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.

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.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin is a reliable guide Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra welcomes future Music Director (...)

According to an unwritten law, an orchestra that is looking for a new Music Director chooses a conductor who is the opposite of what they are used to. Gergiev, the superman, usually flew in just in time (or too late), had no time to rehearse, started fluttering his hands and took it from there. On a good day, he could perform miracles, on a bad day things could go terribly wrong. But one way or the other, the musicians were always on the alert. 

Gergiev leaves behind a wonderful orchestra, which, however, needs servicing. Nézet-Séguin (32) went at it right away. In an almost sold out de Doelen he made the Rotterdam Philharmonic familiar with unusual subtleties. He conducted almost everything from memory, without overlooking a single detail. With this reliable guide the musicians know exactly what is expected from them. His beat is clear, his sense of pulse is pleasant to follow.
(...)
Richard Strauss' Death and Transfiguration started wonderfully hesitant, but not without an immediate sense of direction. Nézet-Séguin has been a choir singer and a choir director, which becomes evident in the natural way in which his music breathes. He did not exactly paint with colours, but sketched, or where necessary etched his narrative in clear outlines. The open sound windows prevented the symphonic poem from becoming an orchestral cream puff. The result was a one hundred percent music.  
(...)
Beethoven's Third Symphony, the 'Eroica' took me by surprise. The achievements of the early music practice have audibly not been wasted on Nézet-Séguin. Timpanies were played with wooden sticks, trumpets sounded the call and the strings used vibrato sparingly. And let nobody  claim that instrumentation is of little importance in Beethoven's music. Nézet-Séguin exposed the layers of the score in great detail, and drew energy from it. This was one big demonstration of symphonic possibilities, without it becoming all show. When performed by a modern symphony orchestra, Beethoven's music rarely sounds so close to the source. 

In the first movement, the desire to sing on the one hand and the urge to press forward on the other, produced a healthy kind of friction. The scherzo and the finale were effervescently mind-expanding. But the zenith of beauty and sonority came in the funeral march. By Jove! The Rotterdam Philharmonic almost sounded like the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century. It must have helped that Frans Brüggen conducted the orchestra several times and familiarised the Rotterdam musicians with the authentic Beethoven. 

The conclusion is obvious. Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra have a lot to offer to each other. It is admirable that, after the great Gergiev, the orchestra has chosen for a young, relatively unknown conductor. Music often suffers from stardom. Rotterdam opts for dedication. And on Friday evening dedication could be felt every second.

Future Music Director Yannick Sweeps Rotterdam Off Its Feet
His official debut as Music Director is not scheduled until September 2008, but the young Canadian Yannick Nézet-Séguin already features prominently in this season's programming of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, where Valery Gergiev rules for another half year. It is a smart move to let Nézet-Séguin conduct four major programmes. On Thursday evening,  he conducted the Rotterdam Philharmonic for the first time since his appointment was announced in December 2006.

The atmosphere in de Doelen was electric. After the concert there were many bravos from the chock-full hall, and the members of the orchestra drummed their feet enthusiastically. It felt as if Nézet-Séguin started his Music Directorship on Thursday evening, instead of in September. Beethoven's Third Symphony (the 'Eroica') was a magnificent musical happening. It was not only an overture to an exciting period as Music Director, but also to the complete Beethoven cycle Nézet-Séguin will conduct in Rotterdam. For the interpretation of this 'Eroica' it was not important that the conductor is not yet "labelled" Music Director. Nézet-Séguin (probably just as short as Napoleon to whom Beethoven initially dedicated his 'Eroica') ruled his troops. 
(...)

Despite the obvious dissimilarities with Gergiev, something very peculiar happened at the beginning of the concert. Listening with closed eyes to Richard Strauss' Tod und Verklärung, one could almost imagine that the unbelievably ominous, exciting beginning was conducted by the unfathomable great Gergiev. But no, it was really Yannick who conjured a super virtuoso sound from the orchestra in this outstanding performance with its wonderful build up and great climaxes. Expressive, communicative, exact and eager, all these descriptions apply to Yannick. He is not Music Director yet, but that is only a formality. Rotterdam be warned!

New Conductor RPhO dances and bounces

Short, slightly round, with cute spiky hair: Yannick Nézet-Séguin does not look at all like Valery Gergiev, the tall, unshaven savage who is still the Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. But as soon as he lifts his baton, the similarities are audible: Nézet-Séguin, the 32-year-old Canadian who will take the lead over the Rotterdam orchestra in September next year, radiates just as much concentration and energy as his predecessor.  

For the rest his style is completely different: Nézet-Séguin moves around a lot when he conducts: he bounces, dances, acts, is everywhere at the same time, reaches higher than he can get and bends his knees so deeply that he would have disappeared behind the stand had he not conducted almost everything from memory.   

It is not the first time he conducts the orchestra, and it is also not his official debut, but given the fact that Nézet-Séguin is so often in Rotterdam this season, and with such varied repertoire, it can be considered as such. In a cleverly chosen programme he conducted music by composers who were as old as he is now when they composed the works performed: Richard Strauss (25), Gustav Mahler (25) and Ludwig van Beethoven (33). 

Strauss' Tod und Verklärung opens with timid heartbeats, but as soon as the music unfolds Nézet-Séguin reveals himself not only to be a leader, but also to be a galvanizer, one that has an ear for extremes but also for the gradations in between. 

The alto Birgit Remmert was a bit disappointing in Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. Nézet-Séguin, for once with the score before him, depicted wistfulness and pangs of love in oppressive or razor sharp orchestral sounds.

