Austro-German feast from Eschenbach, NSO; Jorg Widmann dazzles in debut
After a long period schedule conflicts (and the occasional fatigue) this season, I finally got a chance to catch up the the National Symphony Orchestra and its brilliant music director Christoph Eschenbach over the weekend. It gave me quite a high.Eschenbach cooked up an Austro-German feast that mixed standards -- Mozart's Clarinet Concerto, Schubert's Symphony No. 9 -- with a fascinating dose of new music by Munich-born composer and clarinetist Jorg Widmann, who was also the soloist in the concerto.
Widmann's "Armonica," from 2006, has a prominent part for the glass armonica, that ethereal instrument invented by Benjamin Franklin.
The device provides not only sonic interest here, but also a way for the composer to treat the rest of the orchestra. Waves of sound emerge, gradually, pulsate and dissipate.
In addition to the exotic flavor of the armonica, the orchestra is enhanced by such unexpected instruments as ...
The net effect is a fascinating harmonic haze that takes its time unfolding and makes its points with subtle inference.
On Saturday night at the Kennedy Center, Eschenbach drew a sensitive performance from the NSO. Christa Schonfeldinger was the compelling armonica soloist.
(One of the most famous and effective applications of armonica is in the original mad scene from Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor." In March, Baltimore Concert Opera will have an armonica for its "Lucia" performances, a nice touch of luxury for a company that otherwise uses only piano accompaniment.)
Widmann's performance of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto was a marvel of silken tone, eloquent legato phrasing and seemingly impossible breath support. The solo playing fully matched the sublime character of the score, each phrase sculpted with a painter's sensibilities.
Eschenbach's second-nature partnering ensured a beautiful response from the orchestra, which produced its own impressive glow to complement that emanating from the extraordinary clarinetist.
Schubert's Ninth Symphony received a performance that had a truly majestic feeling, but never seemed pompous or blatant in its effect. Eschenbach applied his distinctive stamp to every phrase, every tempo, and had the musicians responding as if they had all lived for years with those ideas and ideals.
There were so many extraordinary touches along the way, moments when the conductor's slightest nuance made the familiar freshly invigorating or deeply moving -- extra weight to the most dramatic chords and a little extra space between them to let them register; exquisite gradations of dynamics; a tender lingering over the curve in a melodic line.
When he reached the prolonged silence in the second movement, Eschenbach made it feel incredibly profound with suspense and import. You could have heard a pin drop in the concert hall -- no finer sign of audience involvement.
Throughout, the NSO sounded technically firm and expressively alive, from the violas singing out poetically in the first movement introduction to the brass vibrantly underlining the dramatic release of the finale.
PHOTO OF JORG WIDMANN (by Marco Borggreve) COURTESY OF SCHOTT MUSIC
