David Fray, a 29-year-old pianist who has been garnering acclaim both on record and in performance, was making his festival debut in Mozart’s Concerto No. 22 in E flat. He is a brilliant pianist... This work has more and deeper moods than some Mozart concertos, and Mr. Fray traced them knowingly at the second performance, on Saturday, ultimately emerging into pure Mozartean joy by way of a witty exit from the cadenza of the finale and a few late flourishes. (Mr. Fray, clearly a thoughtful pianist, played the pianist Edwin Fischer’s cadenzas, the one in the first movement being especially striking, but he might do well to work out some of his own.)
James R. Oestreich
The New York Times
[Mostly Mozart Festival]
He played the Concerto No. 22, K. 482, with surprising restraint, also with poetic insight, feathery dexterity and a subtly independent spirit. This was dreamy, delicately manicured, gently propulsive Mozart – Mozart illuminated with unexpected shifts of tone and dazzling shafts of detail. Fray added the jolt of harmonically rambling, quasi-romantic cadenzas by Edwin Fischer (1886-1960) that peppered introspection with bravado. Contemporary taste precludes this sort of indulgence, but, sympathetically supported by Bringuier and the band, Fray managed to make the anachronisms sing. A fine fling. (4 star rating)
Martin Bernheimer
Financial Times
[Mostly Mozart Festival]
The French pianist David Fray, making his New York Philharmonic debut, gave a sparkling performance of Ravel's Piano Concerto in G. His prodigious technique was breathtaking in the trill-laden first movement cadenza as well as in the breakneck finale, but he also played with nuanced sensitivity in the Adagio assai, preserving the separation of the persistent triple-meter rhythm in the left-hand and the melody in the right. Fray has said that he does not regard himself as a French pianist – he wishes to emulate Wilhelm Kempff – but his French birthplace, residence, musical training and idiomatic playing belie his disclaimer.
David M. Rice
classicalmusic.com
[New York Philharmonic, Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor]
Three distinct approaches to Schubert here - objective (Jonathan Biss), romantic (David Fray) and consolidation of both (Imogen Cooper). To say that Fray is the most novel shouldn't imply superficial excitement: He's a hugely imaginative pianist given to Byronic flights, and has both the personality and fingers to pull it off. Of the three discs, this is the one that showed me more aspects of the music that I'd never heard before.
David Patrick Stearns
Philadelphia Inquirer
[Moment Musicaux 1-6, D. 780; Impromptus 1-4, D. 899 (Virgin Classics CD)]
The French pianist David Fray contributed an alternately assertive and meditative account of the Ravel Piano Concerto in G. His musicality is much like Mr. Salonen's: direct and unaffected, and full of ideas about how to tap into a work’s essential spirit. In the first movement that meant couching the Stravinskian modal themes in dark, mysterious hues, occasionally brightening the textures in the score's more extroverted moments.
In the central Adagio assai the graceful, steady rhythm of Mr. Fray's left-hand accompaniment would have made the performance sound mechanistic, but for the singing tone and supple give and take of the top line. And in the explosive finale, with its undercurrents of 1920s jazz in the woodwinds, Mr. Fray, Mr. Salonen and the orchestra supplied an enlivening energy.
Allan Kozinn
The New York Times
[New York Philharmonic, Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor]
20 (PLUS) QUESTIONS WITH: Pianist David Fray
Though born in France, David Fray doesn't think of himself as a French pianist. His repertoire includes little French music. "I am a living melting pot," he told BBC Music Magazine, referring to his Czech, Polish, Spanish, French, Jewish, and Finnish roots. Moreover, his parents' love for Germanic culture inculcated the German repertoire in him from a young age. As he has summed up succinctly, "If, over my life, I can play all the works of Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Haydn, Brahms, and Schumann, then I shall be very happy." The legendary Wilhelm Kempff has been an especially important influence: "What I love about his playing is that he makes the piano sing and speak. That is my ultimate goal."
Voted "Newcomer of the Year 2008" by BBC Music Magazine, and the Echo Klassik Instrumentalist of the Year 2009, the charismatic pianist records exclusively for Virgin Classics. His debut album for the label, thought-provokingly pairing works by J.S. Bach and Pierre Bouez, was praised by the New York Times for its "lucid, sensitive and imaginative performances." His new recording of Schubert's Impromptus Op.90 and Moments Musicaux was issued in November shortly before his debut with the New York Philharmonic.
Fray discusses the music and performs selections from his Schubert album at www.frayschubert.com
1. A few works of classical music that you adore:
Bach passions and cantatas.
