As the Montreal Symphony Orchestra’s European tour ends on Saturday in Vienna, its musical director, Rafael Payare, is preparing the future stages of the institution’s development with calm and method.
Under the baton of Rafael Payare, the orchestra of Richard Strauss or Arnold Schoenberg is adorned with rich colors and harmonies. In Berlioz, energy is combined with admirable clarity.
The combination of the strength of design and unbridled physical commitment is well summed up by a new member of the orchestra, second clarinetist Ryan Toher: “Rafael Payare is very acrobatic on the podium, very demonstrative with his body, while being very clear with his wand. We are very stimulated. » Older people admit to having experienced sensations never felt in concerts previously given at the Philharmonie de Paris.
Concerts like those of the OSM in Paris and Berlin can only result from a complicity and a trust which lead, through a gift of self, to a sort of liberation of the musical word. This is the recipe that made Yannick Nézet-Séguin successful. This quality is not given to all chefs.
In this alchemy, which, at its highest, leads to a “magic ritual” as we wrote on Monday, the key word is “trust”. The first act in this sense in the relationship between Rafael Payare and the OSM was, in our eyes, the immediate decision of the conductor not only to immerse himself intensely in learning French, of which he did not speak a word (and which is the language he uses in rehearsal, unlike others), but also to settle in Montreal and raise his two daughters there, now almost 9 and 3 years old. This choice of settling in the metropolis was that of Charles Dutoit, not his successor.
“It was important for the relationship, important for feeling the rhythm of the city,” the chef explained to us during a shared breakfast in Paris last Saturday. “We have adapted very well, and my eldest daughter is going to school for the third year. At first, we rented a house in Outremont, but now we have just moved to a house that we bought in NDG [Notre-Dame-de-Grâce]. Everything that is happening in Montreal for us is magnificent: the relationship with the orchestra is very, very happy; the city offers many things; the food is very good; connections with Europe, easy. »
For certain conductors in the history of the orchestra (Markevitch, Frühbeck de Burgos), musical direction at the OSM was a stepping stone to another position in North America. Rafael Payare is the opposite and relies on the quality of his relationship with an orchestra “which was of a very high level”, and for which he considers that “with our alchemy, we feel that the level is very , very superior already.”
“I don’t think there are many orchestras in North America that can play like that; with flexibility, virtuosity, clarity. Which means that we can play very crystal-clearly and at the same time develop the Germanic repertoire. The icing on the cake is that this is not the end: we can improve a lot. Everyone is committed to the quest for excellence. »
Directory
Rafael Payare and the OSM will record the Fantastic Symphony on December 19. The tour will have its part in the evolution of interpretation: “We will have more flexibility. The musicians can be more comfortable and we can introduce small differences. In a acceleratingwe can press a little more and improve the cohesion because we played it like that on tour. Furthermore, the Fantastic being in the DNA of the orchestra, there are things that were a bit on “autopilot”. We don’t change everything at once, but already, in London and Luxembourg, there were small differences. »
On the background of French and Russian Music acquired with Charles Dutoit, the Germanic repertoire worked with Kent Nagano, Rafael Payare quietly grafts his universe. “My core repertoire is Germanic, Russian and, increasingly, French. The idea is to develop the sound of the orchestra to play Mahler without accent and, at the same time, to do something completely transparent as we did in Strauss. We are the ones who can really add that touch. »
To work on flexibility, Payare added opera in concert. “This is why we are going to offer the three Mozart-Da Ponte, CosiThen Figaro et Don Giovanni. The classical repertoire will help with the sound. » The path will be marked out by Shostakovich, then Prokofiev. “But it will take Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Wagner, Bruckner, Strauss and the French repertoire,” adds the conductor. On the opera side, we can hope to see Elektra one day, as well as Bluebeard’s Castle by Bartók, which Rafael Payare dreams of directing with Karen Cargill.
The strategic idea of the new general director, Mélanie La Couture, to double the number of recordings already seems to be endorsed, the repertoire remaining to be determined. For now, the records document the Germanic repertoire, but not Shostakovich (whose Payare recorded 11e Symphony in San Diego), the French repertoire (fortunately, the Fantastic is coming), the South American repertoire or that for organ and orchestra. After last season’s concerts and that of the Lanaudière Festival, Rafael Payare is firmly decided to record the 7e Symphony Mahler.
Music for everyone
For Mélanie La Couture, Rafael Payare’s brand in Montreal will also be closely linked to his commitment to education and the presence of music among underprivileged children. We feel that the conductor will not have to wait too long, and that the “Music for Children” project in Montreal North will experience significant developments at the start of 2025.
The musical summer, which had been reformatted to fit Kent Nagano’s calendar, is another project: “We are still thinking. The idea is to share music with as many people as possible. Let’s also think about integrating the education component: summer will be the time to showcase what we will develop in this area. »
As soon as the leader arrived, his mission was also, through recruitment, to shape the OSM of the future. “The level of auditions is high, but you have to know if the person can give us something. It’s not just about playing well; you have to hear a personality,” tells us the conductor who has hired a second trombone, three trumpets, three horns, a second clarinet, a first oboe, piccolo, solo viola, two or three cellos, tutti violas and a few violins. The juries bring together nine musicians and the conductor, and sometimes find no one. “For the second clarinet position, someone played better than the others, but it was not the level of the orchestra. In these cases, you have to take time. Immediately afterwards, we found someone wonderful, but he was stolen from us by the New York Philharmonic! Luckily, we finally have someone really good. »
Rafael Payare’s investment in Montreal risks taking him off the radar of the European market. The boss is well aware of the problem. “It’s a challenge to find the time between Montreal, San Diego, my family and other projects. For Europe, this year I spent six weeks at the Covent Garden Opera House and there is the tour. Next season there will be concerts in Munich, the debut at the Concertgebouw and a few others. Fortunately, the relationship with orchestras in Europe is strong; when I say no, they know it’s not that I don’t want to, but that I don’t have the time. »
It remains for Rafael Payare, who likes hiking with children, reading and the tranquility of the home, to experience some of the joys of the Quebec winter. “Skating will probably be fine, because I’ve done a lot of rollerblades. But I only skied once. My wife, Alisa, was playing a New Year’s Eve concert in Zurich. We went to the mountains. Maestro Maazel having died, I had a call from the Vienna Philharmonic to replace him in January. So I was on these skis and all I was saying to myself was: “I’m not going to miss my debut with the Vienna Philharmonic because I broke my wrist skiing!” I put myself in a corner of a flat track. Alisa filmed the scene. It’s not glorious and I didn’t insist afterwards. On the other hand, I haven’t tried the sugar shack yet. I intend to make up for that. »
Christophe Huss is the OSM’s guest for the European tour.
