Gramophone – September 2019

gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE SEPTEMBER 2019131

composer Thierry Escaich who has written
this year’s competition commission. You can
catch all rounds live and on catch-up (video
and audio) via the competition website, and
it should make for a good show: Zacharias
conducting the Orchestre du Festival du
Zermatt in a programme of Mozart piano
concertos. Also of interest to readers will be a
‘Haskil: le mystère de l’interprète’, a DVD ilm
about Haskil to be released by the competition
on August 27 (via Louise production), which
also includes a CD of unedited Clara Haskil
recordings, including one recorded by Charlie
Chaplin as she played at his house.
clara-haskil.ch

Ban Centre for Arts and Creativity, Alberta,
Canada & online
August 26 – September 1
The triennial Ban International String Quartet
Competition is open to quartets of all
nationalities whose members are all under the
aged of 35 at the time of the competition; and
when previous winners include the Dover
Quartet, the 10 quartets who’ve made it
through the preliminary selections know that
there’s a good deal of international prestige
attached to winning, beyond the lure of
$150,000 of cash prizes and Career
Development Grants. As for Gramophone
readers, this is the competition on this month’s
pages that UK readers should be watching
with special interest, because this one has
two from the home team, both of which
formed at the Royal College of Music: the
2018 Royal Overseas League Competition
winners and current holders of the Guildhall
School of Music String Quartet Fellowship, the
Marmen Quartet, and the charismatic and
fast-rising winners of the Royal Philharmonic
Society award for Young British String Players,
the Ruisi Quartet. All rounds will be streamed

via the competition’s Facebook page, and we

thoroughly recommend tuning in.

ban centre.ca, en-gb.facebook.com/bisqc/

Leipzig Gewandhaus & Takt1

September 1

Andris Nelsons opens his second season at

the helm of Leipzig’s Gewandhausorchester

with Bartók’s Piano Concerto No 3. That

acclaimed Bartók interpreter Sir András Schi

is soloist. Debussy’s La mer follows, before

Stravinsky’s The Firebird ends the concert.

takt1.com

Concertgebouw, Amsterdam & online

September 1

Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw celebrates

25 years of its Sunday morning concert

series this month, and its celebratory

live-streamed programme from Antony

Hermus conducting the Radio Filharmonisch

Orkest begins in suitably triumphant fashion

with Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man.

Verdi’s Il forza del destino Overture follows,

after which comes a selection from Prokoiev’s

Romeo and Juliet suite, before Tchaikovsky’s

Capriccio Italien brings things to a frothily

upbeat conclusion.

concertgebouw.nl

Gothenburg Concert Hall & GSOplay

September 5

Santtu-Matias Rouvali opens his third season

as the Gothenburg SO’s popular Chief

Conductor with Shostakovich’s Symphony

No 5, followed by Leif Ove Andsnes the soloist

in Grieg’s Piano Concerto.

gso.se

Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg & online

August 14, 16, 18 & September 6

Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie has a rich

programme of live-streamed events this

month, beginning with ive concerts from its

Elbphilharmonie Summer series, three of

which are classical: Richard Strauss’s Alpine

Symphony and Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été from

the National Youth Orchestra of the USA with

mezzo Joyce DiDonato; the European Youth

Orchestra under Stéphane Denève, with a

programme to include Andreas Ottensamer

performing Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto; and

Alexander Shelley conducting the German

National Youth Orchestra in a programme

featuring Brahms’s Symphony No 2 and the

Porgy and Bess Symphonic Picture for

Orchestra by Gershwin arranged by Robert

Russell Bennett. Then the headline for

September is of course Alan Gilbert inally

o icially stepping into his much-anticipated

new role as Chief Conductor of the

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, and

unsurprisingly he’s doing so with a bang:

a three-week #KLINGTnachGILBERT or

#SOUNDSlikeGILBERT festival consisting of

six programmes combining traditional and

new repertoire, to give a taste of the musical

journey ahead. Opening Night is live streamed,

and kicks o with the Symphony No 1 of

Hamburg native Brahms, followed by the

world premiere of a new work – Frontispiz für

Orchester – by the NDR’s 201920 Composer-

in-Residence, Unsuk Chin. The programme

then concludes with three emotionally

charged 20th-century works from Gilbert’s

American homeland: Bernstein’s rarely-

performed-in-Germany Symphony No 1

Jeremiah, Ives’s The Unanswered Question,

and Varèse’s visionary Amériques. Catch it

either on the orchestra’s website, its Facebook

page, or via the ndr website in cooperation

with Arte.

elbphilharmonie.de, facebook.com/

elbphilharmonie.hamburg/, ndr.de/eo

Verdi

Francisco Negrín has reacted to the still

frequent criticism of this opera’s libretto

as naïve and unsophisticated by staging

a straightforward version which

concentrates unapologetically on its

story. There are no attempts either to

Verdi’s Il trovatore returns to the countryinwhichit’ssetfora newproductionatMadrid’sTeatroReal

ARCHIVE OPERA REVIEW

provide extra realism by moving to a

more modern setting (Franco’s Spain has

become popular) or even abandoning

naturalism altogether. Believing with

justifi cation that fi re is a dominant image

in the opera – think of Azucena’s and

Ferrando’s narratives of the burnt child,

or Manrico’s heaven-storming aria

‘Di quella pira’ – he provides a lit fl ame

onstage the whole time within a unit set

of walls and a pillar-cum-stake with fi re

projection. Actors portraying the child

Azucena burned by mistake and her

murdered mother appear when they are

mentioned in the text. The male chorus

of soldiers and gypsies look as if they

have been working with fi re.

This ‘no tricks’ approach is backed by

especially strong musical contributions

from Maria Agresta’s Leonora (we’re

reminded that this demanding role is

almost a bel canto one) and Ekaterina

Semenchuck’s Azucena (real singing as

opposed to the habitual vocal growling).

Maurizio Benini conducts effi ciently

and unhysterically. Unfortunately on

the night streamed there are

distracting lapses in the stage action:

the sword fi ghting of Francesco Meli’s

serviceable Manrico and Ludovic Tézier’s

disappointing di Luna is almost comical.

Mike Ashman

Available to view for free at operavision.eu until

January 5, 2020