Andris Nelsons, Hélène Grimaud and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig were at the Philharmonie in an all romantic programme.
Nelsons and his orchestra gave an outstanding performance of Mendelssohn’s Overture Meerestille und glückliche Fahrt, the quality of the sound of the orchestra – obvious form the 1st bar of the “still sea” episode – reminding me of what Carlo Maria Giulini achieved in Debussy’s La mer.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Hélène Grimaud and the Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest were at the TCE in October 2016 for a concert Bartók and Mahler.
The first part consisted of Béla Bartók’s 3rd Piano Concerto. Les artists offered a very good version of the work, which is more accessible than the 1st Concerto or even the 2nd, despite the fact that it shares with it an extraordinary slow movement. Sometimes still the neglected one of the 3, the piece is nevertheless abundant with wonderful sections, and has an almost Mozartian spirit, but with caracteristics proper to the Hungarian composer (modes and scales, links with folk music, counterpoint / fugue passages). If the 2 fast movements are full of drive, the Adagio religioso is clearly the summit of the concerto, with its choral which sends back to both Beethoven, Bach and Mozart, and its central night music, so typical of Bartók.