But right from the start of the 'Eroica', Nézet-Séguin showed so much inspiration that it is clear that Beethoven is his thing. He pays the utmost attention to the melodic tidal movements and the rhythmic breakwaters, he explores the deeper areas and the in-between colours of the great Funeral March, and surprises by adding additional sparkle to the monumental work. The musicians of the RPhO will have to get used to their conducting bouncing ball, but judging by the sounding result, the foundation seems to be solid enough for the coming years.

Nézet-Séguin and RPhO with Brilliant Eroica
With four series of concerts, including  – and this is worth noticing – three performances of the St Mattew's Passion, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the RPhO are warming up for the young Canadian's future Music Directorship. The first series started on Thursday evening with music by Richard Strauss, Mahler and Beethoven.
(...)
This 'Eroica' (...) was interesting from the beginning to the end. Nézet and the RPhO found each other in a brilliant, clear and warm-blooded performance. Between the heroic and robust but not too heavily accentuated passages, the more reflective and melodic ones were highlighted beautifully. The light-footed Scherzo was a masterpiece, with the beautiful sound of the three French horns being an extra treat.

But before that, Nézet had already captivated the audience with Strauss' Tod und Verklärung. After a breathtakingly still opening, he led the orchestra into the intense Allegro Molto Agitato. The tutti diminuendo before the beginning of the funeral march was fascinating, and the end was magnificent, almost festive.

The intimately orchestrated Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen only unveiled a hint of what Mahler will sound like when Nézet-Séguin conducts the RPhO. The first impression was favourable, especially regarding the atmosphere.

In cooperation with the alto Birgit Remmert, who did not produce a large sound in the low register in the first song, but sang beautifully, Nézet-Séguin gave a superb demonstration of what wistfulness is.

Doelen Embraces Future Music Director

Last night, Yannick Nézet-Séguin (32) gave his first concert as the Rotterdam Philharmonic's future Music Director and successor of Valery Gergiev. He was immediately embraced by the orchestra's audience. The surprisingly small and disarmingly enthusiastic conductor in shabby tails from the costume box was applauded loudly after a remarkably inspired performance.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin showed himself to be 'different', endearing and disarming. But also to the point, informal, modest and above all a musician with his musicians. During the applause he often stepped down from his podium to stand between them. He encourages the orchestra to forget the 'Nézet-Séguin' and to just call him Yannick. His conducting has a conspiratorial touch about it: let's go for it together. And that's just what it sounded like.

Yannick himself programmed the ambitious concert, which featured Strauss' Tod und Verklärung Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Beethoven's Third Symphony 'Eroica'. 'Great' music about death and a different life.

Yannick also radiates authority and composure. For a long time, the slow, dark beginning of Tod und Verklärung stood almost still before he led the orchestra into its more and more extraverted death throes. He applied dramatic contrasts and colour changes and placed and proportioned the climaxes perfectly.
(...)

(...) Beethoven's 'Eroica' was an exciting event, full of character and charismatic energy, dazzling, with syncopations and other rhythmical peculiarities, lively but also with light-footed and supple lyricism.

(...) 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. (…).

(...) Muzikale passie was het codewoord tijdens het concert van Martha Argerich en het SWR Orchester Baden-Baden & Freiburg. (...) maar dé verrassing was de vurige jonge chef Yannick Nézet-Séguin (31). (...) Twee bij uitstek romantische werken leken de exuberante dirigent op het lijf geschreven. De symfonische fantasie Francesca da Rimini vraagt het uiterste van een orkestleider. (...) Nézet-Séguin maakte er een atletische prestatie van, met een royale gestiek (...) Met het SWR Orchester Baden-Baden & Freiburg bleven alle details helder, terwijl de typische melodieën van Tsjaikovski een heerlijke warmte uitstraalden. In deze uitgelaten episode, die geïnspireerd is op de hel van Dante, draaide Nézet-Séguin de knop van de muzikale contrasten helemaal open. Op het einde van het concert verdedigde hij ook de Symfonische dansen van Rachmaninov met verve. (...) dat Nézet-Séguin bij die nauwkeurigheid altijd oprechte passie predikt, maakt hem uitzonderlijk.

(…) Music with passion was the order of the day at the concert of Martha Argerich and the SWR Baden-Baden & Freiburg orchestra (…) the surprise of the evening was the young and passionate conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, (31 years old) (…) Two most romantic works which seemed to have been made to measure for this exuberant leader. The symphonic fantasia Francesca da Rimini demands of the conductor an extreme effort (…) Nézet-Séguin provided an athletic presentation with royal gestures (…) With the SWR Baden-Baden & Freiburg Orchestra every detail of the work remained clear while the typical Tchaikovski melodies maintained their wonderful warmth. In this frenzied work inspired by Dante’s Inferno, Nézet-Séguin explored the musical contrasts. At the end of the concert, he also brilliantly interpreted the Symphonic Dances by Rachmaninov…(…) Nézet-Séguin is exceptional in that he combines precision with sincere passion.

(…) Dans ce concerto (Beethoven : Triple Concerto, interprété par Martha Argerich, piano; Renaud Capuçon, violon; Gautier Capuçon, violoncelle), il convient d'instaurer un climat chambriste avec les solistes, et c'est exactement ce que fait l'orchestre de la SWR dirigé par le jeune et fougueux Yannick Nézet-Séguin (né en 1975), qui accompagne sans s'imposer (…), De la fougue et de l'énergie il n'en a pas manqué dans le rare Francesca da Rimini (1876) de Tchaïkovski, donné en ouverture. Au sein d'un orchestre chauffé à blanc, la mise en place est excellente et le jeu individuel admirable. Mais on retient avant tout de ce Francesca da Rimini son caractère tempétueux et sa vigueur rythmique. (…) Compte tenu du tempérament de Yannick Nézet-Séguin, il n'est pas étonnant d'entendre des Danses (symphoniques, de Rachmaninov) somptueuses, vertigineuses et remarquables du point de vue de la précision des attaques. Preuve de son talent et de la confiance que lui accordent les grandes phalanges, Yannick Nézet-Séguin succèdera à Valery Gergiev à la tête de l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Rotterdam à compter de septembre 2008.

