Review Roundup: The Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal at Carnegie Hall

The Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal performed at Carnegie Hall on October 18 with conductor Kent Nagano. A year after their USA tour, Maestro Kent Nagano and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal returned to New York for a single performance with noted violinist Maxim Vengerov.

Kent Nagano was musical director and conductor, and the program included Samy Moussa's A Globe Itself Infolding for Organ and Orchestra, Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra, and Brahms' Violin Concerto performed by Maxim Vengerov.

Let's see what the critics had to say!

Seth Colter Walls, The New York Times: The orchestra excelled in the contrasts of the fourth movement, with the strings channeling fervid passions and the brasses taking a jeering delight in their disruptions. Mr. Nagano balanced the work's disparate parts to create a kind of casual excitement: This famous piece didn't sound predictable, nor did it strain too hard after unique effects.

Eric C. Simpson, New York Classical Review: The meat of the program was Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, always a fine candidate to show off a visiting orchestra to an unfamiliar audience. Their performance in this touchstone work showed the OSM to be an excellent ensemble. They weren't always in perfect unison, but there was an overall freshness to their sound, and the many solos throughout the piece impressed, showing individual characters that played beautifully off one another.

Photo: newyorkclassicalreview.com / Felix Broede

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