Beethoven’s ‘Heroic Symphony’ ???
Performers: Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and National Orchestra of Catalonia (OBC). Alisa Weilerstein, cello. Direction: Ludovic Morlot. Place and date: The Auditorium (29/IX/2023)
Great opening of the 25th anniversary season of L’Auditori, home of the OBC, which presented a highly demanding program with the direction of its owner and the collaboration of cellist Alisa Weilerstein in Prokofiev’s Sinfonía concertante op.125, a late work that insists on the composer’s formal concern and that expresses from the second movement a very sensitive lyrical aspect that this excellent cellist played with admirable sensitivity and technique, with solid orchestral work.
Without a doubt a party, which had begun with Joan Guinjoan’s Fanfàrria – a prodigy of symphonic splendor, “Guinjoan color”, as he sometimes said – that the composer wrote for the inauguration of this center. She continued with the Prokofiev, and culminated with the interpretation also by the great American soloist and seven OBC cellos of Un cant a Pau Casals, also a very sensitive score by Jordi Cervelló, exquisite in the treatment of the strings, written a few years before than the Fanfàrria, which speak of the vitality of Catalan music in the second half of the 20th century. An issue that the OBC, also a product of those years, should take on.
But for some the party ended there. After the break we heard a less than recommended version of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3. We have heard works of good results under the direction of Mr. Morlot, especially in French repertoire and music of the 20th century, but it seems clear that romanticism is not his strong suit.
Musical language has, beyond the notes, the timbres, an intrinsic gesture that determines its discourse, that challenges us, and that determines its presence and organization. And this “gesture” shapes styles, which is why – and it is not obvious – directing Stravinsky or Prokofiev is not the same as Beethoven or Schubert. Because there is another gesture, this visual one, which is that of the director, who must translate the intentionality and formality of the content of the score and share it, and it cannot be the same for both.
In Beethoven it was impossible for me to look at the conductor, I don’t understand his movement. The tempo used also did not seem appropriate to me, although this is subjective, and in each option it must be accompanied by a horizontal conception of the lines of force, and not the supposed rhythmic verticality with phrases that remain in themselves.
Beethovenian language traces vectors that determine expression, and its treatment must be carefully nuanced, articulated and felt, and expression is not in playing loudly. The OBC, already very renewed, has excellent musicians who respond to what is asked, which is why I insist on the ability of the director, who is the one who must do it. An inauguration with two faces.
