Dutoit, a reference at 89 years old

Apparently a number of people, who we can’t count, but no less, returned the tickets, because they probably hadn’t seen Dutoit at the Expo (he was there), nor did he follow the development of his extraordinary career throughout the world. And these fans surely don’t know that he is already 89 years old, another possible “a priori” reason to return the tickets. What a shame what they missed: no one can believe that they are that age, neither by their physical appearance, nor by their vitality, nor by the fact of having packed the program by heart (except the piano concert).

Personally Berlioz He is not one of our favorite composers, even if he wrote a treatise on instrumentation (without knowing how to play any instrument). But as soon as the overture “The Roman Carnival”, op. 9 The orchestra suddenly opened up, spreading its wings and filling the entire space: there we heard his famous treatise, there his mastery of the instrumental palette of colors, from which Dutoit perfectly understood the work of Berlioz and knew how to judiciously combine the different tinctures that the composer offers to create a lively and spatial sound canvas, where all the sections sounded incredible. It was as if Berlioz had left the colors ready to mix, and Dutoit had done it as the Frenchman would have liked, as it made the most sense; but the same thing happened with the rhythms, sometimes reduced to small cells that, for example, the violins “cut” with equal measure, creating balances through clever superpositions. Currently, there is no sufficiently well-recorded record or musical equipment capable of creating the magic that revived what Berlioz wrote.

Then came the “Piano Concerto” in G major by Ravel (in which Bavouzet He had to take over from Argerich, knowing who he was going to replace. In his favor, being French and having worked a lot on the concert, since he was called two days before playing it. We’re not going to say that it’s a reference version, but he understood it perfectly, and we suppose that the last minute coordination with Dutoit worked well because everything was very coordinated with the orchestra.

He first movementso interesting, so prescient, presented impressionistic echoes, but it told us the impact Stravinskypresenting the piano as a percussion instrument and demonstrating how close it is to ‘Consecration’but he left traces of the legacy of jazz lived before Gershwinwho performed his “Rhapsody in Blue”hence the ‘glissandi’ on the trombones, the ‘frullati’ on the trumpet and the ‘blues’ harmonies. Bavouzet He showed he knew all this and left his mark. For him second The music was centered on the piano, which created a serene atmosphere, although some harmonies made the heart race. It seemed to us here that Bavouzet’s pulsation was a little more rigid and severe than in the exposition of the 2nd theme of the previous movement, although care was taken not to break the climax with the orchestra. The English horn solo was successful Sarah Bishop and the harp/piano duo Dutoit wanted the piano to win, since it forced the Iolkicheva to perform the ‘glissandi’ with the right hand in pianissimo while with the left he carried a counter-song with the piano, managing to present us with different ranges and luminosities. We insist: the colors, the contrasts, the rereading, Dutoit seemed to mix them almost without thinking. And another thing: when the piano and the orchestra seemed to have finished the movement, Dutoit wanted to add a sustained note in the violins, and we had to see if they rose above the ground. The work of Farré and Dmitrienco leading their sections throughout the concert, but especially in this magical moment, was miraculous. Inside third Difficult, dizzying scales played in “forte” predominated, with the pedal depressed on every beat to avoid confusion. We couldn’t see his hands to follow his technique, but we could see his arms, which opened the angle to more than 90º, which, with the bench quite high, told us to compensate with his shoulders for a not very great height, and thus increase the volume.

THE ‘Symphony No. 9′ in E minor, op. 95 “From the New World” by Dvořák It was a sonic feast, where ROSS reached a level that is difficult to remember better. In it, intense rhythms and melodies so popular and so close united, in a deployment of tones like those of a rainbow. How was it possible that he had this overall vision and could transmit it to the orchestra? What is normal is that most young conductors (that is, almost all, except Plasson) tend to abandon the soloist’s accompaniment for a simple reading and sometimes also the overture, the prelude or whatever you want to call it, while this 89-year-old had it all tied up, making us vibrate in every minute of the concert, in which there was not a single decline (perhaps a specific “scrum” in the third beat).

He second movement, “Largo”Dutoit also put it in alien mode, and the orchestra reached a moment of calm, reflection, where each section brought out its most expressive and emotional side. What can be said of Bishop’s new solo, except that it seemed to move in time that seemed without measure, playing with the famous melody that identifies the entire symphony, and that some companions later repeated. These were the pentatonic scales heard by Dvořák in African-American tribes. The powerful followed “Scherzo” and the symphony culminated most brilliantly ‘Allegro’ final, in which the metals were decisive, but no less Round And Hervás on flutes, ripper on the oboe or Parks on the horn (he gave two superb concerts in a row). He’s Swiss, but he loves Spanish: he recorded almost all of Falla, and we think he was the first to film “El amor brujo” with a gypsy (Ginesa Ortega), since Falla did it with Pastora Imperio. You have to talk to him about Holy Week, the Fair, the smell of orange blossoms and a few days with family in Seville.