{"id":58097,"date":"2018-12-22T13:53:35","date_gmt":"2018-12-22T18:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/montreal\/?p=58097"},"modified":"2018-12-22T14:39:10","modified_gmt":"2018-12-22T19:39:10","slug":"review-mahler-a-welcome-gift-from-yannick-and-the-om","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/montreal\/2018\/12\/22\/review-mahler-a-welcome-gift-from-yannick-and-the-om\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW | Mahler a welcome gift from Yannick and the OM"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Leading
Leading with a score but no baton, YNS seemed to be breathing the music rather than beating time. (Photo: Fran\u00e7ois Goupil)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Add this to the list of honours earned lately by the Orchestre M\u00e9tropolitain<\/strong>: The Ebenezer Scrooge Award for the least Christmassy concert ever given by a symphony orchestra four days before Christmas.<\/p>\n

Well, great music is great music, as Yannick N\u00e9zet-S\u00e9guin<\/strong> pointed out in a droll address Friday night before a big crowd in the Maison Symphonique. And great music is what Mahler\u2019s soul-searching and death-defying Ninth Symphony sounded like under his characteristically upbeat direction.<\/p>\n

Not that all elements of this 85-minute colossus are of equal value. Some have wondered about the raucous sonorities and heavy tread of the second movement. Mahler requires the playing to be \u201cvery rough\u201d and YNS (along with the OM violins) certainly obliged.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The ensuing Rondo-Burleske is supposed to be \u201cvery defiant\u201d and again we could not fault the conductor or orchestra for disobedience. Yet I was grateful for the interludes of quiet relief from the contrapuntal frenzy.<\/p>\n

The occasional feeling that I was getting more of a blast than I deserved might have been a consequence of sitting on the far right of the hall, close to the stage. It was easier to appreciate the solemn outer movements, where Mahler looks down at the depths and up to the heights. Strings, dense and songful, were nicely punctuated by the harps. Woodwinds spoke with independent character and collective harmony. Brass were warm on the bottom, bright on top. The principal horn was first among equals.<\/p>\n

Leading with a score but no baton, YNS seemed to be breathing the music rather than beating time. His basic tempo in the finale was relatively fast, as it was when he performed the Ninth with the OM in 2005. Yet one could not have asked for a more exquisitely attenuated conclusion \u2013 pianissimo and adagissimo \u2013 as Mahler invites us to leave behind the troubles of this world.<\/p>\n

\"\u00c9ric
\u00c9ric Le Sage was making his belated Montreal debut in Schumann\u2019s Piano Concerto. (Photo: Fran\u00e7ois Goupil)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Silent through all the longueurs, the audience made amends with a big ovation. They were grateful also for the playing of \u00c9ric Le Sage<\/strong> \u2013 making his belated Montreal professional debut as a stand-in for the ailing H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Grimaud<\/strong> \u2013 in Schumann\u2019s Piano Concerto. This Frenchman is capable of smudging a note or two, but his free and intimate style was suited to the score. It was gratifying to hear all those semiquavers in the finale treated as conversation rather than chatter. We were in a living room listening to chamber music on a paradoxically symphonic scale.<\/p>\n

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