MSO version of Don Juan a joint conquest
BY ARTHUR KAPTAINIS, THE GAZETTE January 24, 2009
...Continued
On Tuesday, the shell was gone and the whole ensemble was moved back, with the brass and percussion smack against the back wall of Salle Wilfrid Pelletier and the strings seated about mid-stage rather than downstage, over the potentially deadening pit elevator. Probably to avoid leaving a visually disorienting empty area in front of the orchestra, the authorities lowered the elevator and left the pit open, creating a gulf that looked strange enough in its own right.
Did the open pit add some resonance? Perhaps. But the overriding acoustical impression of this Don Juan was extra detail and brilliance.
One violinist told me the sheet music is better illuminated when the musicians are seated midstage rather than near the apron. This also could have a positive effect, at least on the performance of selections they do not know by heart.
A certain resentment of conductors simmers in all orchestras. Many players privately believe that great performances often happen in spite of conductors rather than because of them. Rivest, whose Canada Council-mandated contract as resident conductor ends this season, undoubtedly suffers in the minds of some MSO players for having been a section MSO violinist in the early 1980s.
Having heard Rivest do good work on a few occasions - while expressing occasional concern over his predilection for slow tempos - I am not prepared to exclude him from the honour roll for this terrific Don Juan. Good performances happen when everybody gets it right. Even the conductor.
If you were among the millions who watched the swearing-in on Tuesday of U.S. President Barack Obama, you probably heard Air and Simple Gifts, a quartet written by film composer John Williams. There was a former Montrealer among the participants, pianist Gabriela Montero.
Noted for her volatile style and aptitude for improvisation, Montero lived in the city from 1998 to 2001. She participated in the opening concert of the Lanaudière Festival in 2006 and last performed in recital in Montreal for the Lachine Music Festival in 2000. A live recording of her 1996 recital in Salle Pierre Mercure appeared on Palexa, a label co-managed by her live-in partner during her Montreal years, conductor Jean-Pascal Hamelin.
Take note that Montero will appear with Hamelin and the Youth Orchestra of the Americas on Aug. 1 at the Domaine Forget. The pianist, who now lives in Boston, played a recital last season for this festival in the Charlevoix region of Quebec.
Montero's website biography makes no mention of Montreal. All the same, smart orchestras and impresarios hereabouts will be phoning her manager sooner rather than later.
And what about that allegedly prerecorded Williams piece? Since it was little more than an elaboration of Simple Gifts, the 1848 Shaker tune popularized by Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring (1944) and still sung in churches to the 1963 hymn Lord of the Dance, musical analysts are silent.
Music lovers, however, should be delighted. "Even if it's total crap," commented a Toronto composer who missed the performance, "European-based art music just got the endorsement of the century. Bazillions of people are going to listen to (violinist Itzhak) Perlman and (cellist Yo-Yo) Ma now and some of them will hear some good stuff and like it." ...Continue
