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Montreal, April 24, 2024 – The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal is thrilled today to be unveiling its 2024–2025 programming. This 91st season marking the midway point of its Music Director Rafael Payare’s tenure is set to be exceptionally vibrant and hope-inspiring. Numerous local and international artists will take the stage at the Maison symphonique to offer invigorating, memorable, and multifaceted musical experiences. Hailing from Canada, Benin, France, the Netherlands, Australia, and elsewhere, performers will offer audiences moments of exultation and reprieve. The season’s Symphonic concerts, POP concerts, Music & Film concerts, “Éclaté” concerts, and concerts for young audiences will provide spectators with the opportunity to discover or rediscover works by Ravel, Prokofiev, Vivaldi, Schoenberg, and, of course, Mahler, as well as distinguished guests, including baritone Thomas Hampson and singer Angélique Kidjo. Here is an overview…
In our continually evolving societies, as we face overwhelming challenges, music has the power to kindle hope. Inspiring, health-giving, music takes on its full force in concert, when our emotions resonate in unison. I invite you to share in this richly coloured and festive 2024–2025 season filled with new discoveries. We have designed this season with the aim of giving you music in all its forms, venturing at times into new territory, intent on relaying our passion to you. — Rafael Payare, OSM Music Director
SYMPHONIC CONCERTS CONDUCTED BY RAFAEL PAYARE
The 24–25 season’s opening concert will feature the monumental Gurre-Lieder, an imposing medieval love saga to mark the 150th anniversary of Schoenberg’s birth. An event not to be missed, this is a chance for our audiences to engage with a musical work of matchless ambition that calls for close to 150 musicians and 200 choristers on stage! This immersive experience will transport listeners to a world of striking beauty and intensity. The season’s second week maintains the pace with the celebrated pianist Daniil Trifonov in a performance of two concertos: Schumann’s Piano Concerto and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 1. Rafael Payare will also conduct the Orchestra in a world premiere and OSM commission by Canadian composer Michael Oesterle, as well as in Berlioz’s astonishing musical epic, the Symphonie fantastique. November will see the return of pianist Bruce Liu and a performance of Richard Strauss’ towering Alpine Symphony.
The Mahler Cycle continues in January and in May with the composer’s Symphony no. 6 in a program also featuring the Five Lieder by Alma Mahler, Gustav Mahler’s spouse and a composer in her own right, performed by mezzo-soprano Beth Taylor. On February 12 and 13, the OSM celebrates love with Ravel’s poetic ballet Daphnis et Chloé in a program also showcasing the masterful cellist Alisa Weilerstein performing Prokofiev’s Sinfonia concertante to open the concert. Also in February: Tchaikovsky’s much-loved Violin Concerto and Shostakovich’s arresting and powerfully disconcerting Symphony no. 11. Mozart takes centre stage in a Festival devoted to him in April, where listeners can enjoy a concert version of his opera Così fan tutte. This performance kicks off a cycle of Mozart’s three operas to librettos by Da Ponte. Finally, nature and its perpetual renewal will be summoned in the season’s closing concert, with Mahler’s Song of the Earth. This profoundly moving score also echoes with the world premiere of a work commissioned by the OSM that brings together several Indigenous and non-Indigenous composers, authors, and performers.
ALL NEW : 5 à 7 CONCERTS
THE TRADITION OF POP CONCERTS CONTINUES
POP concerts will encompass more variety than ever with three musical encounters of astonishing originality! In October, audiences can at last delve into the world of the celebrated media host who has interviewed so many stars. Two concerts will feature France Beaudoin with the OSM, live from the Maison symphonique, as she invites listeners into her musical universe, joined by musicians, choristers, and several guests, all under the direction of Thomas Le Duc-Moreau. In January, legendary Quebec metal band Voivod will tread the stage at Salle Wilfrid Pelletier with symphonic versions of hits including Holographic Thinking and Astronomy Domine, conducted by Dina Gilbert—sure to permanently mark the Montreal soundscape! Finally, in March, the Acadian duo Radio Radio, which rose to fame with the album Cliché Hot (2008), will perform several hits and explore some of its two members’ solo material from a new perspective, along with the OSM conducted by Andrei Feher. This is music that will have the hall “galloping” between the sounds and styles of hip-hop, electronica, and… classical music!
