La Orquesta Elbphilharmonie llena de misterio el Festival de Santander

By Matteo Conti, 23 August 2018

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Reviewed at Palacio de Festivales de Cantabria: Sala Argenta, Santander on 21 August 2018

Mahler, Symphony no. 10 in F sharp major: Adagio

Mahler, Des Knaben Wunderhorn: excerpts

Brahms, Symphony no. 2 in D major, Op.73

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester

Christian Gerhaher, Baritone

Krzysztof Urbański, Conductor

Bychkov's uneven Mahler 8 at the Elbphilharmonie

Alexander Hall, 11th April

Doing justice to the vast scale of Mahler's "Symphony of a Thousand" is itself the mightiest of tasks. Semyon Bychkov and his NDR forces only partially succeed.

***11

A searingly powerful Duke Bluebeard's Castle at the Elbphilharmonie

Alexander Hall, 9th February

Alan Gilbert and his NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester partner first Igor Levit, and then Michelle DeYoung and Gerald Finley, in a night of outstanding music-making devoted to the music of Bartók.

*****

Two Sergeis with Vinnitskaya and Valčuha at the Elbphilharmonie

Alexander Hall, 14th September

Rachmaninov and Prokofiev not only shared a first name. In their individual ways they helped define Russianness too. Anna Vinnitskaya, Juraj Valčuha and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester are here the exponents.

***11

Music that makes the flesh creep: Kochanovsky's powerful Prokofiev 6

Alexander Hall, 20th April

Three diverse works written within 15 years of each other, by Kodály, Poulenc and Prokofiev, given with panache by the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the amazing Jussen brothers and Stanislav Kochanovsky.

****1

Operatic Wagner and symphonic Shostakovich in the Elbphilharmonie

Alexander Hall, 15th September

Conducting the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, the Latvian Andris Poga reveals a surer hand in Shostakovich's final symphonic statement than in the partnering of Nina Stemme in Wagner, where her big voice often missed the essential intimacy.

***11

Death and what comes after: Alan Gilbert's Mahler 2 in Hamburg

Alexander Hall, 2nd September

Opening the new season, Alan Gilbert and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester send out a clear message in Mahler's Second Symphony, both lyrically shaped and dramatically inflected.

****1

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Matteo Conti

Nacido en una familia de artistas, de madre pianista y padre pintor, a los diez años comenzó a tocar el piano en Italia, país donde nació. Dos años más tarde se trasladó a España y comenzó estudios oficiales de música en el Conservatorio Jesús de Monasterio de Santander. Tras ello, cursó el Título Superior de Piano en Oviedo y a continuación el máster de profesorado. Actualmente realiza el Máster de Musicología en la Universidad de La Rioja, actividad que compagina con sus otras pasiones: la enseñanza y la filosofía.