Payare Opens Season at OSM with Two Schoenberg Projects

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Arnold Schoenberg, and Rafael Payare, a passionate advocate for that composer’s music, serves on the Artistic Honorary Committee of Schoenberg 150, dedicated to the worldwide celebration of the occasion. An all-Schoenberg album that includes Pelleas und Melisande and Verklärte Nacht is due for release in October. It marks Payare and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal’s third on Pentatone.

Anticipating the new album, Payare and the OSM opened their season in Montreal with performances of Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder featuring soprano Dorothea Röschmann, tenor Clay Hilley, mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill, tenor Stephan Rügamer, baritone Thomas E. Bauer, and tenor Ben Heppner performing the sprechstimme role. The September 13 performance – falling on Schoenberg’s exact birthday – was broadcast live on Mezzo, celebrating ten years of partnership with the orchestra (Sep 11, 13).