This week, the OSM welcomes the venerable Christoph Eschenbach, 83 years old, and titles his concert in association with the second part, the 7th Symphony by Beethoven. However, it is his soloist, Augustin Hadelich, who gives us the great shock of the evening.
A few months ago, in presenting the musical seasons, we highlighted the rare privilege of seeing the (probably) three greatest violinists of our time playing this season on Concerto of Brahms surroundings: James Ehnes in Ottawa (it’s done), Augustin Hadelich in Quebec (in March) and Frank Peter Zimmermann in Montreal at the end of April.
Luckily, Montreal also welcomes Hadelich this week for the Concerto in memory of an angel by Alban Berg. The image is a bit easy but it is a winged version that this violinist gives us with a sound of incredible finesse, whose texture never frays. The sentences are long, the thought continues, preventing an overly sequential vision of this concerto. It is enough to note how Bach’s Chorale, entering the last quarter of the work, fits logically into the continuum.
Dream mysticism
There are many ways to approach the interpretation of Concerto in memory of an angel. Here, the duality of life (1st part) and death (before deliverance) seems to take place like in a dream. Eschenbach follows this vision with an almost chamber-like accompaniment, very transparent. Even the irruption of fate is notable, but without the abrupt violence often heard. Overall, the mystical-dreamlike lyrical evocation is both exciting and poignant.
Echoing this major moment, Hadelich played the Andante of the 2nd Sonata for solo violin by Bach in pianissimo, whispering it in our ear; almost surreal moment in the face of the noise of the world.
With such interpretations, theOpus 6 by Webern, a refined exploration of orchestral colors would have been much more appropriate than the very plush Opus 6 by Berg, spectacular and complex orchestral exercise, very well mastered by the conductor who let the rich sound of the orchestra speak for itself by clearly clarifying the lines.
There 7th Symphony by Beethoven still works well with the public, but we cannot say that, in a relatively similar interpretive obedience, we approached, on Wednesday, the internal logic, the flesh and the fever of the version given by Louis Langrée in February 2022.
Like Langrée, Eschenbach does not seek a frenzy, particularly in the 1st movement. He prefers the weight of the notes and the harmonic tension. That said, there is, with Eschenbach, a touch of stasis which ends up being a little boring. In the adage “patience and length of time are better than strength and rage”, there is “length of time”. And when we finally think about it, something is missing.
There were plenty of constructive details with Langrée that were missing in this week’s concert. For example, the Allegretto followed on from the first part. There is also, with Eschenbach, a useless flight forward in the second part of the woodwind passage in the 3rd movement and a loss of rhythmic input in the Final. Nothing major, but we’ve already heard a lot better, despite the fluff of the direction, for which Andrew Wan compensated with his presence, the unnecessary gestures and the “show” part.
We now hope to hear a 7th Symphony of Beethoven at the OSM in due form, with violins I and II opposing each other on stage. It’s a ” must “. This was not the case with Langrée and acoustically it was not too bothersome, because the direction compensated. This was not the case with Eschenbach either and there, for once, we heard almost nothing about the complementarity of the two desks.