Gold-medal performance by Rotterdam Philharmonic

Montreal conductor owns the podium as he introduces us to his new orchestra

Canadians may not own the Olympic podium. But, for those who prefer classical music, a Canadian was in spectacularly golden possession of the podium at Roy Thomson Hall on Wednesday night.

Montrealer Yannick Nézet-Séguin brought the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet to town as part of his North American debut tour as music director of the Dutch ensemble. Together, they presented a spectacular evening of music shaped by deep convictions and propelled by prodigious life force.

Nézet-Séguin, who turns 35 this year, has so far rarely picked up a piece of orchestral writing that he can't turn into a great musical narrative. But he had a head start for the Toronto program, which featured Les offrandes oubliées, a piece French composer Olivier Messiaen finished in 1930 (when he was 22), Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, a year younger than Messiaen's piece, and Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life), written in 1899 by Richard Strauss.

Between Thibaudet and Nézet-Séguin, the Ravel concerto alternated between a shimmering elegance and steel-edged force. The difficult piano part, written for Paul Wittgenstein, who had lost the use of his right hand, is difficult to shape, but Thibaudet attacked it confidently and with panache. The conductor was in the same mood, maintaining a steady rhythmic clarity that drew connections to Ravel's popular Boléro.

The Messiaen piece showed how nicely balanced the Rotterdam Philharmonic sounds, and how subtly the violins can express themselves.

These two pieces made for a fantastic buildup to the evening's climax. In Strauss's work, "hero" of the title is the composer himself. The piece, divided loosely into four movements, is an opera without words, with the concertmaster's violin playing the prima donna assoluta. The Rotterdam Philharmonic's Igor Gruppman was more than up for the spotlight.

Nézet-Séguin shaped Strauss's cleverly constructed, lushly orchestrated interplay of musical motives like an old master, infusing the music with a deep voluptuousness that blocked out the senses' ability to pick up anything else but this glorious sound.

The Canadian maestro has not even entered the prime of his career, and is already showing that he can master many different styles of music – both symphonic and operatic.

Is it possible to play too well?
Of such debates are great evenings made

You know the drill. The conductor walks to the podium, acknowledges the applause, turns to the orchestra, gets to work. Except on Sunday night the applause continued, forcing Yannick Nézet-Séguin to face his fellow Montrealers and bow again.

Then he asked the players to rise a second time, serving notice that the evening was as much about the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra as it was about his leadership of it. Sure enough, the concert comprised the best pure playing we have heard in Place des Arts this season.

Surprised? (...). All I can say is that I heard a top, top ensemble. Right from the opening of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, the focus of the lower strings - at low volume - was impressive. Soloists spoke sweetly and ensembles were balanced. Lucid brass, jocose bassoons, burnished violins and violas, sassy trombones, all superbly coordinated.

So fine was the soundscape that the thought stole over me: should Bartok sound more rough-and-tumble? Was this Hungarian music, or French? Of such debates are great evenings made.

An athletic cheerleader in front of the Orchestre Métropolitain, YNS was perfectly in step with the Dutch musicians. They were giving him the detail he wanted. He did not need to plead for more.

It might even be argued that the 18 who addressed themselves to Theo Verbey's so-called Conciso played too well, making this routine nine-minute exercise in neo-classicism seem better than it really was.

Did they overdo it in Brahms's Violin Concerto? There was an abundance of detail that we rarely encounter on MSO nights. Never have I never heard the staccato swordplay of the finale realized with such clarity. Upright and implacable as ever, Viktoria Mullova, ostensibly the soloist, provided a stately obbligato for what I heard as a lively concerto for orchestra.

The encore was the Fairy Garden finale of Ravel's Mother Goose Suite. It was like a bouquet of flowers. There was a big sustained ovation for this concert, presented by a Toronto organization, Show One.

Get ready for show two: The Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev on March 14.

Orchestre Philharmonique de Rotterdam : triomphe à Rotterdam

« On peut, sans l'ombre d'un doute, parler de triomphe à propos du concert que l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Rotterdam donnait ici dimanche soir, dans le cadre de sa brève tournée de l'Est de l'Amérique.»

« Cet orchestre est inconnu ici. Mais ce n'est pas du tout le cas de celui qui le dirige depuis deux ans. Le nom de Yannick Nézet-Séguin est certainement à l'origine de l'auditoire de plus de 2300 personnes massées à Wilfrid-Pelletier, qui se sont levées pour ovationner le jeune chef dès son entrée, renchérissant à la fin du concert pour lui faire, ainsi qu'à son orchestre, une ovation encore plus considérable. Le Concerto pour orchestre de Bartok valait à lui seul toute la soirée.»

