L'Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal

The year 2011 was an extraordinary, truly unique and remarkably important time for the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and our audiences. After a thirty-year period of patient perseverance, the construction of the Maison symphonique was successfully completed and the concert hall officially inaugurated by the Government of Quebec, a festive monument to the OSM for the benefit of Quebec and Montreal music lovers as well as for our city’s many international visitors.

 

Among musicians, music lovers and friends of our city, no one will ever forget the exciting days that marked the opening celebrations of the Maison symphonique. It was tremendously fulfilling, and we as OSM members and Montrealers all shared a feeling of pure joy and happiness. A wonderful new home for our orchestra finally saw the light of day – a work of architecture that is spacious and intimate, and at the same time a “grand” hall, too – a visual experience endowed with beauty and clarity and a formal structure imbued with warmth. For the first time in our city’s history, the sound of our Orchestra can be appreciated in all its rich artistry – that complete expressiveness of orchestral colour and playing style that gives the OSM its distinct identity. Our audiences, along with the local and international media, all agree that the Maison symphonique deserves to be compared to the most renowned halls from around the world.

 

We would like to renew our heartfelt gratitude to the Government of Quebec and the many generous institutions, patrons and sponsors whose positive decisions paved the way and helped the Maison symphonique become a reality. The community of Sciences – the master acoustician, the architect and their teams – and the community of Arts united their efforts and built what is now the living and inspiring cultural heart of the city. After only a few months, the Maison symphonique appears to have already attained the historical role of the great concert halls of social tradition: to be an open forum where the community assembles, shares, and discusses that which is vital and relevant to our lives. Seeing the dream of our new home become a reality makes us all the more aware of our responsibility to present truly exceptional experiences of the very highest artistic quality to our public.

 

The OSM and I, as Music Director, have pursued several goals in our programming for the past few years. First of all, we have expanded and balanced our repertoire. While preserving the central role of French music – the OSM’s ‘first language’ that audiences have enjoyed for generations - we have also supported and integrated contemporary music into our concert programs. Moreover, we have emphasized the music of the great German symphonic tradition and we have devoted substantial programming to performances of Johann Sebastian Bach through his Oratorio and Passion settings, as well as to presentations of opera on the concert stage. We will continue to maintain this tradition not least of all because our audiences love this music, but also because programs along these lines are capable of more or less infinite variation, with plenty of opportunities to open new windows on original artistic prospects.

 

In the upcoming 2012-2013 season these lines will be developed and expanded on a wonderful opening with Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (the “Resurrection”), followed by three major works in the oratorio genre: “L’Enfance du Christ”(The Childhood of Christ) by Hector Berlioz, “Deutsches Requiem”(A German Requiem) by Johannes Brahms, and Arthur Honegger’s moving and dramatic interpretation of Joan of Arc’s destiny in “Jeanne d’Arc au Bûcher” (Joan of Arc at the Stake).As always, the French repertoire will be generously represented not only with essential works, but also through the inclusion of compositions less often performed. To this end, orchestral programs as well as concerts in the chamber music series will feature the music of Debussy, Ravel, Chausson, Roussel, Honegger, Magnard and Milhaud. Performances of the Fauré and Duruflé requiems will also be given in a special concert featuring the newly established OSM Chorus.Our audiences can also look forward to major symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner and Mahler, presented in keeping with a yet also significant OSM tradition, while also experiencing an exceptionally profound focus on Russian music with a number of remarkable and distinguished Russian soloists and conductors as guest artists.

 

Finally the 2012-2013 season will see an important development of the OSM's active repertoire thanks to the extraordinary acoustics of the Maison symphonique. Audiences can also expect a very special event in a cycle of concerts that focus on three of the great “London Symphonies” of Franz Joseph Haydn, a cycle which signals a new positioning of Haydn and Mozart within our core repertoire. Haydn is the founder of the symphony, which in the 19th century through Beethoven, would become the point of departure for the grounding of a major orchestral and concert culture. Haydn’s musical language is in many ways characterized by an incredibly clearheaded delight in experiment, and is unmistakably linked to the spirit of the Age of Enlightenment, so that it is also freely imbued with a sense of humour that keeps listeners in pleasant and joyful amazement. We have taken this delightful experimentation of Haydn’s as an inspiration for our program concepts, which are oriented along different themes but show works in highly unusual combinations and presentations. We hope that this will inspire a novel and stimulating listening experience – so, please, let yourselves be surprised!

 

Within this broad and rich spectrum of classical repertoire, may I cordially welcome each and every one of you back to the OSM's warm and visually spectacular new home, the Maison symphonique. It is here, through great music, artistic beauty and new opportunities for discovery, that we believe Montreal music lovers will truly find themselves at home.