Finnish conductor John Storgårds returned to the OSM with a program of rare intelligence and sensitivity, accompanying Charles Richard-Hamelin in a concerto in which the Quebec pianist was not expected. The performance of the musicians managed to forget the irritants induced by the hosts of the evening.
Adorning itself with ecological considerations, Place des arts and a certain number of institutions, OSM in the lead, now clear themselves of the printing and delivery of evening programs to their clients. Instead, a kind of alibi is handed out, a sheet, a pitiful torch-misery, which serves as much to list the sponsors, with logos of a size that almost requires a magnifying glass, as to state on the front the works, with a barcode if you want some explanation.
Obviously, the telephones having to be turned off one wonders how to read the said notices when the time comes. Moreover, a spectator of box 207 (seat at 107 dollars) was rebuffed by the usher for having wanted to consult on her telephone what work was being played when the Isle of the Dead by Rachmaninoff. She didn’t come back in the second half.
It is necessary, for this purpose, to recall that the places are detailed up to 142 dollars for the concert of this week. At this price we have the bonus right to play a not so new little game (it’s been going on for a while but it got seriously worse this week): Survivor. If you can’t find the paper, and you won’t find any, because there’s one for about 10 spectators, then figure out what we’re playing.
It’s scarcity, misery in the paper industry. Now to glean one of those miserable glossy paper towels (remember that it’s a pitiful double-sided sheet!) that deign to tell you what you’re going to hear, you have to show up 30 minutes in advance. At worst there may be a printing glitch or something, but then we announce it on the microphone and we apologize. No. Nothing.
We are quite curious to see how the clientele will take that. For having inadvertently reversed two boxes and delivered programs in English (but still distributed programs) in a certain district church, and publicly apologized for it, OM had taken a few months ago , complaints and trial of intentions to no end. If the error of good faith generates this, nothingness, what does it cause?
A great Rachmaninoff
If there is a program that deserved to be explained, it was this one, because it is of a rare intelligence. Verdigris by Lotta Wennäkoski quickly reveals its colors: it is a kind of musical diffraction of In Saga and in particular its two most characteristic motifs that can be found in fragments in different desks as if “de-composed” and rearranged in an abstract work which would be to music what a work by the Frenchman César is to sculpture. On the other hand, to help the listener make the connection, it would be clever to program In story at the start of the program and Verdigris at the start of 2e party for example.
Second advantage of the musical menu, the presence of two large scores of 20 minutes: Isle of the Dead And In Saga. The 20-minute score is a format often sacrificed. We spoke to you about it recently, evoking The Wood Pigeon by Dvorak. Storgårds prefers to make great music than to end up with a brilliant symphony and this has earned us the association of these two mysterious works.
In Isle of the DeadStorgårds is a bit above the nuance piano-pianissimo (depending on the instruments) from the beginning, but it stages the dynamics and gradations very well afterwards, and the OSM responds wonderfully in terms of sound saturation. In twenty years we have not heard an orchestral Rachmaninoff – apart from concertos – of this level (sound density, power, efficiency, musical eloquence, expressive accuracy) with the OSM: neither Symphoniesneither Symphonic dancesthe great experiences remaining the 2e Symphony with Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra and the 3e Concerto with Matsuev and Gergiev,
same for me In story with the bowing for the waves of muted strings at the start, the quality of the clarinet solo, the beauty of Victor Fournelle-Blain’s viola, the dramatic intelligence, the sonic fullness of the orchestra. Only small flaw: In Saga is a work that replaces the timpanist with the bass drum but asks him to play with timpani sticks (“ con bachette di timpani is indicated several times). There is no doubt a middle-term choice to be made, but what is certain is that with this indication, Sibelius did not want a “contony oumph-oumph” behind, but a growl with a defined articulation, which ‘we would have liked to hear more clearly and with much more impact. Payare more than Nagano, let’s say.
Charles Richard-Hamelin caused a very nice surprise in the 2e Concerto of Prokofiev, which he masters admirably and in which, moreover, he makes music. This was heard very quickly, at the start of the first movement, in her way of phrasing and nuance, a bit like Beatrice Rana in this same work. The two artists have in common to approach this concerto with patience and solidity, never forgetting its darkness (the bitterness following the loss of his friend Maximilian Schmidthof).
This does not mean that Charles Richard-Hamelin does not deliver the power (cadence of 1er pane) and verve (2e movement) where needed. The collaboration with Storgårds was excellent, the chef notably making 3e movement a moment of great tension.