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Notes from the Romantic Heartland New York
Isaac Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall
04/24/2024 - & April 16 (Fulda), 17 (Bamberg), 20 (Reykjavík), 23 (Boston), 26 (Blacksburg), 27 (Washington), 2024
Richard Wagner: Lohengrin: Prelude – Tannhäuser: Overture
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 3, Op. 90
Robert Schumann: Piano Concerto, Op. 54
Hélène Grimaud (Pianist)
Bamberg Symphony, Jakub Hrůsa (Chief Conductor)
J. Hrůsa(© Petra Klacková)
“To this day Schumann remains one of my closest ‘friends’. To me, this is one of the most extraordinary of all concertos. It’s unique, intuitive and extremely fragile. There’s nothing square or predictable about it. I’ve often said that in an ideal world a concerto should be like chamber music on a large scale. But with Schumann, this is a matter of life or death: if it’s not like chamber music, then it does not work. That is the only way it comes to life.”
Hélène Grimaud on the Schumann Piano Concerto
The young Jakub Hrůsa and his 68‑year‑old Bamberg Symphony seemed a perfect fit last night at their Carnegie Hall debut. The Czech conductor chose three composers who knew each other (even with contempt or adulterous episodes), whose music brimmed over with Romantic excesses and for whom the Czech-German orchestra well understood.
On an especially nice note, both Bamberg Orchestra and soloist Grimaud give special import to environmental issues. The Bamberg group, when traveling, optimize schedules to minimize carbon emissions, and give financial support to a group involved in removing carbon “through the natural pathways of the ocean.” Ms. Grimaud’s contribution is described below.
For the first of two Wagner opera-openings, Mr. Hrůsa chose Lohengrin, a simple arch form where the two meditations surrounded an arch of a chorale. Hardly one of Wagner’s later better ones, but the conductor played with enough spiritual content.
To show the Bamberg as its best, the Brahms Third Symphony was a model. Like the orchestra (and much like Czech temperament itself) this was elegiac, cusping on the pastoral but always with those restrained melodic lines.
Mr. Hrůsa was flexible in the opening, never too loud (many conductors take the opening forte close to fortissimo), retaining the orchestra to emphasise the dark colors. The two slower movements showed the lovely woodwind solos. And the finale? Mr. Hrůsa could have rushed through the volatile passages. Instead, again, his temperament and wonderful sense of structure adhered all the changes, making for a relatively monumental ending.
H. Grimaud (© Matt Hennek)
The names “ Grimaud” and “Wolf” have been intimately linked for a quarter century. Not Hugo Wolf but Canis Lupus. When not on her keyboard, Ms. Grimaud is in upstate New York with the Wolf Conservation Center which she founded 25 years ago. Undoubtedly, her delicacy, her sensitivity, and above all, her empathy for notes and animal are predominant.
It was also typical Grimaud for the first two movements of the Schumann Piano Concerto And strangely a literal translation of Schumann’s enigmatic direction Allegro affettuoso. Ms. Grimaud segregated each. For those quick passages, starting with the first measures, she ran her fingers over the keys with feather-light energy. For the slower “tender” moments, she almost vocally breathed over each measure. Retards are hardly forbidden in her vocabulary.
The Intermezzo was played with equal skill and affection and warmth, again making this totally personal. Only in the last movement did she surrender love for a jumping, rollicking joyride over the keys, with Mr. Hrůsa urging his orchestra to keep up with her.
The Steinway rolled away, the Bamberg Orchestra finished with as exciting a Tannhäuser overture as I could remember. The spiritual, the lyrical, and above all, the martial brass paraded a triumphal ending to an always fascinating concert.
Harry Rolnick
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