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Music is a better world
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David Zinman and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich amazed Berlin By Jan Brachmann Even as David Zinman stepped up to the Philharmonic on Monday the applause lasted longer than usual. Then, after the Tonhalle Orchestra had finished Robert Schumann's 2nd Symphony there were cheers and a loud roar of "Encore!" from the seats to the right of the podium. After the encore, Beethoven's Overture to the Ballet "The Creatures of Prometheus", a female cry of "Hoorah!" came from the middle of the room. It really is difficult to appraise Zinman and his orchestra without using superlatives. If anyone wants to learn conducting today or to know how to prepare a score and to turn the work of the mind and spirit into an object of enthralment; if anyone seeks to draw inferences from historical aspects of performance and yet at the same time integrate them with the "philharmonic" orchestral tradition; if anyone wishes to grip their audience musically without over-exciting them with sensationalised sound-bites, then let that person listen to David Zinman, talk with him and work with him. Zinman, who turns 70 next year, has succeeded in doing in the last decade for Zurich what Simon Rattle did for Birmingham: he has brought an orchestra back into the centre of the musical arena which had been languishing for years at its edges. Word of this rapid development has got around. On Monday, amongst others in the audience were Simon Rattle (Chief Conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic), Vladimir Ashkenazy (Chief Conductor of the NHK Symhony Orchestra Tokyo) and Lior Shambadal (Chief Conductor of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra). Zinman's art is the transformation of structural detail into energy and electricity. Musical form becomes apparent to the listener, but at the same time the play of forces is brought to life. In comparison with the Berlin Philharmonic, which Zinman conducted on 13 October, the string players of the Zurich orchestra produced a less pliant sound. In the scherzo of the Schumann Symphony the violas snarled their fragmentary motifs, bows and finger boards crashed amongst the cellos, and the violins provided a distinct bite. in the Beethoven 2nd Piano Concerto. Yefim Bronfman, soloist in the Beethoven Concerto, largely adapted his sound to that of the orchestra by using less pedal and broadening the non-legato sections. Those who are familiar with Bronfman’s usual expansive style of playing will have been amazed and delighted by his delicacy of touch. His technique is perfect, although within this perfection there is an absence of risk-taking or of surprise. In the big cadenza of the first movement there was no audible improvisatory tension. Zinman arranged the orchestra’s wind section in the 19th century model, with modern string instruments but in reduced forces, and the timpani played exclusively with wooden sticks. The sound was therefore sharply focussed, not so much for reasons of historical authenticity but rather in order to allow a very precise turn of phrase, this being achieved entirely by means of variations in dynamic and articulation and never by means of changes in tempo. It became clear how varied this phrasing could be in the contrast between the Beethoven concerto and his overture “Consecration of the House” If everything in the concerto was about forward momentum, then the =slow introductory theme of the overture – a piece which takes a backward glance at Handel – danced to and fro with rather more grace than weight, as though released by no longer knowing the precise direction of the narrative. DAVID ZINMAN |
