Review | Montreal celebrates Kent Nagano

It is with vibrant applause that the conductor emeritus of the Orchester symphonique de Montréal Kent Nagano was welcomed on the stage of the Maison symphonique on Tuesday evening, for his return to the metropolis. A concert that gave pride of place to Mozart, but also to the young Schubert.

The OSM could consider itself lucky to have such a well-stocked room (perhaps two-thirds full) by competing, the same evening, with the Opéra de Montréal and one of the stars of the Bach Festival.

The former artistic director of the ensemble, who directed under the watchful eye of his successor Rafael Payare, placed in the basket, was all the more in the spotlight as he celebrated his 71^e anniversary, which the orchestra underlined at the end of the concert to the tune of People of the country.

The enthusiasm of the public, visibly happy to see their former maestro again, was also expressed during the concert by applause between most of the movements of the two symphonies (the Third by Schubert and Mozart’s “Jupiter”). Unlike most conductors, who then remain rather unmoved in favor of a certain continuity, Kent Nagano was a good prince and each time turned to the spectators to thank them.

It was said that the Hungarian virtuoso György Cziffra only played the piano well fast. Could it be that Kent Nagano is the anti-Cziffra, in the orchestra?

In the summer of 2021, at the Festival de Lanaudière, for example, he gave a splendid slow movement of the Symphony n^oh 4 by Mahler after two rapid movements singularly lacking in spark.

Something similar happened on Tuesday with the Symphony n^oh 41 in C major, “Jupiter”, by Mozart. After a first movement where several breaths were too short, where the suspense was absent and where the fugal parts lacked intensity, the American conductor served us a dreamy Andante cantabile, as if in suspension.

The same criticisms can be leveled at the finale, whose final fugue passes a little too much like butter in the pan, but also at the minuet, which is singularly lacking in bonhomie, Nagano seeming to want to do it more in 6/8 than in 3/4.

Same in the Symphony n^oh 3 in D major, D. 200, by Schubert. Even if the second movement, which usually serves as a breathing space in a symphony, is indicated “allegretto” (a little cheerful), one expects something more sedate, more playful to breathe between the first and third movements, all both fast. However, Nagano rushes at full speed. And the trio literally does not dance.

The first movement lacks as many colors as that of the Jupiter. The arrival of the second theme, more tender, is also performed with unforgivable indifference.

There is also sound. Kent Nagano cultivates, in the classical repertoire, a sound that makes very sparing use of vibrato.

It’s hard to say if it’s the OSM musicians’ loss of habit, but this bias produces a sound that is often emaciated and singularly lacking in warmth, if not just barely. This is all the more the case for the staccatos in the treble on the strings.

The sound problems are all the more obvious in the entremets that was theExultate jubilate, K. 165, by Mozart, notably in the second aria, “Tu virginum corona”. Fortunately, it is a rather slow movement (an Andante), which gives us one of the finest moments of the evening.

The soloist, Nova Scotian coloratura soprano Jane Archibald, charms with her supple and ductile voice. The counter-do of the “Alleluja”, which does not appear in the score, but which tradition has in some way consecrated, does not pose the shadow of a problem for him.

It would perhaps lack a little more vocal personality (a lack of resonance in the mask?) to really be one of the greatest in its category, but we still savor its performance with great appetite.

The concert is given again this Wednesday and Thursday evening.