ANDANTE.COM
September 10, 2003

The Orchestre National de France Goes Teutonic
Kurt Masur and his Parisian band give a very idiomatic performance of an echt deutsch program.
by Frank Cadenhead

This opening program of the Orchestre national de France's season, the second under Kurt Masur's direction, was thick with the heavy cream of the Mitteleuropäische musical tradition – and it was surprising how well this quintessentially Gallic orchestra could make a listener believe that it had been born and bred to that repertory. The ONF players, left dispirited following their virtual abandonment by previous music director Charles Dutoit, sound reborn under Masur's stewardship and play with a newfound engagement and skill. Last year you could already sense the new spirit; this year, they are playing like an orchestra of the top rank, and their energy reverberates around the hall and engages both the artists on stage and the audience.

Deborah Voigt, engaged for the evening as a last-minute replacement for an indisposed Julia Varady, flew in from Vienna, where she had sung Isolde at the Vienna State Opera the night before. (She has done similar programs with Masur at the New York Philharmonic, so she didn't need much time to prepare.) With a marvelous "Dich, teure Halle" from Tannhäuser, she demonstrated once again that she is the leading Wagnerian soprano of her generation. Her Liebestod was delivered with unequaled assurance and a glorious tone – and was rapturously received by the audience. Announcing her encore with an enthusiastic "One more time!" (in English), Voigt sang another "Dich, teure Halle," this time with an extra measure of warmth. There was a noticeable twinkle in her eyes as she repeated the first line, "Dich, teure Halle, grüss ich wieder" ("Dear hall, I greet thee again").

Masur and the orchestra performed the well-traveled Tannhäuser Overture and Tristan Prelude with a knowing command of the idiom. The conductor's comfort with the Germanic repertory was even more in evidence after the intermission in the Bruckner Third Symphony. Most maestros who take on this composer's sprawling masterpieces – even Karajan and Furtwängler – seem to assume that the quiet passages between the blasting fortissimos are there just to provide contrast. But this music is not the 19th-century equivalent of heavy metal rock, with its cascading walls of sound; great Brucknerians such as Eugen Jochum, Carlo Maria Giulini – and Kurt Masur – understand that these tender interludes are an integral part of the musical tapestry and deserve their own loving attention. In this performance, for example, Masur lovingly shaped the Ländler interludes in the powerful Scherzo with humor and charm, so that the movement took on a new and much more elegant aspect.

The strings, woodwinds and even the sometimes-wayward ONF brass displayed a sound of warm, polished bronze. Most notably, they played with the measured gravity that traditionally characterizes orchestras from Berlin or Vienna, with a particular approach – as if playing always slightly behind the beat – that is rarely easy for "foreign" orchestras to grasp.