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Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
Sergey Khachatryan, violin
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
Jonathan Nott, conductor
It is under the flexible direction of Jonathan Nott that the orchestra begins this Brahms concerto in a smooth and rounded manner. Armenian violinist Serguey Khachatryan, crowned with prestigious collaborations with conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Daniele Gatti, Vasily Petrenko and accompanied by the greatest orchestras, offers a luminous vision here. Everything seems naturally carried by a happy interpretation of the work and a serene vibrato, on a thread, totally in the emotion, leaving us in a fluffy feeling. We appreciate a cadence with a raw and woody sound leaning into a very romantic harshness. Sergey Khachatryan's violin, poignant in its solar evocations, is poetic and delights the soul in a movement that suits it particularly well. His delicate vibrato hemms with a simple emotion the divine phrases created by Brahms which recall here in the second movement the peaceful religious emotion that we find in places in his German Requiem.
The third movement, spirited, highlights very external flute trills, the whole thing remaining however a little sausage-like despite the flights of the soloists particularly well brought. And if we note some difficulties of accuracy and homogeneity in the horns which had graced us in recent months with very beautiful performances, the whole has "face" and is graced with a beautiful ovation to which will respond a high-flying Adagio of the 1st Sonata of Bach.
In the second part, the Rite of Spring offers us its varied atmospheres, its delights, its deluge of fire. After an introduction on eggs on the bassoon (what an impossible difficulty this first phrase is!), the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande shows off its splendid winds and homogeneous and dense strings. We are seized by these breathless pizzicati of the strings before the crazy "adolescent dances", sumptuous. The orchestra adorns these atmospheres with a thousand nuances colored by magnificent winds, a special mention to the solo trombone of Matteo de Luca as well as a horn section on the lookout! The scansions of the brass are particularly well served by the splendid accents of gleaming and superlative trumpets.