2. Classical music recordings that you treasure:
Recordings by Wilhelm Kempff, Wilhelm Furtwängler, and Carlos Kleiber
3. Favorite non-classical musicians and/or recordings:
The French singer Barbara; Frank Sinatra
4. Music that makes you cry – any genre:
Good music badly played
5. Definitely underrated work(s) or composer (s):
Ernst Krenek
6. Possibly overrated work(s) or composer (s):
Russian music
7. Live music performance (s) you attended – any genre – that you'll never forget:
Concerts by Radu Lupu, Maurizio Pollini, Riccardo Muti
8. A few relatively recent films you love:
The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke (Palme d'or 2009); Up by Pixar studios
9. A few films you consider classics:
Barry Lyndon and 2001 by Kubrick; Amarcord of Fellini
10. A book (or two) that is important to you (and why):
Pensees by Pascal
11. Thing(s) about yourself that you're most proud of:
Nothing
12. Thing(s) about yourself that you're embarrassed by:
Too many things
13. Three things you can't live without:
Music, art, love
14. "When I want to get away from it all I..."
I stay at home with my wife and two dogs
15. "People are surprised to find out that I..."
I am not such a Glenn Gould fan!
16. "My favorite cities are..."
Paris, France; Cortona, Italy; Venice Italy
17. "I have a secret crush on..."
Chocolate
18. "My most obvious guilty pleasure is..."
Spend my money to make gifts
19. "I'd really love to meet..."
Woody Allen; Meryl Streep; painter Lucian Freud
20. "I never understood why..."
People are so mean
BONUS QUESTION:
21. Question you wish someone would ask you (and the answer to that question):
Q: ????
A: Something clever and surprising
Abbert Imperato
Playbill Arts
Cleveland Orchestra makes familiar Mozart works feel new again at Blossom Music Center
...With a spiny-fingered technique, Fray enunciated every thinly textured item with graceful clarity and treated single notes in the Andante like radiant drops of liquid.
But the final Allegretto suited Fray best all around. There, everything benefited from his distinctive manner, and the pianist at last seemed truly playful. It was enough to make one want to hear the piece all over again...
Zachary Lewis
The Plain Dealer
[Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major]
Deux pianistes français enregistrant Bach au piano au même moment, avec le même orchestre, voilà qui n'est pas courant. Les programmes respectifs d'Hélène Grimaud et de David Fray ne partagent cependant qu'un seul concerto et proposent des projets totalement différents. La pre-mière présente un programme « à l'ancienne » où se répondent le Bach original et des transcriptions. Le second propose plus simplement quatre des sept concertos pour clavier du compositeur. La publication simultanée de ces deux disques ne peut pourtant pas empêcher la comparaison.
Dans son texte de présentation, Hélène Grimaud évoque l'émotion » et « la tendresse » inhérentes à la musique de Bach qu'elle fréquente depuis toujours et considère comme essentielle. Son coeur et son âme pensent « amour », « divin », « espérance », « courbe infinie » mais ses doigts disent tension, phrasés impérieux, Prokofiev. Conçu comme un lever de rideau, le Prélude n° 2 du Premier Livre du Clavier bien tempéré placé en ouverture laisse ainsi apparaître un univers inquiet, agité, rocailleux. Le nôtre ? La fugue, marquée par une conduite implacable, voire menaçante, n'apportera aucune consolation. Dans chacune des pièces de ce récital, la virtuosité prend toujours un ton comminatoire, souligné par le carillon du piano comme dans les épisodes solistes du concerto apparentés à des toccatas. Singulier par sa sévérité (finale du concerto, Prélude BWV 1006), ce Bach granitique se laisse difficilement approcher.
Plus amène et sociable, celui de David Fray entend ses concertos comme des moments de partage entre le soliste et les musiciens de l'orchestre. Aussi l'interprétation se montre-t-elle toujours généreuse, enthousiaste et contrastée. Les mouvements rapides séduisent par leur saine énergie, une humeur réjouissante (les finales) et un lyrisme de tous les instants. Aucune crispation ne vient durcir les phrasés de l'artiste qui se plaît par ailleurs à laisser le son s'épanouir. Les mouvements lents rappellent l'origine souvent violonistique de ces concertos et permettent à la main droite de dessiner des lignes mélodiques souples et fluides, jamais alourdies par la richesse de l'ornementation (admirables BWV 1055/2 et 1056/2). Hormis un orchestre assez peu expressif et avare de couleurs, ces deux disques n'ont décidément rien de commun.
