), after which they reprise the same program at home in Montreal (March 9).
Payare’s recent recording of Shostakovich’s Eleventh Symphony prompted Fanfare to hail him as “a top-tier conductor,” and his leadership of the Russian composer’s Tenth figures prominently in OSM’s coming season, with performances in Montreal (Oct 12 & 13), Zagreb (Oct 21), Budapest (Oct 22) and at the Vienna Konzerthaus (Oct 23), Brussels’s BOZAR (Oct 27) and London’s Royal Festival Hall (Oct 28). He and the orchestra also join the OSM Chorus, a full cast of actors, and award-winning director Catherine Vidal for a staged adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream that intersperses Mendelssohn’s beloved incidental music with excerpts from the Shakespeare comedy (Sep 21 & 22). To round out his fall lineup, the Music Director helms a Bach cantata matinee (Sep 24 & 25), a festive holiday program (Dec 14 & 15) and a pairing of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique with Lonely Child, the most personal work by murdered Quebecois composer Claude Vivier, in which Grammy-winning Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan makes her OSM debut (Dec 7, 10 & 11).
Next spring, Payare leads an evening of Richard Strauss, whose music has special resonance for him, pairing the composer’s tone poem A Hero’s Life with his final masterpiece, the Four Last Songs, featuring Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva (March 28 & 30). MacArthur award-winning cellist Alisa Weilerstein, the Music Director’s wife, joins Payare and the orchestra for the same composer’s Don Quixote, heard alongside their world premiere performances of Melita, a new OSM commission from two-time Juno Award-winning Composer-in-Residence Ana Sokolović. Keen to integrate more works of Latin American origin into OSM’s repertoire, the conductor concludes this program with the potent, three-movement Cantata criolla by his compatriot Antonio Estévez (April 26 & 27). Last season, Payare and the orchestra gave the same composer’s Melodia en el Llano “a Rolls Royce performance” (Bachtrack).
Nagano, Vänskä, Stasevska, Trifonov, Vengerov, Thibaudet and other guest stars
The Montreal Symphony is delighted to welcome back Kent Nagano, named OSM Conductor Emeritus in recognition of his outstanding 14-year tenure as its Music Director. After conducting an evening of Schubert and Mozart this fall (Nov 22–24), Nagano returns to lead a program of Tchaikovsky, Sibelius and Arvo Pärt featuring French pianist Alexandre Kantorow, winner of the 2019 Tchaikovsky Competition, making his OSM debut in the Russian composer’s Second Piano Concerto (Feb 22, 25 & 26).
OSM also collaborates with a host of stellar guest conductors over the course of the season. Finnish maestro Osmo Vänskä, Music Director of Korea’s Seoul Philharmonic, makes his OSM debut and juxtaposes the music of Beethoven with that of leading contemporary composers Kaija Saariaho and Unsuk Chin (Sep 28 & 29). Finnish-Ukrainian conductor Dalia Stasevska, Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony, combines Sibelius’s Sixth Symphony with Sofia Gubaidulina’s The Light of the End and Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto, with Montreal’s Bruce Liu, winner of the 2021 Chopin Competition, as soloist (April 19 & 20). Eighteenth-century specialist Bernard Labadie, Principal Conductor of New York’s Orchestra of St. Luke’s, conducts Haydn’s oratorio The Creation, widely considered the composer’s crowning masterpiece (April 7 & 8). Ben Palmer, Chief Conductor of the Deutsche Philharmonie Merck, leads a Hollywood-themed program of Korngold and John Williams (April 11 & 12), and Finland’s Hannu Lintu, Chief Conductor of the Finnish National Opera, joins Grammy-winning pianist Daniil Trifonov – “without question the most astounding pianist of our age” (The Times of London) – and his mentor, Sergei Babayan, for performances of Bartók’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Percussion (May 23 & 24).
France’s Laurence Equilbey, Music Director of the Insula Orchestra, makes her OSM debut with a program featuring British-Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt, a member of Gramophone’s “Hall of Fame,” and other past winners of the OSM Competition in Beethoven’s “Triple” Concerto (Nov 9 & 10). France’s Jérémie Rhorer leads Grammy-nominated French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet in Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F, alongside music by Ravel, Stravinsky and Éric Champagne (Feb 28; March 1), and Denmark’s Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider collaborates with Maxim Vengerov, “one of the greatest violinists in the world” (Classic FM), on Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto (Jan 18 & 19). Others making guest appearances on the Montreal Symphony House podium include Jacques Lacombe (Nov 12), John Storgårds (May 10, 11 & 13), Jordan de Souza (see below), Tianyi Lu (see below) and Argentinian Baroque specialist Leonardo García Alarcón, who makes his OSM debut with an all-Bach choral program featuring seasonal accounts of the Christmas Oratorio (Dec 21 & 22).
