Highlights | 2023-2024 concert seasons begin, Nézet-Séguin coaches Bradley Cooper

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Welcome to La Scena Musicale’s weekly Highlights, a roundup of classical music news from Canada and beyond. It’s the time for new music seasons, and that means many inaugural concerts are underway!

2023-2024 Season Updates

For their first concert of the 2023-2024 season, Violons du Roy presented La Seine en fête (La Presse) at Palais Montcalm, which was originally on their 2020 schedule but delayed for three years due to the pandemic. The ensemble has since recruited a flute quartet, two oboists, a bassoonist, and a guitarist.

Violons du Roy

Nouvel Ensemble Moderne announced the start of its 35th season with a performance of La persistance, l’éphémère.

Toronto Mendelssohn Choir is returning with Dr. Tracy Wong as its composer in residence and many free shows and choral workshops!

The cast for Opéra de Montréal’s season opening show, Les noces de Figaro (La Presse) displayed “audacious ornamentation” and “magnificent 18th century costumes” at the Wilfrid Pelletier show, according to critic Emmanuel Bernier.

And finally, Montreal’s music scene will continue to honour the Chapelle Historique du Bon Pasteur by hosting the 25 concerts in its 2023-2024 season (Ludwig Van) at the Canadian Centre for Architecture. This comes after the venue burned down in late May this year. The National Theatre School of Canada will be donating a Fazioli piano, given to them by the late Normand Chaurette in 2022, to the Chapelle for upcoming performances.

Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur

Musician and Venue Debuts

Isabel Leonard, a mezzo-soprano who has won three Grammy Awards, will debut in the Los Angeles Opera’s rendition of Don Giovanni (SF Classical Voice) as Donna Elvira. Her first show is September 23.

The Perelman Performing Arts Centre, opened on September 13, is the final building to be installed at the former site of the World Trade Centre (Classical Voice NA). Concert reviewer Susan Brodie can’t tell how good the acoustics just yet, but she calls the three main performance stages state-of-the-art.

Recordings

Elisabeth St-Gelais

Innu soprano Élisabeth Ste-Gelais has signed an “exclusive recording contract” with ATMA Classique, promising to work on three albums over the next six years. The first recording starts in March 2024 at Domaine Forget hall, alongside pianist Louise Pelletier.

The fourth and final album in the National Arts Centre Orchestra’s Clara, Robert, Johannes project – Romance and Counterpoint – was released September 22. The project started in 2019 with the release of the first album, and recording continued through the pandemic.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin is helping with a new recording, but he’s not the conductor – that role is instead being taken on by Bradley Cooper in the upcoming Leonard Bernstein biopic, Maestro (Globe and Mail)!

If you can’t get enough of Nézet-Séguin, Paramount also recently released an hour-long interview with him about how he’s trying to break down “the walls that have kept some audiences from classical music and opera.”

Awards, Appointments, and Competitions

Gramophone shortlisted 66 albums for its 2023 awards, with everything from Marc André-Hamelin’s The Complete Rags to Red Note Ensemble’s Emblemata: Carnival.

The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal has announced the 10 semi-finalists for its string competition, featuring Quebec-based bassist William Deslauriers-Allain and cellist Romain-Olivier Gray.

Canada’s Walk of Fame is inducting Loverboy, Chilliwak, Max Webster, and 10 other musicians from the 70s and 80 (Toronto Star).

Local News

An Edmonton, AB singer is protesting the choir that fired them, and says the decision was a discriminatory act, on the basis of their non-binary gender identity.

In Kitchener, ON, Andreas Kitzman is introducing the synthesizer to an open mic bar (CTV News). The KWSO, meanwhile, has officially declared Bankruptcy. In response to the announcement, members of the orchestra have come together to start a crowdfunding campaign.

Obituary

The classical music world is still mourning the losses of several composers, musicians, and stagehands. On September 21, an unnamed 55-year-old stage technician fell off a balcony at Royal Swedish Opera (Classic FM) in what the police suspect is a workplace safety accident. The technician was rushed to the hospital in a helicopter. They were later pronounced dead.

During a performance of Dono della Vita eterna, 54-year-old Argentinian baritone Alejandro Meerapfel collapsed (Les Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace), later dying of a heart attack. Robert W. Smith, a Warner Music composer with over 600 published works, and Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s double-bass from 1961 to 2010, Joseph Gustafeste, have also passed away at 64 and 93 respectively.