It was with a concert by its soloist in residence, Berlin Philharmonic flautist Emmanuel Pahud, that the Orchester Métropolitain resumed its long tradition of concerts in the arrondissements, interrupted by the pandemic. Crowning the week, the presentation of the program on Sunday at the Maison symphonique revealed, in particular, a superb orchestration of the flute sonata of Poulenc.
Golden rule: you can never program too many Francis Poulencs. How many times have we heard the piano concertothe Concerto for 2 pianos Where Aubade compared to the deluge of presentations of the Concerto in G of Ravel? And we are talking about works of equivalent quality. Who doubts this will search the Internet for “Poulenc Argerich Kang 2 pianos” and will come across a video posted two weeks ago by Hamburg radio…
A skillful orchestrator
As for this Sunday, it is an admirable orchestration by Lennox Berkeley of the Sonata for flute and piano (1957) which has been revealed to us. Superb work, which somewhat attenuates the driving role of the flute in the first part, of which Pahud underlines the initial melancholy, but which gives an autumnal fabric to the slow movement, like a peaceful version of Dialogues of the Carmelites, and preserves all the sparkling Final. It is a superb contribution to the flute and orchestral repertoire.
the concertino de Chaminade (1902) is a virtuoso piece composed for students. In the Piu animato, Emmanuel Pahud dazzles with a breath that seems infinite. The composer’s inspiration can be compared somewhat to the Max Bruch of the Serenade for violin and orchestra (1900). That’s to say that it levels off a bit and that we don’t necessarily want to hear it again. In this respect, Poulenc’s coupling with the Andalusian Concerto by Thomas de Hartmann might be a good idea at this time. Hartmann, of Ukrainian origin, lived in Paris and composed this 11-minute piece, like Poulenc, for Jean-Pierre Rampal.
Opening the concert, Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducted a very melancholic version of the small sequel by Debussy. He evacuates the candor and the simplicity to make of it, in particular in the first three movements, a dreamy and nostalgic glance on the lost childhood. Total interpretative extrapolation, certainly, but suave and coherent in the rendering, of which one will have noted the flexibility of the central episode of the last shutter.
Farrenc from another angle
There is probably only one chef in the world to do the execution of the 1st Symphony of Louise Farrenc a sort of happening “, three days after a 10th of Shostakovich to dehorn the oxen by the OSM in this same room.
But this chef is Yannick Nézet-Séguin! The task was almost impossible and he accomplished it, in front of the eyes of Rafael Payare who came in brotherhood, once again, to attend his colleague’s concert. While 1st Symphony de Farrenc is usually placed in an aesthetic line close to the 4th Symphony of Schubert or Symphonies de Weber, in one sentence Nézet-Séguin was able to sow doubt, speaking of ” Sturm und Drang romantic” and related to Berlioz. The “determination and fury without violence” that he sees there, we felt it in a first movement punctuated by timpani with dry drumsticks and live trumpets. And, yes, from this angle, the woodwind treatment of the 2nd movement has echoes of the Romeo and Juliet de Berlioz premiered three years earlier. Result of these words transformed into actions by the force of the conviction which gains the musicians as well as the public: one listens to Louise Farrenc differently and one spends a musical Sunday afternoon of an unexpected intensity.
The list of left behind which is now available to Yannick Nézet-Séguin is long and includes, for example, Marie Jaëll and Théodore Gouvy. The Alsatian and the Lorrain, who are on an equal footing with Farrenc in our opinion, suffered another type of curse: to pass for Germans in the eyes of the French and for French in the eyes of the Germans.