Yannick Nézet-Séguin

The Montreal-based conductor will take over America’s biggest opera house… eventually

Paul Wells on Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Montreal star who has become one of classical music’s leading forces

Paul Wells on the expected departure of the director of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal

On Friday Yannick Nezet-Séguin makes his first appearance in Philadelphia as the music director-designate of that city’s great orchestra. It is said he will be made to eat a Philly cheese steak as proof of his new allegiance. “Well,” the local papers quote him as saying, “Maybe just one.”

Montreal’s Yannick Nézet-Séguin will be the Philadelphia Orchestra’s next music director. The hometown paper provides coverage, at extravagant length, here. The New York Times takes note here. The Washington Post’s critic blogs here. Montreal’s Arthur Kaptainis tells the Philadelphians what to expect here. These four pieces explain better than I can what a big deal this is.

Because I have let whim decide this blog’s topics for more than six years now, I know reading Inkless can be frustrating  for readers who want it to be about federal politics only (and especially for those who wish I would cheerlead for one or another of the political parties). But much of the kick that comes from writing this blog has to do with the moments when an off-the-wall post manages to reach a wide and engaged audience. That happened when I wrote about criticisms of James Levine, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s music director.  That post had nothing to do with anything that usually goes on this blog, but it found an audience that stretched as far as Boston and New York City. Some of the ensuing debate is captured in the comments below the original post.

The New York Times marks Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s first New York appearance the way a lot of newspapers around the world have been covering his appearances — ahead of time, with eager anticipation. In a long, rhapsodic Sunday feature profile, the Times explains why YNS’s Mostly Mozart debut this week is the hottest ticket in the Big Apple.

Montreal conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin makes his guest debuts with two of the Big Five U.S. orchestras, and the critics are raving.

We here offer one of our periodic updates on the peripatetic Montreal conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who’s doing a residence in Scotland. The guy at The Herald is smitten — “utterly charming… a giant… phenomenal… a natural” — and he updates us on YNS’s schedule: Rotterdam, London, Salzburg, Philadelphia, Boston, LA (an orchestra that favours young hotshots), Vienna — a mighty orchestra whose musicians decide which conductors to invite, and which will follow YNS through Mozart’s Requiem — Berlin, Chicago, Cleveland, Zurich…

Or there will be if you download Alborado del Gracioso, by Ravel, for free, as played by the Rotterdam Symphony Orchestra under the direction of its musical director-designate, Montreal’s own Yannick Nézet-Séguin, whom the Scottish Herald recently called “gold dust.”

When 90 per cent of Canadian compositions are played only once, where’s our heritage?