Rafael Payare conducts Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder — With Dorothea Röschmann, Clay Hilley, Karen Cargill, Stephan Rügamer, Thomas E. Bauer, and Ben Heppner

Rafael Payare reunites with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, of which he has been music director since 2022, for an unforgettable rendition of the monumental Gurre-Lieder, just in time for the 150th birthday of its composer Arnold Schoenberg! This profound and personal oratorio, the composer's most important tonal work, reflects the young Schoenberg's admiration for the Romanticism (and post-Romanticism) of Mahler, Brahms, and Wagner, while prefiguring the experimental tonality and atonality to come in his future compositions. Gurre-Lieder loosely recounts the legend around Danish King Valdemar IV and his mistress Tove, who is murdered by the King's jealous wife Helvig. German soprano Dorothea Röschmann and American tenor Clay Hilley step admirably into the roles of Tove and Waldemar — part of a formidable cast that features 200 singers and 150 musicians, all combining their efforts for an epic performance that blends poetic finesse and psychological power.