L’actuelle saison de l’Orchestre Métropolitain (OM) n’est pas comme les autres : l’ensemble souligne cette année ses 40 ans d’existence. Il raconte son histoire dans un webdocumentaire réalisé par Jean-Nicolas Orhon, offert gratuitement depuis samedi sur son site internet.
Publié hier à 10h00
Ce n’est pas le projet le plus ambitieux de l’orchestre dirigé par Yannick Nézet-Séguin : le documentaire 40 ans de l’OM : une histoire d’amour avec la musique fait à peine 30 minutes, n’offre pas des tonnes d’images d’archives éloquentes et montre surtout des têtes parlantes. Il possède par contre la grande qualité de donner abondamment la parole aux artisans de la première heure : Jean Paquin, René Gosselin et Denise Lupien, entre autres.
« Le monde musical à Montréal s’était vraiment centré autour de l’OSM [Orchestre symphonique de Montréal]and thinking about making another orchestra, imagine, it was almost an impossible mission”, says the violinist, who left OM in 2008 after 27 years as a concertmaster.
The OM, which today enjoys an enviable reputation on the international scene, started out very modestly under the name L’Orchestre des Concerts Populaires de Lachine or L’Orchestre des Concerts Lachine, not everyone calls it same way. A few months later, in the summer of 1982, the ensemble was already called the Orchester métropolitain.
What sets it apart? Its desire to promote Quebec musicians. “The goal was to create jobs for young musicians coming out of universities and conservatories,” summarizes Jean Paquin.
In an ecosystem where the only potential outlet was the OSM, which also recruited internationally, this second ensemble was more than necessary, believe the musicians.
The whole, which the fierce critic of The Press Claude Gingras has, it seems, already called the “OSM of the poor”, also had another mission: that of disseminating the classical repertoire to as many people as possible. Hence this desire not to be confined to Place des Arts, but also to play in different neighborhoods or municipalities on the island of Montreal, from Pointe-Claire to Anjou.
The short film recounts the great financial difficulties experienced by OM and the solidarity of the musicians (they even agreed not to receive a salary for a year to consolidate the whole). These difficulties have forged strong bonds among the members of the orchestra, who are an integral part of its personality, judge several of them.
It is a question of the passage of Agnès Grossmann at the head of OM, but above all, of course, of the Yannick Nézet-Séguin era, which has lasted since the year 2000 and will always last since he was appointed head ” for life “. “It was a revelation”, says Jean Paquin, evoking an “exceptional” love story between the chef and the ensemble. “When Yannick arrived in the set, everything changed”, also says Marc Denis.
The imprint of the young leader on OM occupies a good place in the film. However, this is not so much to magnify him as to show how much his attitude stuck with the values already in place in this whole.
And what emerges precisely from the web documentary is that OM is not precisely the business of a single person, however talented they may be.
A long passage is devoted to the impact of the pandemic on the orchestra, but less to dwell on the many hard knocks than on the occasion that it represented in the eyes of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who immediately put in solution mode. He was determined that OM remain present, despite the imposed distance. He was convinced that those who would get through were the cultural organizations that would know how to keep in touch with their public.
“From each crisis, we learn unsuspected strengths,” says the chef. OM notably multiplied the recordings of concerts, where the conductor was sometimes positioned at the center of the musicians. Yannick Nézet-Séguin is convinced that the ensemble will grow from it, even closer to people.