GAUTIER CAPUÇON

Cello

Critical acclaim for performances

The Fauré Project / Wigmore Hall “Gautier was superb in the First Cello Sonata, capturing its bleak, dramatic range in playing of great expressive power… The Second Cello Sonata bristled with vitality and had that recognisable hit of French sensibility that hovers on the brink of sensuality. [Nicholas Angelich] and Gautier Capuçon seemed to be feeding each other their lines in a magnificently dovetailed performance of the first movement, and the cello’s role in the lament-like slow movement was fiercely eloquent and inside the music… [In the second Piano Quartet], their playing in the Adagio summed up Fauré’s inimitable style of reverie, intimacy and melancholy with great refinement. The sort of playing that left you gagging for more…”

Peter Reed, Classical Source, May 2013 Philharmonique de Radio France / cond. Bringuier / Salle Pleyel / Saint-Saens “The highlight of the evening was Saint Saens’ Cello Concerto when conductor Bringuier now essentially became Gautier Capucon’s accompanist, following in his weightless footsteps. In turn both precise and poetic, the 32-year-old cellist united flexibility and mastery, which never hindered the phrasing of the music but, on the contrary, created an intoxicating sense of freedom.”

Laurent Vilarem, La Lettre du Musicien, January 2013 Chamber Orchestra of Europe / cond. Nézet-Séguin / Schumann “Between the two symphonies, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the young maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin gave the jewel in the crown to Gautier Capuçon with Schumann’s cello concerto in A minor Op.129. His performance was light and agile: the accompaniment at the beginning of the initial ‘Nicht zu schnell’ section set the tone for an interpretation that was very much in the vein of a chamber music performance. It was delightful to watch the cellist turning towards the orchestra in complete complicity, to pluck the beginning of his solos out of their sound. The end result was enchantingly lyrical, but never languid or sombre; a thousand miles from the all-too-often morbidly crepuscular performances of this piece. This was pure poetry.”

Alain Cochard, Concert Classic, November 2012

Gautier Capuçon Page 2

London Symphony Orchestra / cond. Gergiev / Wiener Konzerthaus / Tchaikovsky “30-year-old Frenchman Gautier Capuçon is, despite his tender age, one of the leading cellists of our time. […] Capuçon not only possesses with his 1701 Gofriller cello one of the most perfect instruments ever built, but he also knows how to get the best out of it. Already with the opening theme, he enthralled the audience by the sheer beauty of his playing. The audience in the sold-out Konzerthaus went crazy after Gautier Capuçon ended his last variation at break-neck speed. Capuçon and Gergiev chose Tchaikovsky’s Andante Cantabile as encore. Capuçon, with his stunning bow technique, can work magic!”

Wiebke Kuester, Concerto Net, May 2012 Wigmore Hall, London with Jérôme Ducros “As a former pupil of Heinrich Schiff, Gautier Capuçon has absorbed his master’s formidable arsenal of bowing techniques. In the Bridge Cello Sonata he showed supreme control[…] The scherzo erupted with an energetic brutality in this interpretation, making the ensuing greyness of the Largo all the more dramatic. Intense and tortuous anguish yielded to their evocation of whimsical irony in the finale, which concluded this compelling recital.”

Joanne Talbot, The Strad, May 2012 RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra / cond. McCreesh / Elgar “It was these intensely human features that young cellist Gautier Capuçon communicated in a performance of beautiful sincerity. His tone was firm and voice-like, and he tapped into the music’s emotional content without resorting to the various tropes of string solo playing.”

Michael Dungan, The Irish Times, April 2012 Chicago Symphony Orchestra / cond. Dutoit / Dutilleux “…another Capuçon makes another brilliant Chicago début[…] Dutoit was able to pull these devotions together with the CSO début of the highly-skilled and charismatic Savoyard French cellist Gautier Capuçon […] Capuçon brought out the score’s every technical and emotional aspect in a performance both commanding and highly subtle of the composer’s 1967-70 Tout un monde lointain . . . (“A whole distant world . . . “). Capuçon […] and his 1701 Matteo Goffriller instrument had every sense of volume, variation, and shading down cold and received total and attentive silence in the work’s involved pizzicato sections and long pianissimos followed by a loud and long audience ovation.”

Andrew Patner, Chicago Sun-Times, April 2012

“Capuçon had special qualities of his own to bring to his performance on Thursday night. Not the least of these was the finely graded intensity he brought to the long cello recitative that begins the work and that soon evolves into rapid-fire interplay with the orchestra. The cellist's lean but penetrating sound and rhythmic acuity were matched by an abundance of lyrical feeling, particularly in the two slow movements. This was an altogether winning debut […]”

John van Rhein, Chicago Tribune, April 2012

Gautier Capuçon Page 3

“Capuçon’s poetic performance encompassed the inward-looking reflection as surely as the hectic bravura. Playing an extraordinary 1701 Goffriller instrument, the French cellist coaxed a striking array of widely terraced hues and dynamics, with high pianissimos that hovered on the edge of audibility. Yet the soloist also brought a bristling propulsion and headlong excitement to the display passages, with a sense of hard-won solace in the penultimate section. Capuçon received a vocal and enthusiastic ovation, all the more impressive for being elicited by this austere and enigmatic work.”

Lawrence A. Johnson, Chicago Classical Review, April 2012 Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia / cond. Pérez / Dvořák “…exceptional performance by the cellist Capuçon in the concerto by Dvořák. An ideal interpreter for this piece because of his beautiful cantabile and his ability to extract the most noble sonority from an extraordinary instrument: a Matteo Goffriller of 1701.”

Julio Andrade Malde, La Opinión A Coruña, five stars, April 2012 Dresden Philharmonic / cond. de Burgos / Avery Fisher Hall, New York / Dvořák “The orchestra's palette of color was featured best in the Dvořák, Frühbeck providing a sensitive accompaniment to the rhapsodic account of Gautier Capuçon. […] He has a gorgeous tone and impeccable technique […]”

Elizabeth Barnette, Classical Source, March 2012 Boston Symphony Orchestra / cond. Dutoit / Dutilleux Tout un monde lointain “Henri Dutilleux’s Tout un monde lointain (“A whole distant world”) for cello and orchestra, had young soloist Gautier Capuçon brooding against an orchestral backdrop of modern manifestations. Thirty-one-year-old Capuçon, on his 1701 Matteo Goffriller cello — an instrument that surprised with its capacity for a good deal of power if […] — spun out the soul-searching circles of Dutilleux. Capuçon effusively seized the striving and the unattainable state that is everywhere expressed in the five-movement concerto-like work (dating from 1970).”

