Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, handsome as a young Vladimir Ashkenazy, has quickly built a rapport with the Northern Sinfonia.

Principal conductor in Montreal since March 2000, he will be the principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra next year, and will then succeed Valery Gergiev as the next music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic. His enthusiasm made this a hugely enjoyable evening.

This was a concert of warmth and lively intelligence, taken at a cracking pace, starting with Stravinsky's Preludes and Fugues from 1969, his expression of respect for Bach, taken from The Well-Tempered Clavier and beautifully tailored for strings and woodwinds.

After the Stravinsky, we had Bach's 2nd Suite, the 2nd Violin Concerto and finished with Rameau's Suite from Les Indes Galantes.

The stately Ouverture to the 2nd Suite had a beautiful mock-pomposity, but then flautist Juliette Bausor became the star of the show. I have rarely heard such a cheerfully fluent and eloquent flute.

The magnificent Bradley Creswick, leader of the orchestra since 1984, was the soloist in Bach's 2nd violin concerto. He gave a beautifully controlled and understated performance but with a vigour apparent throughout, even the quieter passages, in what we might have expected to be the highlight of the concert.

But Rameau's Suite from Les Indes Galantes was even more lively and exciting, decorated again by Bausor's flute and piccolo, making this a climax rather than a dessert to a marvellous pre-Christmas dinner.

The Northern Sinfonia has an impressive track record for talent- spotting. It appointed Thomas Zehetmair as music director before a Gramophone award confirmed his international standing; now it introduces 32-year-old French-Canadian Yannick Nézet-Séguin as its next important find.

A dynamic young conductor with an irrepressible platform manner and a Jamie Oliver haircut, Nézet-Séguin was mentored by Carlo Maria Giulini and became principal conductor of the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra in his home town of Montreal at the age of 21. Though he is still relatively unknown in Europe, that is likely to change when he succeeds Valery Gergiev at the Rotterdam Philharmonic next year.

A dedicated explorer of the lesser-beaten tracks of the French repertoire, Nézet-Séguin's unusual choice of calling card is Bizet's callow Symphony in C. Bizet wrote the symphony in 1855 at the age of 17, then shelved the piece, which didn't receive a public performance for over 80 years.

Nézet-Séguin conducts without a score - not that there can be many people prepared to commit Bizet's precocious juvenilia to memory - but he makes a convincing case for the work as a significant overture to the composer's operatic career. The slow movement is a langurous aria for oboe that seems to prefigure The Pearl Fishers, while the seductive Iberian dance patterns of the finale carry distinct echoes of Gypsy girls with roses between their teeth.

A vigorous parade of Rameau dance suites and a limpid account of Debussy's Prélude à l'Après-midi d'un Faune seem strangely diverse items to perform alongside the Bizet. Yet the lucent colours Nézet-Séguin extracts from the Sinfonia's wind section make a convincing case that if the Austro-German composers added woodwind as an additional flavour, French taste always made it as an essential ingredient.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin est un guide fiable. L’Orchestre Philharmonique de Rotterdam accueille son prochain Directeur musical.

Selon une loi non-écrite, un orchestre qui recherche un nouveau Directeur musical en choisit un qui est à l’opposé de celui auquel il est habitué. Gergiev, le surhomme, arrivait généralement à la dernière minute (ou en retard), n’avait pas le temps de répéter, battait des mains et allait de l’avant. Les bons jours, il faisait des miracles; les mauvais jours, ça pouvait être un désastre. Mais d’une manière ou d’une autre, les musiciens étaient toujours sur le qui-vive.

Gergiev laisse derrière lui un merveilleux orchestre qui a besoin cependant d’entretien. Nézet-Séguin (32) y procède tout de suite. Devant un De Doelen rempli à capacité ou presque, il amène le Rotterdam à des subtilités inhabituelles. Il dirige presque tout de mémoire, sans échapper un seul détail. Avec ce guide sûr, les musiciens savent exactement ce qu’on attend d’eux. Ses battements sont clairs et son sens du rythme est agréable à suivre.

Mort et Transfiguration de Richard Strauss commençe par une merveilleuse hésitation mais sans perdre le sens du mouvement. Nézet-Séguin a été chantre et chef de choeur et ceci devient évident par la respiration toute naturelle de sa musique.  On ne peut dire qu’il peint avec des couleurs mais plutôt qu’il dessine et au besoin grave son propos en contours clairs. Les fenêtres de sons ouvertes empêchent le poème symphonique de devenir un chou à la crème. Le résultat est musique à cent pour cent.

La Troisième Symphonie de Beethoven, Eroica, me prend par surprise. Il est audible que Nézet-Séguin n’a pas oublié ses accomplissements en musique ancienne. Les timbales se travaillent avec des maillets de bois, les trompettes sonnent les appels et les cordes utilisent le vibrato avec discrétion. Et que personne ne prétende que l’instrumentation a peu d’importance dans la musique de Beethoven. Nézet-Séguin expose en grands détails les divers niveaux de la partition  et en tire de l’énergie. Il s’agit là d’une grande démonstration des possibilités symphoniques, sans devenir parade pour autant. Lorsque jouée par un orchestre symphonique moderne, il est rare que la musique de Beethoven sonne aussi près de sa source.

Dans le premier mouvement, le désir de chanter d’une part et le besoin pressant d’aller de l’avant d’autre part produisent une sorte de friction pleine de santé. L’effervescence du scherzo et du finale épanouit l’esprit. Mais le summum de beauté et de sonorité se produit dans la marche funèbre. Par Jupiter! Le Philharmonique de Rotterdam sonne presque comme un orchestre du dix-huitième siècle. Le fait que Frans Brüggen ait dirigé l’orchestre à plusieurs reprises et ait familiarisé les musiciens du Rotterdam avec du Beethoven authentique a sans doute aidé.

