The opening of the Festival de Lanaudière, which took place, in an original way, on a Thursday evening, brought together a very honorable audience at the Amphithéâtre Fernand-Lindsay. The public reserved a triumph for the OSM and Rafael Payare in the 5th Symphony by Mahler.
The dynamics of a concert is sometimes something very strange. On July 1, 2017, Kent Nagano led the 5th Symphony from Mahler to Lanaudière and complacency and worldly distraction were such that the chef had “forgotten” to continue, attackedas prescribed by Mahler, the Adagietto and the Finale to let the music of Death in Venice. Never seen !
Nothing like this on June 30, 2022, when the public was so “hooked” on the interpretation of Rafael Payare that it would not have occurred to anyone to cough, and even less to applaud, between the movements! If Payare keeps the public spellbound, it’s because the influence and fascination are growing.
In the case of the 5th Symphony by Mahler on Thursday, it was from the last third of the 2nd movement that the elements really aligned. Suddenly, listening to a symphony of this caliber and this magnitude in this magnificent setting was a real balm to the heart.
A fascinating soloist
For an orchestra that played this work in 2017, in 2019 and on tour with Kent Nagano, things still need to be automatic with its new conductor: a kind of common breathing, especially in the 1st movement which can be even more square, with a weight (“schwer”) which can be applied without necessarily slowing down progress. It will be very interesting to see the finishing gain of the first two parts in concert at the start of the school year at the Maison symphonique, after the tour.
The orchestral satisfactions were numerous: flutes, clarinets and horns, for example. If the horn section was made up of new elements recently chosen by the musical director (this is the first section for which Payare has auditioned) and this bodes well for further recruitment, there is cause for celebration.
In the first part, Hilary Hahn returned to us with the 1st Concerto by Prokofiev which she performed in April 2012 under the direction of Stéphane Denève. She has deepened her interpretation even more, while maintaining the main lines, in particular a sustained tempo of the initial Andantino, an almost strange nervousness that we find in the “più tranquillo” at the end of the work.
Hilary Hahn completely flees easy dreaminess, she does not bog down the tempos and plays with the score in a very original interpretation. This approach culminates in an extraordinary 2nd movement with “saltando” and “sul ponticello” episodes of striking originality in sound. The contribution of this soloist on tour will be major.