David Patterson, The Boston Musical Intelligencer, February 2012 “Capucon was calmly charismatic throughout, conveying direction and life in small details like his tightly coiled pizzicato but also flourishing in the many quiet floating passages, which he rendered with uncommon clarity in stratospheric registers.”

Jeremy Eichler, The Boston Globe, February 2012 “Capuçon’s memorable debut highlights the BSO’s French-accented program[…] … the superb cellist Gautier Capuçon, earned the biggest ovation of the night. Making a memorable debut with this orchestra, the French cellist Gautier Capuçon held the audience in thrall with a simple eloquence that made one forget the music’s considerable technical demands—although the sound of his perfectly-tuned double stops was a reminder of the approximate intonation we’ve learned to put up with from some other soloists.”

David Wright, Boston Classical Review, February 2012 Wigmore Hall, London, with Renaud Capuçon & Frank Braley / Beethoven “…the burnished warmth of Gautier Capuçon's cello sound a perfect match for Braley's bright, forward tone […]”

Andrew Clements, Guardian, November 2011

Gautier Capuçon Page 4

Philadelphia Orchestra / cond. Dutoit / Schumann “Schumann's Cello Concerto […] feels a bit unfinished, requiring more than the usual intervention. Cello soloist Gautier Capucon, with his keen dramatic instincts and superb musicality, is ideal for this task, his clarity of vision overriding moments of audible labor in the wide-leaping cello lines. In close collaboration with Dutoit, he moved in and out of expressive blends with the individual players and choirs in the orchestra with an effect that was beyond mesmerizing.” David Patrick Stearns, The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 2011 Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France / cond. Chung / BBC Proms, London / Beethoven Triple Concerto with Renaud Capuçon & Frank Braley “Inevitably the stars were the Capuçon brothers, Renaud and Gautier, as violinist and cellist, the former effortlessly dispatching his double-stopping, the latter soaring lyrically, not least in the ravishing solo that opens the slow movement.”

Barry Millington, Evening Standard, July 2011 Los Angeles Philharmonic, cond. Dudamel / Brahms Double Concerto with Renaud Capuçon “The Capuçon brothers were electrifying. The audience not only stood and cheered (audiences do that everywhere all the time), but people waved their hands exultantly in the air at the end, as if at a pop concert or sports event. For two hours Thursday night, sitting in Disney felt like sitting on top of the orchestra world. The Capuçon brothers, who are French, play with an athletic yet rhapsodic verve. They are showy yet elegant, fraternally competitive yet able to speak with one poetic mind.”

Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times, June 2011 San Francisco Symphony / cond. Dutoit / Dutilleux Tout un monde lointain “Like a great verse reader, he [Gautier Capuçon] was simultaneously alert to both the broad arc and the tiniest nuance. His acute sensitivity was perfectly matched by conductor Charles Dutoit and the orchestra. A unity of purpose prevailed throughout. Even when Capuçon played in whispers, they rose through the band’s transparent shimmers of sound. And when the volume and urgency peaked, both parties lit up and went for broke, together. This greatly gifted cellist has the kind of tone that could make a listener swoon if he were only playing scales — a tone tender and bright, firm and deep, lustrous and sinewy. Still, gorgeous as it was, rising out of his dark-hued instrument, Capuçon’s sound was never an end in itself. In the opening movement — “...et dans cette nature étrange et symbolique,” for those keeping track of the Baudelaire lines — the soloist conjured a mood willful and quizzical, assertive yet yielding. His pizzicatos were plump and ripe. His glissandos, at the end, were dead ringers for a slide whistle. Humor and mimicry were another part of his endlessly strong game. The performance made you want to immediately hear Tout un monde lointain all over again. And hear it played by these very musicians.”

Steven Winn, San Francisco Classical Voice, April 2011 “The main delight of the program came during the first half, with the first Symphony performance of Henri Dutilleux’s “Tout un monde lointain ...” (“A Whole Distant World ...”). This 30-minute cello concerto, completed in 1970 for Mstislav Rostropovich and revised in 1988, turned out to be a fanciful and beautiful masterpiece – by turns dreamy and forceful – and the performance was sublime. Dutilleux’s brilliant orchestral writing […] makes room for the soloist. There is no suggestion here of the one-against-many struggle depicted in the Romantic concerto; this is an amiable, genteel and always fascinating conversation. Part of that gentility was due to Capuçon’s eloquent and tonally resplendent playing. It’s the rare performer who can bring such ease and refinement to this music, while still giving everything he plays a sense of dramatic urgency.”

Joshua Kosman, San Franscisco Chronicle, April 2011

Gautier Capuçon Page 5

Los Angeles Philharmonic / cond. Bringuier / Schumann “The concert’s entrepiece was Schumann’s Cello Concerto, given a fascinating and powerful account by Bringuier and soloist Gautier Capuçon. The cellist, 29, made his Disney Hall debut the night before, but performed like a veteran in the hall’s lively, golden-warm acoustic. The body and clarity generated from his resonant, dark-toned instrument – a 1701 Matteo Goffriller cello – was thrilling. Capuçon returned for a solo encore: a Prokofiev march, which he arranged, performed with the kind of virtuosity and flexibility more often heard on a violin.”

Rick Schultz, Los Angeles Times, February 2011 Philharmonia Orchestra / cond. Norrington / Elgar “Capuçon carries his bold, generous sound and suave legato with great confidence. […] All held their breath for Capuçon’s encore, a graceful rendition of Saint-Saëns’s The Swan, with the help of Philharmonia harpist Hugh Webb.”

Edward Bhesania, The Strad, March 2011 “What Capucon gives us is very Gallic for sure with big and intense tone and much contrasting finesse. But Elgar thrived on his swagger and the scherzo, with fizzing rhythmic articulation in the bow action, was […] dashing and edge-of-seat. Richly drawn bows then marked out the slow movement and […] the great valedictory epilogue rolled out, ardent then fragile, the light fading fast.”