La conclusion est manifeste. Yannick Nézet-Séguin et l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Rotterdam ont beaucoup à s’échanger mutuellement. Il est admirable qu’après le grand Gergiev, l’orchestre ait choisi un jeune chef encore relativement peu connu. La musique souffre souvent des grandes réputations. Rotterdam a choisi l’engagement passionné.  Et vendredi soir, la passion de l’engagement pouvait être ressentie à chaque seconde.

Le futur Directeur musical Yannick emballe Rotterdam.

Bien que ses débuts officiels comme Directeur musical n’aient lieu qu’en septembre 2008, le jeune Canadien Yannick Nézet-Séguin tient déjà une place importante dans la programmation de la saison courante de l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Rotterdam dont Valery Gergiev est encore le Directeur pour la moitié de l’année. C’est une décision intelligente qui permet à Nézet-Séguin de diriger ainsi quatre programmes majeurs. Jeudi soir dernier, il a dirigé le Philharmonique de Rotterdam pour la première fois depuis l’annonce de sa nomination au poste en décembre 2006.

L’ambiance au De Doelen était électrisante. Après le concert, il y eut un grand nombre de bravos émergeant de la salle remplie à capacité et les membres de l’orchestre tambourinèrent des pieds avec enthousiasme. On avait l’impression que Nézet-Séguin faisait ses débuts jeudi soir plutôt qu’en septembre prochain. La troisième symphonie de Beethoven (Éroica)  fut un magnifique happening musical. Ce n’était pas seulement le début de la  période excitante d’un nouveau Directeur musical, mais aussi le coup d’envoi de l’intégrale du cycle des Beethoven que Nézet-Séguin dirigera à Rotterdam. Pour l’interprétation de cette Éroica, il importait peu que le chef  n’ait pas encore le titre de Directeur musical. Nézet-Séguin (probablement aussi court que Napoléon à qui Beethoven dédia d’abord son Éroica) commandait ses troupes. 

Malgré les dissimilitudes évidentes entre Nézet-Séguin et Gergiev, quelque chose de très inusité s’est passé au début du concert. Si on écoutait les yeux fermés le Tod und Verklärung de Richard Strauss, on pouvait presque imaginer que le début incroyablement menaçant et angoissant était dirigé par le grand insondable Gergiev. Mais non, c’était vraiment Yannick qui conjurait un son super virtuose de l’orchestre dans une interprétation exceptionnelle avec son merveilleux échafaudage et ses grandes apogées. Expressif, communicatif, précis et ardent, tous ces qualificatifs s’appliquent à Yannick. Il n’est pas encore Directeur musical mais ce n’est qu’une formalité. Avis à Rotterdam!

Le nouveau Chef de l’OPhR danse et bondit.

Court, un peu rondelet, les cheveux en pointes stylisées: Yannick Nézet-Séguin ne ressemble pas du tout à Valery Gergiev, ce grand sauvage hirsute qui est encore le Directeur musical de l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Rotterdam. Mais dès qu’il lève le bâton, les ressemblances résonnent : Nézet-Séguin, ce Canadien de 32 ans qui prendra la direction de l’Orchestre de Rotterdam en septembre prochain, dégage autant d’intensité et d’énergie que son prédécesseur.

Quant au reste, le style est tout à fait différent: il bondit, il danse, il joue, il est partout à la fois, il s’étire aussi haut qu’il peut, il plie les genoux tellement qu’il serait disparu derrière le lutrin s’il n’avait pas dirigé presque tout de mémoire.  

Ce n’est pas la première fois qu’il dirige l’Orchestre et ce ne sont pas non plus ses débuts officiels, mais c’est tout comme, considérant que Nézet-Séguin est si souvent à Rotterdam cette saison et offre un répertoire si varié.  Il dirige un astucieux programme proposant des compositeurs qui avaient à peu près son âge lorsqu’ils ont composé ces oeuvres: Richard Strauss (25 ans), Gustav Mahler (25 ans) and Ludwig van Beethoven (33 ans).

Le Tod und Verklärung de Strauss s’ouvre sur des battements de cœur timides. Mais dès que la musique se déploie,  Nézet-Séguin s’avère non seulement un chef mais un « galvanisateur », avec une oreille pour les extrêmes mais aussi pour les gradations intermédiaires.

L’alto Birgit Remmert cause une légère déception dans les Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen de Mahler. Nézet-Séguin, cette fois avec la partition devant lui, dépeint la langueur d’un vague désir et les douleurs de l’amour avec des sons orchestraux tantôt oppressants tantôt tranchants comme un rasoir.

Mais dès le début de l’Eroica, Nézet-Séguin manifeste tant d’inspiration qu’il est clair que Beethoven est son domaine Il porte une attention aiguë  aux marées mélodiques et aux rythmiques brise-lames, il explore les espaces plus profonds aux couleurs entre-deux de la grande Marche funèbre, et il  surprend en ajoutant une étincelle additionnelle à cette œuvre monumentale. Les musiciens de l’OPhR vont devoir s’habituer à cette direction de balle bondissante, mais à en juger par les sons qui en résultent, les fondations semblent assez solides pour les années à venir.

Avec, cette année, une série de quatre concerts comprenant –et ça mérite d’être souligné- trois représentations de La Passion selon St-Mathieu de J.S. Bach, Yannick Nézet-Séguin et l’OPhR se préparent au futur Directorat Musical du jeune Canadien. La première série a commencé jeudi soir avec la musique de Richard Strauss, Mahler et Beethoven.

Cette Éroica fut intéressante du début à la fin. Nézet et l’OPhR offrirent une exécution brillante, claire et chaleureuse. Entre les passages héroïques et robustes sans être trop lourdement accentués, les passages plus méditatifs et mélodiques furent magnifiquement mis en valeur. Le scherzo au pied léger fut un chef-d’oeuvre et le son superbe des trois cors, un régal additionnel.

