Andris Nelsons,New York Philharmonic

昨年秋のVienna Phil　日本公演で，Esa-Pekka Salonen の来日キャンセルを受けて，その代役3人の1人に抜擢された Andris Nelsons は，たいへん好評を博しましたが，それもあって，今年の東京春祭に来日してオペラ，ローエングリーンの演奏会形式の公演を指揮する予定です．　

その32歳の rising sun がNew York Philharminy　を  Avery Fisher Hall で指揮した音楽評が掲載されていましたので，ご紹介します．

まず，難曲ショスタコーヴィッチの第5交響曲を新鮮な感覚で聴かせたことが高く評価されています．It is hard for a technically adept conductor not to make a big impression with Shostakovich’s gripping Fifth Symphony. But it is just as hard for an interpretation of this well-known piece to stand out.

His keenly dramatic yet clear-headed approach brought welcome insights to Shostakovich’s sprawling score.

The charismatic Mr. Nelsons drew brilliant, richly textured playing from the Philharmonic. But the Shostakovich symphony presents psychological as well as musical challenges. It was composed in 1937 after an official Soviet condemnation of Shostakovich over the modernist decadence of his shocking opera “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District.” The symphony represented the composer’s attempt, however forced, at rehabilitation. He described it as a lyric-heroic symphony that explored the sufferings and ultimate optimism of man. Many conductors hear the work as a veiled personal protest and plumb the score for bitter irony.

He conveyed the music’s ambiguity where it seems unmistakable, in the second movement, for example, which hovered here between a bucolic dance and a grotesquerie of a scherzo. The pensive slow movement was beautifully restrained. Mr. Nelsons took quick tempos in the wild finale, right through the blaring conclusion. Some conductors pull back here, so that the repeated notes in the high strings sound like head-pounding triumphalism. Mr. Nelsons and the musicians played it straight, and gloriously.

プログラムは，初めに，　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, with Jonathan Biss,．．．He and Mr. Nelsons inspired each other to take chances.

この夜の好演から，Nelsons が　Mr. Nelsons returns to the Metropolitan Opera next month to conduct Tchaikovsky’s “Queen of Spades” (after a successful 2009 debut in Puccini’s “Turandot”). To judge from the splendid playing of the Philharmonic on this night and the ovation from the audience, he should be coming back to this other prominent Lincoln Center podium. 　　　　　　　　　　とMetropolitan Opera でのチャイコフスキーの「スペードの女王」上演にも多大の期待を寄せています．

ほとんど原文中心になりましたが，あとはご自由にご渉猟下さい．　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　それにしても，既にBerlin Phil　の Simon Rattle の前任地のMusic Director の地位にある彼の優れた才能が，ますます楽しみです．

 

 

Music Review

A Visitor Arrives, Armed With a Sprawling Score

By ANTHONY TOMMASINI

Published: February 11, 2011

It is hard for a technically adept conductor not to make a big impression with Shostakovich’s gripping Fifth Symphony. But it is just as hard for an interpretation of this well-known piece to stand out.

Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times  
Andris Nelsons leading the New York Philharmonic in Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony at Avery Fisher Hall on Thursday.

Andris Nelsons, the dynamic 32-year-old Latvian conductor who is the music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, chose Shostakovich’s Fifth to conclude his debut program with the New York Philharmonic on Thursday night at Avery Fisher Hall. His keenly dramatic yet clear-headed approach brought welcome insights to Shostakovich’s sprawling score.

The charismatic Mr. Nelsons drew brilliant, richly textured playing from the Philharmonic. But the Shostakovich symphony presents psychological as well as musical challenges. It was composed in 1937 after an official Soviet condemnation of Shostakovich over the modernist decadence of his shocking opera “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District.” The symphony represented the composer’s attempt, however forced, at rehabilitation. He described it as a lyric-heroic symphony that explored the sufferings and ultimate optimism of man. Many conductors hear the work as a veiled personal protest and plumb the score for bitter irony.

Mr. Nelsons took the piece at face value. In the first movement, a brooding Moderato that builds to shattering climaxes, he drew transparent playing from the Philharmonic, allowing the rigorous contrapuntal writing to come through with affecting presence.

He conveyed the music’s ambiguity where it seems unmistakable, in the second movement, for example, which hovered here between a bucolic dance and a grotesquerie of a scherzo. The pensive slow movement was beautifully restrained. Mr. Nelsons took quick tempos in the wild finale, right through the blaring conclusion. Some conductors pull back here, so that the repeated notes in the high strings sound like head-pounding triumphalism. Mr. Nelsons and the musicians played it straight, and gloriously.

The concert began with a lithe account of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, with Jonathan Biss, fresh from his Carnegie Hall recital debut, giving an elegant, fleet-fingered performance. He and Mr. Nelsons inspired each other to take chances.

Mr. Nelsons returns to the Metropolitan Opera next month to conduct Tchaikovsky’s “Queen of Spades” (after a successful 2009 debut in Puccini’s “Turandot”). To judge from the splendid playing of the Philharmonic on this night and the ovation from the audience, he should be coming back to this other prominent Lincoln Center podium.