Edward Seckerson, The Independent, December 2010 With Gabriela Montero (piano) – USA Tour / Benaroya Hall, Seattle, WA / Prokofiev, Mendelssohn & Rachmaninov “In the Hollywood version of Tuesday night's concert at Benaroya Hall, Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero would be portrayed by Kate Winslet and French cellist Gautier Capuçon by Johnny Depp. On the other hand, these two musicians have enough charisma to portray themselves. …Capuçon's sound is just as distinctive: Plush and velvety, his plummy tone is upholstered by wide vibratos and embellished by dramatic tosses of his black locks. Like actors who, despite the character they play, are always recognizably themselves, both Montero and Capuçon possess musical styles that are unmistakably their own. The loudly appreciative audience was rewarded with the duo's transcription of Rachmaninoff's "Vocalise," a cotton-candy confection of airiness that drew a delighted "Bravissimo!" from the floor.”

Sumi Hahn, The Seattle Times, November 2010 With Gabriela Montero (piano) – USA Tour / Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY / Prokofiev, Mendelssohn & Rachmaninov “Mr. Capuçon and Ms. Montero are visceral musicians, his burnished tone complemented by her robust playing. Those qualities were again evident in the Rachmaninoff. Mr. Capuçon imbued the cello’s lushly lyrical lines with myriad shadings and Ms. Montero tackled the more virtuosic piano part with aplomb — their richly warm approach was ideally suited to this exuberant, arch-Romantic work. The final movement unfolded in a blaze of color.”

Vivien Schweitzer, The New York Times, November 2010

Gautier Capuçon Page 6

With Gabriela Montero (piano) – USA Tour / Library of Congress, Washington, DC / Prokofiev, Mendelssohn & Rachmaninov “With his chin-length mane of brown hair, his concentration and his tendency to fall back into his chair like a reclining Roman warrior at the end of particularly intense passages, the cellist Gautier Capuçon looked every inch the prototype of the romantic musician. Individuals…with powerful gifts of self-expression. Capuçon, all Sturm und Drang and ardor, dug into the low strings of his cello to produce a loamy, rich sound. Capuçon, meanwhile, exulted in the gorgeous lyricism of the second movement, and everyone exulted along with him.”

Anne Midgette, The Washington Post, November 2010

Critical acclaim for recordings

Fauré: Complete Chamber Music (Virgin Classics)With Renaud Capuçon, Michel Dalberto, Nicholas Angelich & Gérard Caussé “No.1. ‘Classical music’s top albums of 2011’… A five-disc set in which first-rate French musicians tastefully survey the late-Romantic chamber music of Gabriel Fauré in vibrant and probing performances, one after another.”

Jeremy Eichler, The Boston Globe, December 2011 “No.1 ‘Best Classical 2011’ – ‘Top 100 Albums of 2011’ …this outstanding set of solo sonatas, quartet and quintets features some of the best French musicians of our time: the violinist/cellist Capuçon brothers […]”

Hugh Canning, Sunday Times, December 2011 “Best Classical Recordings of 2011 Chamber works by Fauré are performed by a magnificent line-up of French and French-trained musicians.”

WFMT, December 2011 “Most convincing on the new set is the finale of [the Cello Sonata No.1], where Gautier Capuçon’s tone can really soar. The reading of the Trio by the Capuçon brothers with Angelich is one of the best things here: fervent, joyous and weaving an aural coat of many colours in the Andantino. …the cello’s famous Elégie and the Pièce […] are unfailingly beautifully conveyed.”

Harriet Smith, Gramophone, December 2011 “This all-French celebrity team approach Fauré with the seriousness of purpose he deserves. They power the music from within, strongly delineating the rhythms, balancing their roles with stylish naturalness. Crowning glories include an incandescent account of the late Cello Sonata No.2 from Gautier with Angelich […] Fabulous Fauré playing, with all the intelligence, strength of character and profound understanding that his still underrated chamber music requires.”

Jessica Duchen, Classic FM Magazine, five stars, December 2011

Gautier Capuçon Page 7

“An exquisite cast […]”Dr Stefan Drees, klassik.com, five stars, November 2011 “A triumphant set of Fauré’s complete chamber music for strings[...] Cellist Gautier Capuçon brings robust playing, with an earthy tone and a way with big rhetorical gestures, to the two cello sonatas. In the Second Sonata Capuçon covers a wide emotional landscape with persuasive fluency. There is some magical sotto voce playing in the central movement, and terrific duo work with Angelich in the finale.”

Tim Homfray, The Strad, November 2011 Tchaikovsky: Variations on a rococo theme/ Prokofiev: Sinfonia Concertante (Virgin Classics)Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre, cond. Gergiev “Capuçon's interpretation of the slow section of the scherzo is one of the loveliest imaginable [...] a performance that communicates with innate understanding. Whether quizzical, rapturous, pensive or demonstrative, Capuçon has full measure of it here in a performance of impressive stature.”

Geoffrey Norris, Daily Telegraph, five stars, January 2010 Dvořák & Herbert: Cello Concertos (Virgin Classics)Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, cond. Järvi“Gautier Capuçon gives a richly lyrical and sympathetic account of Herbert's concerto, reaching heights of eloquence in its beguiling slow movement and revelling in the virtuosity of the finale.”

BBC Music Magazine, March 2009 “This is not the first coupling of these works, but it is perhaps the most distinguished. The works have much in common and Gautier Capuçon makes the most of the music's melodic appeal. The Dvořák receives a powerful and intense interpretation with some superb orchestral solos to match the soloist's eloquence.”

Sunday Telegraph, February 2009 “Gautier Capuçon captures the [Herbert’s] rhapsodic ambitions and the lyrical charm of its slow movement perfectly.”

Andrew Clements, Guardian, February 2009 Brahms: Piano Quartets (Virgin Classics)With Renaud Capuçon, Gérard Caussé & Nicholas Angelich “Marvellously full-blooded accounts of some of Brahms’s most passionate chamber music.” BBC Music Magazine, Recommended Disc, November 2010 “[...] performances here are both beautiful and individual, with passionate, rich-toned playing and infectious energy […] an easy first choice for a complete set of these wonderful quartets […] can hold their own with the finest available recordings.”

International Record Review, February 2009 Rachmaninov & Prokofiev: Cello Sonatas (Virgin Classics)With Gabriela Montero “My opinion of the French cellist Gautier Capuçon rises with every new CD he produces. Here, rapturously partnered by Montero on piano, he irradiates Rachmaninov's early, gloriously romantic sonata to the point where you just have to stop thinking and wallow instead in the composer's inspiration. That's not to suggest Capuçon and Montero go overboard: they simply find the right voice for Rachmaninov's passionate lines and nervous tension. A wonderful disc.”