« Comme le titre l'indique, la partition met en lumière les composantes d'un grand orchestre et leur virtuosité individuelle et collective. Tous les instruments ont ici leur mot à dire, souvent deux à deux; tous, jusqu'à la caisse claire, et l'exécution doit être parfaite, sinon le titre n'a plus de signification. Et parfaite elle fut…

« L'oeuvre ne s'arrête pas au numéro de virtuosité: elle mêle une espèce d'humour noir à des épisodes calmes et nostalgiques. Autant d'éléments qui rappellent les conditions pénibles dans lesquelles Bartok composa cette oeuvre, parmi ses dernières, et que Nézet-Séguin souligna avec une rare vérité.»

Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Tout en lumière

«  Le jeune maestro québécois a développé une direction nuancée dans Bartók, nous exposant ainsi tout le potentiel des sections (les bois surtout) et d'une oeuvre qu'il voulait lumineuse. Une direction altruiste qui nous montre bien le tempérament humaniste de l'artiste. »

Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Rotterdam Phil give the Concertgebouw a run for its money

Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin may have laughed off the idea of a Royal Concertgebouw/Rotterdam Phil smackdown when asked about their coinciding visits to New York this past week. However, there was no doubt that the latter orchestra’s first trip to the States with its new music director was the chance to show New Amsterdam that Old Amsterdam has some competition. And it’s stiff.

Both Wednesday’s and Friday’s programs at Avery Fisher Hall were keenly curated, displaying the youthful range and vibrancy this orchestra shows under Nézet-Séguin’s leadership. This included a bold and dynamic account of Messiaen’s Les offrandes oubliées, an Ein Heldenleben that painted with all of the colors on offer in Richard Strauss’s palette and showed off the rich talents of principal violinist Igor Gruppman, a percussionist’s wet dream in Theo Verbey’s Conciso and an electrifying Concerto for Orchestra that illuminated Bartók like light through stained glass. An encore from Ravel’s Ma Mère L’Oye both nights magnified all the twinkling charm of the orchestra’s recent EMI recording of the piece.

While his arms are either constantly akimbo with allegro or caressing an adagio, the music starts in Nézet-Séguin’s face. He is in the orchestra and of the orchestra, connecting with his players on a visceral level. In the rare moments of pure silence, you can hear him come up for air and take a deep breath before plunging back into the score. Here, he also built two impressive bridges between guest soloists Jean-Yves Thibaudet on Wednesday and Viktoria Mullova on Friday.

Physically, Mullova was a marked contrast to her conductor. Though she stood rigid throughout Brahms’s heady Violin Concerto, her technical perfection was complemented by the passion and soul of the orchestra, and she pulled several voices out of her instrument. Thibaudet, staggering, audacious and bombastic in Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2, matched the showmanship of the orchestra note for note. He was particularly well paired with first cellist Marien van Staalen for an achingly longing duet and his cadenza was fiercely intelligent, even quoting a waltz by Chopin (who, though a contemporary of Liszt, could not have been any more different from the flamboyant composer-pianist).

A Fresh Look at a Familiar Violin Concerto

The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall Friday with the violinist Viktoria Mullova.

During the two concerts that the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra presented at Avery Fisher Hall last week, all eyes were fixed on the orchestra’s music director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, a strikingly gifted young Canadian conductor whose international career has lately assumed a meteoric velocity. But on Friday night, in the second of the orchestra’s New York events, the Russian violinist Viktoria Mullova proved equally worthy of consideration during an uneven but fascinating account of Brahms’s Violin Concerto.

Early in her career Ms. Mullova sometimes brought a Romantic sensibility to bear in Baroque and Classical repertory. Over time she earned a sterling reputation for the keen intelligence and focused intensity of her interpretations.

Recently she has been investigating historical performance practice on record and in concert. Just over a week ago she played the Brahms concerto with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, a Bay Area period-instrument ensemble.

Here, watching Ms. Mullova play from a score, you sensed that she was thoroughly reconsidering a canonical work without having reached any firm conclusions. There was no faulting her rock-solid technique or coolly incisive tone. She was imposing in Joachim’s first-movement cadenza, gracious in the Adagio and just buoyant enough in the finale.

Mr. Nézet-Séguin, leading an appropriately scaled-down complement, was an alert accompanist, and the Rotterdam strings were mellow and warm. But Ms. Mullova’s reserve did not always mesh comfortably with Mr. Nézet-Séguin’s flair for sumptuous sound and sharp dynamic contrast, and that opposition contributed to a nervous edge throughout.

“Conciso,” a 10-minute piece for 18 players by the contemporary Dutch composer Theo Verbey, opened the concert’s second half with a bustle of fidgeting strings, driving rhythms and tart Stravinskian wind voicings. But only in the final work on the program, Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra, did Mr. Nézet-Séguin and the Rotterdam players hit the assured stride demonstrated throughout their Wednesday night performance.

