Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Nielsen and a 19-Year-Old Phenom! - Friday, 30 September

Tonight, an Orchestre de Paris concert at the Philharmonie.  Paavo Järvi conducted them in Grieg’s Peer Gynt Prelude to Act I and Suite No.1, Nielsen’s Symphony No.2 (“The Four Temperaments”) and the Tchaikovsky violin concerto with 19-year-old Spanish phenom María Dueñas.  

The place was packed (I took this picture about 10 minutes before the downbeat).  As you can see, I was up in the nosebleed section!  (Search my blog for several other articles about this unusual building, which opened in 2015 - the first one is here: https://mariellen-musing.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-new-philharmonie-de-paris-imagined.html )

I haven’t heard the Grieg Prelude to Act I very often, and it was a wonderful surprise.  The principal viola really rocked the Hardanger fiddle style dance tune solo, complete with thumping and stomping!  Then the Suite No.1 was beautifully executed.  Audiences here don’t have any problem with applauding between movements, especially when they end loud!  But they also don’t seem to need to give standing ovations even though they clearly loved the performance.  I like this - in the U.S. we seem to stand for almost anything!

Next up, the Tchaikovsky concerto.  I haven’t heard of this 19-year-old violinist María Dueñas before, but apparently her awards, recordings and career are skyrocketing!  Read about her here:  https://www.mariaduenasviolin.com/en/bio   I thought her tone was a bit harsh in places in the first movement, and there were some attack and pitch slips, and a few balance problems.  But hey, she’s 19!!!  And that second movement - absolutely meltingly gorgeous, with wonderful dialogs with the wind soloists.  And the third movement, quite the romp!  She definitely has the technical skills.  After her first bows, two curtain calls, then an encore (sorry, I don’t know what it was, very bird-like and peaceful), then two more curtain calls.  And again no standing ovation.  

I brought my wrinkles
and double chin and all!

Then the Nielsen “Four Temperaments” Symphony No.2 (choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic, and sanguine).  Loved it!  Really don’t hear this enough.  Wonderful themes, energy, moods, subtleties, lilting rhythms, performances.  Hey, Thomas Søndergård and the MN Orchestra, how about programming this soon?!?  It should be right in your wheelhouse!

Upon arriving home at 11:20 (traffic is always bad in Paris!), my driver had to drop me at the corner because the street was barricaded and a fire truck was right in front of my building.  They were just packing up their hoses and gear, so I seem to have missed the main event!  I didn’t smell any smoke, so hopefully it was just a small fire somewhere.  The firemen wear shiny silver rounded helmets - love it!