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.
Andris Nelsons,New York Philharmonic [音楽時評]
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.
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.
【短信】Muti がペース・メーカー装着 [音楽時評]
Chicago Symphony とショスタコーヴィッチの第5交響曲リハーサル中に失神して，指揮台からそのまま前に倒れ，顎や頬骨を骨折した Muti が，その手術を終えて，そもそもの発端となった失神の原因を精密検査した結果，Muti の心臓のペースに異常が見つかり，引き続き，心臓にペース・メーカー装着の手術を終えたそうです．
まだ，今後の予定，復帰の時期は未定で明確にされていませんが，ひとまず Muti の復活の見込みが立ち, Muti 自身もも復帰に意欲的なことで，シカゴ響や市民には朗報といえるでしょう．
“I think it was destiny that I came to Chicago,” Muti concluded, “and I think what has happened is also destiny, because now I understand and feel more comfortable than ever about returning to my work.”
CSO’s Muti gets pacemaker
By Andrew Patner Feb 12, 2011 02:03AM
Riccardo Muti leads the Chicago Symphony last September before the new music director fell ill. | Tom Cruze~sun-times
The fall on Feb. 4 that left Chicago Symphony Orchestra Music Director Riccardo Muti with multiple jaw and cheekbone fractures was caused by “a common heart rhythm disturbance,” cardiac specialists at Northwestern Memorial Hospital said in a statement on Thursday which was the first explanation on the underlying cause of his blackout and fall.
Doctors installed a pacemaker “to prevent possible future episodes of slow heart rate,” a procedure that they described as “standard.”
“Fortunately, the remainder of the maestro’s medical evaluation has revealed that he has superb heart function,” the doctors said.
Muti, 69, fell from the conductor’s podium during a rehearsal and has been at Northwestern since being taken there by emergency responders immediately after his accident. On Monday he had surgery to repair the injuries to his jaw and face that his surgeon described as “successful.”
Dr. David Lloyd-Jones, a Northwestern cardiologist, and Dr. Bradley P. Knight, director of cardiac electrophysiology at the hospital, said in the statement that pacemakers “are small devices (about the size of a silver dollar)” that monitor heart rhythms and can deliver a small charge to prompt a heart beat if the patient’s heart rate drops significantly.
“Patients with pacemakers live full and active lives with excellent prognosis,” the doctors’ statement said.
Spokeswomen for both the CSO and Northwestern said that they had no further information on other areas that night have been tested or on any other matters regarding Muti’s overall health. Nor could they say if there was any connection between this problem and the illness that caused Muti to cut short his conducting duties in September and return to Italy.
Dr. Alexis B. Olsson, the Northwestern dental surgeon who operated on Muti Monday, described him at a press briefing Tuesday as “strong” and unusually responsive to treatment “for a man of his age, or even younger.”
William A. Osborn, chairman of the CSO Association board, added, “The board, musicians and staff of the [CSO] completely stand behind Riccardo Muti, and we have made his recovery our top priority.
“I can say with certainty that the relationship between the CSOA and Maestro Muti is strong; he is an important part of our family. While health is a private and personal matter, we are grateful to Maestro Muti for allowing us to share his information with you.”
Muti was quoted as saying, “I am so grateful to all of you for your support, caring and words from your hearts to mine. I am so disappointed that I was not able to share in the music making by our great Orchestra these past weeks. In my rehearsals, the Orchestra sounded like angels, and I wanted so much to make music together with them.
“A music director’s relationship with his orchestra is like a marriage. Together, we are a family and we bond in times of joy and in times of challenge.
“I think it was destiny that I came to Chicago,” Muti concluded, “and I think what has happened is also destiny, because now I understand and feel more comfortable than ever about returning to my work.”
