The 2020-2021 artistic seasons are back to normal, until their end we hope. Here’s what the classic scene has in store for us.
The concept of normality, or almost normality when it comes to the distancing of musicians and the wearing of masks by spectators, does not only affect the concert hall. The pain point for concert organizers was at the federal level, with the issue of random PCR testing at the border. It was indeed, until February 28, impossible to predict whether an artist entering the country would be able to be hard at work upon arrival or only after 72 hours waiting for a test. This constraint made the planning of concerts and rehearsals by foreign artists almost impossible.
Consequence: the disruption of the calendars known in February and early March is coming to an end and the seasonal programs printed before the fall of 2020 are generally valid, with sometimes a few additions such as, in Bourgie Hall, a postponed section of Bach cantatas, assumed on June 9 and 10 by I Musici and Jean-Francois Rivestand, at the Orchester symphonique de Montréal (OSM), from May 10 to 12, the 7and Symphony by Bruckner by Rafael Payarea concert that could not take place in January.
Convergences!
The OSM music director will conduct the 9and Symphony of Beethoven at the end of the season, May 31 June 1 and 2, but also the Cconcerto for piano and strings of Schnittke and the 1er Concerto by Prokofiev with Daniel Trifonov on April 20 and 21, concert also including The Peri of Dukas and The sea by Debussy. Ironically, the OSM has a sort of “Russian spring”, but without being able to fault, for example, the 9and Symphony by Shostakovich who will conduct Jordan de Souza May 18 and 19.
The Passion according to Saint Matthew of Bach on April 13 and 14 conducted by Paul McCreesh will be the great choral work at the OSM, a role that the Requiem of Mozart on April 24 for the Violons du Roy and Bernard Labadie, Carmina Burana for the young chef Francis Choiniere May 28, and german requiem by Brahms on May 20 for the Orchester Métropolitain (OM).
The orchestra of Yannick Nezet-Seguin can rejoice to have placed its masterpieces in the last third of the season. The chef Speranza scappucci will direct The sea April 8, Nicholas Angelich will come to play The emperor by Beethoven on April 29 and the Concertos noh 1 then notoh 2 by Rachmaninoff on June 18 and 19. And above all, a long-awaited concert, Natalie Stutzmann will lead the Symphony pathetic by Tchaikovsky on June 4. At OM too, the Russian repertoire is featured. On the other hand, questions of cancellation of artists potentially compromised with the regime do not really arise in Montreal: a Gergiev-Mariinski concert was in preparation for the fall of 2022. It quickly passed into oblivion.
I Musici and Les Violons du Roy will meet on May 26 under the direction of Jean-Francois Rivest in a program culminating with The transfigured night of Schoenberg, the poems of Dehmel being said by the actress Sophie Cadieux. Each on their own, I Musici receives Charles richard-Hamelin on March 24 in Shostakovich (!) and returns to the baroque on April 14, when Les Violons du Roy welcome Nicholas Alsteadt as cellist and conductor on May 7. The Montreal Classical Orchestra Boris Brott associates with Karina Gauvin and at Caprice on April 28 for a Handel concert and offers a “Grandes Québécoises” program on May 17.
French pomp
Arion offers “Les Soupers du Roy” under the direction of Mathieu Lussier from April 29 to May 1; The Boréades are in the same vein but with less pageantry with “Youth for a tired King” on April 10
Caprice performs Bach’s Easter and Ascension oratorios at Christ Church Cathedral on March 31; Constantinople welcomes Marco Bealey on March 19, while Harpsichord in concert will present one concert a month, rare airs from the 18thand century by Julie Boulianne led by Luc Beausejour April 14; the coming of the great Pierre Hantai on May 13 and a concert by Sonatas for flute and harpsichord by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach with Gregoire Jeay. As for the Happy Ideas, the concert of the Passion (April 15) will have as its theme “Ville-Marie au XVIIand century”.
The Faculty of Music of the Université de Montréal is organizing an orchestral concert on April 9 and will be offering The tragedy of Carmenadapted from Peter Brook and Jean Claude Careerdirected by Francois Racine April 12 and 13. It will not be too much for singing enthusiasts, who will only have at the Opéra de Montréal, after a wave of cancellations, The Magic Flute to get their teeth into. That said, a short trip to Quebec to Don Giovanni cannot be excluded. Opera McGill also mounts Don John on March 25 and 26 in the morning, and will offer Orlando of Händel in webcast only on March 26 in the evening and on March 27. Leader Alexis Hauser will also bring its McGill Symphony Orchestra to the Maison symphonique on April 7 to play the 4and Symphony by Mahler.
At Bourgie Hall, concerts by international artists resume, with the cellist Camille Thomas on March 31, the pianists Imogen Cooper (April 3), Ronald Brautigam (April 12) and Llyr Williams (April 26). Fans of chamber music and recitals will also be on the lookout for the Fauré Quartet, on March 20, and, above all, Paul Kolesnikov April 10 at the Ladies’ Morning Musical Club.
Finally, the period will be fruitful for contemporary music, with, for the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, “Crossed Resonances”, on April 14, presenting Arras of the composer of the year of the Prix Opus, Keiko Devauxand a concert Luis dePablo–Iannis Xenakis May 6. The Société de musique contemporaine du Québec continues the “concert portraits” with Jeans The wise (March 27) and Linda Bouchard (May 1), while Le Vivier offers on its site (levivier.ca), regularly updated, a rolling fire of demonstrations by many ensembles.
All of this will bring us to the beginning of June when the Montreal International Music Competition will be held, an edition devoted to singing.