Leading Orchestre symphonique de Montéal’s 90th Anniversary Season

Sep 5, 2023

This fall, Rafael Payare enters his second season as Music Director of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, leading the orchestra in its landmark 90th anniversary season. From September 12-14, Payare conducts the orchestra’s Opening Night concerts, which bring together Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass. The mass features vocal soloists Camilla Tilling, Rose Naggar-Tremblay, Ladislav Elgr and Matthew Rose, with OSM organist-in-residence Jean-Willy Kunz performing on OSM’s organ, the Grand Orgue Pierre-Béique (now celebrating its own tenth anniversary).

Later in September, Payare leads a program that includes Lera Auerbach’s Icarus and Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto (with pianist Alexander Malofeev) and Mahler’s First Symphony (“Titan”) (Sep 21–23). Payare returns to Montreal in late October, conducting Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with soloist Andrew Wan, in a program that also includes works by Bach, Mozart, and Webern (October 25-26).

In November, Payare joins the OSM to conduct “A South American Voyage” with pianist Javier Perieanes. The program includes Gianestra’s Variaciones concertantes, Jimmy López Bellido’s Piano Concerto “Ephemerae,” Villa-Lobos’s Bachianas brasileiras, and Ravel’s Bolero (November 22-23). Payare and the OSM wrap up 2023 with Messiaen’s monumental Turangalîla-Symphonie, featuring French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet in the virtuosic piano role (Dec 5 & 6).

For full details, visit the Calendar page.