Oh, dear. You know you are in trouble when the offbeat item in an OSM program is Weber’s Overture to Der Freischütz.
Or maybe not. Even an evening of old favourites can seem refreshing if standards are suitably high, as they were Thursday evening in the Maison symphonique.
The visiting maestro was Juanjo Mena, a 52-year-old Spaniard from the Basque country who has been mentioned as a possible successor to Kent Nagano, and not only because his agenda after 2020 appears to be free.
After intermission he dealt impressively with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 « Pathétique.” Emotional and dynamic highs and lows in the first movement did not interrupt the momentum. The development started with a bang that possibly surprised even those who knew it was coming.
The five-beat pulse of the second movement was graceful in the main section, grim in the trio. We could appreciate the genius of the composer in deriving both light and shade from this difficult metre.
Heroics in the march were brilliant but not overdone. Doing without a score, Mena looked like a spontaneous sort of conductor from behind. Apparently he makes a precise impression when viewed by musicians from the stage.
Tempos were fast in the famously searing finale. Possibly Mena felt forward motion was suited to the translucent (rather than heavy) OSM string sound. Not to worry. Phrasing was eloquent. Special effects (dark horns, tam-tam and lower brass) were memorably done.
There was a long silence after the double basses led us irrevocably into the pianissimo depths. When the applause finally began, Mena walked through the orchestra to recognize individuals, starting, appropriately, with the excellent principal clarinet. I might have congratulated the timpanist second. At any rate, the conductor seemed to regard the performance as a joint effort, and so it was.
I should note that there was an ovation after the third movement. A violation of etiquette, of course, but perhaps also a valid element of the Pathéthique experience. You think life is about triumph? Wait until you hear the real finale.
Weber got the concert off to a hearty start. Mena used a full complement of strings. Brass execution was not perfect but the vitality of the music came across.
Paul Lewis, an Englishman, produced a big, bright, well-pedalled sound in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3. My preference is for crisper articulation, but the impression was always of serious musicianship.
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