Auparavant, Nézet avait déjà captivé l’assistance avec le Tod und Verklärung de Strauss. Après un début d’une tranquillité à couper le souffle, il dirigea l’orchestre dans l’intense Allegro Molto Agitato. Le tutti diminuendo précédant le début de la Marche funèbre fut fascinant et la fin magnifique, presque festoyante.

L’intimité de l’orchestration  des Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen révéla partiellement ce que sera le son Mahlérien avec Nézet-Séguin. La première impression fut favorable, particulièrement en ce qui concerne l’atmosphère.

En coopération avec l’alto Birgit Remmer, qui ne produisit pas un son ample dans le bas registre du premier Lied mais chanta magnifiquement, Nézet-Séguin offrit une superbe démonstration de ce qu’est la langueur d’un désir insaisissable.

De Doelen ouvre les bras au futur Directeur musical

Hier soir, Yannick Nézet-Séguin (32 ans) a donné son premier concert comme futur Directeur musical de l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Rotterdam et successeur de Valery Gergiev. Il a été immédiatement accueilli à bras ouverts par l'assistance. Ce chef étonnamment court et d'un enthousiasme désarmant, en redingote froissée sortie d'une boîte de costumes, a reçu un tonnerre d'applaudissements après sa prestation inspirée et remarquable.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin se révèle différent, attachant et désarmant. Mais il est aussi pertinent de dire qu'il est sans cérémonie, modeste et avant tout un musicien parmi ses musiciens. Pendant les applaudissements, il quitte souvent son podium pour se tenir debout parmi eux. Il encourage l'orchestre à oublier le Nézet-Séguin et à l'appeler simplement Yannick. Sa direction prend un aspect de conspiration: faisons cela ensemble. Et c'est justement ce que l'on entendait.

C'est Yannick lui-même qui a programmé cet ambitieux concert qui comprend le Tod und Verklärung de Strauss , les Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen de Mahler et la Troisième symphonie Éroica de Beethoven. De la grande musique concernant la mort et un autre genre de vie.

Yannick dégage aussi autorité et possession de soi. Pendant un long moment, le début lent et noir du Tod und Verklärun est presque immobile, amenant graduellement l'orchestre dans les convulsions extraverties de la mort. Yannick utilise des contrastes dramatiques et des changements de couleurs et place parfaitement le moment des apogées et leurs proportions.

(...) L' Éroica de Beethoven fut un événement excitant, plein de caractère et d'énergie charismatique, éblouissant, avec syncopes et autres particularités rythmiques, vivant mais aussi d'un lyrisme souple et agile.

(...) Pour son hommage au 25e anniversaire de la mort de Glenn Gould, l'Orchestre Métropolitain est passé de Maisonneuve à Wilfrid-Pelletier attirant ainsi 2100 personnes. (…) le son qu'en tire Nézet-Séguin remplit la salle sans problèmes et il n'y a rien à redire sur la prestation orchestrale, continuellement animée par le jeune chef dont l'énergie semble inépuisable. (…) le Coriolan a beaucoup de nerf, un vent d'air frais traverse les Hébrides et la tendresse de Siegfried Idyll est parfaitement rendue. Nézet-Séguin dirige tout par coeur, sauf les concertos, et c'est finalement la magnifique réponse de l'orchestre qui marquera la soirée. (…)

(…) Hats off to Yannick Nézet-Séguin and his Orchestre Métropolitain for paying tribute to Glenn Gould Monday (…) Nicholas Angelich (produced) a spirited account of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2. (…)YNS invested the piece (Wagner's Siegfried Idyll) with exactly the romance and rubato missing from the version Gould conducted before his death.

(...) Nézet-Séguin reprenait la cinquième Symphonie après avoir dirigé l'intégrale des neuf en novembre 2005 et Lortie jouait une fois de plus le quatrième Concerto qu'il avait donné comme chef et soliste dans cette même salle en septembre 2001, avec l'OSM. Chef et soliste lui aussi, Nézet-Séguin l'avait été dès 1998 dans la Fantaisie avec piano et choeur.

Cette fois, c'est Lortie qui joue la Fantaisie - en fait, qui ouvre seul le concert puisque l'oeuvre débute par une longue introduction de quatre pages confiée au piano. Lortie remplit immédiatement l'espace par son jeu imaginatif.

Nézet-Séguin, son orchestre et son choeur apportent ensuite le maximum à cette oeuvre naïve qui, chantant la nature et la vie, préfigure la Neuvième. Seules faiblesses: certaines voix solistes du choeur.

Malgré un piano légèrement faux, Lortie maintient du commencement à la fin du quatrième Concerto contrôle technique et concentration tout en glissant ici et là d'expressifs rubatos. Très vivante direction, accents des cordes particulièrement marqués au mouvement lent.

Une énergie bouillonnante traverse la célébrissime Cinquième, et ce dès le premier mouvement, vraiment pris «con brio». À signaler encore, la précision des deux groupes de violons à l'unisson et des tutti marqués «fortissimo».

Le maire Gérald Tremblay assistait au concert.

(…) Semi-public concerts for charities are usually more about the cause than the music. Not so Monday night in Place des Arts, where the Orchestre Métropolitain both raised funds for the Montreal Cancer Institute and produced some Beethoven to remember.

The evening brought together conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin and pianist Louis Lortie. It was hard to believe these local icons were meeting for the first time, but Lortie has long styled himself as an MSO collaborator and probably for this reason exempts himself from regular subscription OM events.

Too bad. There was great chemistry in the Fourth Piano Concerto, by which I mean an almost literally perfect balance of solo and tutti elements. Lortie's Steinway was sweet and bell-like and his phrasing spoke to the joy of philosophy. Nézet-Séguin was exuberant on the podium, flashing his new pal enthusiastic glances.

Our second orchestra sounded first-rate. Woodwinds were poetic in the first movement and the strings created just the right stern, grainy sound in the Andante con moto. Lortie's mastery of piano colour - which is to say his impeccable sense of when to use the sustaining pedal - was especially apparent in the cadenza of the finale.

