Music on a golden platter

We have rarely seen the Domaine Forget de Charlevoix concert hall as full to bursting as on Saturday evening. The presence of the Orchester Métropolitain and its conductor, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, as part of the orchestra conducting course was obviously not unrelated to this. A concert of rare quality that was certainly worth the trip.

Lili Boulanger, Max Bruch and Piotr Ilitch Tchaikovsky were on the program for this popular evening. From the first we heard Of a spring morningwhich is certainly popular these days after being played by the Orchester symphonique de Montréal last September and by the Métropolitain last month at the Maison symphonique.

His execution was reserved for a deserving trainee, in this case the Texan Gregory McDaniel. As a good teacher, the head of OM invited the young musician to present the piece himself. Musically, the implementation seemed to us technically irreproachable. The young musician will be able to go further in the rhythmic effervescence of the “chorus” part and the lyrical warmth inherent in the first “verse”.

To play the Romance for viola and orchestra in F major, opus 85, and Kol Nidrei de Bruch, the orchestra called on one of today’s best violists, the Frenchman Antoine Tamestit, who was surprisingly in his first collaboration with Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

The soloist wins the room as soon as he enters the stage with his frank smile and his luminous presence. The sound of the violist, standing in the middle of the orchestra, is never forced and everything flows naturally, with the simple pleasure of being there. If the first work sees it more discreet, almost blending into the orchestral mass, Kol Nidrei finds it more present, with a more generous vibrato.

Well, you have to love Bruch, who admitted himself that his music would probably not go down in history (with the exception of his famous Concerto n^oh 1 for violin), unlike that of Brahms, in whose work he lived all his life. Musicologist Christopher Fifield is not wrong to argue that “his stubborn resistance to Wagner’s developments has largely stifled his own originality”. This meager meal was at least served to us on a golden platter.

And fortunately, a master meal awaited us after the break. The Symphony n^oh 6 in B minor, said ” Pathetic “by Tchaikovsky was already well established by the orchestra, which had performed it at the beginning of June in Montreal under the direction of guest conductor Nathalie Stutzmann, whose “unpardonable indifference” we had highlighted in a review for The Press.

Barely a month and a half later, the work takes on completely different attire under the direction of Nézet-Séguin, who gives his all, accompanying each section in the ideal search for sound and atmosphere.

Both the opening bassoon melody and the sublime lyrical theme of the first movement are superbly executed, with a formidable art of suspense and sound balance in the first case, and an undeniable love of singing in the second case. Only the passage following the lyrical theme, with ascending wind scales marked “moderato mosso”, seemed to us a bit too hasty at the beginning.

The second movement, which is elegance itself, and the third, magnificently talkative, are of the same genre. And what about the last, where we were treated to strings of an unforgettable velvety? The leader, who slowly lowered his arms after the last note died out while the room observed a religious silence, seemed himself blown away by the result of his troops.

When will a full Tchaikovsky record be released by the Métropolitain?