Fall Highlights: Orchestras, Chamber, Solo

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Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (OSM)

Led by conductor Rafael Payare, the OSM celebrates the orchestra’s 90th anniversary this season, along with the 10th anniversary of the Grand Orgue Pierre-Béique. The orchestra will start the year with an electric performance of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring (Sept. 12-14). Payare and OSM concertmaster Andrew Wan will later take the stage to interpret Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. Webern’s Passacaglia, and Mozart’s “Haffner’’ Symphony (Oct. 25, 26). Come November, Christoph Eschenbach will conduct Alban Berg’s Concerto “To the Memory of an Angel” and Beethoven’s Symphony No.7 (Nov. 8, 9). The orchestra will get in the holiday spirit with the return of conductor Kent Nagano for “Le secret de Polichignon” (Dec. 14-16). Led by Hervé Niquet, they will also perform Berlioz’s L’enfance du Christ, featuring tenor Cyrille Dubois, mezzo-soprano Julie Boulianne, baritone Gordon Bintner, bass-baritone Robert Gleadow, and bass Tomislav Lavoie (Dec. 19). The OSM will ring in the new year with Mahler’s Symphony No.7 (Jan. 16, 17, 20), which will kick off an equally exciting second half of the season. www.osm.ca

Orchestre Métropolitain (OM)

The Orchestre Métropolitain will start the 2023-24 season off accompanied by pianist Bruce Liu, who joins the orchestra to interpret Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Sept. 16, 17). In October, Andreas Ottensamer will take the podium to conduct works by Brahms, Schumann, and Augusta Holmès (Oct. 11-14). Nézet-Séguin will then return for Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7, “Leningrad,” and Halvorsen’s Violin Concerto, as interpreted by Maria Dueñas (Nov. 17, 18). In December, audiences are invited to Holiday Melodies: an evening of jazz, popular, and orchestral holiday classics (Dec. 9). This will be followed by two performances of Handel’s Messiah (Dec. 19, 20). The new year has a whole host of concerts on offer, including appearances by pianists Élisabeth Pion (Jan. 19-21) and Tony Siqi Yun (March 6), singers Janai Brugger, Karen Cargill (Feb. 3), Francois Le Roux (April 18) and flutist Juliette Hurel (March 13-17). www.orchestremetropolitain.com

Salle Bourgie

In September, the Dover Quartet will open the Salle Bourgie season with a concert of works by Haydn, Shostakovich, and Florence Price (Sept. 27). On the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, poet Maya Cousineau Mollen, composer Barbara Assiginaak, and soprano Elisabeth St-Gelais will collaborate on a piece commissioned by Salle Bourgie, performed in the museum at various times throughout the day (Sept. 30). Director Olivier Godin will join baritone Marc Boucher for the world première of Chant pour un Québec lointain, composed for them by Rachel Laurin to texts by Madeleine Gagnon (Oct. 11). Davóne Tines will bring his Recital  No. 1: MASS to Montreal, accompanied by pianist John Bitoy, which combines the Catholic mass with works by European and African American composers (Oct. 15). Christian Blackshaw will take part in Bourgie Hall’s ongoing project of presenting the complete cycle of Mozart’s Piano Sonatas (Nov. 2). The Ligeti Festival will take place in November, and will honour the centenary of the composer’s birth with lectures, concerts, and film screenings (Nov. 4, 5). December will include tributes to Maria Callas, performed by Godin and soprano Aline Kutan (Dec. 2), Arion Baroque Orchestra’s Christmas in Paris (Dec. 17), and much more. www.mbam.qc.ca

I Musici de Montréal 

This year, Montreal’s I Musici celebrates “40 years of passion.” The season will open with a performance of works by Mozart and Bach, conducted by Jean-François Rivest, featuring pianist Alain Lefèvre, and violinist Hubert Brizard (Sept. 21). Guest conductor Lina González-Granados will lead the orchestra, soprano Andréanne Brisson Paquin, and violinist Madeleine Messier on Journey to the Heart of South America (Oct. 12). Tango to the Max! will provide audience members with an evening of dance and music, as I Musici is joined by Argentine tango dancers Bryant and Faye Lopez (Dec. 7). In the new year, contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux will present a program of works by Bach (Feb. 22); the Voces Boreales choir will join the orchestra for a performance featuring Pärt’s Te Deum (March 21); and cellists Stéphane Tétreault and Bryan Cheng will honour the legacy of I Musici’s founder, Yuli Turovsky (April 25). www.imusici.com

Ladies’ Morning Musical Club (LMMC)

The Ladies’ Morning Musical Club of Montreal has got your Sunday afternoons covered. Their first event of the year will feature violinist Kerson Leong (Sept. 10). October’s concerts include Jerusalem Quartet (Oct. 1) and pianist Rémi Geniet (Oct. 22). The Danish String Quartet will take the stage in November (Nov. 12) and, in December, the Hermitage Piano Trio (Dec. 3). In the new year, the organization will host Spanish pianist Javier Perianes (Feb. 4), the Escher String Quartet with pianist Roman Rabinovich (Feb. 25), the Pavel Haas Quartet (March. 17), pianist Stewart Goodyear (April 7), and will end their season with a performance by the Doric String Quartet (April 28). www.lmmc.ca

Orchestre Symphonique de Laval

Conducted by Thomas Le Duc-Moreau, featuring pianist Serhiy Salov, the Orchestre Symphonique de Laval’s first concert of the season will include: Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23; his Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36; and Mikhaïl Glinka’s overture to Rouslan and Ludmilla (Sept. 27). Quebec’s beloved Charles Richard-Hamelin will then join the orchestra for a performance of romantic favourites, by Chopin, Schumann, and Mendelssohn (Nov. 8). Seasonal favourites will be on offer at the orchestra’s holiday concert, which will include Christmas carols, the prelude to Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite (Dec. 6). In the new year, the orchestra will pay homage to Maria Callas’s 100th anniversary (Feb. 28), interpret works by Jocelyn Morlock and George Gershwin (April 17), and those of Paul Dukas, Maurice Ravel, Edward Elgar, and Camille Saint-Saëns (May 15). www.osl.ca

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