MUSIC & FILMS CONCERTS
Four concerts revisit selected great classics of cinema in the OSM’s now-cherished Music & Film concert format! First, in September, the harrowing and transfixing music to JAWS, composed in 1975 by John Williams, will be performed live under the direction of Ben Palmer, whom the composer personally authorized to conduct his soundtrack. In November, Fred Niblo’s 1921 version of The Three Musketeers will be accompanied on the imposing Grand Orgue Pierre-Béique by Hungarian organist László Fassang. Then, in January, Dina Gilbert will conduct John Corigliano’s Oscar-winning soundtrack to the intriguing drama The Red Violin by Quebec filmmaker François Girard. In April, Fantasia, whose soundtrack draws directly from the classical repertoire (Beethoven, Stravinsky, Debussy), will be screened to this music, conducted by Simon Rivard.
HOLIDAYS CELEBRATIONS WITH THE OSM
THE OSM CONTINUES ITS EDUCATIONAL MISSION FOR THE FUTURE
Education lives at the core of the OSM’s identity since its very foundation, with the Orchestra accommodating over 20,000 young spectators at the Maison symphonique each year. The popular Children’s Corner series will return this year with two afternoon concerts to suit all ages and tastes. Canadian conductor Adam Johnson will lead Fantastic Creatures, where creatures come to life thanks to the artistry of illustrator Frédéric Ellis, in a live performance staged by Martin Gougeon. Under the baton of Thomas Le Duc-Moreau, the Youth Concert Concerto, My Dear! Showcases a contestant of the 2024 OSM Competition. To encourage broader access to music, of which the Orchestra has made a priority, a dozen school matinee concerts on the same themes will be reserved for student groups. The traditional Bal des enfants conducted by Maestro Payare will feature a Carnival celebration this season, presenting young audiences with a world premiere by Montreal composer Maxime Goulet titled Carnaval des insectes (Carnival of the Insects).
The OSM Competition’s 85th edition, devoted this year to woodwinds and brass, will once again provide final round contestants with the opportunity to perform a concerto with the Orchestra. Alongside these future-facing OSM projects, a broad variety of mediation activities will take place at the Maison symphonique, the Espace OSM as well as in school settings.
EUROPEAN TOUR
In its capacity as a leading cultural ambassador, the OSM will embark on its 17th European tour, which also marks its 59th international tour. The tour’s eight concerts in six countries corresponds to the OSM’s fourth tour conducted by its Music Director Rafael Payare. From November 19 to 30, the Orchestra will shine on some of Europe’s grandest stages, in London, Luxembourg, Paris, Hamburg, Berlin, Amsterdam, Munich, and Vienna, joined by virtuoso pianist Daniil Trifonov. Montreal audiences will have a chance this fall to hear the works performed on this tour at the Maison symphonique: Jeder Baum spricht (Every Tree Speaks), by Iranian-Canadian composer Iman Habibi, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 1, Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, Richard Strauss’ Eine Alpensinfonie (An Alpine Symphony), and Schumann’s only Piano Concerto.
For programming details or to purchase tickets online: osm.ca | 514-842-9951 | 1-888-842-9951
Subscriptions and single tickets for Pop concerts may be purchased as of 10 a.m. today. Single tickets for all other concerts of the season will be on sale as of May 29.Once again this year, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal renews itself to amaze us with its programming for the coming season. It’s an honour for BMO to renew our long-standing partnership with the OSM. Sincere thanks to all the artists who bring us these emotionally charged moments of musical escape. A great season to all! — Grégoire Baillargeon, President, BMO Financial Group, Quebec
THE OSM WISHES TO THANK ITS PARTNERS, SUBSCRIBERS AND SPECTATORS
As the contribution of the Orchestra’s public partners is essential to the realization of its mission. the OSM thanks its principal partner, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, as well as the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of Quebec and the Conseil des arts de Montréal. The OSM is proud to be able to count on its loyal partners, and would like to thank Hydro-Québec, presenter of the OSM, and BMO Financial Group, season presenter. Thanks also to Power Corporation du Canada, Fondation J.A. DeSève, IG Gestion de patrimoine, Air Canada, CanadaVie, Cogeco, Spinelli, BFL Canada, Bivouac, Clarins, Volvo, Solotech, Iris, Bière Boréale, Charton Hobbs, Distillerie de Montréal, Symphony, Radio-Canada, medici.tv, La Presse, PWC et McKinsey&Company. The OSM is likewise grateful to its other partners and donors, as well as its subscribers and spectators, who in various ways provide essential support for its activities
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