Philippe Venturini
Le Monde de la Musique
The Latin verb concertare, from which derives "concerto", literally refers to the virtuosic struggle between soloist and accompanying orchestra. Glenn Gould so abhorred this adversarial slant that he was for some time reluctant to complete his exhaust ive coverage of Bach's keyboard works, considering the encouragement of virtuosic exhibitionism "sinful". On this recording of four of the composer's most celebrated piano concertos, David Fray seems to have no such qualms, loading the dice by assuming control of both piano and orchestra. Fray is a rising star of the new classical celebroeracy, with his saturnine Looks, his wild, romantic hair and his young actress wife all contributing to his profile. But his reputation is founded an talent, his Couch impressive in the A Major Concerto (BWV1055), where he deftly handies the limpid second movement in reflective manner, with the faintest of melancholic inferences, before summoning his forces to stalk the final movement's resolution in triumphant fashion. Sometimes, battles are there tobe won.
The Independent
Talented dedicated and assured, the pianist is a true artist in the making
Despite the energetic salvos that pepper the performances in his new recording of Bach's keyboard concertos. David Fray is one cool customer. In his alluring French accent he's explaining how he bagged a major deal with record giant Virgin Classics: 'Alain Lanceron from the company came backstage after a concert and, well, you know how it works... a few weeks later the deal was done.'
So, as easy as that then. But it was a discovery in the time-old fashion: Frenchman Fray was standing in for an indisposed Helene Grimaud at a concert in Paris, directing the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (German Chamber Orchestra of Bremen) from the keyboard in the D minor Concerto by Bach, in front of an audience of industry professionals who had come to see Grimaud. Less than three years later, his second disc on Virgin Classics has reunited him with the same orchestra and the same D minor Concerto.
The 27-year-old Fray studied in Paris, where he soon bagged some major awards. And it wasn't long before he was appearing with some precis big names. How big? Try Riccardo Muti and Pierre Boulez. 'The thing Muti and Boulez have in common is rigour. But if you see them in rehearsal, you see that they are very free also — free with colours, free with articulation. Those are the ideas these musicians confirmed for me.'
Fray's technical ability is remarkable, and his maturity in the face of Bach's concertos reinforces the tip offs that he's a major artist in the making. So how does he judge his own performances? Can he point to what made the man from Virgin Classics offer him a contract? 'I cannot say, you should ask him!' he laughs. 'Well, I can tell yon what I wish he was thinking, and that's that I have a strong orientation in the music of the German school — not only in terms of repertoire but also in my interpretations — and that I have a rapport with Bach.'
In fact, both of Fray's CDs for Virgin Classics have focused on Bach. Does be feel uneasy about immortalising his performances of the great Johann Sebastian on record at such a young age? 'My opinions on recording have changed. At one point I thought you had to show all the things that the piece could be, and with time I understood that actually you have to make a choice and that a recording just becomes a picture of that one moment in your artistic life. If you think a recording will be for eternity, then it's not good.'
Fray points to pianists including Rudolf Serkin and Wilhelm Kempff whom he has admired, pianists whose performances on record have clearly shaped his own affinity with the German school of pianism. He also skips over the issue of music from his native France with a telling ambivalence. 'My teacher Jacques Ranvier was a great pianist in French music. I played a little bit when he asked me to, but he didn't force me.' Evidence, if it were needed, that this pianist is truly forging his own path.
Myleene Klass
Classic FM
Gould kehrt nicht zurück
Er hat sie angefasst, der Filou! "Visitiert", wie die Franzosen sagen, im dreifachen Wortsinn: besucht, befingert, erforscht. Der Filou ist Glenn Gould. Zumindest nennt ihn so der siebenundzwanzigjährige französische Pianist David Fray, oder vielmehr der Filmemacher Bruno Monsaingeon hat behauptet, dass Fray ihn so genannt und gesagt habe, dieser Filou habe sie visitiert, nämlich Johann Sebastian Bachs Kla-vierkonzerte. Auch, dass dies ein Problem sei, weil diese Musik nun für immer die Fingerabdrücke Goulds trügen. Jedenfalls steht das mit dem Filou, dem Visitieren und dem Problem so auf der Packung der DVD "Swing, Sing & Think" (Virgin Classics). Sie enthält einen Film von Monsaingeon, der Fray dabei beobachtet, wie er als Pianist und Dirigent mit der Deutschen Kammerphilharmonie Bremen Konzerte von Bach aufnimmt. Diese DVD ist nun zusammen mit dem Album erschienen, das Bachs Konzerte in d-Moll, A-Dur, f-Moll und g-Moll präsentiert (Virgin 50999 2130 64 im Vertrieb von EMI). Wie aber kann man Bachs Konzerte auf einem modernen Flügel spielen, ohne Goulds Manier nachzuahmen? Fray — tief über die Tasten gebeugt, die langen Haare vor den Augen, leise singend, das Gesicht von allerlei Verzückung gezeichnet — strahlt beim Spielen eine ähnliche Besessenheit aus. Aber er ist nicht Gould, er ist ganz und gar Fray. Seine Aufnahme ist eine Perle. Warum? Weil Fray die besten Argumente für die Verwendung des Flügels anstelle des Cembalos liefert.