New commissions, education and other creative programming
Dedicated to enriching the contemporary orchestral repertoire, in addition to unveiling new works by Thomas Larcher and Ana Sokolović (see above), the Montreal Symphony gives the world premieres of two further OSM commissions. One of the “new generation leading Berlin’s classical scene” (New York Times), Jordan de Souza conducts OSM Concertmaster Andrew Wan and the orchestra in the first performances of Montrealer Tim Brady’s Second Violin Concerto (Feb 8 & 9). Next, OSM premieres Ainsi chantait Simorgh by Quebec composer Katia Makdissi-Warren during an evocative celebration of Persian culture led by Solti Prize-winner Tianyi Lu, in her OSM debut (April 16).
Other creative programming includes “The Mathematics of Music,” a new family-friendly OSM production in the Children’s Corner series, which sees organist-in-residence Jean-Willy Kunz and stage director Martin Gougeon explore the relationships between music, science, mathematics and technology in a thoughtfully curated program of Strauss, Saint-Saëns, Bach, Bartók and more (Jan 29). Featuring music by Debussy, Bizet and Gounod alongside excerpts from Joseph Kosma’s score to Les enfants du paradis, a staged production of Pinocchio graces the same series (March 19). Dedicated to making music accessible to young audiences, OSM’s educational programming also includes no fewer than twelve school matinees. On International Children’s Day, conductor Thomas Le Duc-Moreau directs the OSMose family concert. Hosted by Charles Lafortune and staged by Michel Maxime-Legault, this inclusive symphonic experience offers specially adapted listening and reception conditions for those with special needs (Nov 20).
Drawing inspiration from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ “Designed by Women” exhibition, a chamber program of Florence Price, Amy Beach and Alexina Louie offers “A Feminine View” of music (May 26). This highlights OSM’s Chamber Music Series, which also presents OSM musicians in “Viennoiseries and Danishes” by Mozart, Haydn and the late Svend Schultz (Nov 25); works written by Brahms and Fanny Mendelssohn “At the Heart of the Romantic Era” (Jan 27); and a “Russian Kaleidoscope” of chamber music by composers from Glinka to Gubaidulina (March 3).
Florid counterpoint meets minimalism in a recital of Bach and Philip Glass on the Montreal Symphony House’s Grand Orgue Pierre-Béique, when Latvia’s Iveta Apkalna, resident organist of Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, makes her OSM debut (May 28). This represents the culmination of OSM’s Organ Series, which also sees organist-in-residence Jean-Willy Kunz and Canadian TV star François-Étienne Paré host the second edition of OSM’s innovative improvisation battle, “Organ & Improv,” in which actors and musicians face off on stage (Nov 2). To complete the series, James Kennerley, Municipal Organist of Portland ME, accompanies a screening of Buster Keaton’s silent film The General (1926) with original improvisations at the organ (March 23).
About the Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Founded in 1934 by Wilfrid Pelletier, Antonia Nantel and Athanase David, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (OSM) is a distinguished leader of Canadian musical life and an essential cultural ambassador. Under the leadership of Venezuelan Music Director Designate Rafael Payare, the orchestra continues its commitment to far-reaching projects and international tours, as well as to its superb discography and long history of community engagement. Firmly anchored in today’s world, OSM’s innovative approach to artistic programming brings modern-day relevance to the symphonic repertoire, both live and on disc, while strengthening the orchestra’s place at the heart of its Quebec metropolis home. Over the years, the Montreal Symphony has toured throughout Canada and beyond, traveling to Quebec’s far north as well as to the United States, South America, Europe and Asia. Totaling more than a hundred recordings on the Decca, Analekta, CBC Records, ECM, EMI, Philips and Sony labels, OSM’s discography has been recognized with more than 50 national and international awards.
High-resolution photos are available here.
