The concert of the Year of Friends of the OSR, celebrating the patronage of Genevan music lovers, has a tradition of mixing social events with musical feasts. Five-star soloist, prestigious chef, flattering repertoire, not to mention the decoration of Fleuriot who, on Wednesday evening, oversaw the stage of the Victoria Hall with a dome of inverted flowers: everything looked perfect, in the company of a subtle invitation to journey through European music that the United States inspired, with their traditional themes (such as Dvorak), then sucked in thanks to composers chased by the Nazis (such as Korngold), before conquering concert halls around the world with their own film music composers (such as John Williams).
Experienced in all adventures, Renaud Capuçon was the ideal man for this outfit. Bowknot and glued hair, he attacks in Gatsby the magnificent Korngold violin concerto, where his quicksilver playing never ceases to bring to light this work inspired by cinema themes. More than in virtuoso traits, often deprived of expressive substance by precipitation, this thoroughbred violin excels in the Middle Romance, taking the time to deploy these angelic highs of which the French artist holds the bewitching secret. His lyricism as an aristocrat will once again do wonders in the era of major themes for violin and orchestra taken from “Cinema Paradiso”, “Schindler’s List” or “Out of Africa”, at the conclusion of the evening.
He will thus save a concert that the Lyonnais chef Ludovic Morlot, for the rest, has mired in insignificance. How can a musician with such an esteemed CV, champion of contemporary French music, be able to miss Dvorak, the melancholic charm of his “American” Suite, the sensuality and the chic of his “Slavic Dances”? So rich colors, such powerful effects from Korngold’s concerto? Large orchestras resist a conductor’s bad nights as well as an evening’s bad conductors by doubly engaging in battle. The OSR, on the other hand, capitulated from the first blurred attack, only to emerge intermittently with a confused sound, a play without relief or energy. We were waiting for the lights of the ball: we had warm champagne and drowsiness at the end of the evening.
Created: 16.01.2020, 20h58
–