Before this we heard the Choral Fantasy, Beethoven's exuberant precursor to the Ode to Joy. The conversation here included the red-blooded OM Chorus. (…)

Unfinished works made complete OM's grandeur fills St. Jean Baptiste Church

St. Jean Baptiste Church has been the scene for many impressive concerts, enough to make a top-10 list a very selective affair. Now we must make room for the Orchestre Métropolitain season opener on Monday night, a coupling of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony and Bruckner's Ninth, which famously lacks a finale.

Debate rages about whether these scores are in fact artistic wholes. They certainly seem complete when performed with the authority and grandeur that Yannick Nézet-Séguin brought to them on this occasion.

The orchestra seemed double its numbers in Schubert, producing a frightening climax in the development of the first movement. But for all the heaven-storming strength of the music, there were exquisite woodwind solos - quiet, lonely and clear.

Thus the personal and the monumental were joined, as they should be in a sacred setting. The two movements also seemed perfectly reconciled - the first stately, the second moved up a notch in tempo in the interests of lending it a "finale" feeling.

In Bruckner, the ensemble seemed doubled again. Fortissimos of the first movement were among the grandest sounds ever made in this church. Indeed, the conductor coaxed so much force from the horns and timpani in the savage main theme of the Scherzo that the staccato comments of the strings and woodwinds needed to be edited in mentally.

Still, this was not an evening of mindless heavy metal. The sonic peaks were part of a continuous and majestic range. (…) the rich tone of the violins, fed directly, it seemed, from the Austrian Alps.

This church always comes with a sonic nimbus, for which it exacts a price in internal clarity. It will be fascinating to hear how this program sounds Friday in that great palazzo of the east, St. Nom de Jésus Church. This concert will be given under the aegis of the Orgue et Couleurs festival. For details, go to www.orgueetcouleurs.com.

Thrilling moments for a dazzling star

THE young French Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin has, over the past fortnight, burst on the music scene here like a shooting star, dazzling musicians and audiences alike.

First we had a large, demanding programme, played by the National Youth Orchestra with finesse and fire, directed by Séguin with insight, superb technique and boundless energy.

And now we had the hardened professionals of the NZSO providing this young firebrand with some Wagner playing that ran the gamut from near-inaudible delicacy (in the Lohengrin Prelude) to blazing climaxes that possessed a quality that transcended mere loudness, offering any doubting Thomases in the audience a real insight into the sound world that the composer intended.

Séguin is, by his own admission, new to Wagner, and it was his incandescent freshness, allied to a potent natural musicality, that made this concert so special. Not for one moment did he falter in his vision, making this concert of what critics always call bleeding chunks much more cogent than usual.

Perhaps it was the inclusion of the Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde, and the final immolation scene from Gotterdammerung, and the soaring voice of Margaret Medlyn, that tied the concert together, that gave it unity.

Medlyn, who has the right voice, and fully understands Wagner’s world, sang superbly. In both extracts she matched Wagner’s demanding orchestral resources, and realised the differences between Isolde and Brunnhilde in quite subtle ways.

Some might have been concerned by the voice being swept away by the orchestra at key moments, but this is what was needed, and sometimes is not in the opera house, and the reemergence of the voice from within the maelstrom provided some of the evening’s most thrilling moments.

The orchestra played brilliantly, with the huge phalanx of brass marvellously sonorous, and the audience left, no doubt wondering when they will experience the conducting of Yannick Nézet-Séguin again.

To Experience symphonic music played by young musicians who have come together from throughout the nation is a joy like no other.

In times when our young people are easily distracted by all the trivialities that society hurls in their way, the sight of 100 players devoting their all to Ravel, Bartok, Debussy, and the music of one of their peers is inspirational.

The NZSO National Youth Orchestra's Monday concert revealed, as always, the special relationship that develops with a guest conductor - and the dynamic Yannick Nézet-Séguin came up trumps.

Ravel's La Valse is not the easiest curtain-raiser and, although there were some shaky first steps, once it swept firmly on to the dance floor there was no stopping it. Nézet-Séguin and the players ably captured the sweep, the passion and the utter delirium of it all.

The spotlight was turned on the orchestra itself in Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra. The strings were particularly secure, from those opening cello fourths to the full-voiced song of the violas in the Intermezzo. Woodwind sauntered past in cheery pairs for the Giuoco delle coppie and the brass ensured a lusty close.

Karlo Magetic's Belt Sander was a celebratory dash, oozing energy. The demands were of the split-second variety with splashy percussion and, for well-tuned ears, a suspicion of something Spanish caught in the mix.

Magetic made his mark, as a schoolboy, by carrying off Chamber Music New Zealand's Sounz Prize two years ago. Now, two years on, the orchestral canvas seems made for him.

The jewel of the evening was La Mer, in which the French-Canadian conductor ensured his charges evoked every billow and ripple of Debussy's sea. Woodwind and brass were elegantly moulded and a strong cello section showed no fears with that treacherous five-part chorus in the first movement.

Concertmaster Amalia Hall's idiomatic solos were the soul of subtlety.

The musicians bade us a Gallic farewell - a poised walk through a Ravelian fairy garden from the composer's Mother.

Youth orchestra delights

(…) Yannick Nézet-Séguin established himself from the start of Ravel's La Valse as exacting and energetic. He captured the nebulous opening as convincingly as the wonderful frenzied excesses that followed. His limitless energy and precision characterised the whole concert.

The NYO chose two major works – quite an achievement for a mere six days' rehearsal. Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra was always secure, and Nézet-Séguin led his young players firmly through the subtleties and complexities of the score without needing to refer to it himself.

It was the same with the even more demanding La Mer by Debussy. Expressively the most subtle item in the programme, Nézet-Séguin took the orchestra well on the way to capturing the evocative power of the work. Not surprisingly, the combination of youth and energy was to the fore in the third movement, while the more complex second benefited from the generally brisk tempi that characterised Nézet-Séguin's approach all through.