Before reaching Paradise must one pass through Hell ? That is indeed the compelling conclusion while one enjoys the throbbing excentricity of Tchaikovsky’s work (The symphonic phantasia Francesca da Rimini), so greatly interpreted by the invited Canadian conductor (…) Nézet-Séguin knows how to motivate and inspire an orchestra (…) He does not circle around a work but goes straight to its heart. In the Tchaikovsky, he caused Dante’s Hell to surge up and shake in a manner which the composer would have surely appreciated. (…) After the pause, Nézet-Séguin and the SWR Symphony Orchestra were brilliant. With the Symphonic Danses opus 45 by Rachmaninov, all the registers of virtuosity of this music were displayed despite the fact that this music is often sufficient onto itself. The charm and elegance of the interpretation of the waltze movement must be stressed : a kind of beauty that propels us into the hereafter. And then the passion of the music brings us back, after stops in Hell and Paradise, directly … down to earth.

(…) the extraordinarily gifted and accomplished Montreal guest-conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, 31, (…) patently knew Scriabin's millions of notes (Third Symphony subtitled Divine Poem) fully and intimately, and, with his unceasingly busy body, hands and arms, placed every one of those notes exactly where he wanted it; a tremendous feat, achieved without faltering. The Vesuvian energy and total command of his reading were phenomenal. (…).

(…) Nézet-Séguin kept the sound light, but every musical nuance was accounted for. (Mussorgsky's Introduction to Kovantchina and Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme.) (…) There was no doubt that Nézet-Séguin was in full command of the 50 -minute piece, whose three movements are played without interruption. (Scriabin's Symphony No. 3 "The Divine Poem")(…) The orchestra sounded the best it has all season. (…).

(…) L'Orchestre Métropolitain n'est pas précisément un spécialiste de ce répertoire (Haydn, Mozart). Hier soir pourtant, il en a donné une réalisation impressionnante. L'orchestre sonnait avec plénitude et avec un beau relief de tous les détails. Nouvelle confirmation de l'immense talent du directeur artistique Yannick Nézet-Séguin (…).

(…) Der junge kanadische Dirigent Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Debüt bei der Sächsischen Staatskapelle) zeigte mit seiner durchdachten, eher die ruhigen Klangschattierungen betonenden Interpretation die orchestrale Raffinesse des Britten-Werkes. Selbst im abschlieβenden Sturm-Finale blieb er der klare Gestalter des Meeresgetümmels. (…) Jedem Dirigenten muss die Gefahr klar sein, zu diesem Anlass die 5. Sinfonie auf ein Programm zu setzen, denn dieses Seelendrama verlangt. Abgründe zu erforschen, zwischen den Zeilen zu lesen und eine Musizierhaltung zu erzeugen, die den besonderen Umständen des kurz nach der öffentlichen Denunziation des Komponisten entstandenen Werkes entspricht. Nézet-Séguin riskierte es und formte vor allem durch seine mutige, gezügelte Tempowahl eine phänomenale Wiedergabe der Sinfonie. Der Kanadier lieβ Raum zum Ausmusizieren, bebilderte den Druk eines Scherzos, das nicht lachen kann, und fand den Höhepunkt des Werkes im insistierenden Largo, dessen erschütternde Einsamkeitswelt die Kapelle intensiv darstellte. Sagte der Komponist selbst, das Finale sei ein mit Knüppeln erzwungenes “Jubeln sollt ihr!”, so folgte Nézet-Séguin dieser Aussage mit einem fast auf der Stelle tretenden Ausbruch des gesamten Orchesters, der beklemmend wirkte. Vor solch einer exemplarischen Darstellung durch einen 31-jährigen Dirigenten zieht man den Hut, wie der Jubel des Publikums bewies.

(…) The young Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin (in his debut with the Sächsischen Staatskapelle) offered, with his thoughtful and rather calmly emphasized interpretration, all the orchestral refinements required by the Britten work. Even in the crashing of the storm tossed Finale, he clearly remained the master of the tumultuous sea (...) Every conductor must be aware of the dangers of performing Symphony Number 5 ( by Shostakovich) when programming this work which searches the deapest dramas of the soul. To investigate such depths, one must read between the lines and adopt a musical approach applicable to the circumstances of its composition, the composer having been publicly denounced just before creating it. Nézet-Séguin took this risk and shaped, with his daring use of rythms which always seem to be held back, a phenominal reading of the symphony. The Canadian conductor allowed the musicians all the space they needed, built a feeling of pressure in the Scherzo that was relentless and found the culminating point of the work in an intensely insistent Largo expressing a desperate feeling of being alone in the world which the Kapelle stated thoroughly. The composer himself said that the Finale is a threatening invitation, with a bludgeon, to “Rejoice“. So, Nézet-Séguin, following this statement, asked for an almost imperceptible irruption of the whole orchestra that had the total oppressive weight which he sought. Our hats off to this 31 year old conductor for such an exemplary presentation, fully endorsed by the enthusiastic cheers of the Public.

(…) Au pupitre d'un Orchestre national de France motivé jusqu'au tonitruant dans l'ampleur de Pleyel, le chef canadien Yannick Nézet-Séguin est un partenaire tout à fait à la hauteur. Une soirée en forme de triomphe pour une voix immense.