Bachs Konzerte weichen stark von den italienischen. Vorbildern seiner Zeit ab. Sie leben nicht nur aus dem Kontrast von Orchester und Solo, sondern sind — besonders die ersten Sätze der Exemplare in d-Moll und f-Moll — Prozesse, Entwicklungen von harmonischer Gärung, sind Zuspitzung und Explosion. In den Proben mit dem Orchester spricht Fray von Angst, von panischer Suche nach Auswegen und von Befreiungserlebnissen. Nicht von ungefähr fällt an einer dieser Stellen der Name Beethoven. Um solche Dramen zu gestalten, braucht man die dy-namische Breite des modernen Flügels. Und gerade da, wo Fray und das Orchester am leisesten sind, ist die Aufnahme am packendsten. "Nicht so germanisch", sagt er zum Orchester beim A-Dur-Konzert. "Italienischer! Lächeln!" Aber was da herauskommt, besonders in den langsamen Sätzen, das ist viel schöner als ein italienisches Lächeln. Es ist das, was die Franzosen "grace" nennen, im dreifachen Sinn des Wortes: Grazie, Gunst, Gnade. Und ganz aus der Gnade heraus zu denken und zu empfinden — wäre das nicht wieder sehr lutherisch, seht: bachisch und auch deutsch, im glücklichsten Sinne?
Jan Brachmann
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
David Fray, Rising Star
With the ink still wet on his exclusive Virgin Classics contract, the young Frenchman is planning a very German future
'The German Repertoire is huge,' David Fray tells BBC Music Magazine. 'If, over my life, I can play all the works of Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Haydn, Brahms and Schumann, then I will be very happy!'
The 25-year-old French pianist, who has just signed an exclusive contract with Virgin Classics, says that he wants to devote his career to all things Teutonic. 'I grew up with German music in my ears,' he says. 'Plus, I've always had a special relationship with German culture. My mother taught the language and my father is a philosophy teacher — and the German philosophers are arguably the most important in the world.'
There's nothing new in having a French pianist specialising in the works of his neighbouring country — the great Alfred Cortot being one example — but, in today's 'best leave the options open' climate, to have a young player declare his musical intent with such single-mindedness makes a refreshing change. So, which German works will we hear on Fray's debut disc in May?
'Bach's Partita and French Suite in D minor and Boulez's Incises and Douze Notations pour Piano...' he begins. Pierre Boulez? He's French, surely? 'Boulez is an exception, but he too is quite German in some ways — there is a real Schoenbergian influence in his music. For my first disc, I wanted to show some of the earliest pieces for keyboard in the repertoire and some of the most recent — then you can develop your own keyboard repertoire history in your mind. Plus, I'd say that with both Bach and Boulez, it is pure music, in that it doesn't depend on the character of the instrument that it was composed on.'
Though details have yet to be finalised, Fray, who learnt his stuff at the Paris Conservatoire, says that he will be following up this first disc with a recording of Bach keyboard concertos. Also in the diary for the near future are concerts at the Salle Pleyel and the Theatre des Champs Elysees in Paris, plus a tour of Italy with the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini under Riccardo Muti.
And in the longer term? Well, there's that monumental German repertoire waiting to be scaled.
Jeremy Pound
BBC Music Magazine
Fascinante maturité
Donné au profit du Mémorial de la Shoah, ce récital de David Fray au Théâtre des Champs-Élysées confirme l'étonnante maturité et la forte personnalité de ce pianiste français de 27 ans. Un programme tout en contrastes mais d'une grande unité de pensée et d'une densité exceptionnelle. Une soirée magique où le pianiste semble réinventer la notion de silence.
