Wagner’s “Valkyrie” in apotheosis

The 2022 Lanaudière Festival ended with two concerts by the Orchester Métropolitain, including, on Saturday, a 1^er act of The Valkyrie de Wagner entering directly into the pantheon of the history of the largest classical gathering in Canada.

Lanaudière 2022 will remain as the festival of sums. A sum of efforts, projects designed, postponed and finally realized; a number of concerts aimed at restoring the international aura of the event; a number of challenges to bring foreign artists to the country and bring them into the country; a sum of frustrations, finally, in front of the rather soft response of the spectators vis-a-vis the luxury of the offer.

Exemplary cast

The popular respondent was there, fortunately, with regard to the arrival of Yannick Nézet-Séguin with two very fine programs this past weekend: the association of a suite of Pelléas and Mélisande by Debussy and the 1^er act of The ValkyrieSaturday, then, Sunday, the arrival of Hélène Grimaud in the Concerto by Schumann, surrounded by works by Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn.

1^er act of The Valkyrie was a highly anticipated event. Working in stages on his future Ring at the Met, Yannick Nézet-Séguin has already worked Rhine gold with great success with the Rotterdam Orchestra a few months ago.

The miracle of the Lanaudière evening seems simple: Christine Goerke as Sieglinde, Brandon Jovanovich as Siegmund and Franz-Josef Selig as Hunding, a poster for the Metropolitan Opera, in front of us, without the embarrassment of a staging. Imperial Selig couldn’t be better in his Wagnerian bass vocal register. Goerke, as Sieglinde, internalizes the entire journey of her character, gradually bringing Jovanovich along with her, initially more in the “opera in concert” mode. Jovanovich’s solidity, Goerke’s intelligent vocal balance and inflections have the sweetness and “tender emotion” of the mead that Sieglinde serves to his brother.

Far beyond the “tender emotion”, the direction of Yannick Nézet-Séguin is as fascinating as describet the Parisian commentators for Rheingold. It should be understood that in Wagner, the orchestra does not punctuate the interventions of the singers. Through an interweaving of leitmotifs, he is the “anticipatory motor” of the action and the drama. So there is a way to manage, organically, the breath. This one is either panting or in suspense, but it is permanent.

There are key moments, like the end of the 2^e scene (before Hunding goes to bed) and the beginning of the 3^efilled with narration to the orchestra, which the conductor and his musicians lived with tension, including patience when necessary.

A long-awaited soloist

Le Métropolitain, which absorbed several programs in a few days, was also masterful (winds!) to the delight of its leader. Those who want to see how good it was have the video on medici.tv and can listen to the version recorded under similar conditions by the “famous” Simon Rattle in 2019 with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra…

What Yannick Nézet-Séguin demonstrated in Wagner, this “organic sense of the great whole”, was very useful to him in Debussy, who challenged the sense of color and the softness of textures. The “suite de Pelléas” has become an immense playground. Debussy had objected to extracting music from the opera. Erich Leinsdorf did it in 1946, Marius Constant also, by having the voices doubled by instruments, Abbado diluted the “Leinsdorf suite” (this is apparently what we heard), René Koering did his and everything turned upside down, Jonathan Nott enlarged everything. Our best experience was Alain Altinoglu’s suite, under his direction, presented at the OSM in 2018, commissioned by Durand, Debussy’s editor. Saturday’s experience, whatever it was, was sweet but soothing.

Change of scenery on Sunday with Schumann and the Mendelssohns, and the arrival of Hélène Grimaud in the Concerto of Schumann which it had canceled in December 2018.

The chef had just directed Beatrice Rana a month ago in the Concerto by Schumann with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe during a concert filmed in Baden-Baden. Hélène Grimaud offered her a very different experience, an appassionato concerto, with a permanent relaunch of the tempos, a clear, fluid, rather light speech in front of the affectionate and warm confidant of the Italian.

The comparison was fascinating: confidences exchanged on one side of the Atlantic, a free, very stimulating conversation in the amphitheater (2^e movement). On a limpid but somewhat cold Yamaha piano, lacking softness in the lower midrange, the French pianist played on strong contrasts in the 1^er pane and carried away on 3^e movement in an irresistible gust.

In the symphonic part, Yannick Nézet-Séguin first revived an overture by Fanny Mendelssohn, whose 2^e theme recalled the opening of the Dream of a summer night composed by his brother five years earlier. He finally concluded his two concerts by taking away in one breath (all the linked movements attacca) a Scottish dreamy, more free, inventive and singing than in his DG recording. Nothing is worse in Mendelssohn than the thickening of textures and the relaxation of tensions. Nézet-Séguin never released an ardent unitary breath, stylistically very accurate.

Ideal conclusion for the Festival, with an orchestral level from the Orchester Métropolitain that never ceases to amaze.

To see in video