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Montreal Symphony Orchestra: 2022-23 season
Sep 14–17
Rafael Payare, OSM Music Director
MAHLER: Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection” (with Dorothea Röschmann, soprano; Karen Cargill, mezzo-soprano; OSM Chorus)
Thomas LARCHER: untitled new work (world premiere of OSM co-commission)
Sep 21, 22m & 22
Rafael Payare, OSM Music Director
MENDELSSOHN: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, incidental music (with OSM Chorus; Andrew Megill, chorusmaster)
Excerpts from Shakespeare’s text in French (Catherine Vidal, stage director)
DEBUSSY: Nocturnes [Sep 21 & 22 eve only]
Sep 24m & 25m
CHAMBER SERIES
OSM musicians / Rafael Payare, OSM Music Director
(with Myriam Leblanc, soprano; Allyson McHardy, mezzo-soprano; Andrew Haji, tenor; Stephen Hegedus, bass; OSM Chamber Choir; Andrew Megill, chorusmaster)
BACH: Gott, wie dein Name, so ist auch dein Ruhm, BWV 171
BACH: Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott, BWV 101
BACH: Es erhub sich ein Streit, BWV 19
Sep 28 & 29
Osmo Vänskä, guest conductor
Unsuk CHIN: Subito con forza
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 4 (with Su Yeon Kim, piano)
Kaija SAARIAHO: Ciel d’hiver
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 5
Oct 12
Rafael Payare, OSM Music Director
LISZT: Les préludes
RAVEL: Piano Concerto in G (with Víkingur Ólafsson, piano)
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 10
Oct 13
Rafael Payare, OSM Music Director
RAVEL: Ma mère l’Oye Suite
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 24 (with Víkingur Ólafsson, piano)
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 10
Oct 21–28: European tour
Oct 21: Zagreb (Vatroslav Lisinski Hall)
LISZT: Les préludes
RAVEL: Piano Concerto in G (with Víkingur Ólafsson, piano)
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 10
Oct 22: Budapest (Müpa)
LISZT: Les préludes
RAVEL: Piano Concerto in G (with Víkingur Ólafsson, piano)
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 10
Oct 23: Vienna (Konzerthaus)
R. MURRAY SCHAFER: Scorpius
RACHMANINOFF: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (with Bruce Liu, piano)
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 10
Oct 24 (Konzerthaus)
BRAHMS: Nänie & Schickalslied (with Wiener Singakademie)
MAHLER: Symphony No. 5
Oct 27: Brussels (BOZAR)
RAVEL: Ma mère l’Oye Suite
PROKOFIEV: Violin Concerto No. 2 (with Augustin Hadelich, violin)
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 10
Oct 28: London (Royal Festival Hall)
R. MURRAY SCHAFER: Scorpius
RAVEL: Piano Concerto in G (with Vikingur Ólafsson, piano
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 10
Nov 2
ORGAN SERIES: “Organ & Improv, Opus 2”
Jean-Willy Kunz, OSM organist-in-residence
(with François-Étienne Paré, emcee; Sophie Caron, Réal Bossé & LeLouis Courchesne, actors; André Moisan, clarinets & saxophones; Hélène Lemay, trombone; Fabrice Marandola, percussion; Rashaan Allwood, organ)
Nov 9 & 10
Laurence Equilbey, guest conductor
BEETHOVEN: Coriolan Overture
BEETHOVEN: Triple Concerto (with Blake Pouliot, violin; Bryan Cheng, cello; Angela Hewitt, piano)
Louise FARRENC: Symphony No. 1
Nov 12m
Jacques Lacombe, guest conductor
(with 2022 OSM Competition finalists, piano category)
Rep will be determined by finalists’ choice of concertos.
Nov 20
International Children’s Day
Thomas Le Duc-Moreau, guest conductor
(with Charles Lafortune, host; Michel-Maxime Legault, stage director)
OSMose family concert
Nov 22, 23 & 24
Kent Nagano, OSM Conductor Emeritus
SCHUBERT: Symphony No. 3
MOZART: Exsultate, jubilate (with Jane Archibald, soprano)
MOZART: Symphony No. 41, “Jupiter”
Nov 25
CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES: “Viennoiseries and Danishes”
(with Vincent Boilard & Alexa Zirbel, oboes; Todd Cope & Alain Desgagné, clarinets; Stéphane Lévesque & Mathieu Harel, bassoons; Denys Derome & Catherine Turner, horns)
MOZART: Overture to Le nozze di Figaro
HAYDN: Divertimento in F
Svend SCHULTZ: Divertimento
MOZART: Serenade No. 12, “Nachtmusik”
Nov 28 & 29
OSM POP SERIES
