The OSM Classical Spree | A hearty and exhilarating rendezvous

The only disadvantage of the Classic Spree is that you have to make choices! With 17 events on Saturday alone, it is impossible to attend everything. The Press nevertheless had the opportunity to go to six concerts in the four participating halls.

Launched by the Orchester symphonique de Montréal and Kent Nagano in 2012, the mini-festival was back from August 10 to 14 after a three-year hiatus caused by the pandemic. This ninth version, the first under the direction of Rafael Payare, featured different music from the Americas.

The concept for Saturday’s day was simple: OSM musicians and guests performing in small or large groups in different places at Place des Arts. Concerts lasting for the most part only about forty minutes and placed under the seal of conviviality and lightness (this is not the occasion to hear The art of running away Where The Winter Journey!).

The afternoon got off to a great start at the Maison symphonique with the OSM in a somewhat reduced line-up. Chef Rafael Payare was accompanied by one of the stars of this edition, soprano Jeanine De Bique.

De Bique offered a Knoxville: Summer of 1915 of anthology Barber, with a supreme mastery of English diction (the official language of his native Trinidad and Tobago), an expressiveness of each moment and a voice of control and breathtaking beauty (ah, these treble piano!).

Too bad the public (between 100 and 200 people at a glance) was so few to hear this undeniably chic artist.

The delicate Introduction and Three Folk Songs of the Canadian Jean Coulthard and the irresistible Margaritena by the Venezuelan Inocente Carreño, played by the orchestra alone, were also worth seeing. L’Adagio for strings by Barber was, however, clearly too fast (the composer requires a molto adagio).

We then moved to the Maisonneuve Theater for the performance of the OSM’s co-principal violinist, Andrew Wan, and of the young cellist from Ottawa, Bryan Cheng, crowned with several prizes in various international concerts in recent months.

It was nice to see the audience fill the bleachers placed on the stage around the two musicians, who presented the pieces with ease. The latter proposed two Glass duets which they played with remarkable care, despite the relative simplicity of the pieces.

After Cheng debuted his new Stradivarius in two solo pieces inspired by American popular music, Wan returned for the Sonata for violin and cello by Ravel, a masterpiece that we rarely hear since it requires a training that hardly corresponds to the “boxes” of musical institutions. Cheng was so involved that his C (lowest) string slackened during the last movement, forcing him to finish it — pretty much without a hitch — on the remaining strings.

The tiny but welcoming Salle Claude-Léveillée was then waiting for us to hear another compatriot of Rafael Payare, the guitarist Héctor Molina. The latter is a specialist in the cuatro, a kind of four-string guitar a little bigger than the ukulele.

The audience obviously enjoyed the performance (that’s the right word!) offered by the friendly musician, who played a mixture of his own compositions and pieces of folklore from his country of origin. We remain speechless at the speed of his right hand in the many repeated chords characteristic of this music. A great discovery!

Sympathetic works and improvisation

Return to the Théâtre Maisonneuve to hear another duo, this time made up of American violinist Hao Zhou, winner of the Montreal International Competition three years ago, and the excellent pianist Philip Chiu. Another moment of beautiful complicity with sympathetic – without being transcendent – ​​works by Dvořák, Grant Still and others. Zhou’s sound often seemed dry to us, but he more than made up for it with his freshness.

The Théâtre Jean-Duceppe was then waiting for us to listen to the OSM’s brass and percussion under the direction of Venezuelan trumpet virtuoso Pacho Flores. The latter is very impressive as a soloist, especially in an arrangement of Zigeunerweisen of Sarasate, but his leadership skills are limited to giving the pulse, and not always in a clear way. However, we see nothing but fire thanks to the professionalism of the musicians.

We just had time, to finish, to return to the Maison symphonique to hear organist Jean-Willy Kunz, clarinettist and saxophonist André Moisan and percussionist Michel Berthiaume improvise on the rare film blacksmith malec by Buster Keaton. The audience, filling half the floor, laughed heartily, helped in this by the musicians, who managed a fine characterization in a style reminiscent of dixie jazz.

We are already looking forward to next year.