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. (…).