Andrew Clark, Financial Times, February 2008

Gautier Capuçon Page 8

Brahms: Double Concerto (Virgin Classics)Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, with Renaud Capuçon “Here's a very fine reading of Brahms's Double Concerto from the stellar young Capuçon brothers. They seem incapable of setting a foot wrong on disc and they put their considerable chamber-music experience to great use in Brahms's final orchestral work, with Gautier Capuçon proving an eloquent lead in the vehement first movement.”

Harriet Smith, Gramophone, February 2008 “There's something totally compelling about this performance of the Double Concerto from the first few bars, when Gautier Capuçon launches into the opening cello solo with a rhapsodic freedom and expressive abandon that seems to sweep all before it [...] exceptional Brahms playing.”

Andrew Clements, Guardian, five stars, November 2007

GAUTIER CAPUÇON The Boston Musical Intelligencer • August 3, 2015

BSO: Sunshine in the Triple, Starlight in the Tenth BY JOHN ROBINSON AND EMMA KERRY

Friday evening had been a Tanglewood washout. Not in the wet way one might expect in Lenox; rather, a night that should have glittered with luxurious early German Romanticism became sleepy and mired in Ken-David Masur’s sluggish tempi and prosaic gestures. Schubert’s ‘Tragic’ was, that night, only too much so, and not in the indulgent sense. Garrick Ohlsson played the ‘Emperor’ deliciously, but with restraint; on our blanket, there was a consensus of commiseration and the feeling he was a rose amongst thorns. So, before Saturday’s performance, all enthusiasm was in abeyance. We should have known that Andris Nelsons (our hero!) would never let us down, but we settled into our slatted seats limply and with modest expectation. We now see that Friday had been a preparation, as it set Nelsons’ verve in sharp relief, and left us empty to have our spirits fully replenished; Nelsons brought to Saturday’s program of Beethoven and Shostakovich the starlight sparkle that had been conspicuously absent on Friday.

The Beethoven Triple Concerto in C Major is notable for its wit, invention and novelty of texture; to contextualize it in 1804 only emphasizes its cleverness and avant garde creativity—chamber groups with ripieno were, of course, a staple of the Baroque, but much less typical in the early days of the 19th-century concerto. Beethoven’s cello and violin parts are extremely virtuosic and originally designed for the excellent court players Seidler and Kraft, while the piano part was conceived for Archduke Rudolph of Austria, an enthusiastic and competent amateur, and Beethoven’s pupil patron; it was “celebrity” vanity performance at its courtly best, and it seemed as if Thibaudet and the Brothers Capuçon had been type-cast for their according glamor. In this piece, Beethoven treats larger-than-life themes with his characteristic simplicity and strength, never a note without reason; the muscular virtuosity of the performance and the manly good humor of the trio’s interplay and cerebral interpretative playfulness elicited freshness from the score and delight from the audience.

It was clear from the outset of the Allegro that there was enormous musical camaraderie among the soloists, the orchestra, and Nelsons—an easy, ready currency of grins, chuckles, and gestural nuance. The brothers Capuçon are amazingly facile, dextrous musicians, and were wholly in sympathy in terms of phrasing, rubato and gesture. Renaud released his bow more extravagantly at the end of flourishes, while Gautier was slightly more understated (and perhaps for this the more captivating). He plays with an unusually open-faced cello angle which sings out across the orchestra (especially in the opening themes of the first and second movements), playing to the Shed’s difficult acoustic with skill and assurance; he balanced the soloists, acting as a generously broad bridge of communication between violin and piano. Thibaudet bore himself with his eminent distinction, and entered into the Ducal character satirically and with winning, hilarious self-deprecation. He delivered his octave themes with a posturedly noble air, with a deliberate projection of the naive. He seemed at pains not to dominate in the way he can as solo pianist; he exuded eminence of birth and he pantomimed august peerings at the score. He brought a sense of the context of the work’s composition and reception to its realization, whilst not letting us forget that he is a great modern virtuoso.

Gautier Capuçon The Boston Musical Intelligencer • August 3, 2015 page 2 of 3 Always polished, the orchestral playing seemed immeasurably more jovial than on the previous evening. Even when the audience is offered the flat of the Maestro’s back debonairly propped against the rostrum, Nelson’s smile still feels visible. His technique is enabling and encouraging, and he has the grace to place himself at the service of his soloists, making himself in turns inconspicuous and commandingly present as best served them. The pianissimos from the strings in the Beethoven were utterly gripping, with Nelsons seemingly diving forward into the violins, grabbing every intensity of sound and offering it to the listeners, with a gleefully childish little shake of his baton – utterly charming! The end of the first movement was memorable for a perfect accelerando built up from the rich earth of the cellos; the gesture had real grit, a welcome departure from the slick veneer of Friday!

The largo was exquisitely hushed, a true exhibition of Gautier’s lyricism and depth of tone; utterly tasteful and subtle slides made a compelling argument for their use in this repertoire. Thibaudet rendered his simple figurations in accompaniment of clarinet and orchestra with perhaps a little too much “artistry”, but one can easily overlook such luxurious problems. Nelsons hides his baton and conducts with his fingers for more intimacy, frequently flashing an ecstatic smile, leaning right back on the balustrade as he encourages the players to wash over him with sound.

The ensuing Rondo all Polacca tempers hearty ‘folksy’ sunshine with supreme artistry, reminiscent of Haydn’s similar deployments; with Nelsons at the podium, we had that rare impression of genuine naturalness. The BSO served a perfect canvas one which the soloists could paint with vibrant, vivid strokes; the solos exuded joy and a delight in facility; coordination with the orchestra was utterly exact, as if everyone was in on the fun. Nelsons threw his arms to the heavens at the mighty G7 chord! Thibaudet achieved a striking effect by leaving his short sharp final chords ringing faintly between the big orchestra chords; it seemed a bold, arresting move but the first edition is, surprisingly, marked ‘ped.’—the effect must have been much like Beethoven’s early pedal mechanism. Though thoroughly alive, there was a sense of informed performance practice about the reading. Yo Yo Ma, who was sitting a few rows ahead, looked very happy indeed, a most reassuring seal of Tanglewood success! Rapturous applause ensued: all who could stood, and the soloists returned to the stage a number of times, clearly delighting in their mutual success.