Aucun doute ne peut subsister. David Fray est bien l'une des personnalités majeures non seulement de sa génération, mais du monde pianistique actuel. Si comme tous les autres, il domine de haut tout problème technique, il se situe en revanche aux antipodes de ceux – et ils sont nombreux – chez qui l'on admire d'abord une virtuosité étourdissante.
Avec David Fray, comme chez les très grands, la technique s'oublie. On l'oublie, vraiment, pour être emporté par le propos. Et ce propos interpelle, interroge, et ne vous lâche plus. On est saisi par sa profondeur, ses aspects inattendus, sa cohérence, son intelligence. Un exemple ? Le 1er Impromptu op. 90 de Schubert commence par un unisson, après lequel la mélodie principale et quasiment unique du morceau est exposée une première fois à nu.
David Fray plaque ce sol en double octave et ensuite, silence, pendant plusieurs secondes qui semblent s'éterniser. Alors, de ce silence va émerger en un chant d'une poésie purement magique ce thème que l'Impromptu reprendra ensuite de mille manières. Toute la construction d'une lecture où le piano chante de façon aussi pudique que bouleversante va dérouler de cette approche intériorisée, mesurée, où la réflexion, un lyrisme dense d'une pureté unique mais bien lyrique quand même prend le pas sur toute autre considération.
Ces Quatre Impromptus op. 90 seront tous abordés dans un climat de désenchantement intérieur absolument schubertien, même les 2e et 4e, qu'une écriture plus vive pousse souvent à traiter de manière festive. Ici, on reste, grâce à des accentuations, des couleurs très subtilement trouvées, dans une nostalgie irrémédiable, aussi explicite mais aussi contrôlée que celles du Voyage d'hiver ou de la Belle meunière.
Le concert avait commencé par l'Adagio en si mineur K. 540 de Mozart, auquel le pianiste avait enchaîné dans la foulée la transcription du Doppelgänger de Schubert par Liszt. Ce Lied est l'un des plus sobres et des plus intenses du compositeur, d'une écriture presque minimaliste, et son climat s'avère d'une osmose spontanée et parfaite avec celui de l'Adagio le précédant, au point que certains spectateurs ne se rendent même pas compte que l'on a changé de compositeur, au point de croire que le Doppelgänger a été oublié…
En deuxième partie, contraste comme les aime David Fray, avec d'abord le dernier Prélude et fugue du Clavier bien tempéré de Bach, tout en architectures arachnéennes, d'une sensibilité vibrante, suivi de la Sonate en si de Liszt, exemple suprême de l'écriture romantique aussi extravertie que ponctuée de moments d'introspection flirtant avec le silence. Ce silence, d'ailleurs, David Fray lui redonne toute sa valeur expressive tant il se situe chez lui comme une prolongation normale de la musique qu'il ponctue, annonce ou conclut toujours dans la logique de l'écriture et du propos.
Déployée avec de grandes richesses sonores à la fois chatoyantes et sombres, expression de tempêtes intérieures dont les peintres du XIXe siècle nous ont laissé de si marquantes images, la sonate a atteint elle aussi une qualité d'interprétation de magistrale facture. Voilà bien une vraie grande nature de pianiste, d'interprète, totalement dans son époque, comme il sait à l'occasion le montrer, totalement aussi dans la plus foisonnante tradition de l'école française enrichie de multiples enseignements étrangers, mais surtout parfaitement originale, personnelle, chargée des signes prémonitoires de la plus passionnante carrières.
Gérard Mannoni
concertonet.com
The 26-year-old French pianist David Fray made his New York debut as soloist in a captivating performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat. Last year, for his debut recording on the Virgin Classics label, Mr. Fray adventurously coupled works by Bach and Pierre Boulez in lucid, sensitive and imaginative performances. It took artistic honesty to introduce himself to New York audiences with Beethoven's Second Concerto, more a connoisseur's piece than a crowd pleaser.
Tall and rail-thin, with wavy hair that keeps getting in his eyes, Mr. Fray has a boyish stage presence, but he is all maturity and musicianship at the piano. In the long orchestral exposition of the jovial first movement, Mr. Masur set a restrained tempo, drawing out the sometimes mellow cast and weightiness of the music.
When Mr. Fray began the impish introduction to the piano part, he seemed restless, as if he wanted to push the tempo a bit. But mostly this young talent and the elder master found common ground, delivering a thoughtful and stylish performance.
