It is a beautiful program that the Munich Symphony Orchestra and its conductor Nodoka Okisawa (the orchestra’s artist in residence this season) have devised for their concert in the Prinzregententheater: Bohuslav Martinů’s Oboe Concerto H. 353, Igor Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite and Arthur Honegger’s Fourth Symphony . Music of the 20th Century. Modern (although Stravinsky’s suite is also 100 years old) and without interspersing a Haydn symphony or the like out of conciliation, as is often done.
As soon as oboist Zurab Gvantseladze steps onto the podium, cheers erupt. There seem to be fans present. But he deserves the encouragement. His solo part is extremely agile – and this becomes all the more clear as the solo instrument and orchestra often take turns and the oboe can unfold its sound in extended, only subtly grounded monologues. This creates an almost recitative-like effect. At the same time, this concerto comes across as a hybrid of a solo concerto and a sonata due to the important accompanying role played by the piano as part of the orchestra. This creates interesting inner-musical references and ensures an overall very transparent sound, which Okisawa and the symphony musicians succeed fabulously.
Very similar to Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite, which oscillates so wonderfully between old style and its forms and modernity. Toccata and historically low-vibrato string playing here, jazz-like trombone glissando there, plus a vivid alternation between orchestral tutti and solo passages. When this is played with such precision as here, the compositional intelligence of this work comes into its own.
This also applies to the final, ravishingly instrumented Honegger symphony (e.g. piano, glockenspiel, flutes and trumpet melodically united wandering on the carpet of strings), which exudes the discreet and at the same time delicately moving charm of a chamber symphony.