{"id":15218,"date":"2013-10-10T22:31:24","date_gmt":"2013-10-11T03:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=15218"},"modified":"2013-10-11T06:57:01","modified_gmt":"2013-10-11T11:57:01","slug":"concert-review-toronto-symphony-in-vividly-fine-form-with-james-ehnes-and-stephane-deneve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2013\/10\/10\/concert-review-toronto-symphony-in-vividly-fine-form-with-james-ehnes-and-stephane-deneve\/","title":{"rendered":"Concert review: Toronto Symphony in vividly fine form with James Ehnes and St\u00e9phane Den\u00e8ve"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"James<\/a>
A cool, calm and collected James Ehnes with an excited St\u00e9phane Den\u00e8ve at the Toronto Symphony concert on Thursday night (Josh Clavir photo).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s too bad the full house that admired the Mariinsky Orchestra and conductor Valery Gergiev at Roy Thomson Hall on Sunday didn\u2019t return for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra\u2019s concert with maestro St\u00e9phane Den\u00e8ve on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

The musical results, delivered with the help of Canadian violin star James Ehnes, were just as spectacularly fine \u2013 even if the programme itself was a bit more subdued.<\/p>\n

Over the past nine years of regular visits to Toronto, Den\u00e8ve has proven himself to be a reliably fascinating musical sculptor.<\/p>\n

Thursday was no exception as he led a programme that consisted of an orchestral suite created by James MacMillan from the interludes in his 2007 opera The Sacrifice,<\/i> the Violin Concerto<\/i> by Benjamin Britten, who would have turned 100 this month had he not died in 1976, and the \u201cEroica\u201d Symphony No. 3<\/i> by Ludwig van Beethoven.<\/p>\n

Ehnes and Beethoven were on the bill to ensure ticket sales, but even two golden surnames couldn\u2019t fill more than 60 per cent of the seats.<\/p>\n

Those who attended were treated to spectacular musicmaking \u2013 nowhere more evident than in the Britten Concerto<\/i>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a pretty grim work, written at the outbreak of World War II by a pacifist composer who felt the need to abandon his British homeland, at least for a little while.<\/p>\n

One hears melancholy, anger, loneliness and sarcasm in this music, which still manages to beguile with its elegance and economy. The solo violin part is, despite all this, a powerful technical showcase \u2013 and Ehnes didn\u2019t disappoint.<\/p>\n

The violinist delivered long, graceful arcs one minute, and spiky exclamations the next. His most breathtaking work came during the extended second-movement cadenza, where the soloist is asked to play pizzicato and with bow at the same time.<\/p>\n

Ehnes, ever calm, cool and collected, didn\u2019t even frown.<\/p>\n

The violinist rewarded the boisterous ovation that greeted his playing with a touchingly simple performance of the Lento movement from J.S. Bach\u2019s Sonata for Solo Violin No. 3<\/i>.<\/p>\n

The Toronto Symphony players were as disciplined and as fine-sounding as the Mariinsky Orchestra throughout Thursday\u2019s concert. Den\u00e8ve, in turn, showcased his talent for underlining and colouring and adding texture to music that all too easily can turn leaden.<\/p>\n

The Beethoven symphony is heard so often that a concertgoer might be forgiven for wondering if they need to hear it again.<\/p>\n

But at the hands of a master like Den\u00e8ve, it sounded alive, relevant and riveting. The most beautiful thing was witnessing how an orchestra can capture a listener\u2019s attention and emotions as effectively with gossamer pianissimo playing as with ear-splitting fortissimos.<\/p>\n

The whisper is an underappreciated tool in our noisy times \u2013 but Den\u00e8ve knows exactly how to use it.<\/p>\n

The MacMillan opera suite is not a model of subtlety, as the composer underlines the progress of the tragic tale in The Sacrifice<\/i> (here, the title really does say it all) with all manner of brass and percussion emphasis, much in the way heard in Hollywood blockbuster movies \u2013 but using much more interesting musical base materials.<\/p>\n

On first listen, there appeared to be too much bombast here, but at least the music made sense and related clearly to the story it was meant to accompany.<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s Toronto Symphony concerts with maestro Den\u00e8ve are not examples of light family entertainment; they are showcases of powerful musicianship, artfully applied.<\/p>\n

You can find the details on Saturday\u2019s repeat performance here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

It\u2019s too bad the full house that admired the Mariinsky Orchestra and conductor Valery Gergiev at Roy Thomson Hall on Sunday didn\u2019t return for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra\u2019s concert with maestro St\u00e9phane Den\u00e8ve on Thursday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,4,76,19,36,52,60,63,1,68],"tags":[6451,485,497,857,1666,2465,6471,3121,3359],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/10\/concert.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-3Xs","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15218"}],"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=15218"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15224,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15218\/revisions\/15224"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15218"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=15218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}