SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Beethoven and Mozart: Louis Lorte piano, Orchestre National de France conducted by Kurt Masur. The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester 12.11. 2007 (RJF)

Beethoven. Overture Leonora No. 3. Op.72b
Mozart. Piano Concerto No 23 in A, KV 488
Beethoven. Symphony No. 3 in E flat, Eroica, Op.55

As part of the Bridgewater Hall’s International Season the Orchestre National de France opened their British tour last night in Manchester’s fine concert hall. I learned my Beethoven symphonies via recordings conducted by the unsurpassable trio of Klemperer, Kleiber pére and Hans Schmidt Isserstedt, the latter bringing a slightly softer and more humane touch to his interpretations than the structured somewhat austerely Teutonic approach of the first named of his immediate predecessors. After that trio of great masters and the Carlos Kleiber, it seemed that the Austria Germanic tradition and lineage had died a death: except for those who listened to recordings of another conductor buried, it seemed, in the East Germany of Leipzig. Out of sight and hearing, except for those with a clear ear to the recordings that emanated from the beleaguered city and appearing on the Philips label featuring Kurt Masur and the Gewandhaus Orchestra. Masur grew from Kappelmeister to become the orchestra’s first ever Conductor Laureate on his retirement in 1996.

It was the events in 1989 that introduced Masur’s name to many. As the despotic communist regimes crumbled around east Europe,  he stood up to the particularly inhumane and savage East German version and by doing so saved many lives and helped to precipitate the regime's downfall. Suddenly the world was aware that the Germanic mould had not been lost after all, but was hidden away in Leipzig where perhaps the last of the species still thrived. Masur’s emerged fully in the west as music director of the New York Philharmonic (1991-2002) for which he has been named Music Director Emeritus.

Following his sojourn in America, Masur returned to Europe as music director of Orchestre National de France and principal conductor of the London Philharmonic. Now aged 80, and scaling down his activities he is scheduled to be replaced by Danielle Gatti in 2008. I was keen to hear how his German approach has influenced the French orchestra and vice versa. French orchestras are renowned for a distinctly softer sound than many bands further east and even in London. This quality was very evident in the opening Overture Leonora No. 3 which has become largely a concert piece  - as performances of the opera have been largely replaced by the rewrite, Fidelio, and the practice of performing the overture as an introduction to its Act II are now largely frowned on. Thirty years or so ago, I heard the renowned Josef Krips conduct Fidelio with the overture preceding the second act and offering a very Viennese interpretation. Like Masur he conducted without a score and made sense, for me, of the relationship of the theme without any tautology towards what was to follow in the opera’s dungeon scene. Krips’s interpretation was softer and less Germanic than Masur’s on his 1972 recording of Beethoven overtures (Philips 426 630-2), where he is also marginally faster than at last night’s performance. Perhaps the orchestra needed to feel the acoustic of the hall. But some vitality was lost as the softer edged playing lacked the sharpness of the overture's relationship to the opera and its story.

After the interval, any doubts I felt about  Masur’s Beethoven and the  French orchestra were allayed immediately with their rendering of the Eroica symphony. Again without score, and with right arm flowing laterally to give beat and fire, this was a rendering in the very best European tradition; meaty and vigorous. The opening allegro was taken at a cracking pace with the orchestra spot on in articulation and intonation and by then thoroughly at home in the Bridgewater acoustic. The dynamic range wrought by Masur was equally commendable by not being overvlown. With his arms waving in ever-wider circles and sweeps, I recalled sitting behind Gergiev whose use of mere fluttering fingers and inclined wrist was in an a completely opposite corner whilst still being able to draw inspiration, mood and colour from an orchestra. The strings of the Orchestra Nationale sang out with great beauty in the allegro molto finale with the brass suitably smooth and sonorous.

The finale of the Eroica  brought the audience to its feet in appreciation and with a warmth that had perhaps been a little less vigorous after a fist half concluded with Mozart’s piano concerto No.  23. Using a score for that, and with a fairly full desk of strings Masur beat a steady tempo whilst pianist Louis Lorte, failed to bring any sense of ethereal spirituality to the lovely adagio. Composed during one of Mozart’s most creative periods in early 1786,  the piece shares with the piano concerto’s No 22 and 24 the use of clarinets instead of oboes. Though  Louis Lorte is well known for his many recordings on the Chandos label, particularly of Brahms and Chopin,  I felt he was on more of a learning curve in respect of Mozart. Despite his technical virtuosity,  his was an interpretation that failed to move me. But such feelings are, of course, purely subjective and personal; those with their own pianistic skills may have found more to relish. Perhaps directing a smaller ensemble from the keyboard will lead Mr Lortie to an enhanced interpretative direction for this music.

This concert in  Manchester was the first in the Orchestre National de France’s five-city UK tour with visits to Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow and Leeds to follow. It is well worth catching.

Robert J Farr 

Back to Top                                                    Cumulative Index Page