Orchestras in Germany and France

 I just came back from a one week railroad blitz to central Europe, including four concerts in five days. Two of them featured symphonic concerts by prominent European orchestras. 

First, I saw the renowned Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO) under its principal conductor Kirill Petrenko, at the Baden Baden Easter Festival in southwest Germany. The town is charming but a bit sleepy, set up for spa visitors, Black Forest hikers, and intermittent classical musical fans. The 2500 seat theater, equipped for opera, is the largest in Germany and draws lots of big time performers including the BPO. They had a tiff with their longtime spring festival home in Salzburg a few years back (apparently Salzburg was resistant to innovative programming), so have since been residing in Baden Baden.  I saw their last concert at the 2025 Easter Festival before the orchestra returns to Salzburg next year (apparently Salzburg conceded to the BPO demands), so the audience was extra appreciative. How does one leave after a 13 year residence? With the Beethoven Symphony #9 of course. The performance was not an over-the-top celebration a la Bernstein, nor a hidebound religious rite a la Furtwangler. Conductor Petrenko was clearly influenced by modern research into Beethoven's tempos, and by performances by early instruments orchestras under the leadership of conductors like Roger Norrington and John Eliot Gardiner. His tempos largely followed Beethoven's marked metronome markings, which are faster than most big orchestras perform the work nowadays. He made a good case for the brisk tempos, and the piece seemed more like the climax of the Classical era, not the start of the Romantic era. 

Petrenko, born in the USSR but resident in western Europe since age 18, conducted a performance remarkable for its moderation and evenness. He summoned adequate mystery at the end of the first movement despite the avoidance of slowing. The Scherzo was brisk without being hectic. The "slow movement" theme and variations did not seem like a slow Bruckner or Brahms movement for once, but instead a simple tune with memorable variations, requiring orchestral virtuosity at this moderate walking tempo. I really enjoyed the violins' rapid string figures, which seemed elegant and quick, not chaotic as they sometimes seem at this tempo. The final movement "Ode to Joy" seemed almost matter of fact, without much tugging and pulling at tempos. An example was the transition into and out of the final big vocal quartet, which really kept moving (and  challenged the quartet). It was really the anti-Bernstein performance. This perhaps sapped the piece of some drama, but added excitement in focusing us on the virtuosity of the choir (clarion tenors!) and instrumentalists.

A few comments on the BPO. They are still a bit conservative in their male/female balance, with about 50% women in the strings (but only 1/7 double basses), and only 2/19 in winds/percussion. This is better than a few years ago, however. The women all wear black pants, not dresses. Coolly, the men could wear any kind of tie for this Easter concert. One wore a bunny tie! Nice to see these little touches of loosening up. 

My second orchestral concert was in Paris, where the Orchestra de Paris played under visiting Finnish conductor Jukka-Pekka Sarastre. Finns are starting to dominate the orchestral scene in Europe, notably the 20-something Klaus Mäkelä, recently named principal conductor of BOTH the Chicago Symphony and Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Sarastre is of an older generation, but conducts a lot, and is now principal conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic. His best work on this concert was, logically, the Symphony No. 5 of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, composed in 1915. Despite its 20th century origin, the symphony seems late romantic and a  bit quirky, like much of Sibelius' oeuvre. Sarastre put together a well integrated performance, with clear transitions and inner voices. It lacked a bit of that lost-on-the-icebergs sense of mystery and anxiety that I sometimes enjoy in Sibelius, but was enjoyable nonetheless. The other featured pieces were Brahms' Tragic Overture and Richard Strauss' Four Last Songs. Neither of these was particularly moving, both lacking a strong conductorial point of view. Additionally, the Brahms lacked the depth of string playing that makes a great performance, while the Strauss soprano soloist Elsa Dreisig had a lovely upper register but disappeared on her low notes. Additionally, the timbre of the orchestra in the Strauss lacked that last bit of virtuosic delicacy and color that Strauss brings to his quiet music. 

The Parisian orchestra had similar female representation as the BPO, but was a bit younger. They played well but did not have a particularly characteristic sound in any of the sections. I enjoyed the interior (but not the exterior) of the newish (2015) philharmonic hall, located in NW Paris, The yellow interior with lots of curves was similar to the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie (commented on here), but more colorful. The audience wraps around the orchestra, like many newer halls. The exterior seems rather military grey from afar. Up close, you see that a bird motif composes both the tiles on the walkways and the tiles on the roof, a cool detail, but not appreciated from afar.