Nagano's Sixteen Seasons

ln September 2019 begins Kent Nagano's sixteenth and final season at the head of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (OSM). As time for farewell approaches, Nagano confides on classical music, his attachment to Montreal and the OSM, and the communion that a concert can be. First and foremost, the film tells the story of the formidable relationship that developed between the Maestro and the Montreal people over the years.

The end of a long relationship is always emotionally charged. During the conductor's last season, we are following Mr. Nagano in his environment, with his close collaborators as well as with his circle, the community and the public. We have the privilege of ""reading over his shoulder"", in a way: there, in his dressing room, preparing to share Bruckner; here, in a rehearsal, discussing the Christmas oratorio.

While doing so, director Michel Barbeau captures the ""essence"" of Mr. Nagano, as he shares his thoughts on events that marked his fifteen previous seasons. We then go back in time to find other characters, in the settings that Maestro Nagano came to meet them, whether it be the Lac-Mégantic tragedy in 2013; when he launched the initiative La musique aux enfants in Montréal-Nord in 2008; when he celebrated the centennial of the Canadian Hockey Club at the Bell Center in 2009; or when he offered the grand Symphonie Montréalaise in 2017, for the 375th anniversary of Montreal. These characters share the emotions that moved them when the OSM and its leader were there, with their sometimes soothing, sometimes comforting, always fraternal and transcendent music.

Nagano's Sixteen Seasons is not a biographical film; it is the inner journey of a man who will leave a city, a stranger who will bid farewell to a people, a conductor who enjoys his last moments with this group, the OSM, which was his ""crew of wonders"". This documentary essentially conveys two things: the emotion of an ending, and the emotion - so complex and rich - of classical music.