Canada’s Orchestre symphonique de Montréal performed Budapest final evening on the second leg of a serious European tour with their younger conductor Rafael Payare. Alexandra Ivanoff critiques for slippedisc.com.
L’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal made their Hungarian debut on 22 October, closing town’s annual Liszt Pageant at MÜPA (Palace of the Arts).
Not solely was this a nationwide debut, it additionally launched Rafael Payare to a sold-out viewers, who rewarded him with lusty bravos. The younger maestro impressed all through in an arduous program of Liszt’s Les Préludes, Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Main with the Icelandic virtuoso Víkingur Ólafsson, and ending with Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 which Payare performed from reminiscence.
Resembling the younger Giuseppi Sinopoli, Payare is a product of Venezuela’s Sistema, which has produced a line of profitable conductors, following Gustavo Dudamel, who’s music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Opéra de Paris.
Payare’s podium model is charming: he strikes from elegant ballet positions to rap dancing to the posture of a large eagle able to swoop down on prey. He has elegant management of phrasing, cueing precision in blizzard-level tempos, and an innate understanding of the way to construct thrilling climaxes. Payare’s a horn participant, so his affection for wind devices was mercifully evident to this listener: as a substitute of relegating them to the position of accompanists to the strings, the woodwinds and brass acquired ample consideration as each featured soloists and sectionals. A lot in order that the entire live performance was largely a wonderful showcase for winds.
The Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson, a favourite with Budapesters after a number of visits, studied with two well-known Hungarians, György Sebők and György Sándor. ‘You Hungarians are fortunate,’ he introduced from the stage. ‘You will have so many nice composers. Liszt gave delivery to modernism! I hung out right this moment with György Kurtág (who’s now 96 and nonetheless composing),’ he continued. ‘I really feel like Hungary is my house.’
Ólafsson’s efficiency of the Ravel was magical. His method with this quirky concerto was easy in all of the rating’s stylistic calls for from straight classical to swingin’ jazz to the composer’s blissful oriental meanderings. The second motion’s dreamy waltz was astounding for its intense pianissimos – so hushed and intimate that the viewers forgot to cough. After the delirious circus of the third motion, Ólafsson’s encore, not surprisingly, was Kurtág’s mystical Aus der Ferne and Bartók’s Three Songs from Csik based mostly on Carpathian people tunes.
The 4 actions of Shostakovich’s tenth are an acid check for any conductor. Written in 1953 quickly after the loss of life of Stalin, the prolonged first motion’s sluggish tempo and wandering high quality can wrestle to retain focus and viewers consideration. Payare engineered an extended dramatic buildup by weaving out and in of the rating’s temper shifts, usually permitting the viola part to take the lead with their velvety burnished tone.
The second motion, which has been ascribed as a portrait of Stalin, begins with vicious chopping fury by the violins and plunges right into a quagmire of sonic hostility. The motion is brief, however to the purpose: the composer bites again at his persecutor.
The third and fourth actions loosen up significantly and use Shostakovich’s acronym, D-Es-C-H, his title as utilized to musical pitches, a tool he included in a number of of his symphonic works. Right here, he provides E-A-E-D-A (solfeggio: E-La-Mi-Re-A) which refers to his secret ardour for a younger lady, Elmira. He assigns these notes to a solo horn, utilizing it like Siegfried’s name, as he builds orchestral texture round it. After the Sturm und Drang of the work’s beginnings, reminiscences of affection be a part of one another within the finale.
In each second, from the fragile to the bombastic, Payare aced the check. The festive tip of the hat to Liszt with Les Préludes, the place he artfully formed the winds’ and brass’ contributions, established Payare from the beginning as a dynamic maestro to comply with sooner or later.
Alexandra Ivanoff
picture: OSM/Antoine Saito