(…) Yannick Nézet-Séguin est un chef on ne peut plus énergique! Il joue avec un enthousiasme débordant les ouvertures de Wagner notamment celle des Meistersinger. Le compositeur allemand prend une grande force sous sa baguette, (…) les élans des phrases wagnériennes sont superbes et musicaux. Mais il est également attentif aux détails, comme dans la manière dont revient le thème au début de l'air de Hans Sachs. Il sait également rendre l'élégance de Wagner dans la reprise du thème par le violoncelle dans la Romance à l'étoile de Wolfram. L'ouverture de La Forza del destino est enlevée avec brio tout comme celle de Candide et le tout s'enchaîne dans une ambiance très joyeuse. (…)

Manon Ardoin  

... l'évident engagement et la sensibilité remarquable du jeune chef, qui déploie autant d'énergie que de délicatesses dans son approche très physique et émotive des oeuvres.

... a coupling of Strauss's Death and Transfiguration and Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 transported us to Alpine heights and beyond. The Strauss is a musical portrait of the bedridden last hours of a romantic idealist ("presumably an artist," the composer wrote). One could hardly have asked for a more convincing or suspenseful recreation of irregular breathing at the beginning, and the fortissimo burst marking the defiant struggle against death was probably startling even to those who knew it was coming. ... Nézet-Séguin did without a score in Bruckner. He both knew the music and understood it, eliciting a noble glow from the expanded strings and rich, organ-like sonorities from the woodwinds and brass. ... this conductor could relax and heed the beauties around him without losing momentum. The tide of sublimity rose steadily in the Adagio to a magnificent climax ...

... Pour ce premier concert de la saison de son Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, Yannick Nézet-Séguin avait établi un programme extrêmement exigeant … Nézet a la partition pour le Strauss, Tod und Verklärung , mais la regarde à peine. Pour les 68 minutes que dure la septième Symphonie de Bruckner : le par coeur. De chaque oeuvre, il connaît la grande ligne, le sens profond, les moindres nuances, les temps forts. Son Strauss raconte vraiment une histoire : l'agonie d'un homme et la délivrance que lui apporte la mort. Le Bruckner n'étonne pas: Nézet nous a souvent joué cette musique, et chaque fois avec des résultats inoubliables. Hier soir encore, son contrôle sur l'orchestre était absolu, dans l'extrême finesse autant que dans le plus écrasant fortissimo. …

Claude Gingras  

… the Royal Stockholm Philharmonics were led by a young, extremely talented conductor, YNS, who with his dynamic musicality opened up our door to the world of fairy-tales. … Nézet-Seguin, … did the trick of spreading gallic warmth and an almost Russian passion on the cool surface of Ravel´s classicism. The 30-some Yannick - Nézet-Seguin is a conducting comet and also pianist who made his opera debut in Canada at 24 and now adds all major European orchestras to his calendar. …

(traduction officielle)  

… Yannick Nézet-Séguin déploie une énergie hors du commun ; c'est l'homme-orchestre qui irradie de tous ses feux. … Mais c'est dans les Danses symphoniques de Rachmaninov que l'OMGM retrouve ses marques, … d'une hardiesse déconcertante, avec ses allers-retours tragiques ou sarcastiques et ses humeurs intempestives. Moment magique où le maestro sort tout son arsenal, des entêtements si prompts d'une musique hachurée à l'opacité de la nuit profonde dans un ciel éclaté, bigarré. À couper le souffle ! Yannick Nézet-Séguin s'investit totalement et propulse son orchestre au sommet. … les honneurs reviennent au jeune chef d'orchestre, en très grande forme, puisant son dynamisme dans sa nature ignée, que Yannick Nézet-Séguin embrase son orchestre, devenu sous sa baguette, incandescent. …

Jacques Hétu  

… les Danses symphoniques n'ont rien de léger. Elles sont sournoises, tragiques, voire macabres; on y entend même le Dies irae à la fin. Nézet a traduit cette noirceur, déployant devant l'orchestre très augmenté, notamment en percussions, une gestuelle extrêmement dynamique mais toujours justifiée, s'abandonnant aux phrasés très larges mais combien convaincants …

Claude Gingras  

… Première moisson engrangée dans le cadre champêtre de Lanaudière, le concert d'ouverture du 8 juillet dernier fut non seulement excellent en tout point … mais surtout chaudement apprécié par un très grand nombre de mélomanes. … En première partie, … la Missa solemnis a été idéalement interprétée par l'OMGM et par son chef Yannick Nézet-Séguin. … Mais cette nuit étoilée, nous la devons à l'aplomb du chef et à son Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal (OMGM). … Le maître d'œuvre de la soirée est sans nul doute Yannick Nézet-Séguin, à la tête d'un orchestre d'une clarté éblouissante.

Jacques Hétu  

… It was a magical midsummer night, where, in a large clearing inside a fragrant wood, gorgeous music was made under the starlit heavens. … Yannick Nézet-Séguin, 30, shows every sign of becoming the Great Canadian Conductor for whom this country's classical music buffs have been waiting. … In front of an audience that appeared to number close to 3,000 … it was proof of how truly great classical music-making and summer relaxation can live in harmony. …

John Terauds  

… Aux commandes des 65 musiciens de son Orchestre Métropolitain et du double choeur de 150 voix, Yannick Nézet-Séguin parut si inspiré par ce programme qu'on en conclut qu'il en avait établi lui-même tous les détails. Des deux oeuvres chorales, il souligna la modernité et, en même temps, la richesse rythmique, rejoint dans son enthousiasme par un choeur puissant, agissant, préparé avec un soin particulier par Pierre Tourville…

Claude Gingras  

… Yannick Nézet-Séguin's hectoring left hand was entirely appropriate to a splendid account of Le Corsaire, Berlioz at his Byronic best, … that same left hand was gently nudging sexy but doomed nuances from the orchestra in a reading of Ravel's decadent La Valse which was both soupy and silky, and luminous in the clarity of its detail, before the Titanic-like collapse which was surely remembered in Bolero.

