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guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 14 August 2007 |
Tom Service |
Beethoven: 9. Symphony, Lucerne, 10 August 2007
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Lucerne FO/ Abbado Konzertsaal
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There has never been a more radiantly lyrical
performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony than Claudio Abbado's with the
Lucerne Festival Orchestra. The entry of the singers in the famous finale
was the logical conclusion to the song-like intensity of the other three
movements. Every phrase, every paragraph in Abbado's interpretation was
integrated into a seamless symphonic flow. Even Beethoven's most violent
moments, like the transformation of the opening theme halfway through the
first movement, or the fearsome fanfare that opens the fourth, were part of
a single emotional journey.
The sheer sonic beauty created by Abbado and his Lucerne players was
breathtaking. And these players are, above all, his: this orchestra has come
together for the last five summers in Lucerne, and is made up of Abbado's
favourite musicians from orchestras and chamber ensembles all over the
world, from the Berlin Philharmonic to the Alban Berg Quartet, with a core
of players from the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, another orchestra that Abbado
founded. Yet their virtuosity is not so much in how they play, but how they
listen to one another. The enormous musical line that connected the
quivering protean murk of the symphony's opening to the blazing victory of
the finale was a miracle made possible by the chamber-like intelligence of
the whole orchestra's playing.
They are catalysed by Abbado's conducting, which, with its sweeping, liquid
gestures, is not so much a series of directions as an expressive invitation
to the musicians to come with him. It is an invitation that extends to the
audience as well: in the slow third movement, the whole hall became part of
an intoxicating musical reverie. But there is more to this orchestra than
its technical brilliance. Near the end of this movement, after an
affirmative trumpet tattoo, the music slipped into the shadows with ghostly,
minor-key harmonies. It was a moment of real revelation, made all the more
moving because of the fragile poetry of the Lucerne orchestra's strings.
And for once in this piece, the quartet of soloists - including the
outstanding tenor Jonas Kaufmann - matched the sensitivity and power of the
orchestra and the Choir of Bavarian Radio, making the finale an
overwhelming, all-encompassing experience. |
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