Suddenly it was a Rachmaninoff week: in Groningen the North Netherlands Orchestra played Rachmaninoffs with great pianist Leif Ove Andsnes Third Piano Concerto. In The Hague the public got Rachmaninoffs Second Symphony. Another similarity between Groningen and The Hague: both concert halls, De Oosterpoort and Amare, are not ideal for large, romantic symphonic repertoire.
With Leif Ove Andsnes, the NNO has acquired a big star. It may have helped that fellow countryman chief conductor Eivind Gullberg Jensen and Andsnes are acquaintances: both live in Bergen (Norway) and regularly exchange tips for their shared wine hobby, Andsnes told listeners of NPO Klassiek prior to the concert.
It Third Piano Concerto is known as one of the most difficult piano concertos. Andsnes plays with a preference for clarity and reason over timbre and romance. Only after a while does he become gentler and more lenient. The NNO plays on the ball, sharp and quite agile. It’s just a shame that they regularly overlook transitions in the musical storyboard. Moments in which the tail end of one theme must be a preparation for the next theme are too often rushed over, which hinders the emotional tension. Jensen (who’s posture and movements (and hairstyle) are pleasantly reminiscent of a conducting Hans Otjes) is kind to his orchestra. He wants to stroke a musical story from the orchestra, while it could use a little dragging. Andsnes does the opposite; When he thinks a new theme is important, he plays the first chord nicely, as if to say: “There, now I’m going to tell you something.” Still, it’s just not enough to be compelling.
Instead of the usual order – first solo concert, then symphony – Andsnes will only play after the break. Sibelius’ sounds in front of it First Symphony. In addition to Jensen’s cautious approach, the misty acoustics of De Oosterpoort also take revenge, in which the violins sound a bit hoarse and you simply do not hear parts of the lower sound spectrum. For example, on the low strings of the celli, you cannot focus your ears. While the flutes and oboes sound as if they are honking in your ear. Although it does make the woodwinds effective, if they have to sound equally dissonant together.
Longing for love (and a warm concert hall)
The large hall in Amare, the new building to which the Residentie Orchestra is still getting used to, does not make it easy for her orchestra. But these acoustics are extremely detailed. In row fifteen you can still hear the timbre changes of one cello pick. That may seem ideal, and it is if the orchestra plays very softly; then the walls seem to sparkle like a cut diamond. But, ‘very soft’ does not happen that much in music for large orchestra. When you turn it up a little, the acoustics don’t know where to put all the details and it seems as if the walls are absorbing all the heat from the orchestra, resulting in a very dry sound. And that’s exactly what you shouldn’t have, in the cloyingly sweet romantic lyric Second Symphony by Rachmaninoff.
This drought is a shame, especially because guest conductor Lawrence Renes lets the orchestra rise above itself with great agility on Friday evening. Here and there you hear how the rigid German style of their chief conductor Anja Bihlmaier is starting to sink into their muscles, but at other times it is beautiful; mobile and rolling, with harmonious crescendi and decrescendi, and a pleasant string sound, which makes you long for romance and, therefore, a warmer-sounding concert hall. With this level of play, there is hope that the Residence will eventually become friends with their new hall.
Applause for the effort
What appears to work well in the detailed Amarense acoustics is the piano concerto genre, because a piano is almost never displaced by the orchestra. Ralph van Raat plays the Dutch premiere of John Luther Adams’ piano concerto for Sibelius Prophecies of Stone. In the four parts, which always start on the lowest notes of the piano, there is no melody to be found; Instead, Adams repeats and develops atmospheres and shapes, such as two hands landing close to each other on the keyboard in all kinds of rising figures with an increasingly slightly higher median, which resemble the startup sounds of the old Playstation 1 and Windows Vista. The orchestra must play bitter, shrill sound blocks. It’s very unpleasant to listen to. Please note: unpleasant is not the same as bad. Unpleasant messages also need to be told. But it will not be clear what on Friday Prophecies of Stone then exactly has to say. It is at most fun to have heard this combination of sounds. The public in The Hague also seems to have understood little of it. Van Raat received half a minute of cool applause for his effort, just enough time to finish.