{"id":12050,"date":"2013-05-01T22:33:07","date_gmt":"2013-05-02T03:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=12050"},"modified":"2013-05-01T22:33:07","modified_gmt":"2013-05-02T03:33:07","slug":"concert-review-toronto-symphony-not-simply-fantastic-in-all-french-programme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2013\/05\/01\/concert-review-toronto-symphony-not-simply-fantastic-in-all-french-programme\/","title":{"rendered":"Concert review: Toronto Symphony simply fantastic in all-French programme"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, pianists Frank Braley, left, and Eric Le Sage and conductor St\u00e9phane Den\u00e8ve at Roy Thomson Hall on Wednesday night (John Terauds phone photo).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Orchestras are like clay that a fine conductor can mould into different shapes — seductive, striking, sometimes shocking. On Wednesday night, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra revealed itself to be fine porcelain — translucent yet smooth, light and incredibly strong.<\/p>\n

The master at the wheel was French conductor St\u00e9phane Den\u00e8ve who has been a regular source of surprise and delight at this podium for nearly a decade now.<\/p>\n

He came bearing an all-French programme, delivered with iron control as well as considerable panache. This may be a largely English-speaking city, but the sound in Roy Thomson Hall was draped in a throughly Gallic shrug.<\/p>\n

The opener was Pr\u00e9lude \u00e0 l’apr\u00e8s-midi d’un faune<\/em> by Claude Debussy. It is an emblem piece for impressionism, where instruments are used as paintpbrushes.<\/p>\n

Den\u00e8ve took the piece at a languorous pace, allowing us to savour the many sinewy, sensual twists in the journey. The light, diaphanous effect was magical.<\/p>\n

French pianists Frank Braley and Eric Le Sage, both making their Toronto Symphony d\u00e9buts, are very different artists who found scintillating common ground in a piece that veers madly from boisterous to introspective,while challenging the soloists to stay together in the face of all sorts of rhythmic complexities.<\/p>\n

This gang made it all sound like so much fun — a nice, colourful alternative to the warhorse piano concertos, and filled with the extra shimmer that an extra pair of hands can bring to piano strings.<\/p>\n

Den\u00e8ve kept the best for last, as we were treated to a remarkably crafted Symphonie fantastique<\/em> by Hector Berlioz.<\/p>\n

It never ceases to amaze me how this piece dates from 1830, so clearly half a century ahead of its time.<\/p>\n

The conductor decided to take us on a detailed tour of all of its little treats, bringing light to the middle parts of the orchestration in a way that often made this sound like a new piece of music.<\/p>\n

The orchestra was with Den\u00e8ve all the way, with revelatory work from every section — in terms of colour, precision and flexibility.<\/p>\n

This is as exciting as a symphony concert gets. Try to catch one of the two remaining performances, Thursday and Saturday, if you can. Details here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

John Terauds<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Orchestras are like clay that a fine conductor can mould into different shapes — seductive, striking, sometimes shocking. On Wednesday night, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra revealed itself to be fine porcelain — translucent yet smooth, light and incredibly strong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,76,19,36,47,52,60,63],"tags":[6451,506,857,983,2156,2688,6471,3121,3359],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/05\/tso11.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-38m","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12050"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12050"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=12050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}