Simon Leclerc, conductor and orchestrator
Les Cowboys Fringants
Dec 7, 10 & 11
Rafael Payare, OSM Music Director
NONO: Djamila Boupacha
SIBELIUS: Valse triste
VIVIER: Lonely Child (with Barbara Hannigan, soprano)
BERLIOZ: Symphonie fantastique
Dec 14, 15m & 15
Rafael Payare, OSM Music Director
(with OSM Chorus; Andrew Megill, chorusmaster; Les Petits Chanteurs du Mont-Royal; Andrew Gray, chorusmaster)
Christmas carols and seasonal symphonic works
Dec 21 & 22
Leonardo García Alarcón, guest conductor
(with Marie-Sophie Pollak, soprano; Konstantin Krimmel, baritone; OSM Chorus; Andrew Megill, chorusmaster)
BACH: Christmas Oratorio: parts I, II & IV
BACH: Wir danken dir, Gott wir danken dir, BWV 29
Jan 18 & 19
Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, guest conductor
SHOSTAKOVICH: Violin Concerto No. 1 (with Maxim Vengerov, violin)
ZEMLINSKY: Die Seejungfrau [“The Mermaid”]
Jan 19m
Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, guest conductor and violin
R. STRAUSS: Capriccio, “Prelude for String Sextet” (with Andrew Wan, violin; Victor Fournelle-Blain & Charles Pilon, viola; Anna Burden & Brian Manker, cello)
Alexander ARUTIUNIAN: Trumpet Concerto (with Paul Merkelo, trumpet)
ZEMLINSKY: Die Seejungfrau [“The Mermaid”]
Jan 27
CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES: “At the Heart of the Romantic Era”
(with Jean-Sébastien Roy, violin; Victor Fournelle-Blain, viola; Anna Burden, cello; Philip Chiu, piano)
Fanny MENDELSSOHN: Piano Trio in D minor
BRAHMS: Piano Quartet No. 2
Jan 29m
CHILDREN’S CORNER SERIES: “The Mathematics of Music” (OSM production)
TBA, guest conductor
(with Jean-Willy Kunz, OSM organist-in-residence; Martin Gougeon, stage director)
R. STRAUSS: excerpt from Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Maxime GOULET: Citius, altius, fortius!
RAMEAU: No. III, “Tambourin,” from Les fêtes d’Hébé Suite
MAHLER: excerpt from Symphony No. 1 in D
BACH, arr. Stokowski: Toccata and Fugue in D minor
BARTÓK: excerpt from Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta
SAINT-SAËNS: Symphony No. 3, “Organ”
Feb 8, 9m & 10
Jordan de Souza, guest conductor
VERDI: Overture to La forza del destino
Tim BRADY: Violin Concerto No. 2 (world premiere of OSM commission; with Andrew Wan, violin) [Feb 8 & 9m only]
TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 4
Feb 22, 25m & 26m
Kent Nagano, OSM Conductor Emeritus
Arvo PÄRT: Swansong
SIBELIUS: Symphony No. 7
TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Concerto No. 2 (with Alexandre Kantorow, piano)
Feb 28; March 1
Jérémie Rhorer, guest conductor
Éric CHAMPAGNE: Vers les astres
STRAVINSKY: Petrushka
GERSHWIN: Piano Concerto in F (with Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano)
RAVEL: Daphnis et Chloé, Suite no. 2
March 3
CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES: “Russian Kaleidoscope”
(with Albert Brouwer, flute; Todd Cope, clarinet; Stéphane Lévesque, bassoon; Nadia Côté, horn; Stéphane Lemelin, piano)
Mikhail IPPOLITOV-IVANOV: An Evening in Georgia
GLAZUNOV: Rêverie
GLINKA: Trio pathétique
Sofia GUBAIDULINA: Allegro rustico
Sofia GUBAIDULINA: Sounds of the Forest
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Quintet for Piano and Winds
March 6–8: U.S. tour
Rafael Payare, OSM Music Director
March 6: Washington, DC (Kennedy Center)
March 8: New York (Carnegie Hall)
Dorothy CHANG: Precipice
BARTÓK: Piano Concerto No. 2 (with Yefim Bronfman, piano)
MAHLER: Symphony No. 5
March 9
Rafael Payare, OSM Music Director
Dorothy CHANG: Precipice
BARTÓK: Piano Concerto No. 2 (with Yefim Bronfman, piano)
MAHLER: Symphony No. 5
March 19m
CHILDREN’S CORNER SERIES: Pinocchio
Adam Johnson, guest conductor
(with Lionel Rougerie, actor and stage director; Samoel Verbecelte, actor)
Joseph KOSMA: Excerpts from Baptiste and Orchestral Suite from the film Les enfants du paradis
GOUNOD: Marche funèbre d’une marionnette [“Funeral March of a Marionette”]
BIZET: Excerpts from Jeux d’enfants
DEBUSSY: Act I: “Interlude” from Pelléas et Mélisande
March 23
ORGAN SERIES: “Music and Film: The General”
