In search of the perfect Brahms' First

Brahms' Symphony No. 1 is one of those rare pieces I can listen to over and over again, without ever getting bored. There's so much drama, anxiety and (eventually) affirmation in the piece that I would gladly travel abroad to hear different performances of it. So I did.

Brahms' First is often mockingly called Beethoven's Tenth, so it was a fitting conclusion to Bonn's Beethovenfest last month. The 50-year-old Beethovenhalle in the former West-German capital is an ugly and dated barn with poor sightlines and only okay acoustics. A new hall is planned, and several submissions by famous architects were on display. A decision regarding a new Beethovenhalle is expected shortly. I personally like Richard Meier's design best overall, though Zada Hadid's interior is certainly most striking. Detailed renderings of all four contestants can be found here.

The Mahler Chamber Orchestra (MCO), the elite touring orchestra founded by the nowadays elusive Claudio Abbado in 1997, was led by Calfiornian Kent Nagano for this outing. Under him, Brahms lost all pretention and genteelness. What the listener got was a frantic version with plenty of rough edges. The MCO played well, though I'm not convinced this piece lends itself well to chamber-sized forces.

Before intermission, we (again fittingly) got one of Beethoven's last completed works, the Große Fuge, in (I believe) Leopold Stokowski's string orchestration - again I wasn't convinced this is the optimal instrumentation - in my experience the sharp edges and "ugly" extremities and contrasts of the piece are muted by increased size. Richard Strauss' Metamorphosen, a 1945 eulogy for the destroyed Munich Opera House (the so-called Goethehaus) scored for just 23 strings, meandered too much, conveying to the public too little of its acute sense of loss. 3/5

By contrast, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Brahms 1st in Paris featured 60 players in the string section alone (though also just 20 other instrumentalists). With Principal Conductor Bernard Haitink at the helm, this indeed was the stately and perhaps genteel Brahms that made (and still make) him to be considered a bit of a musical conservative. Nonetheless, with an orchestra as resounding and technically flawless as Chicago's (by far America's best to my ears), there is no need for adventuresome interpretations - one had the feeling this is simply how the music was written, played to perfection.

Flutist Mathieu Dufour's ability to soar over the 60-strong string orchestra was baffling, and his fluid lines were delightful. The famous Chicago brass delivered with its chorale in the finale, at first allowing the slightest hesitation only to respond as affirmatively in the few bars before Haitink lowered his baton to accept a tumultuous standing ovation. No such ovation had taken place after the first half, a dry performance of Mozart's Symphony No. 41 that suggested once more that it's not until the big Romantic works that classic orchestras like the CSO are in their element. 4/5

I feel compelled to add a little coda on the French: while I still find several aspects of the France and the French insufferable (such as unfathomable rudeness, dirty streets, the poor quality of information and communication, the proliferation of loitering youths, the pervasive smell of urine and the French' ardent commitment to monoculturalism and all things French being superior), I have to say I did appreciate two things in my recent travels to Belgium's southerly neighbor:






- Audiences were particularly well-behaved in both Paris and Lille, with very limited coughing, whispering, etc. Furthermore, French audiences know how to dress up. Effortless style seems innate here where it would seem artificial in Germany, Holland and Belgium. Moreover, there is no stuck-up Besserwisserschaft in France like there is in Germany or Austria. Audiences are sincere and jovial, won't shush you preemptively or unnecessarily. I also think it's worth a mention that the French have moving to better (emtpy) seats down to an art, with proper audience migrations during the pre-concert announcements.













- Both the Salle Pleyel in Paris and the Opéra in Lille are beautiful, recently renovated buildings. Classical music may not be as engrained in everyday life here the way it is in Germany, France certainly is making inroads. Furthermore, the physical surroundings of the above buildings, the French inner city, is making great strides in livability and environmental awareness, as cars (even those cute deux-chevaux) are slowly but surely banished.

Thus concludes my ode to the French, an overdue reevaluation of a country that I will never be on the best of terms with, but admittedly isn't without its good sides, (cheap shot alert) unlike New Jersey.