Christopher Morley  

… En accord avec les textes qui l'ont inspirée, l'oeuvre (Carmina Burana - Orff) mêle truculence, sensualité et tendresse, autant d'aspects que le jeune chef souligna au maximum, en plus de faire ressortir maints détails au sein de l'orchestre.

Claude Gingras  

Fast-rising young Montreal conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin scored a triumph with musicians and audiences in his debut with the National Arts Centre Orchestra last week. Expect to see him invited back. … the 30-year-old maestro made a brilliant impression in a challenging program …. NACO musicians … praised his clear conducting technique and his efficient use of rehearsal time.

Steven Mazey  

Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin is known for his great musicality and extraordinary conducting skills. A pupil of the legendary Italian conductor Carlo Maria Giulini among others, he is one of Canada's foremost conductors. Maestro Nézet-Séguin is a wonderfully flamboyant and energetic conductor. Very expressive and passionate and I was enthralled. (…) I enjoyed the energetic pace and loved Maestro. Nézet-Séguin's fiery command of the piece. The final piece, Dvorak's Seventh Symphony in D minor was a very spirited and emotionally powerful rendition full of passion and with a ferocious ending (…) as he conducted with such gusto. This was an inspired musical evening.

Patricia Fleming 

Born in Montreal in 1975, Nézet-Séguin is a high-spirited and uninhibited conductor, inclined to show a flashy, choreographic bent on the podium. (…) he's a formidable talent and profoundly musical. (…) Nézet-Séguin brought an exuberance and a symphonic breadth to the music, but was always respectfully deferential to his soloist (Midori). It proved a joyous collaboration full of obvious chemistry between violinist and conductor that made the score sound fresh and passionate. In Dvorak's Seventh Symphony, Nézet-Séguin's approach was broader and perhaps a degree more bombastic. (…) He demands and his orchestra delivers. His enthusiasm and energy produced an exciting, white-hot performance in an evening that has to go down as one of the highlights of this symphony season.

David Gordon Duke 

La grande réussite du concert reste néanmoins la quatrième Symphonie de Tchaïkovsky. Déployant une énergie aussi efficace que totale, le jeune maestro obtint de l'orchestre une réalisation des plus impressionnantes, dans la force et dans l'expression tout à la fois. (…). Son très précis Scherzo en pizzicati fascine l'auditoire et son finale pris à la lettre, «  allegro con fuoco » , c'est-à-dire très rapide et avec feu, est extrêmement convaincant et provoque une ovation à tout casser. Nézet fait lever un à un les musiciens qui s'y sont distingués. Son groupe de cuivres y fut exceptionnellement en forme - plus même qu'à l'orchestre voisin, certains soirs. On a également signalé que le concert de lundi était le 300e de Nézet-Séguin à l'OM. Presque incroyable. Mais on a bien répété: 300 e.

Claude Gingras  

Nézet-Séguin kept his players meticulously synchronized with Laplante's (André) more dramatic rubato. Certainly there was never any doubt in my mind that it would be the best-played “Enigmas” (Variations) I have heard in Victoria and this was undoubtedly the case; whether it was in the louder, more outgoing music or its quieter, more contemplative moods, the orchestra rose to the challenge magnificently. Elgar's many and varied solos were all played with deep feeling and great skill. (…) The evening opened with Brahms' Tragic Overture, which gripped from the dramatic and precise opening bars. Once again Nézet-Séguin indulged in some very slow tempos (…) but the overall level of concentration was so high as to make the music cohere and never allow the listener's attention to flag.

Deryk Barker 

Qu'on ne nous dise pas qu'il n'y a plus aujourd'hui de chef d'envergure à la forte personnalité. Prenez Yannick Nézet-Séguin : voilà un chef jeune - né en 1975 - dont la carrière internationale débute à peine, capable d'embarquer orchestre et public dans une Mer démontée, tempétueuse. Ce Debussy ( La Mer ) luxuriant, nerveux, contrasté, culminant dans de grands mouvements d'orchestre, n'a que peu de rapport avec l'image d'élégance distanciée qui colle à la musique française - bien mal à propos (…) Mais rien de purement démonstratif dans tout cela, car on sent la grande sincérité de la démarche de Yannick Nézet-Séguin et la marque d'un caractère naturellement expansif. Surtout, on est charmé par son formidable bonheur à faire de la musique, bonheur contagieux qui semble déteindre aussi sur l'orchestre ; les musiciens, visiblement détendus, « marchent » à fond et répondent avec enthousiasme à cette vitalité débordante. (…)Yannick Nézet-Séguin trouve pour l'accompagner des couleurs intimes en harmonie avec l'introspection du soliste (Vadim Repin).

Laurent Marty 

(…) Soulignant avec volupté les couleurs si spécifiques de la formation toulousaine dans ce répertoire (La mer de Debussy; La valse de Ravel), Yannick Nézet-Séguin devait aussi communiquer du mouvement à ces pages et, réussir dans La valse à rendre justice au côté fantomatique de la partition.

