Orchester Métropolitain 2022-23 season lifts up underrepresented voices

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“Music is the perfect vehicle to have cultures speak to each other, to hear underrepresented voices, to hear other points of view,” says Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

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The Montreal maestro and his Orchester Métropolitain hope to prove the point in a season that begins on Sept. 25 not with a standard overture but a new work by Inuk singer-songwriter Elisapie Isaac, aka Elisapie.

“I’m very proud that the first notes we hear will be from one of the Indigenous nations in this country,” Nézet-Séguin continued. “But in dialogue with one of the greatest pieces in the French repertoire.”

That was a reference to Ravel’s lavish Daphnis et Chloé, which will be performed after the Elisapie premiere. Yannick (who is also known by his first name) expects a fruitful interplay of works that “speak about nature.”

The 2022-23 lineup adheres to contemporary expectations in other ways, notably in the ample space given to non-male and/or non-white composers, such as Elfrida Andrée (1841-1929), and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912). ). Nézet-Séguin, who recently won a Grammy for a Philadelphia Orchestra recording of music by Florence Price (1887-1953), will bring a symphony by this African-American composer to Montreal (June 11, 2023) for the second year in row.

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Louise Farrenc (1804-1875), a French composer whose well-crafted symphonies have lately emerged from the shadows, is accorded the same honor on Oct. 16. Canonical music is not absent, but it is interesting that there are no works by the undisputed heavyweight champion of classical music: Beethoven.

Nézet-Séguin is in charge of five of the 11 subscription programs in the Maison symphonique. Half of the remaining regular concerts — in keeping with a trend established this season — are led by women.

“Women on the podium are as important as women writing music,” Nézet-Séguin comments. “We are proud to show that there are more and more incredible talents, the best talents internationally, conducting our orchestra.”

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The conductors in question are Lina Gonzalez-Granados, a Columbian formerly linked to Yannick’s Philadelphia Orchestra (Nov. 4); Chloé van Soeterstède, born in France but also active in the UK (Jan. 27); and Serbian-born Daniela Candillari, who made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera (where Nézet-Séguin serves as music director) this season (Feb. 10).

More familiar to OM followers is Nicolas Ellis, who returns as the orchestra’s artistic partner, a job that involves a concert (Feb. 17) featuring Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony. Other return visitors to the OM podium are National Arts Center Orchestra music director Alexander Shelley (April 28, 2023) and the Swiss-based Australian Nicholas Carter (May 19, 2023).

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The ATMA label will be recording Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5 (March 3, Nézet-Séguin conducting) and a new Double Concerto for Cello and Harp by veteran Montreal modernist Denis Gougeon (Feb. 17, Ellis conducting).

There will be only one public performance of Sibelius. Many orchestras, including the OSM, have two or three concerts to choose from when releasing a live recording.

“It does create more pressure,” Nézet-Séguin conceded. “But the OM is now a very seasoned recording orchestra. We know the deal.”

The subscription series does not exhaust YNS’s OM activities. He will lead a Christmas program on Dec. 3 and three Bach Cantatas in Bourgie Hall on March 25. He is also the conductor on Oct. 20 of a concert celebrating the winners of the Azrieli Music Prizes.

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Arguably the grandest undertaking of the season, on Dec. 18, is a performance of Bach’s Mass in B Minor with an international quartet of vocal soloists and the 40-strong Chœur Métropolitain.

“It is hard to talk about how great this masterpiece is,” Nézet-Séguin says. “Composed by a Lutheran, it sets text from the Catholic mass. In 2022, this score is less about the sacred and more about the spiritual, about what unites us as humanity.”

Among the best known guest soloists is the American soprano Angel Blue, who will be heard at the closing concert of June 11, 2023, in Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, a work she sang with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick in February.

Another established performer is the Franco-Swiss flutist Emmanuel Pahud, who appears in three programs as soloist in residence. Perhaps the most unusual visitor, on Feb. 10, is theremin player Thorwald Jørgensen, who will perform a concerto written by Montreal’s Simon Bertrand in honor of Leon Theremin (1896-1993), inventor of the electronic instrument that bears his name.

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The second Maison symphonique program of Oct. 16 (Nézet-Séguin conducting) is preceded by concerts on Oct. 14 and 15 in Pointe-Claire and Verdun — marking the revival, after a pandemic-related suspension of two seasons, of the orchestra’s signature on-island tours sponsored by the Conseil des arts de Montréal. Several other programs will go on the road.

The announcement of the 2022-23 OM season arrives just after the shocking news of the death on April 18 of the American pianist Nicholas Angelich at age 51. This former OM soloist in residence was scheduled to close the current season on June 18 and 19 with concerts conducted by Nézet-Séguin. The concert of April 29, featuring pianist Paul Lewis and conductor Jane Glover, will be dedicated to his memory of him.

“I have lost one of my closest artistic collaborators,” Nézet-Séguin said in a statement. “Nicholas adored Montreal, and I hope that he will always be remembered as a generous soul and a pianist like no other.”