It was sold out for the closing concert of the Orchester Métropolitain (OM) on Sunday afternoon at the Maison symphonique. So much the better, because it’s the kind of concert you only attend a few times in your life.
Unlike the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s training, augmented by numerous supernumeraries at the end of the season, has somewhat neglected Mahler’s symphonies since the pandemic. She returned with Symphony No. 6 in A minor, which is not necessarily the most accessible for the public, particularly because of its climate of uncompromising tragedy.
The Quebec conductor, eminently familiar with the language of the Austrian composer, recorded his symphonies Nos. 4 and 10 with the OM (as well as Nos. 1 and 8 in Munich and Philadelphia).
Preceding the Sixth, the short but dense Alap, by Quebecer José Evangelista, who died in January 2023, predisposed hearts and ears for the symphony, directly followed. Inspired by the Balinese gamelan, the work is crisscrossed with ostinatos winding in a maze of dissonances with multiple reflections. Beautiful.
This part was striking for its decided tempo, more like Bernstein or Solti than Barbirolli, for example. We are talking about an allegro energico, after all (even if Mahler adds “ma non troppo”).
What is fabulous about Nézet-Séguin is that the exhibition appears in a new light when it is resumed. The second theme (the Alma theme), played with a string sound that would make you cry, is suddenly more relaxed. The scherzo is done in a bit of the same spirit, with a prettily smiling trio.
In the andante moderato, the conductor this time opts more for the second term (“moderate”) than the first (“going”), which gives us a weightless movement, with an unreal color of the strings at the beginning, like a distant whisper, but very present.
The last movement was a synthesis of all the previous qualities, with two very striking hammer blows, as it should be (the conductor had also shown the instrument made for the occasion at the start of the concert).
The fortissimo chord that appears without warning at the very end even made a child on the balcony who had probably dozed off (!) groan, ending the work half-heartedly.
The comparison with Mahler’s Sixth by Rafael Payare next January at the OSM will certainly be fascinating.
The general director of the orchestra, Fabienne Voisin, announced a lot of news at the start of the concert, notably the retirement of violinist Alain Giguère and double bassist Réal Montminy, but also the names of the winners of the Omni Competition, organized by OM , including trombonist Éli Turmel among the oldest (15-17 years old).
