SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL
March 5, 2005

Kurt Masur shows fine control of French orchestra, Kravis audience
Lawrence A. Johnson

It's not unusual to see a phalanx of cars with New York license plates filing into the Kravis Center for events this time of year. Yet the Empire State's seasonal residents were out in even greater numbers than usual Wednesday night for the Orchestre National de France concert led by Kurt Masur.

The conductor clearly remains a favorite with Manhattan audiences. During his 11-year tenure as music director of the New York Philharmonic, Masur is widely credited with restoring corporate spirit, tonal sheen and discipline to an ensemble that sorely needed all those things after the desultory final years of the Zubin Mehta era.

The German maestro's fire, musical integrity and back-to-basics approach may be just the right qualities at the right time for France's national orchestra as well. The French ensemble has historically been regarded as a mediocre and fractious bunch, with several major conductors departing in exasperation after short, uneventful tenures.

Masur's no-nonsense leadership appears to be paying off. In its 70th season, the roster is rich with young and enthusiastic players, who appear to be thriving under their veteran conductor. The orchestra displayed a lean brilliance, corporate virtuosity and precision that have not been its hallmarks in the past.

Masur's iron authority also helped with extra-musical matters. With the Kravis coughers threatening to bury the Allegretto's hushed opening in Franck's Symphony in D minor, a brief glance out at the house from the bearded maestro was sufficient to quell the bronchial malefactors.

Franck's uber-chromatic opus has long been a Masur calling card, and the conductor led a refined, scrupulously prepared performance that showed his long experience with the score. Rarely will one hear this music so impeccably balanced, the inner lines emerging with remarkable clarity even in the most sumptuous passages.

The Allegretto had the requisite glow and ardor, with a notably elegant English horn solo. At times Masur's fastidious direction seemed at odds with the rhapsodic essence of the work. Still, even with a lack of sonorous weight, the symphony's brilliance was clearly conveyed, with committed playing by all departments.

The audience's bronchial explosions and epiglottal guffaws were so comically over the top in Ravel's G-Major Concerto that soloist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and several players nearly broke up laughing. Fortunately the French pianist kept sufficient composure to deliver a scintillating rendition of this Gallic warhorse.

The French pianist's idiomatic touch was complete, with seamless shifts from the opening's playful joie de vivre into the pensive bluesy episodes. In the rapt Adagio, Thibaudet's flowing, unsentimental approach underlined how effective this music is when rendered with poised simplicity. Thibaudet's articulation and energetic drive were superb in the syncopated finale, with Masur and his players providing comparably vital support.

The magnificent performance of La Valse showed the partnership of Masur and his players at its finest. In Ravel's bleak, chilling deconstruction of the Viennese waltz, Masur simply obeyed the composer's markings and let this music speak for itself without bombast. With hairpin rubatos and a natural way of easing into the waltz rhythms, Masur and the French musicians evoked the fleeting ballroom shadows and fin-de-siecle unease, from the subterranean low strings to the ghostly windswept flute.

Masur returned to the stage to see much of the audience trudging to the exits, exhibiting the awe-inspiring rudeness the Kravis venue is famous for. He declined, quite justifiably, to offer an encore to a sea of exiting backs.