The concert All fire all flames of the Orchester Métropolitain was given for the first time Friday evening in LaSalle. Performed again in Ahuntsic this Saturday, it will be presented at the Maison symphonique on Sunday afternoon. The show will interest fans of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and some 5e Symphony of Prokofiev thanks to efficient and elegant direction.
We have known Kensho Watanabe for several years here. Former assistant to Yannick Nézet-Séguin in Philadelphia, he directed the Métropolitain several times. He is an excellent chef, whom the Askonas Holt artist agency, which looks after the interests of the Quebec chef, has also taken under its wing.
Watanabe spoke in excellent French to outline the broad outlines of his program in a few words. He especially gave way to his soloist, Élisabeth Pion, who presented the curiosity and, a priori, the attraction of the evening. We will come back to this.
Precision
It is Watanabe and his very professional and honest direction that make the show stand out. We will notice and praise The Sorcerer’s Apprentice the fact that the musicians give themselves to their full potential even if we are not at the Maison symphonique, even if it is less “ the fun » for them because the theater at the Théâtre Desjardins is quite unattractive due to its dryness. This Sorcerer’s Apprentice eloquent with clear lines and well-cut sections will sound very good at Place des Arts.
In the 5e Symphony by Prokofiev, this musical cut appreciated in Dukas is perfectly in place and at work in the very formidable 2e movement. Watanabe and OM take it head on. It was already impressive during this 1er concert. It promises for the future.
1er movement is also excellent. We are a little surprised that the percussion seems reserved for a good part of the movement. But it is to highlight a real final surge. In a room as dry as the Théâtre Desjardins, it is the poetry of 3e movement which turns a little short, because the breathing of the timbres in space is necessary for the effect it can exert.
In any case, if you like these two scores, you can go to the Maison symphonique on Sunday, especially since Fazil Say’s recital at the Salle Pierre-Mercure is sold out.
Broken pots
One might think that the point of attraction of the concert would be the Piano concerto by the Latvian Lūcija Garūta (1902-1977). We forget the screeds about the fact that the concerto was designed in memory of the composer’s niece, who died at the age of 12. We are neither in commemoration nor in commiseration, but we judge what emanates from a scene. And what we hear is a sort of Latvian André Mathieu, that is to say a para-sub-Rachmaninov with ideas, but ideas joined together in sections, not agglomerated into a work in the “classical” sense. » or “good manufacturing practices” of the term. Compared to Mathieu, who rushes and veers at any moment as he has so many melodic ideas, Garūta certainly operates with more elaborate and longer sections.
What the Latvian achieves is a 2e poetic movement. At one point, we say that she was inspired by the manner of Shostakovich in his 2e Concertobut this is impossible because his work was created in 1951, while Shostakovich’s dates from 1957.
The total catastrophe is the Final who goes anywhere, nowhere and in any way at the same time. The notice tells us that the work had been rejected by the council of the Union of Composers of Latvia: “Garūta therefore reworks his concerto with patience and submits it for a second evaluation. This time it’s a triumph. » If the lady was composing to please the local “Zhdanov committee”, we can better understand the impression of hearing a nonsense of realistic music worthy of being played at the annual garden party of the local party central committee. Shostakovich, of course, also gave in the genre, but at least, if we consider that The song of the forests it’s stupid, it has shape and face.
The Lūcija Garūta experience is therefore to be placed among the broken pots of our “magical” sequence of “rediscovery of repertoires” under the cover of various contritions. If we are looking to revive neglected music in the para-Rachmaninov piano concerto genre, there are Sergei Bortkiewicz and Hekel Tavares. Certainly, to make matters worse, they are two white males. But luckily, the first was born in Kharkiv, in present-day Ukraine, and the Concerto op. 105 the second is “in Brazilian fashions”, with a first movement inspired by the batuque, an Afro-Brazilian dance. So, we imagine that everything is fine…