After the playful sunshine of the first half, the audience settled in expectation of the shade of Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony. This performance marked the release of the first of the BSO’s recordings with Deutsche Grammophon, which will feature live recordings of the Fifth to Tenth Symphonies, the famous Passacaglia from Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and the incidental music for King Lear and Hamlet. The Tenth Symphony was written at a fulcrum in Soviet music, premiering in December of 1953 after Stalin’s death in March. Shostakovich, following an official statement of disapproval of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk almost 20 years earlier, had been composing in secret, radically altering his style in pieces intended for ‘public’ consumption; one can only imagine the effects of this kind of repression and persecution. Stalin’s death implied liberty enough for Shostakovich to undertake his Tenth Symphony, which was received as an essay in the value of the individual and in subjective emotion and expression, after an era when the personal and private domains were suborned to the state; the frequent recurrence of Shostakovich’s signature DSCH figuration might be seen as a figurative resurrection and proclamation of the composer’s authentic voice. The work implies latent hopefulness and a renewed sense of purpose, emotions which were most vividly communicated by the BSO’s atmospherically impressive and deeply humane interpretation.

The account of the symphony was deeply moving, with compelling narrative pace, celebrating the score on its own terms. For many, enthusiasm for Shostakovich is not easy to gather; Robin Holloway in On Music, characterizes the string quartets disparagingly: “[It is] astonishing that this cycle is now routinely compared to Beethoven’s; like comparing a housing estate to the Acropolis.” Nelsons occupies this prefabricated breeze-block bungalow with love, as if he were truly at home—he occupies the space of his interpretation with conviction. You could see him reveling in the terse, awkward resolutions in the counterpoint; the gestural climaxes were genuinely exhilarating, paced with merciless restraint and intensity. A particular highlight was the compelling horror of the second movement. It was good to hear

Gautier Capuçon The Boston Musical Intelligencer • August 3, 2015 page 3 of 3 the BSO play at genuine full throttle, with chokingly thick insistence. The strings were impressively arrayed with utter precision and discipline, yet with almost maniacal urgency.

The seriousness and stark austerity that Nelson’s brought to Shostakovich’s famous counterpoint reminded one of Bach. In other performances, such an ascetic material can imply impersonality and dispassion. The BSO avoided froideur by creating glimmers of humor and warm musical dialogue; for example, there was a memorably cordial moment in the third movement when tutti pizzicato in the Bass section stands against a melee of motion in the rest of the orchestra—Nelsons chose to direct it with utter attention, which drew a smile from the players, who exuded appreciation. This was typical of the performance; Nelsons acts as a host, reducing the gap between players and the masses, and setting all at ease—he amplifies the orchestra’s performance, radiating the music into the auditorium, directing our attention where it will be most rewarded by pleasure. For the BSO and its audience, it seems that the party is only just beginning.

GAUTIER CAPUÇON San Francisco Chronicle • May 28, 2015

Capuçon joins S.F. Symphony for radiant Elgar Concerto BY JOSHUA KOSMAN With time and experience we learn to mistrust the impulse to read biography into art — to suppose, for instance, that a piece of music reflects in some straightforward way the emotional state of the composer. But Elgar’s Cello Concerto, which got a stirringly eloquent performance on Wednesday night by cellist Gautier Capuçon and the San Francisco Symphony under guest conductor Charles Dutoit, puts that resolution to the test. It was the last major score that Elgar wrote, and it came at a particularly difficult juncture in a life that the hypersensitive composer, at least, felt was full of difficult junctures. His beloved wife was in failing health — she would die just a few months after the premiere — and the accolades and recognition that Elgar had never fully trusted anyway were beginning to dissipate. It was an especially gloomy period in a life never entirely free of gloom, and from it emerged a score of wondrous duality — dark and autumnal and laden with melancholy, but at the same time infused with the formal daring and steely resolve that marks the composer’s finest writing. That combination of heart-on-sleeve expressivity and stoic heroism ran like a current through Wednesday’s performance in Davies Symphony Hall, with Capuçon leading the way and Dutoit and the orchestra supporting him at every turn. Both strains were present in the deep and ruminative solo recitative that opens the concerto, one of Elgar’s most inventive strokes, which Capuçon shaped tenderly but with robust force. Each time Elgar crafted some sort of emotional legerdemain — in the wonderful transition between the first two movements, for instance, where the orchestra rouses the soloist from a moody reverie to vault into the scherzo, or in the haunting return of earlier themes at the conclusion of the piece — Capuçon and Dutoit made the moment count. And for sheer surface beauty, it would be hard to top the sumptuousness and simplicity that Capuçon brought to the concerto’s limpid slow movement. The remainder of the program seemed almost calculated to counterbalance the expressive lushness of the Elgar. Stravinsky’s ultra-tart 1936 ballet score “Jeu de cartes” opened the evening in the only Symphony performance since the composer himself led the work here three years after its premiere. There are brilliant aspects to the score, including the diamond-edged clarity of the instrumental writing in the first of the piece’s three tableaux, and the knowing parodies in the third of Johann Strauss Jr., Rossini and others. And Dutoit brought out these virtues and more, in a crisp, rhythmically taut reading. Still, the pleasures of “Jeu de cartes” pale quickly, even in a fine performance. It’s a collection of Stravinskian gestures in a neo-Classical mode — acerbic harmonies, angular rhythms and so forth — with results that border on self-parody.

Gautier Capuçon San Francisco Chronicle • May 28, 2015 page 2 of 2 The second half of the program was given over to Ravel’s familiar orchestration of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” in a performance that sounded unnervingly lax and lackadaisical. Principal trumpeter Mark Inouye infused some welcome life into the proceedings with a blazing opening “Promenade” and again in his stuttering solo work in “Samuel Goldenberg and Shmuel,” but otherwise the performance mostly lacked cohesion or even precision.

GAUTIER CAPUÇON Los Angeles Times • November 30, 2014

Review: Max Reger a crowd pleaser at a full and festive Disney Hall BY MARK SWED To what extent traffic affects attendance at Walt Disney Concert Hall is hard to know. Anecdotal evidence suggests that commute time matters. Even Los Angeles Philharmonic concerts conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen and Gustavo Dudamel last month — when record numbers of cars seemed to jam freeways — were not, as they usually were in the past, full.

On Friday night, the roads were all but empty; Disney was full and festive. Some of the attendance may have been thanks to tourists. Dudamel was conducting, and he remains, of course, a draw. But the brilliant soloist, French cellist Gautier Capucon, is not yet as widely famous as he deserves to be.

