{"id":28422,"date":"2015-05-14T16:47:20","date_gmt":"2015-05-14T20:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=28422"},"modified":"2015-05-14T16:47:20","modified_gmt":"2015-05-14T20:47:20","slug":"scrutiny-toronto-and-montreal-swap-orchestras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2015\/05\/14\/scrutiny-toronto-and-montreal-swap-orchestras\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Toronto and Montreal Swap Orchestras"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kent
Kent Nagano, Music Director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montr\u00e9al<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Montr\u00e9al\u00a0Symphony Orchestra at Roy Thomson Hall, 13 May 2015.<\/h3>\n

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra<\/a> and\u00a0Montr\u00e9al\u00a0Symphony Orchestra<\/a> (MSO) pay each other courtesy calls each season, usually with their best stuff. The exchange this week and last was a less of a best-fest and more a matter of each respective music director trying out material for which he is not acclaimed. Results, perhaps inevitably, were mixed.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday Kent Nagano<\/a> and the MSO brought Sibelius\u2019s Second Symphony to Roy Thomson Hall. Normally a mesmerizing mix of heroism and mystery, the score under Nagano seemed an exercise in digging in and blowing hard at rigid tempos. Happily, the MSO has a strong intrinsic sense of its own beauty, so the sound rarely turned raucous. Principal oboe Ted Baskin provided sweet respite in the Trio of the (volcanic) Scherzo.<\/p>\n

Velocity in the first three movements was undone by a strangely slow\u00a0finale, which was scaled dynamically between various degrees of fortissimo. The tune is irresistible, but the performance sounded laboured. Nagano, who will give a cycle of the seven Sibelius Symphonies with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in December, has said that he is rethinking his approach to the composer. He has time.<\/p>\n

Earlier we heard Mozart\u2019s Piano Concerto No. 25 with an unfashionably large string complement and a solo contribution to match by Piotr Anderszewski<\/a>. Partial as I am in principle to restoring some heft to Mozart, strings need to be better focused than this. The Steinway sounded glassy and articulation was so-so. Curious to hear such an account under a conductor whose last Toronto appearance was with Tafelmusik<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The surprise hit of the evening was Nocturne by Samy Moussa<\/a>. Nagano has gone to this Montreal-born resident of Germany repeatedly. No wonder. He employs tonality coherently rather than decoratively, and his orchestration (here touched by Mahler) is likewise harnessed to a deeper meaning.\u00a0There were perhaps too many lower-brass terrors in Nocturne, but the eight-minute evocation conveyed an integrity missing from the run of contemporary compositions.<\/p>\n

Nagano led Moussa and Mozart without a baton. For Sibelius he was armed. The crowd was positive about everything.<\/p>\n

This concert followed a Saturday visit by Peter Oundjian and the TSO to the Maison symphonique in Montreal. Michael Vincent received the Toronto<\/a><\/span> performance of Bruckner\u2019s Seventh the previous Wednesday as something little better than a rehearsal; Natasha Gauthier was only slightly more impressed by the TSO’s Friday visit to the National Arts Centre<\/a><\/span>. I heard virtue in the Adagio in Montreal<\/span>.<\/a> At least the trajectory is upwards.<\/p>\n

Want more updates on Toronto-centric classical music news and review\u00a0before anyone else finds out? Get our exclusive newsletter\u00a0<\/em>here<\/a><\/em><\/span>\u00a0and follow us on\u00a0<\/em>Facebook<\/a><\/span> for all the latest.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

MSO brings Sibelius, Mozart, and Samy Moussa to Roy Thomson Hall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":28426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[118,76,19,52,60],"tags":[1858,2272,2671,4392],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/05\/BANNER-3.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-7oq","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28422"}],"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\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28422"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28432,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28422\/revisions\/28432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28422"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=28422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}