The Montreal Symphony Orchestra is making another big splash for its return this year. After the shock of the Rite of Spring of Stravinsky and the Glagolitic Mass by Janáček in September 2023, Rafael Payare and his troops (and what troops!) have tackled the monumental Gurre-Lieder by Schönberg, whose 150th birthday is celebrated this year.
It is not every day that we find 150 musicians, 200 choristers and 6 soloists on the stage of the Maison symphonique. This is because the Viennese musician demands in particular an army of percussion, four harps, ten horns, four piccolos… and this is only a brief sample of the excess of this oratorio of more than 90 minutes composed during his post-romantic youth.
The audience surprisingly responded very well to the first presentation at the OSM since 2006 (at the beginning of the Nagano era) of this work by a composer that concert societies usually keep rather under wraps, so much so that the mere mention of his name can be off-putting. But Schönberg’s atonal production, even if it will be explored with great profit, has little in common with his first wildly romantic attempts such as The Transfigured Night Or Pelléas and Mélisandeconveniently led by Payare in recent months.
The approach taken by the Venezuelan conductor for this delicate score – the mere fact that the soloists enter at the right places in this orchestral swarm leaves one speechless – leans more towards Wagnerian romanticism than towards the more “objective” modernity that was to follow. A lyricism always inhabited, always nourished, which does not pour out itself unnecessarily, even if certain more “modern” passages of the third part would undoubtedly have benefited from more percussiveness.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Rafael Payare, musical director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra
We are delighted to hear such an opulent orchestra, with so many brass instruments that we could believe we were hearing an organ, but also a short passage that allows us to taste the very particular timbre of Wagnerian tubas. The OSM Choir gave pride of place to the male voices, which were very much in demand in the third part, especially in the high notes.
The most outstanding soloist is – fortunately – the most sought-after. With Clay Hilley, the OSM has found – a rare occurrence – an authentic Wagnerian tenor, who recently sang Tristan in Bayreuth. As Valdemar, the cursed king of the score, the American deploys a voice as velvety as it is virile, much more enjoyable than the red-orange shoes he graced us with…
The second singer in terms of presence time, the great Mozartian soprano Dorothea Röschmann, however, lacked breadth for this part usually sung by vocal monsters like Jessye Norman and Deborah Voigt. Her colleague Karen Cargill, who was like her part of the team of the Symphony no 2 Mahler’s two years ago in the same place, makes a magnificent Dove, even if the voice is a little corseted in the medium.
Among the other men, the German baritone Thomas E. Bauer makes a brief but effective appearance as a Peasant, and the rather light tenor voice of his compatriot Stephan Rügamer, who sang the same role (Klaus, the fool) 18 years ago in Montreal, is ideally matched to that of the principal tenor.
Veteran Ben Heppner, who once recorded Valdemar, took on the part of the Narrator at the end, and actor and director Mani Soleymanlou delivered a poignant introduction before the first and third parts.
Not to be missed for the reprise on September 13, 7:30 p.m., at the Maison symphonique and live on Mezzo.tv.