NACO delivers wonderful evening
All the empty seats for Beethoven program a mystery
National Arts Centre Orchestra
Thomas Sondergard, conductor; Dejan Lazic, piano Southam Hall, National Arts Centre Reviewed Wednesday, Nov. 13 There were a lot of empty seats in Southam Hall for Wednesday’s all-Beethoven concert. If the view from the stage was not exactly a “sea of red,” to use the standard cliché, it was at least a substantial bay. Until last week, one might have imagined every guest conductor to be a candidate to succeed music director Pinchas Zukerman in 2015. But last week it was announced that Alexander Shelley has been chosen. Was that why there were so many empty seats on Wednesday?
Probably not. Last week, even though Shelley’s appointment had just been made public the day before, attendance was similar, with hundreds of empty seats. To be honest, I don’t get it. The orchestra is playing consistently better than it ever has, and Beethoven usually fills the bleachers like no other composer.
The program began with the Symphony No. 1 in C, op. 21. The performance was a model of clarity, though one might take issue with a few of conductor Thomas Sondergard’s interpretive decisions. In particular, the Andante cantabile was a trifle brisk, though still effective in its own way. The third and fourth movements were especially striking.
Pianist Dejan Lazic joined Sondergard and the orchestra in an impressive rendition of the Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, op. 37. His technique is assured, without being especially showy. There were many individual touches, though, not the least of which was the first-movement cadenza. I don’t remember hearing this version before. It sounded more like Liszt than Beethoven, though the pianist may have merely been jazzing it up. More power to him.
The second half of the program was given to the Symphony No. 4 in B-flat, op. 60. This is perhaps the least frequently performed of Beethoven’s symphonies, dwarfed as it is by the Eroica and Fifth symphonies that were written before and after it. It is an entirely worthy piece, though, from the vigorous nobility of the first movement and the angelic aura of the second right, through to the finale. Wednesday’s performance was altogether wonderful.