The NYO had an encore ready, Ravel's Magic Garden, which brought some beautiful solo playing by the violin and viola leaders.

For sheer musical enjoyment the NYO's concert outdid many that I have heard from some of the world's greats.

Young musos deliver in style

WE ALL know that our young musicians have been achieving extraordinarily high standards in recent years, but this year’s National Youth Orchestra would still have astonished even the most informed and hardened observer.

It was not just the quality of the playing across all sections, but the amazing capacity for work in just a few days, and the sheer stamina to bring off the programme.

And what a programme. Surely, few professional orchestras would play a concert that included Ravel’s La Valse, Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra and Debussy’s La Mer, and then find time to premiere a busy piece by a young local composer, and an encore that was demanding in itself; the final Le jardin féérique from Ravel’s Mother Goose ballet.

This was all made possible by the orchestra’s relationship with the young French Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, an up-andcomer who has conducted Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain since he was 24, and now, at 31, has been appointed music director of the imposing Rotterdam Philharmonic, succeeding Valery Gergiev.

He is, clearly, a superb musician, and a busy, technically adept, conductor. His clear grasp and precisely delineated approach to all the works on show would have gone for nought if the players had not been capable of delivering what he asked, but they rose to the occasion with playing of real precision and a near professional cohesion and style.

The opening La Valse (and what a nerve-racking work with which to open a concert) was a little queasy for few minutes, but soon settled and ended in a wonderful, uninhibited, riot of sound. The Bartok Concerto for Orchestra was amazingly assured, with splendid playing from all sections.

There was some memorable playing from the woodwind in the tricky second movement, sonorous brass in all five movements (what a wonderfully secure horn section) and, apart from some blurring in the scurrying passages in the last movements, terrific string playing.

After an entertaining, energetic piece from local Karlo Margetic, a wonderfully luminous La Mer, a performance of real colour and shading, a quality that was most affecting in the substantial encore, with Ravel’s final scene from Mother Goose possessed of real magic.

What a concert.

Hammering it home

WHEN Yannick Nézet-Séguin filled in at short notice for Lorin Maazel in the SSO's 2005 season he conducted Bruckner's monumental 8th symphony from memory.

The 31-year-old Canadian took Australia by storm and went on that same year to make an enormous impression in Europe with his debut there, culminating in the recent announcement that he is taking over from Russian superstar Valery Gergiev as chief conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic.

So his return to Sydney has been eagerly awaited and his performances of Debussy's Images and Mahler's 6th have been all - if not more - than we could have hoped for.

The Mahler, at little under 90 minutes long and mobilising enormous forces, including a hammer to beat out the blows of fate, is a great challenge to conductor and orchestra alike.

The architecture of this work is so intricate and the shifts of mood, dynamic and tempo so essential to its the overall power and logic that any false move on the conductor's part and the whole structure collapses.

Nézet-Séguin avoided this, stamping his mark on the work from the stabbing and relentless opening by the cellos and basses.

This was a muscular but sensitive reading with the tragedy and at times shrill irony of the outer movements and scherzo beautifully counterbalanced by the pastoral yearning mood of the andante, with its horn calls and use of cowbells.

The orchestra was in magnificent form with the musicians obviously enjoying their collaboration with this dynamic young talent.

Robert Johnson led the eight-strong horn section faultlessly and the percussion department was barely rested with Mahler's rich soundscope using various bells (on stage and off), celeste,
glockenspiels and drums.

Hearing a Mahler symphony live is always special but an exceptional performance like this is an experience that lives with the listener for a long time.

Ah, Yannick, he does it well

THERE can’t have been all that many performances as energised as this one.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin injected vivid immediacy into Mahler’s Sixth Symphony from opening winding-up bars of the march, to the moment where the final pizzicato falls lifeless to the floor. He is a terrific young conductor. But let’s give further credit where it is due. For that dear old thing. our 75-year old Sydney Symphony, was radiant all evening, playing with rounded fine balance in soft or loud passages.

Mahler’s first movement is monumental but conventional, juxtaposing a vigorous march with a second theme. It even reverts to the classical habit of repeating the exposition.

In the development the colours become individualised and glowing - a solo violin against horn, distant bells - before building to a wildly exultant close. Nézet-Séguin reverses the original published order of the inner movements in line with what most now believe was Mahler’s intention. This draws attention to a link between the first movements obsessive major chord that keeps darkening to minor, and a more subtle version of the same shift in the theme of the Andante. This was a movement of magically serene tones with horn, harp, and cor anglais sounds wafting on the winds of eternity.

After a highly contrasted Scherzo, by turns terrifying and childlike, it was the fascination of the sprawling complex finale, punctuated by two blows from a magnificent Thor-like hammer, wich was most mesmeric.

Nigth to mark our heritage

ON the day vhen the Sydney Opera House joined the Acropolis and Taj Mahal on Unesco's World Heritage List, it was apt that this concert should be directed primarily at the next
generation.

The music could not have been better for such a historic occasion with a rarelyheard complete performance of Debussy's Images capping off a program which featured a truly awe-inspiring
performance of Richard Meale's Very High Kings, complete with blazing organ, six trumpets placed in the gallery and a doofa level to delight the youngest ears.

Young Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin last seen in Sydney filling in for Lorin Maazel with a majestic perfomance of Bruckner's 8th symphony, injected just the right amount of energy to keep things swinging along.

Haydn's London symphony - his last at No 104 - was an ambitious work for its time, calling for 60 players and prompting a contemporary critic to label it “grand but very noisy”.

It's difficult to imagine what he would have made of Meale's piece, written in 1968 and inspired by a letter Christopher Columbus wrote to his sponsors, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain.

A huge heroic chord from the organ sets the scene for this 15-minute voyage which features a big orchestra, including no less than two tubas, three trombones, two pianos and a sizeable range of percussion.

