Toronto Symphony Orchestra – Mozart@260 Festival. Mozart Jupiter Symphony with Bernard Labadie (conductor) and Alexandre Tharaud (soloist) at Roy Thomson Hall, Saturday, January 16, 2016.
The engagement of Bernard Labadie as the conductor of two January Mozart programs (and five concerts) had been on the Toronto Symphony Orchestra books for years. There was nevertheless an aura of suspense Saturday at Roy Thomson Hall – this evening representing Labadie’s first public appearance in Canada after a long and grueling convalescence from lymphoma that included a month in an induced coma.
Well, Bernard is back, a changed man in some ways but no less a musician. There will probably be a period of adjustment for the conductor and the players with whom he must reacquaint himself. My sense is that this job was substantially accomplished before the thrilling finale of Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 (“Jupiter”).
Before I go into more detail, let it be noted that the Labadie gives every appearance of being in middleweight form. He walks confidently from the wings, shakes the hand of the concertmaster in the usual manner and mounts the podium unaided.
Then he takes a seat – the most obvious concession to his experiences – and uses his arms to the full extent of the circumference they can draw. That chair swivels, increasing the usable space. At one or two climactic points during that finale, Labadie came close to jumping to his feet. At no time did I feel he lacked resources.
Another notable adjustment: Labadie no longer uses a baton, after about 25 years of deploying one to establish a beat that was widely hailed for its vitality. Now the duties of beating time, cuing entries, regulating volume and shaping phrases are divided democratically between the hands. This is another kind of conducting, to which all parties must become accustomed. There were a few moments of less-then-optimal togetherness in the first three movements and the repeat of the exposition of the first movement a had sharper focus than the initial statement.
Did I notice also an uncharacteristic expressive stretching of the simple phrase that quietly answers those opening thrusts? Would the muted strings in the Andante cantabile have sounded as sweetly understated under the Labadie of old, armed with his rapier?
Perhaps this is the sentimentalist in me talking. But of this I feel certain: The finale was a tour de force of color, propulsion and thematic debate, accomplished with the collaboration of players who were both passionately into the music and completely attuned to the conductor’s concept.
The impression before intermission was mixed. Labadie has always been one to give winds their due, but the price in string sound was high in the Overture to Don Giovanni (even considering the modest size of TSO the string complement, grounded by three double basses). I have checked the score and nowhere does Mozart call this piece a concerto for timpani.
Guest soloist in the Piano Concerto No. 9 K. 271 was Alexandre Tharaud, a 47-year-old Frenchman, who has recorded the work with Labadie and the conductor’s Quebec City band, Les Violons du Roy. On this occasion, Tharaud extracted little meaning from what some regard as Mozart’s breakout masterpiece, preferring to cultivate a well-pedaled pearly sound (and dropping a few pearls along the way).
I am not saying that reading from sheet music always reflects a lack of forethought on the part of the soloist. I do submit that this time, it did.
#LUDWIGVAN
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