Mr. Fray's playing was beautifully balanced: delicate yet incisive, clear-textured yet milky when that was called for. The Adagio was a model of serenity, with Mr. Fray spinning out Beethoven's lyrical piano lines as if they were melodies from bel canto opera. And if the first movement was somewhat restrained, the finale was a buoyant and teasing yet always graceful romp.
Anthony Tommasini
The New York Times
[Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2 with Orchestre National de France, Kurt Masur, conductor]
The young French pianist David Fray - his lanky frame flopped in a chair and hunched over the keyboard in the Gouldian manner - eschewed Beethovenian thunder in favor of a preternatural elegance, infinite gradations of pearly touch. It could have been merely precious, but Fray's rhythmic clarity, absolutely even passagework, and intelligent discernment produced a beguiling refinement, hinting at untapped power. For once, the highlight wasn't virtuosic fireworks, but the extraordinary finale to the slow movement, Fray's daringly hushed, crystalline soliloquies melting into a distant wash of strings.
Matthew Guerrieri
The Boston Globe
[Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2 with Orchestre National de France, Kurt Masur, conductor]
Album review
Bach: Partita No.4, French Suite No.1/Boulez: Notations, Incises
Brits can be forgiven for not having yet heard of David Fray, although in his native France he is already establishing quite a reputation. Competitions he has won include the 'Jeune soliste de l'année' award by the Commission des radios publiques de langue française, he recently performed Ravel's Piano Concerto in G in Paris under Christoph Eschenbach, and in March he toured Italy under the direction of Riccardo Muti. Not bad for a 25-year old. Now, Fray has signed an exclusive recording contract with Virgin Classics, of which this Bach/Boulez disc is the first fruit.
Fray's first recording, for Atma Classique, was of the Liszt Piano Sonata - hardly a timid choice for a first disc, and this new CD also pushes expectations. The technical difficulty is here, but it is the pairing of composers and music which makes this programme such a surprise and pleasure. Bach's Partita in D major B828 is followed by Boulez's student work, Notations pour piano (1946); back to Bach and his French Suite in D minor B812, rounded off by Boulez's much later Incises (1994/2001).
Whilst Bach and Boulez don't immediately spring to mind as a natural couple, this selection pushes to mind the similarities between them. Writing centuries apart, both used the piano for their musical explorations in form and harmony. Boulez wrote his Notations whilst a student under Messiaen and experimenting with serialism. Using these pieces almost as an exercise, he restricted himself to twelve bars per piece, grouping everything from pitch to attack into twelves. One can't help but be reminded of Bach's experiments with equal temperament shown in 'Das Wohltemperierte Clavier', and his perfection of fugal form. The composers work well more than just on paper though. In texture and mood they complement each other perfectly, and this is brought out all the more firmly by Fray's playing. Boulez himself guided David on his interpretation of his two compositions, and both composers' music is imbued with warmth, sensitivity and clarity. There can be no doubt that Boulez must approve. David Fray is definitely One to Watch.
Charlotte Gardner
BBC
MUSIKVEREIN: Mit heftigen Akzenten, scharfen Kontrasten, spannender Dynamik ging Kurt Masur mit seinem Orchestre National de France auch am zweiten und dritten Abend an sein Beethoven - Bruckner - Programm.
David Fray, 27, war Solist in Beethovens 2. Klavierkonzert (B-Dur, op. 19), Till Fellner der des 3. Konzerts (c-Moll, op. 37). Und beide wurden vom Publikum mit Begeisterung und Jubel gefeiert. Technische Perfektion, Virtuosität und geistvolle Spritzigkeit waren da eine Selbstverständlichkeit. Beide Pianisten gehen an Beethovens Werke mit ihren symphonischen Ausmaßen äußerst kontrolliert heran. Kraft spürt man da ebenso wie lockere Eleganz, feines Empfinden ebenso wie Humor. Die pianistischen Pointen funkeln.
Kurt Masur führte Bruckners "Siebente" und "Vierte", die "Romantische", auf. Er entwickelt die Riesenformen aus dem entspannten Fließen des Klanges heraus. Effektvoll baut er Steigerungen auf, die in gewaltige Eruptionen münden. Masur hält sein Orchester aber auch zu geschmeidigen, delikaten lyrischen Passagen an. Er spannt große Bögen kraftvoll aus und lässt dabei den Streicherton delikat schmelzen. Sehr schön die Klangbalance zwischen den Orchestergruppen, ausgezeichnet die Blechbläser, die auch in weichen Schattierungen imponieren.
Florian Krenstetter
Krone
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