Beethoven unsurprisingly superb from NACO, Zacharias
National Arts Centre Orchestra Christian Zacharias, piano and conductor; Pinchas Zukerman, conductor Southam Hall, National Arts Centre Friday at 8 p.m.
Beethoven and more Beethoven — how can a program like that go wrong? It can’t really, unless there is a grotesque degree of incompetence among the performers.
Of course, one can’t commend such a program for being particularly adventurous, but there was one thing that set this concert a little apart. Pianist Christian Zacharias conducted Beethoven’s Concerto No. 2 in B-flat from the keyboard.
This is how Beethoven himself would have performed it, though he wouldn’t have had a nine-foot piano at his disposal, and probably not an ensemble the size of the National Arts Centre Orchestra either. It’s very likely, though, that his performances would have been pretty good, limitations notwithstanding.
As for Friday’s performance, it was pretty decent, too. No, make that superb. The good news began with the orchestral introduction in which the playing was precise, balanced and unmannered.
The piano playing was also superb. Among its many virtues was a complete lack of ostentation. Everyone knows that the concerto requires advanced technical skills, but Zacharias didn’t flaunt his considerable virtuosity. Thus, the performance was satisfying in every way.
The Second Concerto may be the least familiar of Beethoven’s major works, but the second half of the program was given to the bestknown and possibly best work in the symphonic repertoire, his Symphony No. 5 in C minor, one of the pillars of Western art.
NACO’s music director, Pinchas Zukerman, took the podium for this one, as he has several times in the past. He has always done a good job with it, playing it straight but with spirit. Listeners of my age who grew up with recordings by the likes of Koussevitzky and Munch doubtless found themselves on comfortable ground, and that’s a good thing. This symphony has no need of new insights, bold re-imaginings or anything of the sort. Conductors and orchestras got it right a long time ago.
Among the many pleasures of the performance was the gorgeous wind playing in the slow movement and the overall solidity of the string playing in every movement.