Worse, far worse, the program began with Max Reger, a composer considered a deal breaker on the U.S. concert scene. The gloomy, late Romantic German's foggy, dense harmonies and tightly knotted counterpoint may have a history of a certain regard in German-speaking regions. When Rudolf Serkin, however, insisted on playing Reger's 40-minute piano concerto elsewhere, the work became known as "Serkin's folly."

My guess is that most in the crowd, and especially those in town for the holiday and drawn to a famous concert hall and conductor, arrived with unprejudiced ears. Friday's persuasive performance of "Four Tone Poems After Arnold Bocklin," which began the program, proved the crowd pleaser it deserves to be. There was scattered applause after each short movement and a partial standing ovation at the end.

Reger might seem a reactionary. The "Bocklin" pieces were written in 1913, the revolutionary year of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" and Schoenberg's "Pierrot Lunaire." The composer, who would live only until 1916, was 40 and haunted by Wagner and Bach. But Reger was driven not so much by nostalgia as by a vision of an alternate universe in which the Old World might survive through a willful combination of dreaminess and complex thought.

His response to Bocklin's paintings was mystical and stands in interesting contrast to the musical world around him. The first, "Hermit Fiddler," features an ethereal violin solo that anticipates by a year Vaughan Williams' popular and similar sounding 1914 "The Lark Ascending." On the other hand, Debussy was playing in the waves in "La Mer" a few years before Reger's "In the Play of the Waves," the second of the Bocklin tone poems. Debussy's sea sought a new route to Asia, whereas Reger pursued the flamboyant realm of mythical creatures.

In "The Isle of the Dead," Reger used the orchestra as though it were an organ. Long-held but shifting sonorities here suggest a barcarole as a voyage to the underworld. Rachmaninoff's more famous tone poem on the same painting, written in 1908 and on Dudamel's program this week, is more conventionally melodramatic.

The final painting, "Bacchanal," provides an interesting challenge for a conductor. Is this a rigid Reger revealing the folly of earlier orgiastic times or an admiring composer wanting to vicariously join in? Dudamel gave him the unstuffy benefit of the doubt and let rip.

Elsewhere, Dudamel emphasized color and atmosphere. He did not convey an unsuspected radicalism in Reger, but he did produce a tonal nuance, and the strings, winds and brass were able to evoke the glowing use of oils on canvas. Concertmaster Martin Chalifour was the radiant violin soloist.

Gautier Capuçon Los Angeles Times • November 30, 2014 page 2 of 2 was a glimpse, after Reger, at long-gone, less complicated times. Capucon was, in every way, ravishing in Haydn's upbeat, youthful Cello Concerto in C Major. Dudamel ended the evening with Schubert's Sixth Symphony, also youthful, upbeat and in C Major.

Both of these were works by composers in their 20s. The Haydn has excellent tunes, including a sublime slow movement, but doesn't seem to be the greatest challenge for a cellist until someone like Capucon plays it as though a chef with the remarkable flair to bring out hidden flavors in ingredients that might otherwise seem ordinary.

Schubert's symphony is that of a 21-year-old with a musical personality fully formed but not yet a vision. He follows, in many places, Beethoven's example, but without the brashness.

In the Haydn, Dudamel kept the orchestra small. Timpanist Joseph Pereira used small period drums for a lighter effect. Effervescence was achieved.

Dudamel's Schubert also acknowledged a time when orchestras were small and less heavy sounding than modern bands. There was plenty of instrumental padding. Schubert played off the different sonorities of winds and strings while at the same time creating unbroken lyrical phrases.

Dudamel's main effort was on really long lines. He relied on quick tempos to help. He smoothed rough edges while at the same time emphasizing exciting propulsion. The result was an early 19th century study in shifting textures not dissimilar to what Reger would do a century later or what Los Angeles automobiles would achieve another century later on a Black Friday evening rush hour.

GAUTIER CAPUÇON

Bay Area Reporter June 13, 2013

Rising star at Davies BY PHILIP CAMPBELL

As the current San Francisco Symphony season dashes towards an exciting and prolonged finale, recent weeks at Davies

Symphony Hall have been noteworthy for the interest of the programming and the distinction of the instrumental soloists –

one a returning guest artist, and two drawn from the orchestra's own ranks.

French cellist Gautier Capucon made an indelible impression at DSH a few years back when he played Henri Dutilleux's

Tout un monde lointain (A Whole Distant World ) to initially bewildered but ultimately approving audiences. His previous

visit and SFS debut was marked by a much safer repertory choice, the Schumann Concerto in A minor, but his masterful

performance and intense stage presence alerted listeners to the presence of a fascinating rising star. Choosing the challenging

and mysterious Dutilleux piece for his second visit, Capucon dared to show a bolder side to his musical personality. SFS

patrons and subscribers are a fairly open-minded crowd as long as there is some musical comfort food included on the bill,

and veteran guest conductor Charles Dutoit supplied the needed balance with a solid interpretation of Berlioz's Symphonie

fantastique . One might say the Berlioz was a bit of a shocker in its own day, too, but the once-provocative Symphonie has

mellowed to become a classic today.

Antonin Dvorak's beloved Concerto in B minor for Cello and Orchestra, Opus 104, has also acquired a burnished patina

since premiering in 1896, but the composer never really meant to scare the horses anyway. The long, beautifully rich and

demanding (at least for the soloist) Concerto in B has become a favorite, mostly due to the technical difficulties placed on the

soloist, and the melodic warmth and lyricism listeners have always expected from Dvorak. It was a welcome relief and sort

of a revelation to hear Capucon eschew the sentimental, overly nostalgic approach that so many cellists have adopted when

performing the old chestnut over the years. This was an altogether leaner, more dry-eyed reading. There was an astringent

quality to the playing that seemed the aural equivalent of cleaning an old master's painting. The fierce mood was tempered

with lovely reflective interludes, but Capucon didn't relent for long, and the always dramatic coda was more exciting than

ever.

Last week brought SFS Concertmaster Alexander Barantschik and Principal Violist Jonathan Vinocour into the spotlight for

performances of the young (18!) Benjamin Britten's Double Concerto in B minor for Violin, Viola and Orchestra. What a

treat to see our SFS musicians given the opportunity to strut their stuff, even if the Britten is less a tour de force than a rather

dark-hued and rhapsodic duet. There is much in the score that shows us who the composer would become, and a hint of the

mystery and subtlety of his rather skimpy output of film and documentary music. The soloists are well-known to us for their

technical mastery and low-key personalities, and both seemed perfectly suited to the absorbing if not particularly dazzling

score.

