Review: All Brahms – Marc-André Hamelin with SNS

Symphony Nova Scotia presented an all-Brahms concert at the Cohn this week, and it was an exciting evening showcasing all that is great about the orchestra. Under the direction of Music Director Bernhard Gueller, twelve or thirteen additional players enlarged the band, and the featured guest artist was “Megastar Pianist” Marc-André Hamelin. The concert gave a showcase to Dr. Piano’s Steinway Model D concert grand, and if pianos could talk, I’m sure this one would say it enjoyed a thorough and musical workout.

You know that feeling when you get new glasses and everything is so crystal clear and sharp that you almost gasp from the sensory overload as you see everything anew? Aurally, that was last night’s audience; we could not stop listening to the beautiful themes of the musical landscape created by the musicians for even a second.

Mr. Hamelin has a distinguished record of performance and recordings, and is also a composer. At a post-concert chat with Maestro Gueller he revealed that he would be part of the 2017 Van Cliburn jury, which is transforming from an all-teacher to an all-performer adjudication style. He’s writing a new piece that all competitors will have to play, jokingly noting that he’s going to try to make it not too boring for the judges to have to listen to numerous times.

His performance of the Brahms Piano Concerto no. 2 was riveting, kind of like having a second orchestra inside the Steinway. He is an unassuming looking player, no grandiose gestures or sweeping arms, but wow, we were completely captivated as the four-movement story unfolded. Evidently very Sympatico with Maestro Gueller’s interpretation, Hamelin told the audience after the concert that Gueller had asked him upon finishing the first movement in rehearsal, “shall we go on?”

Hamelin’s left hand on the Steinway in the opening provided a powerful sonorous bass dynamic, beautifully contrasted with the concerto’s softer movements and his delicate encore piece, an arrangement of George Gershwin’s Liza with pianissimos that cascaded like water droplets.

Maestro Gueller’s arms, on the other hand, remind one of an outstretched eagle’s wings. He seems to envelop the entire orchestra with his expressive hands and arms, and they respond to his gestures as if they are flying along with him.  It’s not only the piano that gets a workout onstage!

A special note to the sensitive playing of Principal Clarinet Dominic Desautels in the Andante movement of Brahms Symphony 3 and the warm cello of Principal Cellist Norman Adams on the third movement of the piano concerto. (If you closed your eyes, it felt like very much like sitting in an intimate parlour concert; fortunately, some of the very loud coughing going on in the audience throughout the evening was lessened a bit during these noble melodies).

It was a poignant day for the musicians as they had observed a moment of silence earlier at the dress rehearsal for their beloved Pops conductor Howard Cable, who died the day before in Toronto at age 95. This loss, coupled with the triple Megastars of Brahms, Hamelin and Gueller, perhaps contributed to the acute sincerity of their playing, which had heart and soul throughout the whole evening.

Now, there are Megastars and there are Megastars. I don’t want to think that just because “Country” Megastar Johnny Reid was playing at the Scotiabank Centre on the same evening, the Cohn was not totally full. Come on, Halifax! If you don’t pack the place for Brahms and Marc-André Hamelin, well, this is What Love Is All About! Fortunately, the country fans had a second night option to redeem themselves, and it still says a lot for Halifax that we can have very full houses in multiple venues on the same night as everyone enjoys music to their own tastes.

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