Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin is a figure
that commands our respect, and frankly, adulation. He is serendipitously
matched with the Philadelphia Orchestra, which Carnegie Hall presented in a
nearly stupendous performance of Mahler’s Second Symphony on October 31st. This colossal work
represents nothing less than the triumph of life over death, and the transitive
relation of universal themes to the individual. Mr. Nézet-Séguin manifested
this correspondence with outstanding assurance to invite the orchestra’s best
playing. This was grandeur without grandiosity, a single-minded dedication to
the task at hand without a trace of ego or pomposity.
Exceptional among this superlative orchestra are
the lustrous strings; especially when muted in the first and last movements,
and the French horns led by Jennifer Montone, whose choir could sound like
silk. Clarinetist Ricardo Morales and his partner Samuel Caviezel were undulant
in the deliberately moving third, where the winds’ finely embroidered textures
were made fantastical by the delicacy of the percussionists Christopher
Deviney, Anthony Orlando and Angela Zator Nelson. In the fourth movement the
principal oboist, despite his very great sensitivity, cornered himself by the
end of his solo by an extreme of soft dynamic. Peerless throughout was flutist
Jeffrey Khaner; particularly inspired was his pantheistic solo in the final
movement, where the radiant trombonist Nitzan Haroz also shone.
In Urlicht
(‘Primal Light’), Sarah Connolly, the British mezzo singing contralto, though
warm, did not project in the hall, and Angela Meade, soprano, could also have
had more presence, more size. Superb was the Westminster Symphonic Choir under
their director Joe MiIler, who wrenched all meaning from Klopstock’s text for
their alumnus Mr. Yannick Nézet-Séguin. At their entrance, the sound came not
from the stage, nor from the hall, but from inside of us, each and every one.
This truly transcendent moment was the pinnacle of the evening.
The second movement was consummate in grace, and
poured like honey. Mahler wrote that this Andante is “….a blissful moment in
the dear departed’s life and a sad recollection of his youth and lost
innocence.” Where was the lost innocence? As richly hued and imbued with the
highest musical values this performance was, one wonders if the young conductor
has yet space to grow. This Mahler 2 was glorious, and somber; perhaps a touch
of human frailty, folly and coarseness could have made for a more probing
personal experience.
The Symphony was met with an ovation of cheers at its cathartic resurrected
conclusion.
~CrackCritic
No comments:
Post a Comment