Guest conductor Kirill Karabits opened the concert with another score from the 20th century, Arthur Honegger's Pacific 231

(Mouvement symphonique No. 1). It was a scrappy reading of a huffing piece that seemed as good a curtain-raiser as

anything else.

It was Barantschik's and Vinocour's performance that really got the crowd enthused. Two young ladies from the audience

brought poseys to both soloists with a couple of red roses to the conductor. The Concertmaster's surprise and blushing

acceptance was not only endearing, but also a reminder that even the best musicians in the SFS do not necessarily see

themselves as stars. They are highly individual talents to those of us who hear them season after season in the service of their

art.

GAUTIER CAPUÇON

ConcertoNet May 21, 2012

Review: Gergiev and Capuçon with the London Symphony

Orchestra BY WIEBKE KUESTER

There is no more obvious expression of power than the performance of a conductor” Nobel Prize winner Elias Canetti

wrote in his 1960 book “Crowds and Power”. But what is it exactly that a conductor does? And what is it that makes a

good conductor a great maestro? There have been many attempts to demystify this anachronistic profession, some of

them rather amusing. There are few conductors today who fuel that perennial discussion more than Russian Maestro

Valery Gergiev, with his rather un-orthodox, quite unique conducting style.

Gergiev, the mysterious maestro from the Caucasus, serves currently as Music Director of both the Mariinsky Theater

in St. Petersburg as well as the London Symphony Orchestra. He is also Artistic Director of several prestigious music

festivals worldwide. This was the first time the London Symphony performed under Gergiev’s baton (although he

doesn’t use one!) in Vienna. After the first night’s concert, also featuring works by Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky,

Maestro Gergiev was induced into the Konzerthaus “Hall of Fame”: he was awarded the Honorary Membership of the

prestigious Vienna Konzerthaus Society. In his eulogy Konzerthaus Intendant Bernhard Kerres praised Valery

Gergiev’s outstanding contribution to the cultural life of St. Petersburg as well as his exemplary support for young

artists.

The newly appointed honorary member of the Konzerthaus Society opened the program for the second night of this

mini concert cycle with Tchaikovsky’s Fantasy Overture Romeo and Juliet. Valery Gergiev raised his arms – and with

the mysterious flickering of his fingers the woodwinds even more mysteriously began the introduction with utmost

precision. A couple of bars later, the strings responded to the nervously flickering hands with a pizzicato as precise and

together as I have hardly ever heard before. I soon decided to give up deciphering how this conductor “does it”, and

instead to just sit back and enjoy Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece. Overall, Gergiev displayed a penchant for slow tempi

with which he builds and sustains long lines of tension. The orchestra always maintained a well-balanced sound, never

forcing their instruments, even in the most fortissimo brass passages.

30-year-old Frenchman Gautier Capuçon is, despite his tender age, one of the leading cellists of our time. Walking on

stage, his delicate demeanor contrasted with the almost demonic aura of the 6-foot conductor. Nevertheless, they made

a perfect team for Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rokoko Theme. Capuçon not only possesses with his 1701 Gofriller

cello one of the most perfect instruments ever built, but he also knows how to get the best out of it. Already with the

opening theme, he enthralled the audience by the sheer beauty of his playing. If his sound was somewhat sweet at the

beginning, it became fuller and deeper as the variations progressed. Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony were

ideal partners for Capuçon and gave him reliable support.

The audience in the sold-out Konzerthaus went crazy after Gautier Capuçon ended his last variation at break-neck

speed. Capuçon and Gergiev chose Tchaikovsky’s Andante Cantabile as encore. Capuçon, with his stunning bow

technique, can work magic!

The program concluded with Stravinsky’s Sacre du printemps. You could not have wished for a more congenial

conductor for this piece. And, the conductor could not have wished for a better orchestra to play it. The London

Gautier Capucon

ConcertoNet May 21, 2013

page 2 of 2

Symphony lived up to its reputation of being one of the world’s leading orchestras. It was the perfect canvas for Valery

Gergiev to “paint” his depiction of Stravinsky’s groundbreaking 20th century masterpiece. Gergiev used strong, even

harshly contrasting colors: the whole range, from watercolors over gouache to oil, from pencil to neon markers. The

resulting Sacre was truly memorable!

Gergiev and his London Symphony Orchestra acknowledged the thunderous applause with the “March” from

Prokofiev’s Love for Three Oranges.

A Russian conductor, a British Orchestra and a French cellist, all celebrating music in Austria? If only other aspects of

European interaction could be as successful...

GAUTIER CAPUÇON

Chicago Tribune April 13, 2012

On eve of European tour, CSO delivers French works in style BY JOHN VON RHEIN

With its latest foreign tour set to begin next week in Moscow and St. Petersburg, followed by four stops in Riccardo

Muti's Italian homeland the week after, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra barely had time to squeeze in a pair of

subscription concerts to keep the home folks happy. Those took place Thursday night and Friday afternoon at

Symphony Center.

However, listeners who managed to catch the all-French program with which Charles Dutoit wrapped up his annual

residency here could not complain about being given short shrift, qualitatively speaking. Between bracing doses of

Debussy and Ravel, the Swiss conductor presided over an absorbing performance of an absorbing work, French

composer Henri Dutilleux's "Tout un monde lointain…" for cello and orchestra. The young French virtuoso Gautier

Capucon was making his CSO debut as soloist.

The five-movement work is a cello concerto in all but name. Inspired by the poetry of Charles Baudelaire, each of its

five linked movements bears a quote from Baudelaire's verse or prose. Dutilleux, the eminence grise of the

conservative wing of contemporary French composers, wrote the demanding solo part for cellist Mstislav

Rostropovich, and it's impossible to hear this highly rhapsodic work without imagining the great Slava's unique tone,

which Dutilleux said he had in his mind's ear while composing the work.

But Capucon had special qualities of his own to bring to his performance on Thursday night. Not the least of these was

the finely graded intensity he brought to the long cello recitative that begins the work and that soon evolves into rapid-

fire interplay with the orchestra. The cellist's lean but penetrating sound and rhythmic acuity were matched by an

abundance of lyrical feeling, particularly in the two slow movements. This was an altogether winning debut, made all

the more so by the sensitivity with which Dutoit wrapped the ornate orchestral fabric around the bravura solo writing.

