Plenty of colour in this vivacious OSM concert
“Inextinguishable” is the nickname Carl Nielsen applied to his Symphony No. 4 of 1916, a work of high energy, thematic abundance and spectacular palette. All of these qualities were apparent Sunday under the vigorous baton of John Storgårds, a Finnish conductor making his first appearances with the OSM.
It would be easier to list the colours Nielsen did not try out in this 35-minute score than present an inventory of those he did. We hear blazing trumpets, shadowy trombones, calliope woodwinds, violins that speak with fiery intensity, a banging match by two timpanists that most commentators associate with the First World War.
Bold and brilliant, no doubt. Coherent? Well, I suppose I must now reveal myself to be something of an Inextinguishable skeptic. Still, there could be no doubting the virtuoso calibre of the playing. Judging by the applause, the crowd regarded the time as well spent.
This Nordic theme concert started with Sibelius’s Night Ride and Sunrise. It was impressive in its second half, when eight horns (among other players) collaborated to evoke a mysterious dawn. Unfortunately, the interminable galloping in the strings proved to be headacheinducing at a volume considerably north of the quiet levels Sibelius wanted.
Of course, the Maison symphonique is a lively room. I had the sense that André Laplante was sometimes thinking in terms of Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier in Grieg’s Piano Concerto. This was bright and upfront playing.
All the same, there was poetry in the Adagio, very freeform as Laplante approached it, with warm strings and a supple solo horn. Nor did he shortchange the dancing energy of the finale. As for the veteran pianist’s trademark humming, it was relatively subdued, except at the end of the first-movement cadenza.
A tad under-dressed in a long black shirt, Storgårds made an extrovert impression with his wide, sweeping gestures. We might be seeing this 51-year-old again, since he has been named principal guest conductor of the National Arts Centre Orchestra up the road in Ottawa. The concert started with a moment of silence in recognition of the appalling toll taken by the earthquake in Nepal.