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| German
reviews
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"Under Mr. Nagano, the fragments [of Debussy's Martyre de
St. Sébastien] came across as a cogent and riveting entity.
He has a way of coaxing a particular sound from almost any orchestra
he conducts: resonant and penetrating without being forced or indulgently
lush...Going from this to an incandescent, sensual yet deftly controlled
account of Scriabin's Kaleidoscopic Poem of Ecstacy was another
inspired programming choice. Things are good again at the Montreal Symphony" "This symphony has always been one of Kent Nagano's strongest
interpretations, and here, with a superlative recording, he commits
it to disc in a splendid manner, showing his finest qualities as he
did in a recent Berlioz disc. The huge first movement is never allowed
to sprawl, and the blend of strings and brass is outstanding. Nagano
is a master of creating the tension this movement demands. He can relax,
too, as he demonstrates in the lighter middle movements." "This man is humbleness itself. Never he would even think about
cutting short a singer. His conducting is noble and of a filigrane,
celestial weightlessness. And what mixtures of instruments, shadings,
soon again imploding elucidations can be heard in this aisle of quietness." "Nagano gives an absolutely superb reading of the Schönberg,
the melodic lines shaped with affection, the complex textures perfectly
and fastidiously balanced, but with a thrilling sense of through-composed
drive and purpose as strong as in the Brahms. There's a gratifying number
of good competing versions but this probably knocks even Karajan's classic
recording with the Berlin Philharmonic, my favourite until now, off
the top spot." "...Kent Nagano marks his debut as conductor of Munich's Staatsoper
with a double bill: Richard Strauss' Salome followed by a world
premiere of Wolfgang Rihm's Das Gehege which makes thematic
and musical references to the Strauss opera. Reinhard J. Brembeck is
deeply impressed. "Finally the conductor has arrived in Munich.
His orchestra, which after years with Zubin Mehta had abandoned itself
to great flowing feeling, suddenly sounds interesting down to the last
detail. In Nagano, Munich finally has a conductor who is not only willing
and able to revive great traditions but also to place them in a contemporary
context, investing them with new meaning"." "In a program note, Placido Domingo suggests that in Parsifal
the conductor can be the star of the show; in LA, this is arguably
the case. Over the years, Kent Nagano has turned the LA Opera Orchestra
into one of the finest groups of its type in the country, and this Parsifal
was one of its most impressive efforts. Under Nagano's baton, the orchestra
played with a fluency and muscularity that endowed Wagner's allusive
poem with dramatic coherence and explored the whole emotional range
of the drama. Especially notable were those passages where urgent tremolos
on the lower strings reveal the abyss of anxiety that constantly underlies
and threatens to engulf the ecstatic vision evoked by so much of the
score." "Kent Nagano is the ideal interpreter of the work, not only because
he was Bernstein's pupil. He is simply one of the most generous, mentally
agile conductors of the younger generation." "The orchestral performance is superb, and not just in the fathomless
depths of the Meditations; the chorus is as spellbinding as the young
boy soprano's solos. Nagano manages convincingly to create the music's
final transformation, with the help of a quadraphonic sound effect,
into a kind of spiritual peace." "Rather than hitting you with the music, he made you listen to
it and offered transparent textures that brought out Mahler’s
refinements of orchestration... Under Nagano's guidance, the musicians
voiced this music with consistent eloquence. But no power was spared
to bring the symphony to its tremendous and overwhelming conclusion." "In all, Nagano's was a magnificent Mahler interpretation. This
memorable concert demonstrated that the Japanese-American conductor
is a wonderful musician, that the Montreal Symphony Orchestra is bound
to flourish under his leadership." "Already at the opening measures is one aware that this is something
extraordinary. Kent Nagano allows the deep organ stops to stretch, and
charges them with a high voltage, like sparkling power lines."
"Nagano's performance is of exceptional quality, with a commendable
level of concentrated intensity maintained even in the hushed pianissimo
episodes. Though less concise than the later versions, it never seems
too lengthy, rambling, or deficient in progression. Indeed, it is lovingly
shaped and moulded… It is… well-proportioned, sharply imaged,
and energetic." "His (Nagano) orchestra plays with unfailing sensitivity and intensity
for its chief. This bodes well for Nagano's coming post in Munich." "Nagano has proved himself wonderfully alive to the iridescent
splendours of Stravinsky's instrumentation. This allowed him to balance
the wealth of exotic colour and narrative details while awakening a
sense of wonder and fantasy in the audience." "Kent Nagano's concert with the Russian National Orchestra is
not just a musical event, it is a landmark.... Any performance of a
conductor from the highest league with a Russian orchestra makes history,
but in this case we have seen not just a single performance but evidence
of a regular collaboration." "Nagano was playing with timbres skillfully, placing unexpected
accents which were articulated by the orchestra with great precision....
It was brilliant playing, in which Nagano and the RNO fulfilled every
expectation." "From the first notes of Liszt's symphonic poem 'Les Preludes'
it became clear that the conductor would leave not a single bar, not
a single note to flow routinely on its own. The orchestra followed his
every gesture with utmost attention as it was striving to perceive and
convey the feeling of wonder and fresh emotion which Nagano elicited
at every turn of his musical thought." "Nagano's experience in the theatricality of opera - he is perhaps
best known for his opera recordings - shone through in bold attacks
and treatments of rhythm. The audience was now enamoured... and
when the work was done, the crowd roared its approval." "Kent Nagano rules? The American conductor certainly showed
that he can last night in a much-anticipated deput with the Montreal
Symphony Orchestra... If the MSO can sound as good as this in Place
des Arts, do we need a new concert hall? Dangerous man, this Nagano." |