A hundred people are waiting in the hall of the De Oosterpoort concert hall. The average age is at least middle school, but the mood is playful as if on a school trip. “Yellow tickets here!” calls an usherette. Group after color group is allowed into the hall for an experiment by the North Netherlands Orchestra: these listeners sit among the musicians of the orchestra during a rehearsal of (movements from) Mahler’s Fifth Symphony.
“Be careful where you put your feet, a double bass can easily cost a hundred thousand euros,” warns an orchestra employee. She also hands out earplugs to everyone. “Not because what you are about to hear is not worth listening to, but because it may be very intense. Some of you sit between the violins, others in front of the horns or even right in front of the percussion. And that will… mean something.”
A kind of family
Antony Hermus has been the ideal guest conductor at the North Netherlands Orchestra for the ninth season: thorough, enthusiastic and with a passion for public outreach. He enjoys the experiment. “An orchestra is a kind of family and tonight you are part of it,” he says beforehand. “The balance of what you will hear will be far from optimal, but you will experience from within all the special frequencies of making music together.”
What in the opening part of the Fifth what is particularly striking is the concentration of the musicians: it is direct and complete. Sitting next to the cello group, it is also an ear-opener to experience the mournful motif from the second voice. The final movement is even downright hallucinatory from this point: the fugue jumps from instrument group to instrument group right around you. And as a harmonic bonus layer you can also hear how conductor Hermus uses the polyphony with a hoarse growling “pom-pom-pom!” ignites.
The cellists did not get nervous about the audience right next to them, says Jan-Ype Nota, deputy captain. “It took some getting used to the fact that we were now very far apart on stage to make room for the audience.” Conversely, as a listener you see details here that you miss in the audience. Like the velvet cloth that dangles around the neck of Nota’s cello. “That is to protect my sternum,” he explains. “Otherwise it will be blue tonight. Cellists always have holes in the front of their sweater: that’s where the wood pokes into your body.”
“I thought it was crazy!”, says Froukje Betten from Heereveen afterwards. She sat with the first violins. “Right next to me there was a very young violinist playing so beautifully… as if an angel was touching my ear. It kind of felt like that was special for me.”
Mahler debut
It will have been an unforgettable evening for Alexei Ogrintchouk: his very first Mahler symphony in front of the orchestra. Ogrintchouk has been impressing for 25 years with his hypnotic solos as principal oboist of first the Rotterdam Philharmonic, later (and still) of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
But since this year, Ogrintchouk is also chief conductor of the Phion symphony orchestra. The course of his second career thus follows the example of Jaap van Zweden, who from being concertmaster of the Concertgebouw Orchestra also became chief of the Orchestra of the Oosten (which later merged with Phion) and exactly 25 years ago his first Mahler in the same hall in Enschede. conducted.
That Ogrintchouk made his debut as a Mahler conductor with the complex Fifth Symphony deserves respect in itself. Does the ‘Trauermarsch’ transport? Is the famous ‘Adagietto’, Mahler’s love song for his later wife Alma, moving? Does the ‘Scherzo’ sway? Is the polyphony of the final movement clear? You can call it a trial by fire.
Lyrical strings
The tension was also noticeable in Music Center Enschede on Friday; Ogrintchouk even briefly dropped his baton. But even without it, his stroke is now more differentiated than that of much more experienced conductors. During this debut, the lyrical string melodies made the biggest impression, also in the ‘Adagietto’.
However, there was sometimes a lack of balance between the voices: the brass would stand out just too loud, or the bass group – which, by the way, sounded very nice. But this was the first of five performances, so there is still plenty of room for development. And much more important: Phion visibly plays well under Ogrintchouk, the musicians radiated freedom and pleasure.