Anne-Marie Chouchan 

L'Orchestre Métropolitain et son jeune chef Yannick Nézet-Séguin complétaient hier après-midi leur cycle Beethoven monté pour le 25e anniversaire de l'orchestre. Neuf symphonies, quatre concerts, trois jours... et deux salles, rappelons-le. (…) Dirigeant tout de mémoire et faisant toutes les reprises sans exception, après avoir ouvert
chaque concert par une présentation claire et succincte de chaque symphonie,
Nézet-Séguin, (…) ne laissa jamais l'intérêt faiblir. (…) il fit toujours jouer son orchestre avec expression (…).

Claude Gingras

L'ovation monstre qui a suivi hier soir à 22 h la strette terminale de la fameuse et attendue Neuvième restera dans nos mémoires longtemps. Rarement ai-je vu un chef, et ce chef, c'est Yannick Nézet-Séguin, être à ce point habité par l'euphorie du moment et la transmettre d'une façon aussi totale à tous les participants. (…) une Pastorale tendre, puis tumultueuse, avec une Scène au bord du ruisseau en sourdine, (…) et ensuite une Septième torrentielle et délirante, comme il se doit. (…) La frénésie du jeune chef, dirigeant tout de mémoire, dessine la musique pour nous. Chaque geste a sa signification... jusqu'à cette façon de garder les bras levés qui élimine tout applaudissement aux mauvais endroits !

Claude Gingras

(…) il faut un immense talent pour y maintenir encore l'intérêt ( 2 e et 3 e ). Ce talent, Yannick Nézet-Séguin le possède. Il fait toutes les reprises et y évite toute redondance, il apporte beaucoup d'esprit aux mouvements qui en demandent et beaucoup de drame quand il en faut, (…) Possédant son texte au point de tout diriger de mémoire, il sait exactement où se trouvent chaque entrée importante, chaque développement essentiel. Et l'écoute attentive, je dirais même active, de la salle remplie à sa capacité l'inspire très certainement. Pas une toux gênante, pas un applaudissement où il ne faut pas: Il est clair que le public est touché par ce qu'il entend. (…) Nézet a manifestement beaucoup d'idées à faire passer (…).

Claude Gingras

The Edmonton Symphony, (…) under the quietly captivating leadership of French-Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, produced a Brahms German Requiem that was close to perfect. Nézet-Séguin, conducting the score from memory, had the orchestra and the symphonic choir in the palm of his hand, giving him everything he asked for dynamically and otherwise. He drew from the choir, in particular, a gripping combination of power and subtlety, not something guaranteed from a group of 120 singers. From the opening pianissimo established glowingly by the orchestra, the (choir) made Brahms' spiritual oddity a work that deserved the audience's fullest attention, which it surely received without resistance. (…) The Brahms is full of beautiful wind choir parts that were performed impeccably, and the Britten, from the opening interlude titled Dawn, is full of marvellous arabesque flutterings and penetrating cries against an often menacing force of the pounding, brassy surf.

Bill Rankin 

(…) ensemble was excellent, even in those places where Nézet-Séguin quite rightly imposed some fairly dramatic rubato. I should also mention the excellent dynamics - Nézet-Séguin is a conductor who understands the true meaning of pianissimo and how to get it from his players. (…) I have never heard a more persuasive performance than Sunday's (Symphonie # 1 de Mozart) . Whether it was the smooth elegance of the opening movement, the carefully measured tread of the cellos and basses in the slow movement or the bouncy triple time of the short, but sweet finale, it was a performance which was perhaps, to misquote Artur Schnabel, better than the music.

Deryk Barker 

(...) Na de subtiel uitgevoerde Variaties en fuga op een thema van Johann Kuhnau van Hendrik Andriessen en een sprankelende Italiaanse symfonie van Mendelssohn, waarmee de Canadese dirigent Yannick Nézet-Seguin zijn vitale debuut bij het Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest inluidde, voerden de drie solisten gedenkwaardige dialogen in Beethovens Tripelconcert.

Traduction sommaire:

(...) Après des Variations et fugue sur un thème de Johann Kuhnau de Hendrik Andriessen subtilement effectuées, et une pétillante Symphonie italienne de Mendelssohn avec laquelle le chef d'orchestre canadien Yannick Nézet-Séguin a effectué des débuts vitaux avec le Philharmonique de Rotterdam, il a conduit les trois solistes à travers des dialogues mémorables dans le Triple concerto de Beethoven. (...)

Wenneke Savenije 

(…) came Ravel's Pavane pour un infante défunte, Nézet-Séguin drawing seductively warming colours from the orchestra, and in Le Tombeau de Couperin where Ravel's vibrant dances and plaintive melodies came couched in luxurious textures and brilliantly pointed detail.

Thomas Hall 

(…) soliste et chef font jeu égal. Yannick Nézet-Séguin sait aussi s'effacer pour devenir un accompagnateur inspiré (Marche élégiaque de Guilmant).

Jean-Charles Hoffelé 

Vive et efficace, la baguette du jeune maestro québécois s'attachait à exalter le rythme de la partition, à souligner ses différents climats, ses délicats solos instrumentaux, son lyrisme aussi. Voilà un chef qui a vite saisi les subtilités de cette musique.

Anne-Marie Chouchan 

(…) it (Mahler 9 th s.) held the crowd rapt through its many degrees of anguish and exultation. (…) Yet the supreme performance was of the finale, starting with a string chorale of assertive density and ending with a pianissimo farewell of ethereal tenderness. This was an Adagio, all right, but a remarkably motive one under Nézet-Séguin, who knows how to extract full meaning from Mahler without stretching the tempo beyond endurance. The orchestra, expanded to 98, sounded warm and strong, high-grade Bordeaux all the way.