Perhaps this explains why the piece had not been performed in Sydney for almost 40 years, but as composer-broadcaster Andrew Ford said in his introduction to the work, Australia is not good when it comes to revisiting new pieces - they get premiered and then disappear into the ether.

The same cannot be said of composers like Debussy whose works regularly find their way on to concert programs. But neither 75-year-old Meale nor Ford could recall ever having seen a complete performance of Images and Nézet-Séguin had never conducted it before.

This seems extraordinary. Perhaps it's time to restore it to its rightful place up there with La Mer and L'après-midi d'un faune.

Meet the music

(…) Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the focused and energised young conductor who gave such a memorable performance at short notice in 2005 when he stood in for Lorin Maazel, brought a lovingly concentrated sense of balance to these superbly orchestrated textures. Debussy’s imagination for sound is astonishing - rich, divided string chords, gently lapping horn chords, or a solo viola pushed up against trumpet solos to provide woody depth to a golden une - and under Nézet-Séguin the Sydney Symphony allowed its natural timbral refinement to rise to the surface.

But wait, there’s more. Nézet-Séguin had opened with a performance of Haydn’s last symphony, No. 104, driven by the care, shaping and colour that any pianist playing Haydn would bring as a matter of course, but of which conductors are so often negligent. This concert displayed the best playing from the Sydney Symphony this year. (…)

Ever since it was founded 27 years ago, the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal (OMGM) unofficially has been known as the city's "second" orchestra, next to the Montreal Symphony. No longer. Montreal now has two first class orchestras. The OMGM's performance on June 11 of Mahler's Symphony No. 6 thrust it decisively into the major leagues. The 65-member orchestra was expanded to about 100, resulting not only in spectacular wails of sound but also in many passages with lovely chamber-music delicacy.

Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin exploited the dynamic spectrum to the fullest, from barely audible to terrifyingly loud. He wrung every drop of emotion from the music, with every musician behind him 110%. Tempos were perfectly judged, meter changes adroitly handled, every performance detail in the score meticulously observed. Phrases were lovingly sculpted, and every note had meaning. Mahler's huge structures were given shape and direction, and Nézet-Séguin knew exactly where in each movement to evoke the biggest climax. In addition, he maintained an iron grip on the rhythm while allowing for maximum elasticity of rubato. It was a performance made in heaven.

Special mention must go to Principal Horn Pierre Savoie for his liquid-smooth lyricism and golden tone, to Principal Trumpet Stéphane Beaulac for his sensational high-wire acts, and to Concertmaster Denise Lupien for her solos of aching beauty.

For once a standing ovation was truly deserved, and that's exactly what Nézet­Séguin and his orchestra got. But more tellingly, they also got, through the entire performance, total silence from the audience-87 minutes with nary a cough or sneeze. 2007 is barely half over, but this is almost sure to go down in my book as the "concert of the year".

The OMGM has enjoyed some fine conductors in its short history, notably Agnes Grossmann and Joseph Rescigno, but Quebec­born 32-year-old Nézet-Séguin (who also becomes music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic in August 2005, succeeding Valery Gergiev) has taken this orchestra to new heights and led it in some truly memorable performances and recordings since becoming music director in 2000. He combines the discipline of Szell, the lyricism of Toscanini, the charisma of Bernstein, and the visceral effect of Solti. "He has it all", remarked Gregory Law, a percussionist with 40 years' experience in the orchestral world. "I've played under Karajan, Lemsdorf, Ozawa, Dutoit, Hollreiser, Inbal, and dozens of other conductors great and small, but Nézet-Séguin is to my mind as good as any of them."

Yannick Nézet-Séguin is a name to be conjured with. The young Québécois Canadian, who takes over from Valery Gergiev at the Rotterdam Philharmonic next year, has been gathering plaudits in Europe over the past three years, and in this concert was conducting the Scottish Chamber Orchestra for the first time. One imagines that it will not be the last, either.

This was a striking debut, exhilarating, polished and illuminated by a technique that threw even the most familiar music into sharp new relief. The orchestra applauded vigorously at the end, in a way that seemed to go beyond the normal bounds of politesse.

Nézet-Séguin is a physical conductor, not flamboyant but tautly energetic and dynamic in his pointing up of detail, accents and the shaping of musical ideas. He gives a firm impression of knowing what he wants and how to get it, and in Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin and Mendelssohn's Fourth Symphony achieved finely finished results of uncommonly arresting quality. (...)

The Ravel fused Baroque sensibility with 20th-century French finesse, fluid in melodic line, animated in its exploration of texture and instrumental timbre. There was no artifice in the way rhythms fluctuated, but rather a natural give and take.

Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony further exemplified Nézet-Séguin's ear for style in a blend of sun-drenched exuberance and reflective solemnity, with a coaxing out of expressive nuances that indicated depth of study, acuteness of imagination and a clear identification with the music's spirit. There is an impressive, mature and fertile talent here.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin is going to be huge . The dazzling young Canadian conductor, in his debut concert with the SCO on friday night, confirmed impressions from his recent live recording of Bruckner Seven, with his Montreal orchestra, of his ability and stature.

It's not just that he is a fine conductor, with his onstage dynamism, technical control, evident rapport with orchestral musicians and wonderful sense of style. He is an absolute musical life force, in whose hands music galvanises itself and bounds from the page with zest, exuberance, and sheer joy.

The SCO, which clearly loved him, played out of their skins in a version of Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin that displayed every nuance of the composer's pristine orchestration, coupled with a glorious sense of line and expressive detail. the man's shaping of the music (a striking feature of his big Bruckner recording) is masterly, a characteristic that marked also his beautifully gauged account of Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony.

He is also - and this racks up his calibre yet a few more notches - a fantastic accompanist. His response to Han-Na Chang's powerhouse, volcanic account of Saint-Saens's First Cello Concerto, which was so spontaneous it would have floored some conductors and left others trailing in the Korean cellist's wake, was electrifyingly immediate and superbly coordinated.

