This first half of the year 2024 is not only the one that launches the celebration of the 90e anniversary of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, including The duty spoke to you two weeks ago. It is also the 40th anniversary of I Musici.
The I Musici de Montréal chamber orchestra, which is struggling, like other institutions, but perhaps a little more, to find a “post-pandemic breath”, will launch its year 2024 on January 18 with Quintessence, a dense program around the latest works of Beethoven, Brahms and Richard Strauss. The highlight of this second half of the season will be a Bach concert on February 22, with Marie-Nicole Lemieux. Note, also, the Te Deum of Arvo Pärt on March 21 and the return of Stéphane Tétreault, on April 25, in the creation of a Double concerto for cellos by Denis Gougeon with Bryan Cheng.
Orchestras
At the OSM, surprises “90e anniversary” are planned during the concerts of the 7e Symphony by Mahler on January 16, 17 and 20. Rafael Payare will lead the 8e Symphony by Shostakovich in March, Pelléas and Mélisande of Schoenberg in April and the 3e Symphony by Saint-Saëns at the end of May.
This spring, the OSM is also celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Pierre-Béique organ with, in particular, four concerts on the weekend of March 23 and 24. Among the visits, Masaaki Suzuki will lead the Passion according to Saint John of Bach during Holy Week and Kent Nagano will return to us in the Heroic Symphony. The OSM will also welcome, on March 19, the Orchester de Paris with Klaus Mäkelä and, on May 4, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) with Gustavo Gimeno. Note that the TSO now records at Harmonia Mundi. His first album, Turangalîla-Symphony by Messiaen with Marc-André Hamelin, will appear on February 2. The OSM and Rafael Payare will publish their second CD, Ein Heldenleben by Strauss, at Pentatone on March 15.
The Metropolitan Orchestra, which will perform at Carnegie Hall on March 6, will host the Philadelphia Orchestra on April 19. Yannick Nézet-Séguin will direct the 2e Symphony by Rachmaninov on this occasion. We also look forward to hearing, on June 16, the 6e Symphony by Mahler at the end of the season. Mahler will mark a strong moment in the history of the University of Montreal: the retirement of Jean-François Rivest, professor of conducting and artistic director of the UdeM Orchestra for 30 years, which will be celebrated with the sound of the 2e Symphony on April 13 at Saint-Jean-Baptiste Church. Curious Mahlerians will listen to the association of Pentaèdre and the Penderecki Quartet in a reduction of the 4e Symphony, on March 2, at Bourgie Hall.
The Obiora Ensemble will try to consolidate its audience during concerts on February 17 and May 4 at the Pierre-Mercure hall, while the Agora Orchestra and Nicolas Ellis will offer the Alpine Symphony of Strauss (and the Wesendock-Lieder by Wagner with Elisabeth St-Gelais) during their “Earth Gala” on June 12.
Voices and soloists
The Montreal Opera finalizes the creation of the new opera by the tandem Julien Bilodeau and Michel Marc Bouchard: The Boy Queen. The premiere will take place on February 3 under the direction of Jean-Marie Zeitouni, directed by Angela Konrad, with Joyce El-Khoury and Étienne Dupuis. Another new opera, Enigma by Patrick Burgan, with a libretto by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt, a love triangle, will be presented at the Maisonneuve theater from April 7. La Traviata will end the season on more familiar accents.
The UdeM Orchestra and Opera Workshop have programmed The Magic Flute (February 29 and March 2) and Opéra McGill, Cinderella of Massenet (March 26 to 28). The Montreal Classical Orchestra will mark June 18 on June 5e anniversary of the death of Joseph Rouleau. Excerpts from operas will be sung by Aline Kutan, Mireille Lebel, Éric Laporte and Philippe Sly.
It’s the 100e Françoise Sullivan’s birthday that the Bourgie Hall will mark on January 21 by presenting the artist’s choreographies in the program Music and dance. Françoise Sullivan’s exhibition will also inspire the Molinari Quartet on January 25, in the program The quartet strings, from the Global Refusal to today. Two days later, in another universe, the great Austrian baritone Wolfgang Holzmair will offer a recital based on works composed at the Theresienstadt camp.
The Bourgie Hall will welcome big names, such as Vikingur Olafsson on January 24, for the Goldberg Variationsthe Faust-Queyras-Melnikov trio on February 12, Igor Levit on March 11, the duo Charles Richard-Hamelin and Eric Lu on April 10, Karina Gauvin and Marie-Nicole Lemieux on April 19, the Wanderer Trio on April 24 and Bruce Liu on May 14.
Pro Musica will launch its season on January 21 at the Salle Pierre-Mercure by welcoming Fazil Say, while the next guests of the Ladies’ Morning Musical Club will be pianists Javier Perianes and Stewart Goodyear and the Escher, Aris and Doric quartets.
Then and now
In the field of baroque music, Arion, which begins this weekend with Francesco Corti conducting Handel, will for the first time include on its program the Requiem by Mozart, a co-production with the Early Music Studio, which will combine this emblematic work with the Mass for the coronation of Louis XVI by François Giroust. THE Requiem by Mozart is also on the program of Caprice, which performs it under the direction of Matthias Maute at the Maison symphonique on April 27, and that of the Montreal Classical Orchestra and Jacques Lacombe, on May 5 at the Maison symphonique
Harpsichord in concert will welcome harpsichordist Carole Cerasi on April 26, Les Boréades will celebrate the 250th on February 16e anniversary of the death of Johann Joachim Quantz, one of the most famous flautists in history, and Les Idées idées, conducted by Geneviève Soly, will offer three cantatas by Graupner for the Passion, on March 29.
It is not really baroque music that dominates the programming of the Violons du Roy, who start the year with a Fauré, Dubois and Ravel program, with Florie Valiquette and Nicolas Ellis, on January 18 in Quebec and on the 19 in Montreal . French music, too, with Bernard Labadie, who will finally conduct, in February, the requiems of Fauré and Duruflé of which the pandemic had deprived him. Labadie will return on April 13 for the Gloria by Vivaldi, while Jonathan Cohen will bring guitarist Miloš to Bourgie Hall on April 26.
On the contemporary scene, the SMCQ continues its tribute to Sandeep Bhagwati. The next concert, on February 11, at the Canadian Music Center, will mix horn and electronics with Gabriel Trottier. Le Vivier stands out in particular by welcoming high-profile guests: composer Missy Mazzoli and violinist Jennifer Koh on February 28, then Les Percussions de Strasbourg on March 9 and 10.
Bradyworks, Chants Libres and Le Vivier will offer, on April 27 and 28, the second opera of the tetralogy by composer Tim Brady: Information. The opera, which took place in Montreal in October 1970, deals with the October Crisis, the right to abortion and the role of journalism in society.
Finally, the Montreal International Musical Competition, “Piano 2024”, will take place between May 5 and 16, while the Classica Festival has already announced the dates of its four opera evenings: May 30 as well as May 6, 8 and June 13.