Arthur Kaptainis 

(…) Debout devant ses 98 musiciens, on dirait un petit garçon. À l'écoute, c'est un géant qui nous livre la musique de Mahler et qui la livre dans toute son écrasante puissance, son sarcasme et sa dimension spirituelle, secondé par un orchestre en très grande forme et extrêmement solide dans toutes ses sections. (…) Nézet-Séguin suivait scrupuleusement chaque indication : « hésitant », « le plus lent possible », « extrêmement doux », « en mourant »… Après le cataclysme, le silence était revenu. Ce silence dont nous avons tant besoin et que nous apporta le génial jeune chef en gardant les deux bras levés très longtemps après le dernier souffle de l'orchestre…

Claude Gingras 

(…) Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin is clearly a highly gifted conductor with a vivid musical imagination. Clearly enjoying this most hyper-romantic of symphonies (Bruckner's Fourth Symphony) , Nézet-Séguin sailed into the powerful opening movement, guns blazing, demanding the most from the orchestra in volume and passion. (…)

Kenneth DeLong 

Stepping in at short notice for an indisposed Lorin Maazel, Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducted Bruckner's colossal Eighth Symphony from memory. This was no rash act of youthful bravado: right from the unsettling opening phrase, he clearly had the measure of this mighty work. (…) Nézet-Séguin understood this and, like all good Bruckner interpreters, made the abrupt, potentially awkward changes of gear sound natural and unforced, giving the impression of a mighty planet gradually orbiting around its axis. (…) We were continually reminded of the foreboding and deep sadness of the main theme, which made its final transformation all the more glorious. (…)Even at the loudest climaxes, the work's inner voices were revealed. The orchestra responded well to his direction: the pealing brass chorales were polished, and the string sound was a marvellous combination of richness and cleansing purity. (…)

Murray Black 

(…) Nézet-Séguin gave the work a thrilling impact through the force of his youthful intensity. (…) the vividness and ardour of Nézet-Séguin's reading, and the richness of Sydney Symphony sound, had its own rewards . (…)

Peter McCallum 

(…) Nézet-Séguin a obtenu de réelles subtilités dans le court Moussorgsky (Prélude de l'opéra "Khovanchtchina ") ajouté en début de programme (…) et les Tableaux d'une exposition (Moussorgsky) sonnaient avec force et relief. (…) Nézet a créé ici et là de saisissants effets fortissimo / pianissimo.

Claude Gingras 

(…) Pièce de résistance du concert, la huitième Symphonie de Dvorak fut jouée avec précision - mieux, avec amour. (…) l'éclat, avec des trompettes très au point, le charme au 3e mouvement bien " grazioso ", et un étonnant climat de paix dans l'Adagio très soutenu. (…) voici l'OM très en santé et son génial jeune chef qui nous donnent un Dvorak de grand soir!

Claude Gingras 

(…) Toujours soucieux d'excellence, Nézet-Séguin s'était donné corps et âme à la Missa (Missa Solemnis de Beethoven) - à sa préparation et, hier, à sa réalisation - et la réussite fut très impressionnante, dans la fougue et dans l'apaisement. (…)

Claude Gingras 

(…) his conducting style brings it (Brahms' Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Opus 98) out of the orchestra, which responds to him with sensitivity. An interesting conductor to watch, Nézet-Séguin has wonderful body movement to match the music, yet he never becomes flamboyant. (…) The third movement scherzo danced brightly along, and leading to the many elements of the finale, the orchestra captured the eloquent statement that flowed with perfect symphonic unity to the end. A magnificent concert superbly conducted.

Harry Currie 

(…) Schumann's Overture, Scherzo, and Finale, Op. 52 and Symphony No. 2 In C major, Op. 61, with conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin deserving full credit for coaxing marvellously buoyant and sensitive performances out of the orchestra. (…) the rhythmic intensity Nézet-Séguin brought to the stage, coupled with the musicians' precision, amplified the graceful writing and made the unabashedly joyous finale all the more uplifting. Sombre feelings we can get anytime it rains; energy and intelligence of Nézet-Séguin's calibre are far less frequently encountered.

Alexander Varty 

(…) L'orchestre fut dirigé hier par un jeune chef canadien de premier ordre, Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Il fit resplendir la Symphonie écossaise de Mendelssohn, faisant preuve de fermeté autant que de souplesse, ménageant l'éclat et la nuance, le faste et le recueillement, ainsi que le confort de chaque fin de phrase. Son visage souffrait ou souriait en même temps que la musique. Il était l'image et l'efficacité du chef.(…)

André Peyregne 

(Traduit de l'allemand par Louis Bouchard, institut Goethe, Montréal)
(…) En tout cas, pour ses débuts au RSO, il est en mesure de convaincre pleinement!
Que les musiciens de l'orchestre de la radio de Francfort aient volontiers travaillé avec lui, nous n'avons qu'à le voir dans leur visage. Ils semblent avoir du plaisir à travailler avec lui. (…)Les attaques et entrées sont essentiellement précises, prouvent de plus une étude presque analytique des partitions. (…) Il laisse toujours balancer la musique et la laisse respirer. Parallèlement il différencie en cette soirée la Symphonie No 3 de St-Saens avec aucune démonstration de puissance à l'orgue mais fait plutôt ressortir l'accompagnement orchestral avec une représentation d'un éventail sonore très diversifié (…) « léger ou aérien, parfumé ou fleuri et majestueux ».

