Symphonic enthusiasm and lights from San Sebastian in the Musical Fortnight

And also some shadows….

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
28 August 2022 Sunday 12:50
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Symphonic enthusiasm and lights from San Sebastian in the Musical Fortnight

And also some shadows…. the city has allowed even its dome to be demolished! the Fine Arts Theater on Prim-Urbieta streets, a symbol of San Sebastian culture in the first decades of the 20th century, and –as in Barcelona with its contemporary Granados del Tibidabo Auditorium– a current sign of speculation and the absence of cultural politics.

Going to the lights, the Musical Fortnight always seeks artistic content in its concerts, a task that, for its good performance, requires committed performers. In its 83rd edition, which has just ended, there are several examples of this, which would take a long time to synthesize. The two final concerts (on August 26 and 27) featured the Czech Philharmonic, one of the references in European orchestral history, created in 1896, and its current director, the Russian Semyon Bychkov. It was wonderful to see from the particular architecture of the Kursaal hall, the almost total capacity, a characteristic of San Sebastian whose symphonic enthusiasm is unique.

Two very different programs were performed from many angles: one (26) with Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 7, which the composer premiered precisely conducting this orchestra in Prague in 1908. Quite a testimony, especially in these orchestras in which they coexist always two generations that transmit their experience. And the Czech Philharmonic maintains clarity in its sound, with privileged winds and excellent strings, already very renewed. Currently, with the new and powerful generations of young instrumentalists, orchestras in general show quality if they know how to work, and this depends on the directors. And at this level, the Ceska Philharmonie also exhibits two generations, with the veteran Bychkov at the helm.

The director corroborated in his interpretation of the Mahler–a score in which heaven and earth dialogue, the intimate intangible with the fanfare– that it is more akin to the earthly. Brilliance, literal use of resources, which means not understanding what the score wants, especially in the first two movements, which is that extreme tension between these two worlds, in which you have to regulate the tempo and tension so that the trumpets sound more incisive and immaterial, and play with the opposite relaxation. The rest, the magnificent instrumental response, was the heritage of the orchestra, excellent.

The program for the 27th, closing of the 83rd edition, had another meaning, more akin to Bychkov's brilliance: three great Czech composers, Dvorak, and the closest Bohuslav Martinu and Leos Janacek, and from him his famous and impressive Glagolitic Mass that –just like now– sang the Orfeón Donostiarra, who had already performed it with Hallé ten years ago for the opening of the Fortnight in this Kursaal, I seem to remember. In Martinu's Concerto for two pianos, the director imposed family matters on the Labècque sisters.

And what I mentioned before, the love of this content: once these concerts were scheduled for a fortnight, festivals such as Santander or San Juan de Luz added them to their program, in an attitude as important as taking advantage of good ideas and the resources.