At another emotional extreme, the melting loveliness of the playing he secured from the SCO strings in Chang's heartstopping version of Tchaikovsky's Andante Cantabile was of rare beauty.

It's logical to assume the SCO will pursue Nezet-Seguin for a return visit, but he's increasingly in demand and has just taken on the Rotterdam Phil job in succession to Gergiev. Here's hoping, anyway. The man's a knockout.

Classical

The name of Yannick Nézet-Séguin has yet to become a familiar one in this country. The 32-year-old French-Canadian conductor is already an established figure in his homeland. In recent seasons, he has also made a big impression on the continent, where in 2008 he will succeed Valery Gergiev as music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic. Britain, however, has been slower to catch on; it was only last season that Nézet-Séguin made his UK debut with the Northern Sinfonia, followed up last month by performances with the LPO.

We will be hearing a good deal more from Nézet-Séguin in coming seasons, if his most recent performances in this country are anything to go by. In his debut with the SCO, Nézet-Séguin proved himself to be the genuine article; a conductor with not only the self-confidence and virtuosity that speaks of a maestro in the making, but also with a highly individual approach to the music.

Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin suite as concert opener transcended its status as attractive entree with a performance in which quite extraordinary detail was combined with unwavering attention to the clarity of the musical line. The same was true of the multi-faceted account of Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony which closed the concert.

Elsewhere, Nézet-Séguin was an equally astute accompanist, partnering a fiery account of Saint-Saëns' Cello Concerto and a gently mellifluous Tchaikovsky Andante Cantabile from soloist Han-Na Chang.

The audience loved it; so too, judging by the superlative playing, did the orchestra. The SCO management should be angling to have Nézet-Séguin back as soon as possible - while he still has space in his schedule.

Classique
Bruckner puissant et raffiné

En s'attaquant à la monumentale Huitième symphonie d'Anton Bruckner, le jeune chef québécois Yannick Nézet-Séguin a lancé un beau défi. Diriger ce répertoire exige en effet autant de technique que de maturité et peu de baguettes, y compris parmi les géants du passé, ont su restituer la profondeur du discours du compositeur autrichien, la spiritualité qui traverse ses grandioses architectures symphoniques. Jeudi soir à la Halle aux Grains, Yannick Nézet-Séguin ne s'est pas contenté de livrer une interprétation techniquement aboutie de la partition (ce qui serait déjà beaucoup), il a manifesté un engagement de tous les instants à la tête d'un Orchestre National du Capitole précis et souple. Dirigeant par cœur (un vrai exploit dans une telle œuvre), il choisit des tempos plutôt sages mais sans lourdeur, anime chaque moment sans laisser retomber la tension, rend justice aux raffinements sonores de la symphonie (dans le sublime adagio notamment) comme à sa puissance. Les solistes du Capitole le suivent sans faiblesse, les dix cors et tubens affirment leur solidité. À 31 ans, le jeune chef mérite bien de succéder à Valery Gergiev, à la tête de l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Rotterdam.

De chair et de sang

Une seule oeuvre était inscrite au programme du concert du 5 avril dernier, mais quelle oeuvre ! La plus vaste des partitions de Bruckner, sa 8ème symphonie, élève son architecture monumentale à la manière d'une célébration sacrée. Rarement l'orchestre romantique aura sonné avec autant de plénitude et de solennité. Animé d'une foi sans limite et néanmoins torturé par le doute sur ses propres capacités créatrices, Bruckner remania cette symphonie ainsi qu'il le fit pour la plupart de ses autres partitions. Il en existe donc plusieurs versions qui furent éditées au 20ème siècle, l'une par le musicologue Robert Haas, l'autre par Leopold Nowak.

C'est la version Haas, la plus complète et donc la plus longue, que choisit Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Dirigeant sans partition cette oeuvre immense, le jeune chef québécois réalise là une véritable performance. Précis et enthousiaste, il stimule chaque pupitre de l'Orchestre du Capitole avec un étonnant pouvoir de conviction.

Dès les premières mesures de l'allegro moderato initial, l'auditeur s'embarque pour un long voyage qui abolit le temps. Ce premier volet, complexe, torturé, contrasté, est parcouru de violentes convulsions qui culminent en de gigantesques paroxysmes, toujours bien maîtrisés par le chef. Jamais les fortissimi, nombreux et apocalyptiques, n'écrasent le son. Les cuivres, pourtant nombreux et sonores (pas moins de dix cors, dont quatre « tuben » wagnériens), ne dominent jamais le puissant quintette de cordes. Le scherzo alterne martèlement énergique et rêverie poétique dans une rythmique parfaitement équilibrée. La grande méditation de l'adagio constitue probablement le sommet expressif de toute l'ouvre. Hantée de silences angoissants, elle coule comme un fleuve inexorable, ponctuée d'élans inassouvis.

Dans le final, Yannick Nézet-Séguin déploie toute la magie orchestrale possible, dans un dédale de pistes divergentes qui au terme du voyage convergent vers une coda triomphale, éclatante comme un lever de soleil.

Contrairement à bon nombre d'exécutions plus enveloppées de brumes et de perspectives lointaines, l'interprétation proposée et admirablement défendue par Yannick Nézet-Séguin et les musiciens de la phalange toulousaine est pétrie de chair et de sang, soutenue par une tension et une énergie constantes. De la bien belle ouvrage.

(…) quel génie chez Britten et ses quatre Interludes de l'opéra Peter Grimes. Avec maintes couleurs et subtilités dans le discours, Nézet-Séguin recrée le cadre exact de chaque tableau, depuis les profondeurs de la mer jusqu'à la tempête qui secoue le ciel. (...) Le jeune chef termine avec La Mer, de Debussy. Préparation à un enregistrement ces jours-ci, mais, déjà, réalisation très impressionnante, tour à tour lyrique et rageuse, et toujours détaillée.