Youthful Intensity, Onstage and in the Program

“With a haunting account of an early work by Messiaen, a demonic performance of Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the fearless French virtuoso Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and a lush, urgent rendering of Strauss’s autobiographical symphonic work “Ein Heldenleben,” Mr. Nézet-Séguin proved that his fast-rising career is built upon deep talent, technical flair and passion.”

“Almost as if the previous hellish descent had not happened, the music (Les Offrandes oubliées) becomes ethereal, with glowing harmonies and quizzical phrases, all conveyed vividly by Mr. Nézet-Séguin and his players.”

“The conductor and Mr. Thibaudet were clearly on the same page for their performance of the Liszt concerto.”

“Bringing structural coherence to Strauss’s 40-minute, six-section “Heldenleben” is a challenge. The performance Mr. Nézet-Séguin drew from his orchestra had taut narrative integrity. Each episode moved inexorably to the next.”

“The concert took flight with a hugely accomplished and enjoyable account of Poulenc's beguiling concerto for two pianos. Ronald Brautigam and Melvyn Tan provided just the right mixture of panache and insouciance in the solo parts, while Nézet-Séguin allowed the score's moments of stillness to flower.”

“Best of all, though, were the accounts of Debussy's Prélude l'Après-Midi d'un Faune and La Mer.”

“The atmospheric languor of the prelude was never forced, while La Mer was given a ­performance to remember, in which the overall pulse was never sacrificed to Debussy's ­endless array of brilliant strokes.”

LPO/Nézet-Séguin – Ravel, Debussy, Fauré & Poulenc

“Nézet-Séguin expertly projected the alternating moods, aided and abetted by uncommonly fine work from the London Philharmonic Choir, whether in the infinitely touching and almost a cappella ‘O quam tristis’, or in the more energetic and equally demanding ‘Quis est homo’ and ‘Inflammatus’ movements.”

“The concert began with Ravel’s Le tombeau de Couperin’, in which the orchestral playing was hors concours, and, similarly, in Pavane pour une infante défunte’, Nézet-Séguin’s careful attention ensured that all the inner parts stood out with great clarity. Debussy’s Nocturnes were also startling in terms of orchestral virtuosity, with truly silken playing from the strings in ‘Nuages’

“In this movement, beyond conjuring up an aural picture of clouds floating across the sky, Nézet-Séguin added an almost otherworldly dimension that was quite haunting. The dancing rhythms of ‘Fêtes’ were projected with great vitality, the passage starting with distant trumpets projected with élan.”

“There's a particular way of not just playing but feeling and touching French music.Watching Yannick Nézet-Séguin, without a baton, shape and sculpt Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin Suite in this beautifully proportioned all-French programme was an object lesson in how phrasing and articulation can shift emphasis and weight in ways that you might never have imagined. Hearing is believing - almost.”

French music teases and tantalises and Nezet-Seguin kept the exquisite Baroque allusions of Le Tombeau on the breath and off the string, repeatedly taking the sound away as if it really was just a figment of the imagination.”

“At the close of the first piece, fleet and breathless, the effect of the pay off - a fleeting harp glissando, a flash of piccolo, a vapour trail of violin harmonics - left remnants of sound in the air even after it had finished. Not for nothing did Nezet-Seguin hold on to those precious moments before silence.”

“There was so much air around the sound that even the Festival Hall sounded atmospheric - and when the lowering cloud formations of "Nuages", the first of Debussy's Nocturnes, rolled in, the precipitation of Sue Bohling's cor anglais and sustained tremolandi in string basses rendered the whole soundscape overcast in the best sense.”

“The fantastic mix of textures and moods in this piece (Poulenc’s Stabat Mater) - angelic one moment, all grimacing gargoyles the next - lends it a slightly subversive tone and there's something sensually Caravaggian about its pained chromaticism.”

“Then came La Mer, by far the concert’s greatest music. Passion and commitment gripped Nézet-Séguin and his players as never before.”

*****

“Expectations ran high for this evening of French masterpieces conducted by the LPO's prodigiously talented principal guest conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin.”

“The concert not only met those expectations, it far exceeded them as the LPO's partnership with Nézet-Séguin proved once again to be the most exciting in London.”

“Nézet-Séguin brought out all the iridescent orchestral colours of the 'Lever de jour' and the concluding 'Danse générale' possessed an appropriate air of savagery.”

“This coruscating performance was followed by a glowing account of Ravel's Valses Nobles et Sentimentales, Nézet-Séguin and the orchestra perfectly capturing the sense of nostalgia that pervades the piece whilst revelling in the adventurous harmonies that the composer uses throughout the work.”

