MET Orchestra - Yannick Nezet-Sequin - Elina Garanca

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MET Orchestra - Yannick Nezet-Sequin - Elina Garanca

June 14, 2019, Carnegie Hall
MET Orchestra - Yannick Nezet-Sequin - Elina Garanca
Mahler - Bruckner

The MET Orchestra returned with this challenging program, which opened with a very fine rendition of Mahler's Ruckert Lieder, exquisitely sung by Latvian mezzo Elina Garanca. Here is a real mezzo with everything: a full range, power, diction and tonal allure. She certainly put last week's Isabel Leonard in the shades and one could not expect more. Although the full brass was too loud in Um Mitternacht, the orchestral contribution was equally ravishing.

As is usually his wont in large symphonic works, Yannick Nezet-Sequin's loving ways and batonless conducting was considerably less successful in Bruckner's Symphony No. 7. Although the playing, in particular the strings and winds, was very fine in general, and the brass chorales in the finale were awesome, there were moments of insecurity. But none of this would have been a problem were it not for the conductor's savoring too many details along the way. Tempi were slow and, beauty notwithstanding, the first movement did not really ebb and flow, as a great Bruckner performance must, and the coda felt like just another episode. Under Nezet-Sequin, the Brucknerian pauses did not feel organic enough to make one anticipate what came next. As the adagio went on, one did start to feel funereal and the dreaded longeur. As a whole, despite fine moments, it was bit disappointing.

Philadelphia Orchestra - Yannick Nezet-Sequin - Beatrice Rana

Philadelphia Orchestra - Yannick Nezet-Sequin - Beatrice Rana

June 7, 2019, Carnegie Hall
Philadelphia Orchestra - Yannick Nezet-Sequin - Beatrice Rana
All Russian Program

Concert opened with a rarity - Stravinsky's Funeral Song. The Philadelphians played with the utmost beauty and atmosphere, indeed throughout the concert.

Then came Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3, rendered effortlessly by Italian pianist Beatrice Rana. Brilliant as it was, as usual I'd prefer an even more accented and biting performance.

I grew up with Ormandy's Rachmaninov set, but this Symphony No. 1 was far removed from that lush recording. Despite Yannick Nezet-Sequin's brilliance and drive, much of it came across as episodic, though I shall concede that the finale was well built and thrilling.

MET Orchestra - Yannick Nezet-Sequin - Isabelle Leonard

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MET Orchestra - Yannick Nezet-Sequin - Isabelle Leonard

June 3, 2019, Carnegie Hall
MET Orchestra - Yannick Nezet-Sequin - Isabelle Leonard
Debussy - Dutilleux - Ravel

Two Song Cycles sung by mezzo Isabel Leonard, who is apparently very popular with the NY audience, bookended the intermission. We heard first Dutilleux's Le Temps L'Horloge, crafted with the composers usual scintillating palate. The flight of imagination of the poems in French at their relatively fast tempi is demanding for the singer, and here just too many syllables were dropped (a usual and perhaps necessary practice for singing French) for me. The voice is not particularly big and one often misses something at the top or bottom when it comes to mezzi, as was the case here. Unlike the Dutilleux, Leonard sang Ravel's Scheherazade without score, and the difference showed - a better command of the words and more fluidity, which of course is equally attributable to Ravel's jewel of an orchestration, which also lets the singer rest more.

Concert opened with Debussy's La Mer. The MET Orchestra's rendition of color, nuance and detail was superlative, as it has been, as evidenced from the last concert, but the difference here was the much greater control Nezet-Sequin was able to achieve. Coloristically, it was irreproachable, and the climatic perorations were uncommonly lucid, say, symphonic in its approach. Ditto Ravel's Daphne and Chloe Suite No. 2, which closed the program. However, in both pieces (particularly the Ravel), no matter how spectacular the playing, I missed a sense of pushing and pulling, of coiled tension, that I know is there.

It is particularly difficult to capture the essence of French music. The MET orchestra did a sterling job. This kind of program would never work for the HKPO.

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