James Gaffigan conducts in Munich: Far too good to be a stand-in
By Michael Bastian Weiß
Abendzeitung
November 7, 2022
At the Isarphilharmonie, James Gaffigan conducts two concerts with the BR Symphony Orchestra, and Seong-Jin Cho plays Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Gaffigan, Zubin Mehta’s replacement, implements multi-layered interpretations with BR Symphony Orchestra
Just standing in for the 86-year-old colleague at short notice is newsworthy here, because the younger man took on four full-blown works, none of which are sure-fire hits.
With virtually no preparation time, Gaffigan proves that he has his own unique take on music from the Viennese Classical period to the modern era – something that not all of his generational colleagues can be credited with so readily. And it is multi-layered interpretations that he realizes with the BR Symphony Orchestra, which is highly motivated throughout.
One could be happy about the fact that Gaffigan approaches Joseph Haydn without ideology. In his late Symphony in B flat major Hob. 105 “Concertante” the orchestra is important as a counterpart to the small concertino ensemble. However, no gimmicks should distract from the highly virtuosic parts of the soloists and should also be recognized without invoking historical informativeness.
The disparate ensemble seems like a newly invented instrument
The accompaniment subtlety of their colleagues makes the four BR Symphony musicians sparkle like gems: Mor Biron’s feisty bassoon is answered by the wide-ranging cantilenas of Ramón Ortega Quero’s oboe, while Giorgi Kharadze pulls off a veritable violoncello concerto at cruel heights.
The fantastic four are held together by violinist Radoslaw Szulc, and they harmonize so microscopically precisely, especially in the quiet passages, that the disparate ensemble seems like a newly invented instrument.
James Gaffigan, a long-time guest in Munich, has undergone a remarkable development. Always concerned with accuracy, he now leads the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra with a circumspection reminiscent of Mariss Jansons.
As with Haydn, Gaffigan avoids stylistic ideologies with Mahler as well
Strauss’s poem “Also Sprach Zarathustra” has not been heard with such polish for a long time; wonderfully pictorial, for example, how the sharply pitched orchestral basses seep into the stage floor after the tension-laden fanfares: the more expressive the silence, the more dazzling then, after the carefully constructed chorale, the brilliance of the high violins.
As with Haydn, Gaffigan avoids stylistic ideologies with Mahler. Symphony No. 5 gets by without clichés of discord. Instead, sky-high exuberance and ubiquitous disruptive fires are integrated into an exceedingly rich tonality that draws precisely from the orchestral center. This calls for a bravo for the excellently fading orchestra, special applause for the daring horn soloist Carsten Carey Duffin, and a “Chapeau!” for the multi-layered interpretation.
James Gaffigan should join the orchestra much more in the future.
You can listen to the concerts at www.br-klassik.de.
Read the full review in German here.
