Happy Birthday Leonard Slatkin: the Orchestre national de Lyon celebrates

Leonard Slatkin turned 80 last month, bringing him into a select group of highly active octogenarian conductors. Slatkin was Music Director of the Orchestre national de Lyon from 2011 to 2017 and retains the title of Honorary Music Director, so the orchestra are in the mood to celebrate, with a programme of three concerts focused on American music. The first of these featured that most ebullient of American symphonies, Aaron Copland’s Third.

The concert opened with Timepiece, by Slatkin’s wife Cindy McTee. It made for an entertaining curtain raiser, with clocks, watches and alarms impersonated by timpani and three percussionists backed by an orchestral texture that thickens steadily with the addition of brass. The orchestra showed good timbre and cohesion; amongst many notable orchestral soloists, principal oboist Clarisse Moreau stood out. Her brightness of timbre and flexible phrasing would be a feature of the whole evening.

The Shostakovich Cello Concerto no. 2 in G major and its soloist Sheku Kanneh-Mason could not have represented a more contrasting mood to the American pieces around it. With a considerably smaller orchestra, the opening was dark, nocturnal, rich. Kanneh-Mason was the epitome of introspection, his gaze often lifted high away from his instrument and the orchestra, as if removing himself from the music-making, turning it into an out-of-body experience. The cello sound he produced was luxurious, particularly in the lower registers, smooth and reassuring.

Shafts of brightness were added by the harps. The concerto has many duets where the cello plays with another instrument or section; the balance in these was impeccable. I particularly noted a passage for cello and flute towards the end of the first movement. Balance was maintained as the concerto becomes more urgent towards its ending.

The Copland showed Slatkin and this orchestra at their very best, continuing to achieve perfect balance with much bigger forces, including 17 brass. The weighting of the brass was superb, imposing but never overbearing. Copland has a way of broadening the music which transports one to great, open American landscapes – something which stems in no small measure from familiarity with Western film music whose composers Copland inspired.

Slatkin is a good conductor to watch. His style is brisk and uncomplicated; his pulse is clear; he picks out sections of the orchestra for emphasis, without attempting to micro-manage every aspect simultaneously. His demeanour is genial and enthusiastic and shows few signs of aging, with even the occasional bounce on the podium.

His ability to shape Copland's music was exceptional. We could start from a calm passage and somehow arrive at full brass-laden throttle without being quite aware of how we got there. We could then move from bombast to a rather chirpy wind and percussion passage. Balance was spot on for the most unlikely combinations of instruments (like a trombone-flute duet). His precise control over the diminuendo of a massive roll of bass drum and timpani was a conducting masterclass.

From the loveliest of nocturnes in the third movement, we arrived at the finale and the most recognisable music in the Third Symphony, an adaptation of Copland’s earlier Fanfare for the Common Man. It starts with a gentle rendition of the theme on flute and clarinet before swelling to its full exuberance and a joyful ending, rendered at the full power that can only be achieved when all of an orchestra are in perfect synchronisation.

Broad grins on everyone’s faces, hugs and an impromptu rendering of Happy Birthday made clear how much warmth there is between these musicians and their retired but apparently evergreen Music Director. Happy Birthday, Leonard.