Rafael Payare, OSM, and Guest Soloist Daniil Trifonov Triumph on European Tour
Dec 13, 2024Rafael Payare and his Orchestre symphonique de Montréal received rave reviews for their November 2024 European tour with guest artist Daniil Trifonov. Beginning in London at the Barbican Theatre, Payare and his OSM were joined by soloist Javier Perianes for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 on opening night. The program also included Iman Habibi’s Jeder Baum spricht and Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, of which the Times UK lauded Payare’s interpretation, writing: “In a work that’s really about emotional fixation, Payare carefully planted the hero’s churning obsession into Berlioz’s seething textures, giving a brooding energy that tied the whole sprawling work together.” Read the full review here.
Additional opening night reviews in The Guardian and The Arts Desk praised Payare and the orchestra’s connection, with The Guardian noting: “…Payare was untroubled by the need to share the podium with a music stand and free to use every inch of the space – which he did enthusiastically, almost balletically, at times crouching so low as to be sharing the eye level of the players below him.”
Payare and his OSM were joined by Trifonov for the remainder of the European tour, making stops in Luxembourg, Paris, Hamburg, Berlin, Amsterdam, Munich, and Vienna. Of the Paris performance, Bachtrack wrote enthusiastically of Trifonov’s rendition of Schumann’s Piano Concerto, saying it “…was played with such naturalness, such organicity that we have never felt who followed, the orchestra, the conductor or the soloist.”
Read additional tour reviews in Le Devoir, La Presse, and Der Standard.
