Dukas mémorable...
Fabien Gabel s'impose par une maîtrise du secret et des teintes suspendues...
Quand le National joue Dukas, il revient à son histoire légendaire, celle constellée d'accomplissements au service des Français, tels Debussy (Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, La Mer...), Ravel (Le tombeau de Couperin, La Valse...)... ressuscitant travaux et moissons de ses premiers directeurs dont Rosenthal, Cluytens, Désormières, Charles Munch, Celibidache... Saluons donc cette coloration spécifique qui se révèle admirable dans La Péri (1922): fanfare très en place et de couleurs somptueuses .Cordes en état de transe, bois et vents en fusion secrète, cuivres éblouissants d'opulence maîtrisée: le National ouvrage sous la direction d'un Fabien Gabel, digne disciple (à Aspen) de David Zinman, une leçon de poésie musicale. Sous le feu stylé du maestro, La Péri s'offre en manifeste de l'envoûtement sonore. L'affinité du chef pour les partitions foisonnantes et raffinées se confirment ainsi d'autant plus après son succès récent dans Le livre de la jungle de Charles Koechlin (joué également avec Marie-Nicole Lemieux)
Au chapitre de l'évanescence et de la suggestion interrogative voire douloureusement inquiète, la soirée affiche aussi 5 poèmes d'Henri Duparc dans leur version pour voix et orchestre. L'orchestre grâce à un Gabel décidément de très haute inspiration, relève le défi de chaque tableau, entre atténuation, murmure, confidence (équilibre des pupitres parfaitement réglé)...
Classiquenews, October 2008
A memorable Dukas...
Fabien Gabel impresses with his mastership of secret and smooth nuances.
When the Orchestre National plays Dukas, it goes back to its legendary roots, the ones devoted to serving the French, like Debussy (Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, La Mer...), Ravel (Le tombeau de Couperin, La Valse...) ressuscitating the work and harvest of its first directors like Rosenthal, Cluytens, Desormieres, Charles Munch, Celibidache. And so we should hail these specific colors that prove to be admirable in "The Peri (1922)": fanfare well balanced and sumptous colors, possessed strings, woodwinds in secret fusion; amazing brass mastered by opulence. The Orchestre National blooms under the direction of Fabien Gabel, proud disciple of David Zinman (in Aspen) - a true lesson of musical poetry. Under the stylish fire of the maestro, "The Peri" offers evidence of the spell of sound. The affinity of the conductor for plentiful and tasteful scores was confirmed yet again after his recent success in the "Jungle Book" by Charles Koechlin (also performed by Marie-Nicole Lemieux).
The evening also offered five poems by Henri Duparc in the version for voice and orchestra. Highly inspired by Fabien Gabel, the orchestra takes up the challenge of each piece of work by a musical fading, murmuring, and secret-telling (a perfectly fine tuned balance between sections).
Classiquenews, October 2008
Fabien Gabel made a great impression on Orchestra and audience who gave him a long ovation. His elegant clear gestures proved a good orchestral experience. The second movement of the Bizet symphony was remarkable with its subtle rubatos from the conductor.
Fabien Gabel...a fait tres bonne impression sur le public et sur l'orchestre qui, l'un et l'autre, l'ont beaucoup applaudi. ...Sa gestuelle elegante et fontionelle indique, en effet, une bonne experience de l'orchestre. ...Le deuxieme mouvement de la symphonie de Bizet fut remarquable avec de subtils rubato du Chef...
Claude Gingras; La Presse, Montreal; October 22, 2008
A worthy winner
The Donatella Flick Conducting Competition 2004
Karajan was 21 when he first conducted in Salzburg; Bernstein 25 when he made his début with the New York Philharmonic. 'Where are the great conductors of tomorrow?' bleat the terminally pessimistic with a masochistic sigh of self-satisfaction. Well -- they are out there somewhere, as they have always been, and the competitive route exampled by the well-established Donatella Flick jamboree may be one way of finding them. It's something of an initiate sport, though. Reading the potted biographies of those who made it to the final rounds, you discover that many have already won this and that, conducted here and there and have at least worthy prospects if not, yet, great expectations. But here they still are -- setting out their scores for the judges in the stalls one more time. Another month in another country: maybe this time the big breakthrough!
The 15,000 pound prize awarded to the laureate is not to be sneezed at but the chance of working with the London Symphony Orchestra for a year is to dream of. That's where the learning, the nurturing and maturing can happen. Karajans and Bernsteins turn up like rare meteorites to crater the musical scene. More mortal maestri have to pick and scratch away at the surface of their craft until, layer by layer, they approach the core of interpretation and performance.
Shostakovitch always presents the challenge of how to measure and reveal the irony in his music. Fabien Gabel knows that jollity is an ambiguous and all-too-precarious commodity in this unwillingly-Soviet musical world. His interpretation (the only time in the evening I'd feel comfortable using that word) of the Ninth Symphony was individual and mature. Significantly, it was also the least score-bound display of the concert. Gabel cues with care but without ostentation, he addresses sections of the orchestra and he stays with them. He's still too coy with the one-on-one stuff of encouraging solo lines (woodwinds, for example) but there was real engagement here and a more than simply professional enthusiasm in the LSO's response. His style has a lot of 'windmilling' and lateral swiping but I'm one who doesn't much care what it looks like when it works. And work it certainly did.
The jury, chaired by Lord Birkett and including Patrick Harrild (principal tuba of the LSO) and conductors Jan Latham-Koenig, Janos Furst and Michel Plasson didn't take long to reach the only sensible verdict. Fabien Gabel was a worthy winner on the night. And now it's down to him and we must all wish him well. Of course, by the time the Prince of Wales did the honours with style, the glorious orchestral musicians -- only begetters of anything a conductor can achieve -- had long vanished into the damp and chilly November night.
David Wilkins, MV Daily, 2004
...on découvre avec le chef Fabien Gabel un talent précis, subtil et raffiné qui fait merveille en ouverture dans Galil, ...et l'on se baigne avec ravissement dans les climats spirituels, la tendresse, le charme et la gaieté de la Symphonie Linz. Un concert passionnant, à marquer d'une pierre blanche.
Nice Matin, 9 avril 08: Concert du dimanche 6 avril, avec l'Orchestre de Cannes
A big thanks to the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, whose richness in colors was admirably balanced by Fabien Gabel.
ClassicToulouse
"The Jungle Book" by Charles Koechlin, a protean score of great complexity that has allowed us to finally discover Fabien Gabel, a young conductor 31 years of age, in a demanding and difficult repertoire which requires an absolute control of the orchestra.
ResMusica, November 2006
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