The Munich Philharmonic brought two of Tchaikovsky’s piano concertos to the stage of the new Isarphilharmonie: The Piano Concerto No. 2 in G major opens both concert evenings, its better-known predecessor in B minor the Sunday matinee, followed by Bruckner’s 6th Symphony. The latter is similarly affected by the underdog effect as Tchaikovsky’s Second Piano Concerto; in its entirety it cannot be clearly assigned to either the middle or the late creative phase of Bruckner; in its individual sentences it is bursting with contradictions and contradictions. Perhaps that is why it is not ranked among the audience favorites at the reception, but Bruckner himself described it as his “cheeky” symphony.
With the cheeky triplets in pianissimo, the opening bars of the symphony are no easy task for the violins; the excellent acoustics of the new hall relentlessly reveal any asynchrony. After the sublime “Majestoso”, the strings come together in the second, “very solemn” movement in a highly romantic vibrato, with the precision and unity of the bass group in particular making one sit up and take notice. While the audience was able to bathe in a sound carpet made up of closely interwoven motifs during the first two movements, the Scherzo and Finale tend to present them with a sonic patchwork quilt with contrasting dynamics, motifs and tonality.
His fingers run like there are more than ten
Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 2 is no less challenging, but less so on the listener than on the player. The young Frenchman Alexandre Kantorow has taken on this task. Without rushing, he overcomes the insane speed of the first movement, running his fingers over the keyboard as if it were more than ten. Sometimes he leans back with pleasure, maintains close contact with concertmaster Naoka Aoki, who leads courageously and motivates her vocal group to work together. With a warm tone and a lot of feeling, she creates the solo part of the second movement, forms a unit with Kantorow and the solo cellist Floris Mijnders, so that one can speak more of a trio with orchestral accompaniment than of a soloist with orchestra. Kantorow thanks the enthusiastic audience with two encores.
Mao Fujita from Tokyo, who is just 22 years old, gives himself completely to the orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto on Sunday morning. He accompanies his fellow musicians with direct eye contact, rocks with the orchestral parts and takes on phrases like a humble hinge between the grand piano and the orchestra. His hands never play in the purely technical autopilot, head and sensation are always audibly connected. Fujita succeeds in channeling all of his energy through his wrists and draining it into his fingers, depending on the phrasing, before this energy is immediately recycled for the next note. In addition to so much virtuosity, one can see above all the joy of playing that is transferred to the orchestra. The audience rewarded his performance with thunderous applause before the last note could emerge from the grand piano.