On European tour, the OSM fights for the greatness of music

After concerts in London and Luxembourg, the European tour of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (OSM) stopped Friday at the Philharmonie de Paris, presenting the Alpine Symphony by Richard Strauss, rather than the Fantastic Symphonyand the Concerto pour piano by Schumann with Daniil Trifonov. In front of a packed house, orchestra and conductor, in communion, passionately performed a Straussian symphony, captivating an astonished and stunned audience.

There is a musical effect of the touring orchestra. Self-transcendence can then turn into musical transcendence. This is exactly what happened with the OSM in concert Friday evening at the Philharmonie de Paris, one of the most beautiful and generous halls in the world. The Parisians have discovered the OSM-Payare tandem, and there is no doubt that they will ask for more. For us, daily observers, it was extremely moving to see these well-known faces battling it out and literally fighting with their instruments to celebrate the greatness of music.

The magic

And yet, in the morning, during the rehearsal, nothing came through: a Strauss symphony “spun” on the very good foundations of the presentation given in Montreal. Few indications or interruptions from the conductor, but a remark on listening and the nesting of sentences at the beginning and, in particular, a small incitement to a generous sound here and there, the Viennese lard (Viennese creaminess) Straussian becoming in the mouth of Rafael Payare “a little bit of maple syrup”.

In the evening, however, it was a transfiguration of such an emotional impact that it has long questioned us on how to describe and conceptualize, for distant readers, what we must call the “Payare phenomenon”.

As the sociologist Jean-Marie Brohm writes in his work Phenomenological ontology of music“the classical music concert can, in certain specific circumstances, take on the character of a magical collaboration”. Brohm quotes author Marcel Mauss on a description that can be applied to the orchestra: “There are no more individuals. They are, so to speak, parts of a machine.” This is animated by a movement, “the expression of a mental state where everyone’s consciousness is monopolized by a single feeling, a single, hallucinatory idea, that of the common goal”.

“It turns out,” writes Jean-Marie Brohm, “that certain conductors with a Dionysian temperament have perfectly perceived the trance-like power of music. » At the time of recruiting Rafael Payare, we highlighted the interest of such a profile to break with the previous mandate. Emblematic figure of Dionysian leaders, Charles Munch, in I am a conductordescribes “this inner exaltation, this devouring flame, this magnetism which must bewitch both the musicians we conduct and the listeners”.

This is what the OSM concert in Paris was and this is the essence of Rafael Payare’s art, which will take this orchestra to heights that we cannot even imagine. Its preparation allowed a magical ritual. Two examples. First, an increasingly greater orchestral transparency, even in the tumult and massiveness of Strauss. It brings out unexpected harmonic audacity from Strauss. Then, a musically ecstatic moment, just after the storm leading to sunset, where the conductor broadens the breathing more than usual, which allows the violins to deliver their attack more intensely. Payare had never gone this far, but he could afford to since everyone was following him. The colors displayed by the orchestra were glorious and overwhelming.

The audience, from which no noise filtered out, gave a standing ovation to this monumental performance, preceded by Every tree speaks by Iman Habibi et de un Concerto pour piano by Schumann as introverted as ever, but with the first movement much more logical and better balanced than in Montreal, the brilliant third part still remaining the highlight of Daniil Trifonov’s version. The latter, as an encore, played a Jesus may my joy remain in weightlessness on a Steinway of very rare beauty and perfect balance.

Christophe Huss is the OSM’s guest during the European tour.

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