Dvořák
Symphonies Nos. 6 and 7. Otello Overture Yannick Nézet-Séguin, cond; London PO LPO 0095 (2 CDs:
99:09) Live: Royal Festival Hall, London 2/3/2016, 5/27/2009
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New classical music releases reviewed in detail by Gavin Dixon
Saturday, 25 February 2017
Dvořák Symphonies Nos 6 and 7 Nézet-Séguin London Philharmonic
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Some very attractive performances here, of Dvořák symphonies from the London Philharmonic and their dynamic principal
guest conductor, Yannick Nézet-Séguin. The blurb tells us Nézet-Séguin secured
that position with an earlier performance of the Sixth, in 2007 when he must
have been impossibly young, so there was some logic in his returning to the
score and for the LPO Live label to take it down.
Nézet-Séguin, while a specialist in the late Romantics,
usually tends towards heavier fare—Mahler, Bruckner, Shostakovich. That
tendency is apparent here in his emphatically symphonic approach to the two
symphonies. Everything is done on a grand scale, with broad, flowing phrases.
Tempos are often on the steady side, but nothing sags, thanks to the solid
string tone and definite accents. A strong agogic sense maintains the
connection with the Bohemian folk sources; just listen to the way that Nézet-Séguin
leans into the downbeats of the Sixth Symphony’s adagio—it’s slow and broad, but it’s never static. Orchestral
playing throughout these performances is excellent, the string sound and the
lower brass always solid, and the woodwind soloists suitably characterful and
energetic. The only lapse is in the strings in the Sixth Symphony scherzo. Nézet-Séguin
may be pushing them too hard here, as the violins sound scratchy in the top
register, keeping up with the conductor’s fast pace, and often at top volume
too.
The Seventh is a better fit for Nézet-Séguin’s
emphatically symphonic approach. Where others keep the tempo of the first
movement exposition steady, to give a cyclical quality to the many returns of
the opening theme, Nézet-Séguin is more dynamic, gradually building into the
main argument. He loses some momentum in the development but returns to form
with the return of the main theme.
That is a recurring impression in these recordings, of
the conductor giving weightier interpretations than the music can sustain. Yet
there is a consistency here that makes every interpretive decision seem
logical. And even if Nézet-Séguin sometimes tends towards the overly dramatic,
he can never be accused of affectation. Just listen to the inner movements of
the Seventh. The Poco adagio is a
case study in lyrical simplicity, with the conductor simply relying on the
elegance of the woodwind solos to carry the melodies. The scherzo third is marked
Vivace, but, unlike in the Sixth
Symphony scherzo, Nézet-Séguin here errs on the side of caution, taking a
moderate tempo but shaping the music effectively simply through emphasizing the
swells at the start of each phrase.
Distinctive readings then, probably most attractive to
those who like their Dvořák properly symphonic. The first disc opens with a
filler, the Otello Overture, curious
programming, as the work is surely better served when presented with the other
two overtures of the set (which would have fitted, although concert programming
naturally dictates the choices here). On the other hand, Otello is the least performed and least loved of the three, so is
most deserving of a solo outing. And Nézet-Séguin’s approach here is ideal,
again highly dramatic and cleanly articulated, with an ideal storytelling
quality expressed though the varied tempos and strongly delineated structural
sections. It seems unlikely that a full symphony cycle is on the cards, but
more exposure to Nézet-Séguin’s Dvořák would be welcome, the earlier symphonies
could benefit from his broad, dramatic approach, as could some of the more
obscure tone poems.
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