Youthful powerhouses energise Montreal's Orchestre symphonique

When a concert's featured soloist is still in his twenties and there's a guest conductor who's just turned 40, one's expectations may be tempered. Such doubts were proven unwarranted on this occasion on this night when guest conductor Dalia Stasevska and violinist Randall Goosby partnered with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. 

This concert's highlight was Stasevska's sublime interpretation of Dvořák's Eighth Symphony. At the outset, the OSM cellists seemed to cherish each and every note of their melodic line. Kudos to the viola section which later maintained that lofty level of musicianship when taking their turn with the same theme. A couple of minor criticisms arose in the first movement: occasionally the trumpets and trombones brought a bit too much of their Bruckner game to the party. It was also a mite disappointing that instruments were not kept up in playing position until the resonance of the final chord had completely dissipated. 

In the ensuing Adagio the woodwinds displayed a superb degree of transparency, testament to the bench strength that the OSM enjoys. The high point of the entire evening came at the launch of the Allegretto gracioso, which was literally breathtaking; the notes leapt off the page. Here Stasevska was her most expressive, engaging her entire body with gestures that elicited maximum passion from her charges. A lesson in cantabile style was offered by the cello section at the beginning of the Allegro ma non troppo. Here, Stasevska unlocked her wrist so that her baton better displayed the phrasing she was after. The build-up to the coda of the finale was splendidly frenetic.

The programme's featured soloist was also magnificent. Randall Goosby played Bruch's Violin Concerto in G minor with a lyricism that equals that of any violinist currently on the international circuit. His bottom notes projected particularly well. Goosby may not yet possess the technical wizardry of a player like James Ehnes, but he clearly has that potential. Particularly in this concerto, the balance that Stasevska achieved was top flight. We were treated to Florence Price's lyrical organ piece Adoration, in a version orchestrated by Goosby for violin and orchestra.

Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir's Archora, an ethereal work that sets out to capture the notion of fundamental energy in perpetual transformation, opened the programme. Were it possible to listen to this music in a seaside cottage near the Arctic Circle on an frigid night, nestled close to a wood stove, it would for me blissfully conjure up images of changing weather patterns along the visible stretch of desolate  coastline.

In an evening of many high points and scant few disappointments, Dalia Stasevska's was the northern light that shone the brightest. Both her vertical hearing and ability to unlock the musicality of her players are nothing short of sensational. Hopefully we will see her return to Montreal on a frequent basis.