The first half of Tuesday’s OSM concert could be summed up by the woman I saw trying to slap herself awake, but the night was rescued by a masterful performance of Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1 by pianist Emanuel Ax.
He’s a major draw, which helps explain why the hall was packed, but there are crowded winter nights when you suspect Montrealers have all gone out at the same time in a kind of unconscious group rhythm,
like a hundred gophers poking out at once to find out who’s survived.