The Concertgebouw Orchestra and Daniele Gatti: keeping the tradition alive

Given Bruckner’s unbridled reverence for Wagner’s music, prefacing his monumental symphonies with orchestral excerpts from the Bayreuth master’s operas is an obvious programming choice. Playing the Prelude to Act III and Karfreitagszauber from Parsifal before Bruckner’s 9th Symphony, Daniele Gatti and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra highlighted both Bruckner’s indisputable debt to Wagner and the Austrian composer’s profound originality. There are many details linking these two final works in their composers’ oeuvre: Bruckner employs the same massive orchestral apparatus as Wagner, including the aural effect of the Wagner tubas; his usage of quite shocking chromatic dissonances, such as the astounding leap at the very beginning of the Adagio, is even more daring than Wagner’s; the same, chromatically challenging, “Dresdner Amen” sequence of six notes is quoted in Bruckner's 9th and is the source for the Holy Grail leitmotiv in Parsifal.

But all these individual connection elements – that could have been easier perceived if the evening’s intermission had been eliminated – are less important than the overall idea of quest that is an essential trait of both works. The Prelude to Act III of Parsifal represents the hero’s wanderings in search of the Grail’s Castle where the spear-wounded Amfortas is waiting for his healing. Musically, it’s a complex journey in search of a difficult-to-find tonic safe haven. The Concertgebouw instrumentalists were able to communicate with great conviction the sense of steady and inexorable convergence. The strings played as one body with their trademark mellifluous, velvety sound. The brass was never overbearing. Similar to Wagner’s prelude, it took Bruckner more than half of the Langsam, feierlich Adagio to reach the E Major climax and that only temporarily. The composer, very conscious of his own frailty and eager to finish the symphony before the encounter with “Dem lieben Gott”, still took a terribly long meandering path to reach this point, journeying through uncharted harmonic transitions.

Daniele Gatti has an extraordinary ability to shape details and to control orchestral color. The last bars of this transcendent, otherworldly music, looking back to the scores of the 7th and 8th symphonies, were truly heart wrenching. However, the conductor might not have the necessary patience, long term vision, and deep sense of piety to be able to reconstruct the musical cathedral that Bruckner built ad maiorem Dei gloriam. His approach of the summits was occasionally more Sisyphean than able to “telescope” the phrases from one height to the next in this most wonderful and challenging of Bruckner’s Adagios.

Gatti’s more mercurial, operatic style worked very well in the Scherzo, played right after the Feierlich, misterioso, without any pause. The four repetitions of the “demonic” theme were rendered with an utmost convincing force. No edges were smoothed in the transitions between ponderous and delicate passages. The Trio was truly dance enticing, showcasing again the ensemble’s cohesiveness. The orchestra’s deep experience in this music, dating to the golden era of Eduard van Beinum, was evident. Oboist Ivan Podyomov was as outstanding here as he was throughout the entire performance.

Chief conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra since 2016, Daniele Gatti is proving to be a great standard-bearer for the traditional values of one of the world’s greatest ensembles. A very talented and thorough musician, he is fully capable to lead these wonderful performers beyond their area of traditional expertise, the music of Mahler, Bruckner, Richard Strauss. Let’s hope to witness their excellence in an expanded repertory on their next, eagerly expected, visit to New York.