The Montreal Symphony Orchestra will kick off its third “La Virée Classique” (OSM Classical Spree) festival with a free open-air performance of Orff’s Carmina Burana on August 14 at the Esplanade in Montreal’s Olympic Park, featuring the OSM and a 1,000-voice chorus. Kent Nagano will lead the performance, the first of seven he will conduct during the OSM’s annual three-day festival of 45-minute concerts. From August 14 to 16, 30 concerts will take place at four different concert halls in Montreal’s Place des Arts: Maison symphonique, Theatre Jean-Duceppe, Cinquieme Salle, and Salle Claude-Leveillee. Program highlights include Bernstein’s rarely performed opera A Quiet Place; Brahms’s German Requiem; Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, featuring tenor Marc Hervieux and the Orford Academy Orchestra (Orford, Quebec), led by Jean-François Rivest; a Chopin program performed by pianist Rafal Blechacz; the Cecilia String Quartet in works by Dvorák and Beethoven; and a program for voice and organ utilizing the Maison symphonique’s new Grand Orgue Pierre Béique, featuring OSM Organist-in-Residence Jean-Willy Kunz and singer/lyricist/keyboard artist Pierre Lapointe. The festival also includes family events, interviews, exhibits, workshops, and artist talks.
Posted August 14, 2014
