The Orchestra in Full Glory

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September 12, 15 and 17
The OSM opens its 80th season in style with Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust, directed by Kent Nagano. Among the invited soloists are Anna Caterina Antonacci in the role of Marguerite, Michael Schade as Faust, and the 2012 MCIC overall winner, Philippe Sly, as Mephistopheles. www.osm.ca

September 12
The OSQ, directed by Fabien Gabel, opens the same day as the OSM with a German-inspired program of works by Beethoven and Brahms. Pianist Emanuel Ax will deliver his vision of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3. www.osq.org

September 25
With Tchaikovsky continuing to seduce music lovers year after year, the Orchestre Symphonique de Laval is justifiably launching its season with an all-Tchaikovsky program. Alain Trudel directs Symphony No. 1, “ Winter Dreams”, and pianist Serhiy Salov performs the well-known Piano Concerto No. 1. osl.qc.ca

October 4, 5
Palais Montcalm has just been equipped with a new Casavant concert organ to be be inaugurated by a founding member of the orchestra, Richard Paré, during the opening concert of the Violons du Roy’s 30th season. The program includes works for solo organ by Bach and Pachelbel as well as compositions by Handel, Sweelinck and Haydn. www.violonsduroy.com

October 17, 18, 19
The Orchestre Métropolitain’s 33rd season opens with a particularly enticing thematic program, organized around three pieces composed or created in 1913: Stravinsky’s revolutionary Sacre du printemps (Rite of Spring), Debussy’s Jeux (Game), also written for the Ballets Russes, and Prokofiev’s explosive Piano Concerto No. 2 with Beatrice Rana, first prize winner of MCIC 2011. www.orchestremetropolitain.com

October 26
The OSM combines Beethoven’s ageless Fifth Symphony with Zappa’s Bogus Pomp in a dazzling concert that is sure to have an impact. www.osm.ca

October 29
The Orchestre de chambre Appassionata meets up again with its dynamic musical director Daniel Myssyk for Mozart’s powerful Symphony No. 41 “Jupiter” and for a lesser-known composition, Respighi’s Il tramonto, showcasing mezzo-soprano Geneviève Després. www.appassionata.ca

November 1
As part of its 30th season and in homage to Yuli Turovsky, I Musici de Montréal and its musical director Jean-Marie Zeitouni offer an inspired program focused on the theme of night. Specific compositions include Britten’s Les Illuminations (soprano Dominique Labelle is soloist), The Lark Ascending (with Julie Triquet) and Schoenberg’s disconcerting The Night Transfigured. www.imusici.com

November 3
For the first time, the McGill Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Alexis Hauser appears in front of a paying audience at the Maison symphonique de Montréal. In particular, the program includes the second suite of Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé and Laterna Magica by composer Kaija Saariaho, who will be receiving an honorary doctorate that evening. www.mcgill.ca/music

November 9
The season opener of the Montreal Youth Symphony Orchestra, directed by Louis Lavigueur, is a program combining essential repertoire compositions The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Dukas and a suite from Der Rosenkavalier by Strauss with a rarely played concertante piece, Milhaud’s Violin Concerto No. 2. Frédéric Bednarz, a member of Quatuor Molinari, is the soloist. http://www.osjm.org

November 29
The sumptuous Marie-Nicole Lemieux joins the OM in a highly emotionally charged program that includes Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder and Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder as well as the Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra by Britten (this composer’s 100th birthday is being celebrated this year). www.orchestremetropolitain.com

Recitals and Chamber Music: consistency & intimacy

October 14
After bedazzling us with his interpretation of Bach’s Suites for Unaccompanied Cello in 2010, Jean-Guihen Queyras will be Société Pro Musica’s invited guest. No matter what the program contains (unannounced as of yet), we will be in for a great musical moment. www.promusica.qc.ca

October 20
American pianist Garrick Ohlsson, first-prize winner of the Busoni, the Montréal and the Chopin competitions, has had an exceptional track record spanning four decades. He will revisit Chopin, the composer to whom he is inextricably linked (Fantaisie), as well as Liszt, Brahms and Debussy (a few Études). www.lmmc.ca

November 10
Tenor Christoph Genz, while at the LMMC, offers a double Schumann/Heine – the sublime Dichterliebe, and Liederkreis Op. 24. www.lmmc.ca

December 1
The American String Quartet becomes a sextet with the collaboration of Roberto and Andrés Diaz in a program of Strauss, Brahms and Tchaikovsky (Souvenir de Florence). www.lmmc.ca

Translation: Karine Poznanski