The Paris Orchestra gave a highly anticipated concert on Tuesday with its young star conductor Klaus Mäkelä at the Maison symphonique. The tandem dazzled in Fire Bird by Stravinsky. Another young star, the pianist Youchan Lim, made a spectacular debut, although more questionable.
It’s with the sounds of Fire Bird a head full of Stravinsky that we came away with from this evening where the OSM welcomed the Orchester de Paris into its hall. Even putting aside the pandemic period, we have too few visits of this type, which open our ears to other sounds (for example the mellowness of the bassoon in the Firebird’s Lullaby) and other styles.
From this point of view, Fire Bird by Klaus Mäkelä and the Orchester de Paris fit in following the 2e Symphony of Rachmaninov by Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra in 2013, champions in all categories, and the 7e Symphony of Shostakovich by Mariss Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2016 at the heights of these prestigious concerts.
Fairy
Klaus Mäkelä was right to tell us on Saturday that things had become more refined and freer compared to the recording of Fire Bird published by Decca. That’s exactly what we heard.
The vision always remains very coloristic and dreamlike, emphasizing in a marked way the heritage of Rimsky-Korsakov, master of Stravinsky and great specialist in fairytale operas. But the search for the magic of colors and the subtlety of nuances is no longer at the expense of contrasts and energy. It is now a weathered Stravinsky, but not dull, that we appreciate the attention to detail without losing the line.
In this enchanted forest of sounds, we feel that the musicians are very comfortable, have their bearings and are having fun embodying different kinds of characters. And this sound theater obviously suits this orchestra whose woodwinds and winds have always been recognized for their individual qualities (clarinets, flutes, etc.).
Things were clear from the Enchanted garden And The appearance of the Bird : it was then for the listener to relax and enjoy the wonderful world that unfolded before him. We ourselves succumbed to the exercise, quickly abandoning the score which seemed so well digested.
After such a musical monument, there was no encore, which is rather rare for an orchestra touring abroad. After such a musical monument, it is not easy to talk about the first part either.
Styles
The Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun is always a perfect trap for a French orchestra. He immediately sealed the fate, here in 2011, of what we called a “Debussy shipwreck” of the Orchester National de France with Daniele Gatti to the point of calling it “The National Orchestra of the greatest thing”.
We cannot say that The Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun of the Mäkelä-Orchestre de Paris tandem is part of a great French tradition. It is rather placid and languid, romanticized, quite complex to dance due to its lack of movement. But, on the other hand, the plastic quality is admirable with in particular, and from the start, a very notable refinement in the quality of the attacks. Classy therefore, and hats off to the flute which crosses time, conductors and tempos.
THE 2e Concerto by Rachmaninov by Youchan Lim aroused delirious enthusiasm. He was very efficient. Very refined, too. That said, when so much ram-dam and buzz is made around a soloist, perhaps we expect too much. Certainly, Youchan Lim has exceptional means, his performances at the Van Cliburn Competition were exceptional, his Studies by Liszt are fantastic, etc., etc. But regarding the 2e Concerto by Rachmaninov, we heard it here for the third time in the last twelve months and, sorry to be a killjoy, the other two times were better.
After the stunning fidelity to Rachmaninov’s text by Denis Kozhukhin with Rafael Payare in Lanaudière, giving us dense and precise concentrated music, then the very close-minded, more feline, less square reading of Bruce Liu with Yannick Nézet-Séguin in September , falling back into this Rachmaninov of foucades and good feelings perhaps temporarily creates an illusion and is good for the soul, but does not really do justice to the genius of the composer.
When Rachmaninoff gets tired of marking passages “ meno mosso » (with a more restrained movement) it is not so that we have performers who progressively bog down the preceding passages to such an extent that they are obliged to restart the machine and play ” piu mosso “. Lim didn’t do this to us once, but twice at least. And adaptations of this type (slowdowns well before the mark, nuances flattened or increased) have been legion. He may have listened to a recording that did that. There are plenty. This was the “interpretative tradition” 20, 30 or 40 years ago. Kozhukhin and Liu played a Rachmaninov of our time.
Another unexpected surprise. For a so-called extraordinary “phenomenon”, like “not seen one like that for ages”, the sound is very good but not earth-shattering. Youchan Lim does not seem to be replacing Yefim Bromfman, for example, and when it comes to sound production, knowing that he will celebrate his 20th birthday this Wednesday, at the same age, Benjamin Grosvenor was something else, and Trifonov too.
Curiously, for a concerto on tour, we have heard soloist-orchestra fusions more assertive than this one. Lim played theStudy opus 10 no. 3 by Chopin as an encore. THE Studies are on the program for his first CD with Decca to be released in a month. There will then be something to compare it with again. More favorably, we hope.