Klassik Favori Magazine features Cristian Măcelaru and WDR Sinfonieorchester’s first public concert since the lockdown
Cristian Măcelaru performs with WDR Sinfonieorchester on June 19, 2020 (Photo credit: Thomas Kost)
The WDR Sinfonieorchester is back in the Koln Philharmonie! And Chief Conductor Măcelaru is waiting for a miracle!
By Sabine Weber
Klassik Favori
June 20, 2020
The WDR Sinfonieorchester, under its Chief Conductor Cristian Măcelaru, is back with two concerts at 6pm. and 9pm. Actually it should have been a concert with the Choir Fantasy Op. 80 by Ludwig van Beethoven and the Piano Concerto in C major for piano and orchestra Op. 39 with a final choir. The two concerts at 6pm and 9pm filled differently. The commandment in corona pandemic times is not large-scale bombast, but smaller-scale works. Repertoire that can hardly be found in the mostly orchestrated concert life. For Cristian Măcelaru, who has been the Chief Conductor of the WDR Sinfonieorchester since 2019/20, the main thing now is the chance to perform music again in front of an audience and spread optimism, as he tells in a KlassiK Favori interview between the two concerts.
June 19, 2020, Cologne Philharmonie. Second concert: The musicians sit far apart. The strings two and a half meters. Between the horns on the left outside, which are immediately in demand in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto KV 414, there are white-covered screens. The two horn players cannot see each other. A compromise, because the right hands of the players are in the bell. So no women's stocking can be pulled over like the two oboes and bassoons that join Franz Schubert’s Fifth Symphony. All measures to slow down aerosol formation on the podium.
The precautionary measures for the musicians on the podium have not been loosened but tightened
The musicians also need to protect themselves. The flutist even sits in a plexiglass crate. The flute is suspected of spraying most aerosols, which has already been refuted. The aerosols must escape upwards behind the plexiglass shields. It is important to finally be able to play again with as much precaution as possible. And it seems that between the first Guerzenich Orchestra concert and the WDR Symphony Orchestra concert did not loosen the precautionary measures, but tightened them. This has consequences for the sound. The two cellos and the double bass seem loud. The strings are there, you can hear them together but somehow individually. Oboe and bassoon are very present. The flute, who is wondering, weaves in gently. Somehow everything fits. This transparent sound also captivates.
The brilliance on the keys happens en passant. Igor Levit pairs lightness and thoughtfulness
It is also a small miracle how music is played together dialogically and agogically at this distance. Wonderful dialogues arise between orchestral soloists and Igor Levit, the soloist at the piano. When the piano starts a phrase, the orchestra is precisely on hand to begin the final swabs at the end of the bow. Overall, Levit presents a fine, filigree Mozart. Perfectly played, yet delicate, always clear, and yet with small finesses. The deployment comes a “Mü” delayed. Then it starts to bubble. Trill chains that move are only known from Beethoven. Beethoven expert Levit seems to playfully slip them out of fingers. Extroverted exposure of the soloist is never in the foreground. Brilliance happens en passant. Levit pairs lightness and thoughtfulness. He gives the enthusiastically applauding audience an atmospheric encore. A Ferruccio Busoni Bach transcription. I guess that it is the Gentile Savior BWV 659, slowly, cautiously, and absorbed in himself. Busoni was originally on the plan. Igor Levit reminded me of this gently.
“The members of the WDR family of musicians welcome you. Please enjoy our gift to you”
Franz Schubert’s Fifth D. 485 then has astonishing parallels with Mozart. Major-minor Verxierspiele with a motif. A dissonance that explodes and is immediately back in the floating tone. In the slow movement the filling middle voices are a bit thick. The minuet goes off like a Schubertian Moment Musicaux. Joy of movement with slight defiance. And in the last sentence you seem to hear a little Beethoven Five. The two works together were a happy mixture. “Please enjoy our gift to you,” Cristian Măcelaru said to the audience before the concert in German! Those who were permitted in the audience were happy to be there. The Music Director of the Gürzenich Orchestra in Cologne, François-Xavier Roth, was also amongst the audience. A true “gift” and “pleasure” it was indeed!
To read the original article in German, click here.