Silent film: The General (1926), directed by Buster Keaton
(with James Kennerley, organ improvisations)
March 28 & 30
Rafael Payare, OSM Music Director
R. STRAUSS: Vier letzte lieder [“Four Last Songs”] (with Sonya Yoncheva, soprano)
R. STRAUSS: Ein Heldenleben [“A Hero’s Life”]
April 7 & 8m
Bernard Labadie, guest conductor
HAYDN: The Creation (with Miah Persson, soprano; Andrew Haji, tenor; Matthew Brook, bass-baritone; OSM Chorus; Andrew Megill, chorusmaster)
April 11 & 12
Ben Palmer, guest conductor
KORNGOLD: The Sea Hawk: “Main Title”
John WILLIAMS: Tuba Concerto (with Austin Howle, tuba)
John WILLIAMS: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: “Flying Theme”
John WILLIAMS, arr. Ben Palmer: Harry Potter Suite
John WILLIAMS: Excerpts from Star Wars Suite
April 16
Tianyi Lu, guest conductor
Traditional Persian music (with Anouar Barrada, Sufi singer; Ziad Chbat, ney; & DIBA ensemble)
Behzad RANJBARAN: excerpt from Persian Trilogy
Katia MAKDISSI-WARREN: Ainsi chantait Simorgh (world premiere of OSM commission)
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Scheherazade
April 19, 20m & 20
Dalia Stasevska, guest conductor
Sofia GUBAIDULINA: The Light of the End
SIBELIUS: Symphony No. 6
CHOPIN: Piano Concerto No. 2 (with Bruce Liu, piano)
April 26 & 27
Rafael Payare, OSM Music Director
R. STRAUSS: Don Quixote (with Alisa Weilerstein, cello)
Ana SOKOLOVIĆ: Melita (world premiere of OSM commission)
ESTÉVEZ: Cantata criolla (with Aquiles Machado, tenor; Gustavo Castillo, baritone; OSM Chorus; Andrew Megill, chorusmaster)
May 10, 11m & 13m
John Storgårds, guest conductor
Lotta WENNÄKOSKI: Verdigris
RACHMANINOFF: Isle of the Dead [May 10 & 13m only]
PROKOFIEV: Piano Concerto No. 2 (with Charles Richard-Hamelin, piano)
SIBELIUS: En saga
May 16 & 17
OSM POP SERIES
Dina Gilbert, guest conductor
Dominique FILS-AIMÉ, orch. Blair Thomson: Symphonic Trilogy (with Dominique Fils-Aimé, singer; Elisapie, guest artist; choristers)
May 23 & 24
Hannu Lintu, guest conductor
STRAVINSKY: Symphonies of Wind Instruments
BARTÓK: Concerto for Two Pianos and Percussion (with Daniil Trifonov & Sergei Babayan, piano; Serge Desgagnés & Andrei Malashenko, percussion)
PROKOFIEV: Romeo and Juliet Suite
May 26
Music: A Feminine View
(with Marianne Dugal & Ariane Lajoie, violin; Natalie Racine, viola; Anna Burden, cello; and Meagan Milatz, piano)
BEACH: Piano Quintet in F-sharp minor
Alexina LOUIE: Music for Piano
PRICE: Piano Quintet in A minor
May 28
ORGAN SERIES: Recital: “Bach and Glass on the Grand Orgue Pierre-Béique”
Iveta Apkalna, organ (OSM debut)
Philip GLASS, arr. M. Riesman: Act III: “Conclusion” from Satyagraha
BACH: Fantasia in G
Philip GLASS: Music in Contrary Motion
BACH: Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor
BACH: Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C
Philip GLASS: Mad Rush
BACH: The Musical Offering
May 31; June 2 & 3
OSM Closing Concert
Rafael Payare, OSM Music Director
MAHLER: Symphony No. 3 (with Michelle DeYoung, mezzo-soprano; OSM Chorus; Andrew Megill, chorusmaster; Children’s choir)
Contributions from the orchestra’s public partners are essential to its operations. The OSM wishes to acknowledge its main public partner, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, as well as the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of Quebec, and the Conseil des arts de Montréal. The OSM is proud to have the support of its loyal sponsors, and gratefully acknowledges its Presenting Sponsor, Hydro-Québec, as well as its Season Presenter, BMO Financial Group. It also expresses its gratitude to Power Corporation of Canada, Fondation J. A. DeSève, Canada Life, Cogeco, BBA, Spinelli, Le Groupe Maurice, Sélection Retraite, Ritz-Carlton Montreal, IRIS, PricewaterhouseCoopers, McKinsey & Company, Volvo, Solotech, Clarins, Bivouac, National Bank, Radio-Canada and Symphony. The OSM is likewise grateful to its other partners and donors, as well as to its subscribers and audiences, who in many different ways provide essential support to its activities.
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© 21C Media Group, June 2022