Soprano Karina Gauvin
Nobody officially called the TSO's Wednesday concert at Roy Thomson Hall "Quebec night" – but that's pretty much what it was.
Quebec has long been fertile ground for classical musicians – and if they can be coaxed up the St. Lawrence River on a regular basis, Toronto is better off for it.
On this occasion, there were two Québécois artists gracing the stage: soprano Karina Gauvin and conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni. And it was probably no coincidence that much of the evening's program had a distinctively Gallic flavour. Gabriel Fauré's Suite from Pelléas et Mélisande was followed by Benjamin Britten's French-language song-cycle Les Illuminations.
However, there's nothing French about Brahms's Symphony No. 4, which took up the second half of the program. And the resulting combination of musical styles mixed about as well as oil and water.
Fauré's suite began its life as incidental theatrical music, for Maurice Maeterlinck's play Pelléas et Mélisande, and was later reworked as an orchestral score. However, a snippet of Maeterlinck's text was retained in one movement, the Chanson de Mélisande.
It was in this short movement that Gauvin first appeared, not on stage but singing from a balcony. Her pure voice easily filled the hall – a harbinger of greater things to come.
As for Zeitouni, the mid-30sconductor wasted no time establishing himself as a man of strong musical ideas. In his hands, the orchestra's performance was fluid and well-shaped, with a touch of urgency to keep things moving forward. Here, the TSO's string section shone with a luminous yet transparent tone.
This section of the orchestra was even more prominently showcased in Les Illuminations, scored for strings only. Urged on by Zeitouni, the TSO's violins, violas, cellos and basses leapt into the piece with an entirely transformed sound: bright, aggressive and crisp.
It was an effectively arresting beginning to Britten's setting of nine symbolist poems by Arthur Rimbaud – and it set the pace for a dramatic reading. Refined and stylish solos from concertmaster Marc-André Savoie, principal violist Teng Li and principal cellist Joseph Johnson added lustre to an exciting performance.
And firmly at the centre of the excitement was Gauvin (now down on the stage). Singing from memory, she displayed an impeccable command of these challenging songs.
Gauvin has a mature voice that's clear, supple and strong in all registers. She has a rich palette of vocal colours, and seems to know about a hundred different ways to get from one note to another. Yet she's intelligent and artful with the formidable resources at her disposal, nurturing each of her phrases into a full, radiant bloom.
Zeitouni also has formidable resources at his disposal. However, when the program took a Germanic turn, these qualities weren't always forces for good.
To be fair, his reading of Brahms's Fourth did have some admirable qualities: He's very attentive to fluctuations of dynamics and tempo, and he likes to do interesting things with inner musical lines.
But from the opening movement his interpretation seemed willful and overwrought. He constantly pressed his musicians for more effect. Under his baton, the TSO often sounded forced, harsh and relentlessly driven forward.
Passages in the second movement that should have been allowed to breathe were urgently rushed through, as if Zeitouni thought the performance should have been further advanced than it was.
The third movement fared somewhat better: Here the conductor's sudden fortissimo outbursts were more appropriate. Yet by the time the final movement reached its laborious conclusion, I was glad it was over.
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra
- Karina Gauvin, soprano
- Jean-Marie Zeitouni, conductor
- At Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto on Wednesday
Editor's note: The Toronto Symphony's Orchestra's Marc-André Savoie was the concertmaster at Thursday's performance. Incorrect information appeared in an earlier online version of this story.
Special to The Globe and Mail