A decade and a year had passed since the Vienna Philharmonic arrived to remind us how, for this historic set of related ideas musicians, the medium can be magically the message and The massage. The orchestra produces an immaterial and frankly tactile sound.
The orchestra concert couple this week in Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall on Costa Mesa were, as always, linked to tradition. The membership of the set may have become a little more international since the end here. Some more women have been welcome in their ranks previously misogynistic. The fears of veterans of diversity that dilute the unique affection of Vienna, the combination of instruments is a wonder of the orchestral world, proved to be surprisingly unfounded.
The standard repertoire, in addition, barely moves. Beethoven, Schubert, Dvorák and Richard Strauss were in the tour file, nothing written in the last 125 years.
One way to maintain their control of a glorious past is for musicians to execute the show. The orchestra does not have a musical director to promote it in this or that direction. Each director is, in effect, a guest of the mansion invited by musicians. Not breaking the Chinese. Each piece of Mozart or Beethoven, every Viennese waltz, remains a venerated relic.
However, being Viennese must be inherently open to an occasional or three adventure. And the orchestra has had notable issues with the unlikely such as Leonard Bernstein and Pierre Boulez. These days show love and respect for that-pekka and frankly love Gustavo Dudamel. The Philharmonic sound of Vienna is so sumptuous that a rare director is needed to resist its advances. A room or a doubt is so likely that the Vienses try something new.
Yannick Nézet-Séquin, who directed the concerts in Sertrom, is another that enjoys a long-term relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic. The French Canadian director, who has just turned 50, is a pillar on the east coast as a musical director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Philadelphia orchestra. It is prominent throughout Europe and very recorded.
But it has had little exposure on the west coast. Nézet-Senquin directed the Los Angeles Philharmonic once, 16 years ago. However, that is not saying that he does not care, he dropped everything (that is, a camera music concert with musicians from his metra orchestra in Carnegie Hall) to appear at the Hollywood premiere of “Master”, having contributed to the soundtrack of Leonard Bernstein's biopia.
The popularity of Nézet-Séquin, however, barely derives from calm. The Viennese fan of him may be that, in his exuberance, he lets them live it, even when that could mean biting China a bit in their lust by the striking show. On the other hand, lust in music, art and literature is one of Vienna's great gifts for the world.
In Sertrom, Nézet-Séquin had an interesting advantage. The living room opened shortly after the Marian Anderson Room (previously Verizon) of Philadelphia with a similar but improved acoustic design by Russell Johnson. Now in its 14th season with the Philadelphia orchestra, Nézet-Senquin knows how to exploit Johnson's variable devices.
He obtained notable results. Instead of the warm acoustic refinement of the famous Musikverein, the house of the Vienna Philharmonic, each orchestral expression jumped to the audience as a special 3D effect. That could be a complete climax of the strongest orchestra than you ever believed without amplification. The very, very quiet violations, jealousy and the bass that opened the “New World” symphony of Dvorák had a robustness that filled the soul that even the best headphones could not match. At any end, it could be difficult, as a listener, recover your breath.
Each of the two programs contained a classical period work of the early nineteenth century and concluded with a romantic period of the late nineteenth century. On Sunday afternoon, the first game was Beethoven's third piano concert with Yefim Bronfman as the bold eloquent soloist of tones, rhythmically precise and eloquent. When it was allowed, Nézet-Senquin added acute orchestral scores, but otherwise it will let the orchestra support without worrying about a dominant pianist.
That was followed, in the second half, by “Ein Heldenleben” of Strauss as Sonic Spectacular. There is nothing new in that. Decades ago, a young Zubin Mehta blew Angelen's minds with “Heldenleben”, and his philharmonic recording of Los Angeles can still. Daniel Barenboim directed a grandiloquent “Heldenleben” in the oldest and acoustically problems with problems of the Sertrom Center on a previous visit of the Vienna Philharmonic.
In the performance of Nézet-Séquin, Strauss's hero proved to be even bigger than life. Brass sounded, the squeaky winds, Tampani tronó as if this hero who conquers music critics and makes the love of his wife was Captain Marvel. The true wonder, in this case, is the avoidance of vulgarity. No matter how much the orchestra could push, it never sounded tense.
Much of the same could be said of the second program, Tuesday night, with the fourth symphony of Schubert and the omnipresent “New World.” In the Schubert, Nézet-Senquin was because of Beethoven's effects that tightened Schubert's score. In the Dvorak, Nézet-Senquin seemed to want to overcome everyone else, making this “new world” a stronger, softer, more slow and faster place. I had the media. He had acoustics. He had the persuasive power to make the orchestra give his incomparable everything.
The audience stood up, excited by its bravery. But it was just that, an hour of bravery, not a new world.
