Luisi leads a “fantastic” 2014-15 gala night

A blockbuster gala night awaited the 2014-15 MPO patrons on National Day. I however watched the programme on 1 September 2014. Making his debut with the MPO was the fabled and Grammy-winning Italian conductor, Fabio Luisi who led the New York Met as principal conductor when its music director James Levine was ill.

The gala featured 2 composers, Wagner and Berlioz. The Wagner selections were played before the interval and they comprised the exciting Ride of the Valkyries, the epic Dawn and Siegfried's Rhine Journey and Brunnhilde’s Immolation Scene. It was indeed excellent to have Maestro Luisi to lead the gala. With his superb operatic credentials, the MPO was charged up and played fantastically well. This exciting opening opus is not exactly kind to the brass instruments but the MPO was fully up to its heady challenges. Often, the MPO brass (horns and trumpets) are repeated poor, with cracked notes and fluffs. On this occasion, the brass made a glorious sound and the Ride of the Valkyries proved to be a thrilling curtain raiser to the gala. The Dawn and Siegfried's Rhine Journey was suitably fine with Luisi extracting lovely orchestral colours from the MPO and leading Wagnerian soprano Deborah Voigt sang a gut-wrenching rendition of Brunnhilde's Immolation Scene.

After the interval, we had an electrifying performance of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, a piece that was revolutionary at its time of composition. Berlioz and Wagner were two composers who particularly loved the idea of the "idée fixee" and "leitmotif" respectively. This was the unifying theme of this concert. Berlioz's opus was suitably exciting in its presentation of the "idée fixee". One could literally hear the hero's heart palpitations when his beloved (represented by the "idée fixee") was nearby. The second movement Waltz was elegantly played, with subtle inflections and hesitations. At the end of the movement, maestro Luisi led an imperceptible accelerando which brought the movement to an exhausted close. The third movement is in my opinion the weakest part of Berlioz's work but Luisi led such a convincing portrayal of the shepherds' scene in the country that I was won over by the interpretation. The fourth movement was suitably magnificently played with exciting brass and string interjections as the hero was marched off to the gallows.

The fifth and final movement (The Witches' Sabbath) was typical spooky with the E-flat clarinet playing a transformed version "idée fixee" tune of the beloved. Also particularly memorable was the "Dies Irae" chant in which Luisi gave the MPO extra impetus and encouraged very menacing accents to highlight the old Gregorian plainchant. With the virtuoso conclusion, Luisi and the MPO enjoyed a very deserved ovation. This was definitely one of the very best MPO concert and galas I had witnessed - on par with Lorin Maazel's special concert with the MPO some years ago.