MONTREAL — Montrealers lucky enough to obtain a ticket for the Orchestre Métropolitain’s sold-out Sept. 23 concert heard what may well have been the finest Mahler Third Symphony ever presented in their city. Yannick Nézet-Séguin, artistic director and principal conductor of the Orchestre Métropolitain since 2000 and currently celebrating 25 years as leader of “his” orchestra, returned to his hometown to open the season.
One might have expected that this would be a routine run-through of the symphony, given this conductor’s insanely busy schedule. Nothing of the sort. Nézet-Séguin had obviously prepared the orchestra with great care over the course of five rehearsals. Charm, charisma, and down-to-earth friendliness oozes out of every pore of this man, to the extent that the musicians feel totally at ease playing for him, being led by a fellow musician, not a martinet.
There were countless moments of carefully sculpted phrasing, particularly from the woodwinds. The myriad performance directions in the score (dynamic markings, crescendos and decrescendos, expressive markings) were all observed. Nézet-Séguin had full control of the symphony’s overall architecture. He saved the full power of the huge orchestra for key climactic moments, and when these stupendous walls of sound arrived, they nearly swept listeners out of the hall. At the other end of the dynamic spectrum, the orchestra proved that it could play at the extreme level of audibility when asked, as in the beginning of the fourth movement or in some of the breathless whispers scattered throughout the symphony.
Momentum never flagged during the 35-minute first movement, which delivered one thrill after another. Principal trombonist Patrice Richer shone gloriously in his many long solos, which were delivered with such eloquent expression that they might have been sung by a baritone in a Verdi aria. The march tune was crisp and clean upon each of its multifarious manifestations. Overall the spirit of the joy in music-making pervaded right up to the exhilarating frenzy of the last page.
Principal oboist Léanne Teran-Paul opened the second movement with tender loving care, and the entire woodwind section followed with numerous moments of exquisite delicacy.
The third movement featured offstage posthorn solos that wafted an air of heavenly sweetness and breathed beauty of tone suggestive of the voice of an angel. Despite the simplicity of the writing, these passages can be a graveyard of glitches for the player, but Antoine Mailloux, using a D-trumpet, rendered them immaculately.
Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, clothed in a white gown and positioned within the ranks of the string sections, delivered her message of gloom and doom in voluptuous, creamy tones, though from my seat in the mezzanine it was difficult to determine in what language she was singing.
Nézet-Séguin brought joyful, light-hearted sparkle to the fifth movement in stark contrast to the deep sleep, mystery, and longing of the fourth, though neither the women’s choir (Choeur Métropolitain) nor the boys’ choir (Choeur des Petits-Chanteurs du Mont-Royal) was quite up to the standard of the orchestra.
Without pause, the 25-minute finale began in hushed tones, as if from another world. With masterly control of the expansive musical architecture, Nézet-Séguin brought the pinnacle of Mahler’s symphonic spiritual ascent — from inanimate Nature to Godhood, from serene repose to ever-greater heights — to its ultimate fulfillment in the massive, exalted D major chord that seemed not so much to end the symphony as to carry it eternally into the vast reaches of the cosmos. This was a Mahler Third made in heaven.
One wanted to congratulate every player of the orchestra individually, but the nine-member horn section, led by Louis-Philippe Marsolais (indubitably one of Canada’s finest horn players), calls for special mention. These men and women played with the all the boldness, unfettered brashness and fearless heroism one associates with the Chicago Symphony’s horn players. It sounded like a section of principals. No shying away from the treacherous high notes — they nailed these with total assurance. The opening salvo — a fanfare for the entire section in unison, unaccompanied — indeed heralded a performance of great distinction.
Mahler’s Third Symphony, clocking in at about 100 minutes and the longest in the standard repertoire, almost always stands alone in a concert. Not at this one. The orchestra, in keeping with its five-year tradition of opening each season with a work by one of Canada’s indigenous composers, offered as a prelude to Mahler the world premiere of Sonny-Ray Day Rider’s six-minute Eukaryotica. Day Rider was born into the Kainai (Blood Tribe) of the Blackfoot First Nation in Alberta. He was the logical choice to share a program with Mahler’s Third, which attempts to portray in sound the whole of human experience and a philosophy of life.
Day Rider is right on Mahler’s wavelength when he states, “I like to think of the music I create as a spirit wanting to be heard. The Blackfoot believe music is how the ‘supernatural’ communicates with us.” As for the work’s title, Day Rider explains that “Eukaryogenesis is an emergent phenomenon that resulted in the manifestation of the complex ‘living’ world around us. Eukaryotica is the first child of this planet and our first sacred mother.” The work falls gently on the ear, rising slowly and continuously to a climax about two-thirds of the way through, then receding. Its modal harmony, repetitive formulas, and mostly subdued tone suggest an incantation of sorts. Mahler would surely have responded favorably.
