The Orchester Métropolitain (OM) unveils its 2024-2025 season on Tuesday, the 25e by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who will celebrate his 50the anniversary in March 2025. The program is marked by a return of the great classics, including a complete set of Beethoven symphonies.
Does the 2024-2025 season mark the end of what we called “ostentatious diversity” at OM? Complete symphonies of Beethoven, 9e Symphony by Bruckner, for the 200e anniversary of the composer’s birth, Ninth by Schubert and Symphony no 6, ” pathetic “, by Tchaikovsky at the end of the season will be directed by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who will take over the Messiah by Händel and the jazzy Christmas concert with Kim Richardson and Mélissa Bédard. A great guest, Louis Langrée, will direct the 11e Symphony by Shostakovich: this is unheard of in the post-pandemic era at OM.
“One of our conversations came to mind, which you summarized with the formula “On the necessity of excess”. For me it is a continuity where we can, because of a certain excess, which I continue to judge to have been necessary to shake up the cage, achieve a certain balance,” Yannick Nézet-Séguin tells us. . The chef does not see this return to the classics as a “necessity”, but as “an attempt in the continuity of the positions taken and the new conception of programming” implemented in recent seasons. We agree to say that, without renouncing the foundations defended in recent years, “things are measured differently”. “That’s exactly it,” exclaims the chef.
In practice, among the guest chefs, women will be present, i.e. Oksana Lyniv, Joana Carneiro and the new associate chef Naomi Woo, but also men, equally, i.e. Louis Langrée, Fabio Biondi, Christoph Koncz (which we are very happy to see again) and former partner Nicolas Ellis. No renunciation for the opening of the season, with an indigenous contribution opening the 9e Symphony and at Te Deum by Bruckner. As for the side roads, the works of Mel Bonis, Emilie Mayer, Barbara Assiginaak, Julia Adolphe, Nathalie Joachim are “touches” in the season more than postulates or centers of gravity.
The Beethoven cycle will take place from October 17 to 20: four concerts in three days for Symphonies no 4 And noto 8at 11 a.m. on Sunday, followed by the 9e at 15h. “These are the same programs as in 2005, but we have added commissions from local composers,” explains the conductor.
On the post-pandemic low, which cannot be denied, Yannick Nézet-Séguin sees a difference between the United States, “which is reaching practically pre-pandemic levels”, and what we see here. “All institutions seek to know if their programming has an influence on assistance. At OM, we are seeing a renewal of the public. Alongside the fact that a certain audience does not return, there is a new audience that feels concerned, particularly when we build bridges with other forms of art or when we bring things out of the ordinary. I know you talked about this about Obiora. The real challenge of bringing in music lovers or programming new things, such as music by indigenous composers, is long-term. In my opinion, five to ten years are necessary to see if there are any impacts. Programming like this, this balance, will, we hope, ensure that we have our audience returning to theaters not only as before, but more than before. »