By Stephen Fogarty
When the soloist was sitting down on Saturday night, I said to my concert companion, “He looks strong enough to break the piano!” The soloist in question was Denis Matsuev and I would not be surprised to learn that he was also a judoka on the Russian Olympic Team.
So considering pure physicality, we knew we were in strong hands to perform what many claim to be the most demanding of all piano concertos, Rachmaninov’s 3rd. This piece includes many forceful passages with the piano and orchestra playing simultaneously, as well as a number of dialogues between piano and orchestra sections, especially the brass. You simply won’t hear the piano most of the time unless it is played vigorously. Also much of the piano’s work is set at a very fast pace. The whole thing has the serious potential of flying apart in all directions. Read More
Prior to Saturday night’s concert of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (OSM), Maestro Nagano humorously warned certain members of the audience they might want to block their ears as the OSM’s brass section had been augmented by 12 additional trumpets distributed in the balconies at the sides of and behind the stage. He also mentioned that the first piece to be performed, Leoš Janáček’s Sinfonietta, had not been played by the orchestra for quite some time.
It is a pity this work has not been heard more often. As mentioned in the program notes, Janáček drew his inspiration from a military-style fanfare he had heard in a park in Brno, and the work was offered to celebrate Czech independence gained following the end of WWI. The OSM gave a stirring performance whose detail and clarity blended perfectly with the numerous trumpets. All five of the brief movements showed the orchestra at its best, including the rousing conclusion. Read More
It seems unlikely that Maestro Kent Nagano had the Oscars’ weekend in mind when he planned this season’s schedule for the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (OSM). Nevertheless, there was measure of serendipity in the timing of the four sold-out concerts this week at the Maison Symphonique which included two works by Mozart so famously featured in the multiple Academy Award winning film Amadeus.
Although Amadeus was not mentioned anywhere in the program notes, the dramatic initial passages of Mozart's Symphony number 25, showcased in the opening sequences of Miloš Forman’s 1984 Best Picture, were familiar to almost everyone in the hall. Read More