Romantic concert at the Grand Théâtre de Provence – Wukali

Renaud Capuçon admirably handles the stick and the bow

Saturday, December 3, at the head of theLausanne Chamber Orchestrathe conductor/violinist offered us a mainly French program: Berlioz, Fauré, Ravel, with a Russian touch at the start of the program (Prokofiev) and two pieces, English and Finnish, offered as encores.

In 30 years, the Orchester de Chambre de Lausanne has been able to flourish, forge an identity and shine with committed and recognized conductors, and high quality musicians. His adventure with Renaud Capucon is particularly beautiful. The chief violinist succeeded in 2021 to Joshua Weilerstein at the head of the orchestra, and certainly, it’s happiness, you can see it, you can hear it! This is an opportunity for Renaud Capuçon to explore a whole new world and to offer superb programs with this large chamber orchestra. The state of mind of the OCL, both collegial and professional, suits him like a glove. He was “at home” on Saturday evening at GTP of Aix-en-Provence. Rooted both in Lausanne and to Aix. Linked to Switzerland, High School of Musicwhere he teaches the violin and in 2017 founded theEnsemble of Students of the Soloists of Lausanne. And linked to Aix thanks, among other things, to the easter festival of which he has been the artistic director since its creation in 2013.

It is the conductor who opens the ball with Sergei Prokofiev and the Symphony No. 1 in D major “Classical”

A happy music, classically inspired, fluid and easy to listen to at first sight, with some Prokofiev dissonances as we like them.

The orchestra is sharp, the whole is in place, and in his role as conductor, Renaud Capuçon manages to find the right tone, between respect for form and exercises in style. We appreciate the cohesion of the whole, musically already, but also humanly, there again, it is a feeling shared with the public, to the angels.

We continue with a great figure of French music, Hector Berlioz through reverie and caprice, music that, as its name suggests, makes you dream. A romance of sweetness illuminated by Renaud’s violin, all in delicacy and virtuosity.

With gypsy, of the French musician Maurice Ravel, We are offered a short tour of Hungary.

Impressive playing by Renaud Capuçon, who again has fun, all alone at first. He abandons himself to his instrument, to such an extent that he seems to improvise, leaves in the blur and in incredible and audacious variations. Then, he is joined by the orchestra which accompanies him admirably but does not make us forget that the king instrument for this piece is indeed the violin, its Guarneri from 1737and the fusion between the two is particularly moving in this frenzied Tzigane.

After the intermission, we are delivered Gabriel Fauré with Pelléas et Mélisande, suite for orchestra, and we love ourselves in romanticism with happiness. The prelude is caressing, mysterious, it leads us to “the spinner”, a piece of great beauty where the oboe literally bewitches us. Then it’s the flute, the harp, and all the strings that implore us and lead us to tragedy. It is indeed the death of Mélisande, we go to join her, in all intimacy, in all interiority.

The concert ends with Maurice Ravel : My mother the goose, lighter, of course! Pieces that always meet with enormous success and awaken in us our child’s soul. The five pieces, inspired by different tales, are in turn full of poetry, rhythm, colors, and surprises! Simply enjoyable!

But our fun didn’t stop there! Renaud Capuçon and the musicians of the OCL offered two encores to the audience under the spell: the “ night song » from British Edward Elgarmade famous by ” Enigma variation and the breath of romanticism to spread in the room, thanks to a divine interpretation of the “ Sad Waltz ” of Sibelius, one of the components of incidental music, Kuolema (“Death”). We are surprised. The composer did not attach much importance to his “Sad Waltz”, which is nevertheless one of his major works, acclaimed by the public of the time, but also by that of the GTP this Saturday evening.

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