Top praise for Cristian Macelaru's performances with the National Symphony Orchestra
Cristian Macelaru takes a bow with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center
Review: Cristian Macelaru and Mason Bates bring animated energy to National Symphony Orchestra
By Michael Brodeur
The Washington Post
May 13, 2022
From the first few notes out of the National Symphony Orchestra last night, it was clear what the fuss is over guest conductor Cristian Macelaru.
The Romanian conductor, 42, is the new director of the Orchestre National de France and chief conductor of the WDR Sinfonieorchester in Cologne. In 2020, Macelaru shared a Grammy with violinist Nicola Benedetti for best classical instrumental solo.
It seems like every mention of Macelaru one can find since he won the Sir Georg Solti Emerging Conductor Award in 2012 features the descriptor rising — one wonders how on earth we can still see the man after such a sustained ascent.
But with all of this rising, what many accounts of Macelaru’s conducting seem to miss is how grounded he is — even his lightest moments feel fraught with emotional weight. It’s what gives his performances their density, but also what has made his interpretations of well-trodden works by Rimsky-Korsakov and Dvorak sound — and feel — like fresh and fertile terrain.
The imaginative breadth of the tale offered Rimsky-Korsakov wide berth for his orchestral ambitions — and Macelaru a showcase for his keen sense of narrative. The music throughout this action-packed suite is as close to visual as you could ask for: Cellos paint an undulating sea. Plateaus of brass appearing on a sonic horizon like a strip of dry land. The unmistakably manic “Flight of the Bumblebee” — the third and best-known component of the suite — forgoes metaphor for air-swatting realism.
This illustrative quality carried over into the evening’s centerpiece, a newly commissioned work from the Kennedy Center’s former (and first) composer-in-residence, Mason Bates, whose “Philharmonia Fantastique” explained why a massive screen was suspended above the orchestra.
Macelaru closed the evening with Dvorak’s Symphony No. 6, which again accentuated the overhead view he brings to works charged with the tectonic tensions of a world map. Dvorak’s Sixth is a symphony driven by the composer’s competing affinities for the Czech folk music and vernaculars of his upbringing and the long-steeped musical traditions of Vienna — where, but for these political tensions, it was originally to be premiered.
Macelaru delivered each movement with close attention and sharp intuition. The opening allegro found him moving the orchestra from state to state: here liquid, there solid as stone. A glowing second movement adagio felt paper-thin, translucent, lit from behind.
The third movement — a wild ride marked “Scherzo: Presto” — sometimes felt like it was racing toward us from the stage. And Macelaru delivered the triumphant climb of the finale with finely managed intensity, never letting its ecstasies get out from under the players. For a follow-up to a lesson on how the orchestra works, Macelaru offered nothing short of a master class.
To read the full article, click here.