Cultural return | Eight favorites

Classic Montreal has now returned to a pre-COVID-19 cadence, if not more. The Press has selected some of the most promising moments of the bountiful autumn that awaits us.

A Mahler comeback at the OSM

The Orchester symphonique de Montréal (OSM) and its conductor Rafael Payare are not going with the back of the spoon for their first concert of the season. After playing the Symphony n^oh 5 de Mahler at the Festival de Lanaudière and in South Korea earlier this summer, they will compete, from September 15 to 17, against the Symphony n^oh 2, known as “Resurrection”, by the same composer. This long-winded symphonic-choral epic will be preceded by a creation by the Austrian Thomas Larcher, one of the great names in contemporary music.

Vocal fireworks at Les Violons du Roy

Les Violons du Roy offer us a real gift at the opening of the season by bringing together two singing giants on the stage of the Maison symphonique. Contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux and star French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky will compete in skill on September 24 (and on September 22 in Quebec City) in an all-Handel concert featuring the most beautiful pages of operas such as Giulio Cesare, Rinaldo and Ariodante. It’s also a great opportunity to see the ensemble’s musical director, Jonathan Cohen, back at work in Montreal after several months of absence.

The Goldbergs in good hands

It’s THE piano moment of the fall in Montreal. The Hungarian András Schiff, one of the greatest living pianists, known for his chiselled and sensitive interpretations of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, has chosen the Quebec metropolis to give his first recital in North America for three years, in preview of the Bach Festival. On October 5, at the Maison symphonique, he will offer Montreal music lovers one of his signature pieces, the famous Goldberg Variations of the Cantor of Leipzig, of which he left two poignant testimonies on disc.

A cello master in Bourgie

The recital by British cellist Steven Isserlis on October 14 is one of the most prestigious events offered this fall at Bourgie Hall, with the arrival of the brilliant mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter on November 7 and the luminous Tallis Scholars December 13. The musician will be back in Montreal after five years with the Canadian pianist Connie Shih, one of his favorite accomplices, in a program combining sure values ​​(Brahms, Debussy and Fauré) and discoveries, including a piece written especially for him by Thomas Adès .

A Czech gem at Ladies’ Morning

Slightly more populous than Quebec, the Czech Republic has nevertheless spawned some of the best string quartets of recent decades. Founded in 1964 in honor of conductor Václav Talich, the Talich quartet is, along with Pražák, Janáček, Smetana and Vlach, one of the most eminent of these children of Bohemia. The ensemble’s musicians will be guests of the Ladies’ Morning Musical Club on October 23 at Pollack Hall. The program which will be performed by these Mozart and Beethoven specialists, but also, of course, by Czech composers, will be announced at a later date.

An awaited Quebec lyrical creation

Quebec has a lucky hand these days when it comes to operatic creation. After the recent creation of operas inspired by the work of Larry Tremblay and Marguerite Yourcenar, it is the playwright Michel Marc Bouchard (The rolls) which will be in the spotlight at the Opéra de Montréal from November 19 to 27 in The beauty of the worldto music by Julien Bilodeau, who had already signed that ofAnother Brick in the Wallpresented at the same venue in 2017. On the menu: the true story of the clandestine rescue of works of art from the Louvre during the Nazi occupation of France.

Christian Tetzlaff, Bach priest

Many talk about Sonatas and Partitas of Bach as a true Old Testament of violin music because of the extraordinary technical and musical demands they place on the performer. The Bach Festival called on the great German priest of the bow Christian Tetzlaff to celebrate this luminous liturgy. The latter will offer his vision of the six scores in a single evening on December 2 in the intimate setting of St. George’s Anglican Church (avenue des Canadiens-de-Montréal). A rare opportunity to hear the completeness of this musical treasure by a musician of rare sensitivity.

Return of a choral monument to the Metropolitan

More Bach? But yes ! Two years after leading the Mass in B minor of the Cantor of Leipzig in the middle of the second wave (on webcast), Yannick Nézet-Séguin returns with the same work as Christmas approaches (December 18) at the Maison symphonique. The Orchester Métropolitain, a choir of professionals and the soloists Erika Baikoff, Karen Cargill, Werner Güra and Nathan Berg will be part of the adventure to give life to this score of unparalleled refinement and depth, a veritable cathedral of sound patiently built. for more than 20 years by the German composer.