Spano's metrical planetary explorations

Robert Spano's 16 May 2015 debut with the MPO seemed to be well attended. The programme for the night was two orchestral and planetary spectaculars, namely Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra (made famous by Stanley Kubrick in his 2001: A Space Odyssey) and Holst's The Planets.

For a famous Grammy Award winner, the performances were quite disappointing as Spano was more concerned about the ensemble playing and the metrical aspects of both the scores, whilst neglecting the musical aspects. The two pieces were played generally quite fast, loud and without much consideration for the phrasing and musicality of the pieces. In the Holst's Planets, the last movement Neptune is scored for a wordless ladies choir which seemed to be non-existent on the night as well.

After the fantastic showing of the Mahler 6 by the MPO and Fabio Mechetti from the previous week, Spano and the MPO's performances were a large let-down. The rest of the massed audience did not think so (unlike me) and gave him two huge bouts of rousing applause.