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NY Sun, October 5, 2007 |
By JAY NORDLINGER |
Beethoven: 9 Symphony,
Carnegie Hall, 3 October 2007
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Highlights From Lucerne
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Lucerne is a town in the middle of Switzerland,
and it boasts a worldfamous music festival. No less a personality than
Toscanini got it started in the 1930s. And, since 2003, it has featured the
Lucerne Festival Orchestra. It is this orchestra that opened Carnegie Hall's
2007–08 season on Wednesday night.
The core of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra is a group called the Mahler
Chamber Orchestra. The MCO is an orchestra of youngish players (though
accomplished ones). And, in a nutshell, the LFO is the MCO augmented by
top-notch players from elsewhere, generally in the first chairs. Both
orchestras are Claudio Abbado's babies. They are spending several days at
Carnegie Hall.
Unfortunately, Maestro Abbado could not make the trip, for medical reasons.
He has been replaced by two conductors: David Robertson and Pierre Boulez.
The former was on the podium for Wednesday night's season-opener.
The program was all-Beethoven, beginning with the Piano Concerto No. 4 in G
major, Op. 58. And the soloist was Murray Perahia, the Sephardic kid from
New York who has spent his adult life in London.
It's not easy to begin this concerto, as you, the pianist, begin it alone,
with a chordal passage requiring fine balance. Mr. Perahia handled this well
— as he would the rest of this first movement, and the concerto at large.
In this opening movement, his playing was both masculine and refined. It was
noble without being stuffy or pompous. Mr. Perahia's accents were
reasonable, not jarring or extreme. (This has been a problem for him.) He
was liberal with the pedal, but never unclear. The cadenza was by turns
graceful and strong. Unfortunately, Mr. Perahia did some pounding here,
which was completely unnecessary.
And he did something very odd at the end of the movement: He held the chords
past their time — and past the orchestra — with his pedal. This added
nothing, and was borderline eccentric.
As for the LFO, under Mr. Robertson, it was warm and confident. It was also
a bit sloppy — as when the orchestra came back in after the cadenza. An
amateurish moment, really.
Best about Mr. Perahia's handling of the middle movement, Andante con moto,
was its straightforwardness. The pianist made no attempt to cute it up, or
adorn it. He reminded me somewhat of Casadesus — a very good pianist to be
reminded of. The orchestra was on the verge of being too bouncy, and
"period"-like. Beethoven needs gravity here. But, fortunately, Mr. Robertson
didn't cross the line.
In the Rondo, the orchestra was again a bit sloppy, but satisfying —
satisfying in sound and style. Mr. Robertson's buildup to the cadenza,
featuring a little accelerando, was powerful.
And Mr. Perahia played this movement keenly and convincingly. Now and then
he was unnecessarily stern — not smiling or playful enough; too scowling.
But he is entitled to his view of this score.
And, by the way, he again held the final chords past their time, and past
the orchestra. We must at least give him credit for consistency.
We must give him credit, too, for a top-drawer rendering of the G-major
concerto. I have heard this pianist regularly since the mid-1970s. I don't
believe I had heard him play this well since the early '90s. Absent was the
over-aggressiveness that has marked him for the last decade and a half. On
display were the musicality and taste that made his reputation in the first
place.
After intermission, we had just a trifle, a mere bagatelle: the Symphony No.
9 in D minor, Op. 125. In the opening movement, Mr. Robertson was his usual
competent self: His Beethoven was both emphatic and graceful, both
"vertical" and "horizontal." Every part was clear, and the sections of the
orchestra were in balance.
The second movement — the scherzo — could have used far more tension, and
far more excitement. And its trio was badly rushed. The slow movement was
perfectly unobjectionable — well shaped, for instance. But it did not have
much transport.
And the last movement? It was okay. It included some good playing, and some
good conducting. Mr. Robertson did some odd things, too. For example,
Beethoven's B-flat-major martial section — in which the tenor cries "Froh,
Froh" — was very, very fast. Incomprehensibly so.
The vocal quartet — Melanie Diener, soprano; Anna Larsson, contralto;
Jonas Kaufmann, tenor; and Reinhard Hagen, bass — was adequate. Ms. Diener
had trouble singing soft and high, and Mr. Kaufmann was tight. But, again,
they were adequate — and the Westminster Symphonic Choir, New York's own,
sang fairly royally.
Allow me to venture something here: Maestro Robertson strikes me as a very
happy, pleasant, agreeable guy. I may be off-base, but that is the
impression he gives. And this was a happy, pleasant, agreeable Ninth. It had
little struggle, or suffering, or profundity. The final movement was weirdly
peppy, light. Someone remarked after that it sounded like Rossini, which was
a dead-on, if wicked, observation.
The end of this movement, and this symphony, should bring release — a
glorious, D-major release. But that did not occur, because there had been
nothing to release from.
Oh, well. If Mr. Robertson is too content to conduct Beethoven's Ninth, may
we all suffer from such an affliction!
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