This Saturday, October 18, the Orchestre de l’Université de Montréal (OUM) opened its season, celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Faculty of Music. Under the direction of Mathieu Lussier, the OUM presented a rich program featuring four Romantic works, all from the late 19th century, including Antonín Dvořák’s renowned Eighth Symphony. However, it was Richard Strauss’s Horn Concerto in E-flat major, performed by soloist Noah Larocque, that was the concert’s centerpiece.
Noting the rarity of the presence of a wind instrument at the front of the stage, Noah Larocque asserted himself from the first notes with a round and powerful sound, and this throughout the piece, which requires great endurance in response to text offering little respite. Despite the abrupt leaps of the large intervals, the melody and lyricism dominated with surprising ease. All in sobriety, yes, but the quality of the performance concluded with a well-deserved ovation.
In the opening of Edouard Lalo’s opera Le Roi D’Ys, we can note the cleanliness and delicacy of the respective oboe and clarinet solos, which already promise the solidity of the woodwind section. A solidity that we will find again in another lesser-known work on the program: La nuit et l’amour by Augusta Holmès, where the presence of the harp is sometimes stifled despite the discretion of the brass, which struggles to make its mark.
This discretion was quickly dispelled by the strong and controlled entry of the trumpets into Dvořák’s symphony, even if more pronounced support from the brass section would have been welcome. The final movement highlighted the precision of the entire orchestra in a triumphant allegro ma non troppo.
A surprising and successful start to the season. See you on December 5th at the Claude Champagne hall for the rest!
Photo: Nina Gibelin
