There is a great film directed by the Dane Lars Von Trier called “Melancholy” and whose protagonist is a planet that will collide with the earth, as it ultimately will. We live out the last days of the characters who embody him. It makes us think about what we would or wouldn’t do if we were in that situation. currentzis he directs and his musicians Eternal musicmainly Russians, play as if the planet Melancholia was going to collide tomorrow and they were in front of their last concert. Without being at the level of the major European orchestras of the first rank, what we guess and like about Musicaeterna is the risk of going to the limit and on the verge of a catastrophe that never happens, a mark of Russian orchestras , like the Mariinsky, although the latter, more veteran, on another level.
The second visit of Russian directorborn in Greece, Teodor Currentzis came to our city, the first to the Palau de la Música, practically complete the Iturbi hall in concert without subscription. Twelve years ago, he conducted the opera Iolanta in concert version at the Arts in front of guests at the Teatro Real in Madrid. In 2024, the aura of Currentzis is even greater and there are many young people from outside our country. Double joy. The magnetism which surrounds this director is such that despite or perhaps because of his heterodoxy, his wandering on the edges, he is a breath of fresh air in the narrow world of classical music which, it must also be said , owes part of its success to a certain “indisputable” ceremonial which is accepted and which is not questioned, and should not be.
While current directors tip at most one, Currentzis gives us two. If the same thing happens with the soloists, the person who will appear on this occasion, the Italian cellist Miriam Prandioffers two, obviously under the direction of the professor. Cellist who then sat in the front row to perform Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony with the orchestra. As if that were not enough, it was performed with the foot strings, obviously with the exception of the cellos, as if it were a baroque ensemble. The reason for this “event” is unknown to me. Similarly, in the symphony’s scherzo, the ensemble’s excellent flute rises from his seat to perform his solo standing, which sometimes happens in works like Gustav Mahler’s Titan Symphony with horns, but by indication of the score. With Currentzis, everything is different.
The concert started without stopping applause who received the vampiric and kilometric silhouette of Currentzis, dressed in very tight pants and a shirt, both black. Outfit that I find myself unable to describe due to my distinct lack of cutting and sewing knowledge. The general proposition of the Russian maestro with his orchestra seems to me to be one of the great results of the classical music of recent times and represents a heterodoxy that far from alienating the public, he managed to attract new music lovers, even from other musical fields. As well as an intelligent way of being present in such a competitive world of orchestras and conductors who base their careers on a repertoire which it cannot be denied that, however extraordinary and vast it may be, it is repeated again and again in thousands of places. Currentzis must maintain a project very staffambitious, come to stay in a complicated world, seeking and finding what is different not so much in the repertoire as in the way of approaching it. I don’t know what it must be like to manage daily life, for each of your musicians, with such an intense character in everything, but as a music lover I am clear that “more Currentzis” are needed.
Musically, curiously, the reading which, because of its extreme character, got the most people talking was perhaps that of Opening of the force of the destinationscore of just over seven minutes. Tremendous intensity and violence, perhaps unprecedented in the interpretive literature of this memorable Verdian scores. We wanted to continue the rest of the opera just to see how events would unfold. There are things you hear once and know you won’t repeat them again, like this extremely slow Cavallería Rusticana by Maazel in the Arts. Almost impossible readings, and that’s how we find ourselves: in one piece.
The most questionable part of the afternoon would be that of the Rococo Variations in which the soloist, first cello of the orchestra, without further delay offered a correct reading, because in her task she was not always capable of applying to the instrument the high technical abilities. demanded by this exquisite and naked work. Flight and grace were missing. Everything was too static and highlighted a soloist for whom perhaps this score was a little too big for her because there were even tuning problems. The applause was intense and many cheers were heard, leading to some interesting readings of works outside the Latvian program. Peteris Vasks and Sicilian Giovanni Solima.
Much was expected of what was to come, because if the Fifth Symphony of Dmitri Shostakovich This is an example in terms of intensity, in the hands of Currentzis and Musicaeterna, anything can happen. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, but you could definitely hear a memorable read and for moments of enormous emotional intensity. If with the opening of La Forza, Currentzis wanted to leave his indelible mark, with Shostakovich he bowed more before what was masterfully written by the Russian composer since the score already contains a tension which does not need to be ‘be exaggerated.
As happens with great conductors and the orchestras they have owned for a long time, they become extensions of their minds and direct parts of their hands. Currentzis, known for the endless sessions to which he subjects his “beloved” musicians to achieve a miraculous pianissimo, or whatever the moment requires it in his personal universe, nevertheless creates the magic of being a “maker” there, in the concert. , the music or rather the interpretation of the music, personally addressing each of the music stands with his endless arms as if he had “something personal to settle” with his musicians.
Much more could be written about what was experienced at this Quinta, but space does not permit it. extreme drama in the first movement and phantasmagoria in the march without falling into imposed excess. The Allegretto was as macabre as expected, the Largo plunged us into a depressive state with the consequence of an anticlimax, and the final Allegro non troppo took us on a descent, without brakes, to the great coda that in this case Currentzis sought to recreate by slowing down. lower the tempo imposed by the timpani, but once again without falling into the nonsense of decibels. Finally, it must be said that among the horns was the Valencian Jaïro Gimeno.
The room literally collapsed when the last of the tremendousblows of drum of the coda. The two tips were two exciting readings, with the winds on the string, of Capulets and Montagues and the Death of Tybalt and of the two suites 1 and 2 of the ballet Romeo and Juliet by Prokofiev. After that, the delirium, the ecstasy, and until next time, I hope it won’t be too late.
Artistic file
Thursday October 10
Valencia Music Palace
Works by Verdi, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich
Miriam Prandi, cello
Musicaeterna Orchestra
Teodor Currentzis, musical director
