CONCERT REVIEW: DKAM/Beethovenfest Bonn (in English)
Starting Gun for a Formula 1 Symphony
At the moment Beethoven rates high with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen – they impressively demonstrated their competence in Bonn as well with Music Director Paavo Järvi at the podium
By Bernhard Hartmann
General-Anzeiger Bonn, 13 September 2005
Bonn - A few weeks ago the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen appeared at New York's Mostly Mozart Festival and played only Beethoven. At the moment the composer rates high with the Bremen ensemble. Not only in the Big Apple were they acclaimed for their performance; at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago they also generated storms of enthusiasm from the audience.
Next year they will present the complete Beethoven symphonies in Yokohama, Japan; in addition, they are industriously working on a recording of the complete cycle. Naturally Bonn's Beethoven Festival will benefit from these activities – by 2007 the orchestra will have performed all nine symphonies in Bonn as well.
In the regrettably not-sold-out Beethovenhalle, Beethoven's Coriolan Overture provided an indication of the direction that Music Director Paavo Järvi points his musicians when it comes to Beethoven. Rich string tones surge forward with relentless momentum, presenting a thrilling musical drama with its tragic fall.
The orchestra plays with rhythmic excitement, and its dynamic range is astonishing despite the small string section. Such power would also have been desirable at times in the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra's performance of the "Eroica" on Friday.
The fact that the Kammerphilharmonie's sound quality is not confined only to the higher end of the dynamic range was demonstrated later, particularly in the second encore, Jean Sibelius's Valse triste. Here Paavo Järvi reduced the string sound down to nearly the threshold of perception, thus creating a tension that took the audience's breath away.
In the main part of the program, the Third Symphony by the French composer Albert Roussel, a work full of neoclassical wit, followed as an entrée to the Beethoven main course. The archetype of Viennese classicism is perceptible in this four-movement work, brushed the wrong way very intelligently and with a great deal of mischievous humor, however – in that respect, entirely comparable to Prokofiev's "Classical" Symphony.
Richness of Instrumental Color
Under Paavo Järvi's masterful conducting, the music was extremely eloquent. The breathless triple rhythm of the first movement was electrifying; the richness of instrumental color in the second movement, whose fugal section left nothing to be desired in precision, was marvelous. This symphony is also a splendid showpiece for the Kammerphilharmonie's first-rate winds, who mastered their virtuoso passages with nearly French elegance.
Paavo Järvi cut short the applause after the intermission almost brusquely with the fate motive from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, virtually hurled at the audience. It was, so to speak, the starting gun of a Formula 1 version of the work. And, thanks to the technical level of the ensemble's playing, the breathtaking pace never seemed rushed. At all times, Paavo Järvi ensured that the details of the score were not only audible but were also meticulously worked out down to the secondary voices.
The entrance of the double basses in the fugal middle section of the Presto movement was something marvelous. In the transition to the fourth movement, the musicians created an almost impressionistic atmosphere that ended in the brilliant C major of the winds (which for some time has been hurrying Beethovenhalle concertgoers to their seats as an intermission signal).
The sonic capabilities that the orchestra has at its command were also displayed in the first encore – Brahms's Hungarian Dance No. 6, whose dynamic and tempo parameters, exploited and savored to the full, were a bit too much like a demonstration.
At the moment Beethoven rates high with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen – they impressively demonstrated their competence in Bonn as well with Music Director Paavo Järvi at the podium
By Bernhard Hartmann
General-Anzeiger Bonn, 13 September 2005
Bonn - A few weeks ago the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen appeared at New York's Mostly Mozart Festival and played only Beethoven. At the moment the composer rates high with the Bremen ensemble. Not only in the Big Apple were they acclaimed for their performance; at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago they also generated storms of enthusiasm from the audience.
Next year they will present the complete Beethoven symphonies in Yokohama, Japan; in addition, they are industriously working on a recording of the complete cycle. Naturally Bonn's Beethoven Festival will benefit from these activities – by 2007 the orchestra will have performed all nine symphonies in Bonn as well.
In the regrettably not-sold-out Beethovenhalle, Beethoven's Coriolan Overture provided an indication of the direction that Music Director Paavo Järvi points his musicians when it comes to Beethoven. Rich string tones surge forward with relentless momentum, presenting a thrilling musical drama with its tragic fall.
The orchestra plays with rhythmic excitement, and its dynamic range is astonishing despite the small string section. Such power would also have been desirable at times in the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra's performance of the "Eroica" on Friday.
The fact that the Kammerphilharmonie's sound quality is not confined only to the higher end of the dynamic range was demonstrated later, particularly in the second encore, Jean Sibelius's Valse triste. Here Paavo Järvi reduced the string sound down to nearly the threshold of perception, thus creating a tension that took the audience's breath away.
In the main part of the program, the Third Symphony by the French composer Albert Roussel, a work full of neoclassical wit, followed as an entrée to the Beethoven main course. The archetype of Viennese classicism is perceptible in this four-movement work, brushed the wrong way very intelligently and with a great deal of mischievous humor, however – in that respect, entirely comparable to Prokofiev's "Classical" Symphony.
Richness of Instrumental Color
Under Paavo Järvi's masterful conducting, the music was extremely eloquent. The breathless triple rhythm of the first movement was electrifying; the richness of instrumental color in the second movement, whose fugal section left nothing to be desired in precision, was marvelous. This symphony is also a splendid showpiece for the Kammerphilharmonie's first-rate winds, who mastered their virtuoso passages with nearly French elegance.
Paavo Järvi cut short the applause after the intermission almost brusquely with the fate motive from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, virtually hurled at the audience. It was, so to speak, the starting gun of a Formula 1 version of the work. And, thanks to the technical level of the ensemble's playing, the breathtaking pace never seemed rushed. At all times, Paavo Järvi ensured that the details of the score were not only audible but were also meticulously worked out down to the secondary voices.
The entrance of the double basses in the fugal middle section of the Presto movement was something marvelous. In the transition to the fourth movement, the musicians created an almost impressionistic atmosphere that ended in the brilliant C major of the winds (which for some time has been hurrying Beethovenhalle concertgoers to their seats as an intermission signal).
The sonic capabilities that the orchestra has at its command were also displayed in the first encore – Brahms's Hungarian Dance No. 6, whose dynamic and tempo parameters, exploited and savored to the full, were a bit too much like a demonstration.
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