OSM tours California with Rafael Payare this fall (Oct 25–30); releases fifth Pentatone album (Oct 30)

Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (Montreal Symphony Orchestra/OSM) embarks on its 61st international tour this fall, visiting three destinations on the West Coast of the U.S.: San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego (Oct 25–30). Led by Music and Artistic Director Rafael Payare, whose contract was recently extended through the 2031–32 season, they perform as guests of the San Francisco Symphony (Oct 25) and the Los Angeles Philharmonic (Oct 27) for the first time in 37 years, joined by violinist Leonidas Kavakos for Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D major in the former city and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor in the latter. Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 is also on both programs, and in Los Angeles the orchestra adds Elysium by Montreal composer Samy Moussa. Finally, Payare takes the OSM to his other home territory of San Diego, where they reprise Moussa’s Elysium and the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with Kavakos, as well as performing Stravinsky’s complete Firebird ballet (Oct 29). A more direct collaboration between Payare’s two orchestras will also take place in San Diego: the OSM will be hosted at San Diego’s Rady Shell, SDSO’s summer home on the waterfront, for a joint performance with both orchestras. OSM will perform Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé by themselves, as heard on the upcoming Pentatone recording that will be released that same day; the SDSO will perform Bartók’s Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin; and members of both orchestras will participate in two works scored for particularly large forces: Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite and Respighi’s Pines of Rome (Oct 30).

Immediately after the tour, Payare and the OSM release a new album on Pentatone that marks their fifth recording together, featuring Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (Le sacre du printemps) (Oct 30). These two landmark works have in common that they were both created for Sergei Diaghilev’s legendary Ballets Russes, a groundbreaking ballet company that played a decisive role in ushering in the norm-challenging artistic modernity of the early decades of the 20th century. Learn more about the album here.