(…) Britten's Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes is a fantastically vivid soundscape that the OM captured tenderly. Debussy's La Mer was a classic, if a little obvious, selection. Nezet-Séguin proved himself a capable purveyor of the French tradition. Pierre Mercure's . linked the program together with its scene of Montreal's industrious optimism of the 1940s, and it was a treat to hear playing of such affectionate vibrancy as the OM devoted to Mercure's score.

Kate Mollison  

A la fin, les applaudissement fusaient de toutes parts : une ovation du public envers l’orchestre et le chef qui, en retour, applaudissait l’orchestre et vice-versa. (...) ils ont joué de manière si éblouissante, avec des sonorités si brillantes, leur jeu fut si discipliné, de façon si consciemment consistante dans leur dynamique et si vitale dans leur articulation. Bref, comme nous les avions rarement entendus.

Le jeune homme au pupitre qui a réussi une telle performance (...) s’appelle Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Son métier principal est d’être le chef de l’orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal (au Canada) et il est considéré comme une des étoiles montantes parmi les jeunes chefs d’orchestre. (...) Avec cette interprétation propre et nette de l'oeuvre (Dvorak: Symphonie No 6 en ré) dont il a gommé toute la sensiblerie slave, il a démontré que l’on peut métamorphoser un bon orchestre en un ensemble de premier ordre. (…)

(…) This LPO concert may well have been Nézet-Séguin’s London debut. He left his mark! (…)Debussy’s ‘Faune’ (…) received a compelling performance, which was launched by Celia Chambers’s flute solo. (...) his gestures are demonstrative, he lives every note, yet the ears heard a refined if sensuous account, very suggestive in its light-breeze rustling, fluid phrasing, a suggestion of drama under the surface, and eroticism at the generously moulded but not indulged climax. This strongly atmospheric performance – with rich-sounding harp flourishes
and very sensitive solo strings, vividly detailed yet appropriately ‘hazy’, and with enough emotional ‘distance’ to retain the music’s intangibility – could not have been a more impressive ‘introduction’ to this conductor.

Nézet-Séguin is also an alert accompanist, very much ‘with’ Herbert Schuch’s (…) Beethoven’s poetic Fourth Piano Concerto. (…) Nézet-Séguin elicited woodwind details usually submerged by either the soloist or the strings. (…) This was, (…) especially in the first movement, a reading that made one listen and think. Nézet-Séguin has keen ears (he seems to like highlighting the violas’ lines); if he hears something not quite as it should be (or as he wishes) he pounces
on it with a technical acumen that puts things right – cliché: ‘he knows what he wants and how to get it’. One also senses that Nézet-Séguin likes to leave something in reserve for the concert itself; he has the ability to make things happen on the night, and the members of the LPO certainly seemed to be hanging on his every gesture. (…)

Dvořák’s Sixth Symphony was vibrant and alive in the most positive way. (…) With the finale, (…) came (…) something of the Bohemian outdoors (…) an infectious swing informed the music, pointed rhythms sparkled and there was a drive that was inexorable rather than hard-driven.

With one star snowed in, another steps in (...) Nézet-Séguin brought out the full sensuousness of Debussy's music in L'Après-midi d'un faune and La Mer, earning a well-deserved roar of approval from the audience. (...)

(...) Dobson's interpretation is powerful in a youthful, extroverted, heart-on-sleeve, dramatic, even operatic sort of way, appropriate for a singer still in his early 30's. (...) He was helped in no small way by conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin at the keyboard. (...) his playing was fresh, crisp, assured, well paced, and above all very much alive, (...) Nézet-Séguin was ever the supportive colleague, breathing the music with the soloist. Kudos to him for not doing anything flashy to take the spotlight away, yet he was always there to offer sympathetic support. The eighty minutes went by in such a flash that I almost didn't want it to end. Let's hope there will be many more opportunities to hear these two young artists collaborate in the future.

Le désormais traditionnel concert du Nouvel An de l'Orchestre du Capitole était dirigé, pour la seconde fois consécutive, par le jeune maestro québécois Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Et l'on reste confondu, non seulement par le talent de cet artiste, tout fraîchement nommé à la tête de l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Rotterdam où il remplacera rien moins que Valery Gergiev en 2008, mais aussi par la formidable sympathie qui émane de ce personnage. Présentant avec un naturel fait de décontraction, d'humour et d'assurance, l'ensemble du programme, il met le public de la Halle dans sa poche en l'espace d'une seconde.(…) Richard Strauss et les suites pour orchestre de son Chevalier à la Rose donnent à l'orchestre l'occasion de montrer la rutilance de ses timbres et la puissance de ses cordes. (…) Mais l'enthousiasme d'un public comblé ne pouvait s'apaiser que par des bis que ces artistes (YNS et Emma Bell, soprano) ont volontiers donnés. (…) Encore deux moments inoubliables. Et parce qu'il fallait bien conclure, Yannick Nézet-Séguin attaqua la célèbre Marche de Radetzki, dirigeant autant l'orchestre qu'un public alors aux anges.

(…) Aussi à l'aise au micro qu'au pupitre, le jeune maestro québécois, qui dirigeait le concert du nouvel an toulousain pour la deuxième fois, sait communiquer son enthousiasme, son plaisir à diriger les œuvres de ses compositeurs favoris. Extraits d'opéras de Mozart et Richard Strauss, trois lieder de ce dernier, œuvres plus légères de Johann Strauss fils et Franz Lehar : le programme de ce concert festif était pourtant copieux et très délicat à mettre en place. Jouer la grande suite de l'opéra « Le Chevalier à la Rose » exige en effet d'un orchestre autant de virtuosité que d'élégance du style. Sous la baguette de Yannick Nézet-Séguin, les musiciens du Capitole ont dominé ces pages avec brio, restituant à la fameuse valse une séduction rythmique irrésistible. (…).