“The shifting harmonies and chromatic tonal language which Debussy employs in the former piece (Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune) sounded as original and revelatory as they must have done at the premiere in 1894, and thanks to some outstanding playing, especially from guest principal flute Karen Jones, we were magically transported to an imaginative, languid, sultry afternoon. Under Nézet-Séguin's inspired baton the orchestra positively oozed Mediterranean warmth.”

“The delicate, restrained opening (Debussy’s La Mer ) brilliantly evoked the shimmering waves at dawn and gave notice that this was going to be a performance full of orchestral colour and detail and so it proved to be. Each section of the LPO played outstandingly well”

“It was a fitting climax to a glorious evening of music making and confirmation that when Nézet-Séguin is at the helm of the LPO, there's no other musical partnership in London to touch them.”

Rotterdam Philharmonic and Jean-Yves Thibaudet in Dortmund

A sublime and effortless performance

“The young Canadian is a lively musician. He seems to embody the music, constantly pushing the orchestra to new and dramatic heights.”

 “A direct, unambiguous interpretation of the piece. (Messiaen: Les off­randes oubliées)

« Yannick Nézet-Séguin et l’Orchestre philharmonique de Rotterdam : tout un spectacle et un événement ! »

« Le héros de Nézet-Séguin s’impose naturellement tout comme Le Canadien s’affirme au pupitre. Diriger cette œuvre magistrale qu’est l’Heroica de Richard Strauss lui fait plaisir : à chaque mesure, il esquisse un sourire, malgré ses vigoureux mouvements de bras. »

« Remarquable la façon dont il laisse jouer les vents, on dirait qu’ils cisèlent la pierre. »

« Nézet-Séguin réussit à extraire le meilleur de son formidable et prestigieux orchestre, permettant au public de s’abreuver à la musique. »

« Sa baguette est le prolongement de son cœur. »

« Ils ont exploité toutes les possibilités théâtrales de l’oeuvre. »

« Les supplications d’une beauté presque divine du Salva me ou de l’introduction orchestrale du Recordare sont comme la Genèse le décrit dans le rêve de Jacob: une vraie échelle que pourraient emprunter les anges salvateurs pour se rendre au paradis. »  

« Le tempo lent de l’Introït est suivi d’une forte progression et la respiration logique du Kyrie  laisse tout l’espace aux vents! L’Offertorium est nerveux et mouvementé, comme si l’on ne croyait toujours pas à l’apaisement des notes du Dona eis Requiem! Et l’Agnus Dei peut être qualifié de divin! »

« L’orchestre était d’une telle précision, le chœur était si puissant, d’une clarté et d’une délicatesse comparables au verre, les solistes Dorothea Röschmann, Birgit Remmert, Michael Schade et Franz-Josef Selig étaient si solides ! À plusieurs moments, ce Requiem ressemblait à du grand opéra. » 

La jeune étoile filante canadienne Yannick Nézet-Séguin fait ses débuts avec le Wiener Philharmoniker dans une oeuvre de Kurtag et le Requiem de Mozart.

« Nézet-Séguin possède une formation en direction de chœur et il a complété ses études de direction auprès de Carlo Maria Guilini. Il en a tiré profit lors de cette soirée à guichets fermés. »

« Il est fascinant de voir comment Nézet-Séguin fait résonner de manière si émouvante les six lieder (Lieder der Schwermut und Trauer op. 18), sur des registres allant de la résignation au déchaînement fougueux, et comment il s’assure d’un équilibre idéal entre le chœur et l’orchestre. »

« Le compositeur (Kurtag) en était lui-même emballé. »

« Le chef d’orchestre, avec sa gestuelle ample, ne laisse aucun doute quant à sa conception de l’œuvre (Requiem). Il évite toute sentimentalité et accentue plutôt les sections dramatiques. »

Nézet-Séguin: encore le triomphe

« Nicholas Angelich, pianiste américain de naissance et français d'adoption, a joué le Brahms (Concerto No.1) avec la technique puissante que l'oeuvre requiert et l'expression d'un véritable interprète. » «  Nézet-Séguin et l'orchestre lui accordèrent un soutien constant, avec des cordes sombres et expressives. »

Nézet-Séguin makes smooth return
Orchestre Métropolitain gives pure performance

“Returning from New York a conquering hero, Yannick Nézet-Séguin walked from the wings of Salle Wilfrid Pelletier on Monday night to a warm ovation, much of it standing. Of course, the welcome that really mattered was the one given him by the Orchestre Métropolitain.”

“Yet on this occasion the score (Bruckner’s 1st Symphony) seemed scarcely less impressive than the later masterpieces. The first movement was virile, the Adagio thoughtful, the Scherzo wild, the finale daunting and complex.”

“Nézet-Séguin always seemed to find the right tempo, and the orchestra responded to his direction with playing of striking purity. Strings sounded both rich and lucid and the woodwinds conversed amiably. Have we heard smoother horns this season? Even the timpanist was having a good night.”