Harold Budweg 

(…) Yannick Nézet-Séguin directed the Victoria Symphony in a gripping and deeply
moving account of The Seven Last Words (Haydn) (…) the sound he drew from the orchestra was superbly balanced, focused, clean and crisp, with a splendidly weighty bottom end. (…) Nézet-Séguin has the measure of the work and shaped it beautifully, never letting the tension flag, even in the more gentle moments, such as the
consolatory second sonata. To this end, the Victoria Symphony played with passion and depth, with outstanding work from all sections. The final representation of the earthquake -- which contains what is believed to be the first triple-forte in orchestral music -- was dramatic, tense and brought the work to a thoroughly satisfying conclusion. (…) Nézet-Séguin oversaw an absolutely rivetting performance. Tempos were plastic, yet his rubato never struck me as being at all forced or unnatural. The strings of the
Victoria Symphony (…) were excellent.

Deryk Barker 

(…) la cinquième Symphonie de Chostakovitch (…) est une oeuvre pleine de tourment, de passion, d'extrêmes, (…) et ce contraste, qu'illustrent successivement le Scherzo et le Largo, fut extrêmement bien traduit par la direction tantôt spectaculaire, tantôt intérieure, de Nézet-Séguin. J'ai rarement entendu un Largo aussi profondément senti, aussi parfaitement contrôlé, en fait jusqu'à l'inaudible. L'auditoire - salle comble hier soir - suivait d'ailleurs le déroulement absolument médusé. (…) Ce fut un Chostakovitch vécu et bouleversant (…).

Claude Gingras 

(…) And the TSO's performance under the young maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin (…) lived up to the brilliance of the music. (…) Nézet-Séguin, however, showed us that the magic came mostly from the music (in Paul Dukas' The Sorcerer's Apprentice) . (…) In both concertos (Ravel's Piano Concerto in D Major with David Jalbert and Camille Saint-Saëns' Cello Concerto No. 1 in A Minor with Yegor Dyachkov) , soloist and orchestra maintained a sensitive balance and the music came through as an integrated whole. Obviously, all the performers contributed to this, but perhaps Nézet-Séguin deserves the lion's share of credit. He's a conductor who attends to the details of the music as they relate to the players. There is nothing abstracted about his leadership. He makes himself the centre of a collective effort. The last work on the program, Ravel's Boléro , demonstrated the virtue of that approach beautifully. It reveals the parts of the ensemble and their relation to the whole in a great marching crescendo. The players were featured, but Nézet-Séguin's direction was powerfully felt in the balance, pacing and consistent shaping of the repeated melody.

John Lehr 

(…) Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Victoria Symphony concluded Sunday afternoon's concert with a dazzling account of the suite from The Firebird, Stravinsky's first great success. (…) Sunday's performance was everything one could have wished for; from the ominous bass drum and muted lower strings of the opening, to the final, almost overwhelming peroration, this was a performance to treasure. It certainly sent shivers up my spine more than a few times.

Deryk Barker 

(…) The orchestra was led by guest conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, a magnificent conductor who is only at the beginning of what will hopefully be a long and distinguished career. The rapport he has with the musicians is obvious, and his warmth and musicality shone throughout. (…) Nézet-Séguin's choice of pacing was exactly right, and how much more eloquently this work (Piazzolla's Milonga Del Angel for string orchestra) became because of it. (…).

Holly Harris 

(…) As articulate and clear in his introductory program explanations as in his podium gestures, Nézet-Séguin is a remarkably explicit and effective communicator.
Opening with Berlioz's overture Le Corsaire , he had his instrumentalists play it with splendid precision and shaped the music's dynamic contrasts most dramatically. Yet later, the ensemble's hushed, subtle and refined treatment in the five pieces of Ravel's Mother Goose Suite was in its way just as impressive. Moreover, for their colourful and persuasive rendering of Debussy's La Mer , which makes such formidable musical demands, conductor and instrumentalists deserve very special credit. They performed it amazingly well. With carefully gauged rises and falls, fine orchestral and sectional blending, La Mer received from the OM a thrilling and bewitching performance. (…)

Ilse Zadrozny 

(…) Le miracle commence à se produire avec le cinquième Concerto pour piano de Saint-Saëns, dit " Égyptien ". Tour à tour accrocheuse, triviale et subtile, cette musique brillamment écrite ne rate jamais son effet. Hier soir encore, l'auditoire subjugué écoutait dans le plus total silence. (…) Les deux oeuvres les plus attendues venaient en dernier lieu: Ma Mère l'Oye, de Ravel, et La Mer , de Debussy. Dans chaque cas, un résultat absolument étonnant, une réalisation proche, à tous égards, de ce qu'on a entendu de mieux dans cette musique, soit au concert, soit au disque.

Claude Gingras 

Premier concert européen pour Yannick Nézet-Séguin, jeune prodige de la direction venu du Canada (une découverte de notre rubrique À suivre ). Un programme à géométrie variable, sur le thème de la danse, commencé par un Concerto brandebourgeois n o 1 aux mètres souples et aux polyphonies ensoleillées. Pour finir, une Symphonie italienne de Mendelssohn sur les pointes, avec un saltarello fulgurant dans lequel l'Orchestre du Capitole se surpasse. Mais c'est dans Le Tombeau de Couperin que Nézet-Séguin impose son art à la fois vigoureux et subtil, imaginant des phrasés inédits et inspirant aux souffleurs toulousains tout un paradis de couleurs épicées. Direction élégante et diablement efficace. (…)

Jean-Charles Hofflé 

(…) The 29-year-old conductor acts much like the concentrating lens of a magnifying glass. The dispersed rays of the musical sound come into clear, penetrating focus under his quiet command. Whether creating the mood of ephemeral stillness in Canadian composer Glenn Buhr's Akasha (Sanskrit for sky), which began the program, or negotiating the grandiloquent sonic peaks of Bruckner's Symphony No. 4, Nézet -Séguin has a presence that draws all the sound through him before it rises into the hall.

Bill Rankin