Concert: Kent Nagano conducts the Munich Philharmonic – Munich

By Klaus P Richter

When Kent Nagano throws himself into the elegant illusionism of Richard Strauss in the Isarphilharmonie, the Munich Philharmonic are in their element. The suite “The bourgeois as a nobleman” is more of a comedic scene, inspired by Molière’s stage magic and Lully’s musical esprit. As always, Strauss transforms everything into ingeniously instrumented chimes with characteristic solos but also fairytale idylls, such as in the intermezzo of the second act: “galante e grazioso”. And Nagano turned it into savory noblesse.

While it was Lully’s inspiration here, Edvard Grieg followed an inspiration from Schumann with his Piano Concerto in A minor. He admits it himself when his Concerto in A minor made an “indelible impression” on him from his years in Leipzig. Jan Lisiecki then threw himself congenially into the thunderous chord cascades of the spectacular beginning. Rather lanky in stature, the 27-year-old Canadian with Polish roots proved to be a grandiose firehead, who struck sparks from everything rhapsodic with hot brio without ever becoming striking, and who made elegiac with breathing phrasing into a spellbinding story. But he also hit the dreamy D flat major cantilenas of the Adagio before indulging in the finale’s tumult of the last movement. A thoughtful Chopin moderated as an encore.

Finally, the Philharmoniker performed another Bach inspiration: his C minor organ passacaglia in the powerful orchestral format by Ottorino Resphigi. He transforms the queen of the old basso ostinato forms into opulent orchestral frenzy. In doing so, the unwavering pulse beat as a measure of the tempo, with which something like the world structure sounds in Bach, falls to a more relaxed espressivo-agogic. But in return the inexhaustible potential of Bach’s music is released. applause.

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