The Grand Théâtre de Québec was sold out Wednesday evening for the induction concert of Clemens Schuldt as new musical director of the Orchester symphonique de Québec (OSQ). The chef won over the audience with his energy and showmanship.
It was in the presence of the Deputy Prime Minister, Geneviève Guilbault, the Minister of Culture, Mathieu Lacombe, the Prime Minister’s wife, Isabelle Brais, and the Mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand, who delivered a vibrant and sensitive speech, that Clemens Schuldt made his entrance on the scene.
After the first piece, Out of sight… by Keiko Devaux, the chef spoke in careful French. He declared that he wanted to choose a work by an adopted Quebec composer in which everyone could project their visions and their own fantasy, fantasy being a common thread of his first season. The very fine flat dreamlike sounds invited this. Was it a first piece of a first concert to be played in front of an audience, city councilors and Areopagus, to show that music is for everyone?
Schuldt also mentioned that in three days the soloist of the Concerto of Tchaikovsky, Simon Trpceski had become a friend. He could even have said “a colleague” as the 44-year-old Macedonian pianist seems to be conducting in parallel the concerto that the conductor competently animates on the podium. Head movements, insistent looks, even hand gestures: we saw this 40 years ago or more with the violinist Henryk Szeryng and it was truly detestable.
With Trpceski, it seems more good-natured: far from an interference seeking to rule everything, it’s more a kind of “show” to show everyone to what extent he is involved.
Trpceski is a solid pianist who has sound even if it is not huge. His playing is distinguished by a desire not to cover anything with excessive use of the pedal, which gives a rather dull sound. As in his recordings, the artist is competent, but not revelatory, his simagrees making up for the lack of magic.
Clemens Schuldt spoke again in the second part. It was necessary to explain how we could program an opening of Rienzi After Death and transfiguration, except for the desire to impress the audience without worrying about the context and subject of the works. Schuldt explained that Rienzi was composed by Wagner in his hometown of Dresden and that it was moving for him.
We will therefore forgive him the guilty pleasure. The speech allowed him to say a sincere, candid and touching “I love you” to the orchestra, before finishing the concert brilliantly and continuing with, as an encore, the prelude to 3e act of Lohengrin.
If Schuldt is certainly an interesting musician, it is not certain that Death and transfiguration was, again, a piece for the first concert of the first season at the OSQ. The conductor masters it intellectually, but, even if historically it is justified to separate violins I and II, it would have been a service to render them to bring them together in order to expose them less.
In any case, the OSQ has given itself body and soul for its new leader. We can therefore say “let’s start from there” in terms of the work to be accomplished. For example, it will focus on consistency. With rare exceptions (trombones, double basses, flutes for example) an instrumentalist or music stand can be excellent at one time (e.g. horns in the encore Lohengrinoboe in Death and transfiguration) and banal at other times.
On the chef’s side, we were very surprised by the importance taken by the movements of the pinwheel, sometimes in parallel and in opposite directions, like a spirograph. Perhaps it was an outlet for nervousness, a type of gesture that hadn’t struck us the first time.
In any case, the dominant word was enthusiasm. He’s the one who will bring the crowds back. And rightly so.
Christophe Huss was the guest of the Quebec Symphony Orchestra