The noticeably under-populated audience awarded the soloist an excited ovation. It's worth noting that Gautier Capucon

will join with his brother, violinist Renaud Capucon, as soloists in the Brahms Double Concerto with the CSO under

Bernard Haitink here in October. Those performances are something to anticipate.

Dutoit devoted the first half to the complete Debussy "Images" for Orchestra, an apparent albeit unstated bow to both

the CSO's season-long "An Exuberant Era" theme and the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth.

The guest maestro presented the three "Images" in Debussy's published order, placing the more popular "Iberia" second

in the sequence. The hot Spanish colors and dancing rhythms of "Iberia" were sharply drawn within a fluid soundscape.

Eugene Izotov's oboe added to the sensuous atmosphere of the slow section, although the entire woodwind choir shone

in all three tone poems. The less-familiar "Gigues" and "Rondes de printemps" took on degrees of refinement and

transparency of texture one doesn't always associate with the CSO, perhaps because so few conductors ask those

qualities of this orchestra.

Similar plasticity of rhythm and a generous tonal palette marked Dutoit's voluptuous account of Ravel's "La Valse."

GAUTIER CAPUÇON

The Tufts Daily February 8, 2012

Dutoit and Boston Symphony Orchestra explore diversity of 20th-

century music BY WILL MYERS

Many of the patrons of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) this weekend would have likely been surprised if they

were told that they were attending an all−20th−century concert. It wasn't billed as a "new music" concert, and none of

the works presented was the challenging fare often associated with the music of the past century. But guest conductor

Charles Dutoit of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra bravely programmed Henri

Dutilleux's 1970 cello concerto, "Tout un monde lointain" ("An entire distant world"), with soloist Gautier Capuçon.

The program also included Richard Strauss' seldom−heard orchestral suite "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme" (1920) and

Claude Debussy's 1905 orchestral staple "La Mer."

The concert opened with Strauss. The work, in line with the rest of the program, is French−influenced. It eschews the

bombast and emphasis on motivic development of the Germanic orchestral tradition in favor of a lighter tone and a

greater concern for clarity of gesture. Dutoit's laid−back conducting style was well−suited to the lightness of the piece,

and the orchestra responded to his gestures with appropriate nonchalance.

Strauss calls for a reduced ensemble bordering on a chamber orchestra and features prominent solos for several of the

principal players, most notably the violin and piano. The suite began compellingly with rhythms reminiscent of

Stravinsky but dragged a bit as it went on. Of the three works performed, Strauss' was without a doubt the least

adventurous, though it was well−suited to the orchestra. The orchestra always seemed quite comfortable with the suite,

making for a charming opening piece.

Dutilleux's "Tout un monde lointain" immediately followed intermission. Its title is more than a poetic afterthought.

From the opening cello cadenza with its intermittent percussive accompaniment, it was clear that the audience had

entered a sonic world as distant from Strauss' as one could imagine. Dutilleux's keen ear and fierce attention to register

and chord arrangement throughout the orchestra helped him achieve incredibly beautiful sonorities and innovative

chord progressions. The most memorable moments were positively otherworldly. Again, Dutoit's conducting was

relaxed and admirably unobtrusive, which left plenty of room for the soloist.

Capu‡on's playing was brilliant, and he seemed entirely at ease with the part, which was frequently situated in the

extreme high register of the cello. It was clear that he had performed the work before with great success; his love of the

piece's language and challenges were evident in his spirited performance. The orchestra accompanied him responsively

— what appeared at first to be throwaway gestures in the solo part frequently rippled throughout the ensemble, almost

imperceptibly overthrowing whatever the previous accompanying texture had been. The end of the piece immediately

drew a standing ovation.

In an interesting programming decision, the concert concluded with Debussy's "La Mer." In a more typical symphonic

concert, Debussy's music still manages to sound groundbreaking. When compared to a Beethoven symphony or to a

work like the Strauss earlier in the program his harmonies and textures are far more adventurous. But following the

Dutilleux, with its cautious use of atonality, Debussy's extended tonality sounded surprisingly tame. Instead of

highlighting the adventurous elements of Debussy's music, the program emphasized his lyricism. In this Debussy

Gautier Capucon

The Tufts Daily February 8, 2012

page 2 of 2

anniversary year — he was born a century and a half ago in 1862 and died in 1918 — it will be important to give

audiences a chance to hear his music in a different light in order to avoid a potential Debussy burnout — if such a thing

is even possible.

Dutoit was finally able to open up while conducting the Debussy. The final two movements were lively, and all three

movements had big, climactic moments that allowed for emotive conducting. The orchestra still cultivated the tasteful,

clear gestures that had permeated the two previous works, which made for a vibrant rendition of "La Mer." Like the

Dutilleux, the Debussy was enthusiastically received by the crowd, who were treated to a Debussy−themed fashion

show, Project Debussy, before and after the concert. The BSO has made a yearly tradition of composer−themed fashion

shows that exhibit the work of local design students and fashion enthusiasts. The fashion show was a fitting conclusion

to an atypical evening at the symphony.

03/02/12 10:03A steady hand guides a kinetic French program - Music - The Boston Globe

Page 1 sur 2http://bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2012/02/03/steady-hand-guides…netic-french-program-with-bso/0pJXEX2dN3FhpBYjebS9VM/story.html

MUSIC REVIEW

!"#$%&'(")&*'"+,-'%#"&".-*%$-/01%*/)"213+1&4By Jeremy Eichler | GLOBE STAFF FEBRUARY 03, 2012

After a bumpy month of conductor cancellations, the Boston Symphony Orchestra

is back in familiar hands this week with Charles Dutoit on the podium. We can

expect to see a lot of Dutoit at Tanglewood and in Symphony Hall during these

interim seasons, as the orchestra taps conductors that project reassurance and

continuity to the musicians and public alike. That Dutoit has the ability to do so

while also leading vibrant, dynamic performances is not to be taken for granted.

French repertoire has long been one of Dutoit’s specialties, so it is perhaps not a

surprise that this week’s mostly French program - consisting of Debussy’s “La Mer,’’

Henri Dutilleux’s cello concerto “Tout un monde lointain . . . ’’, and Strauss’s Suite

from “Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme’’ - came off so well last night in Symphony Hall.

Beyond the strong performances, the three works seemed to benefit from being in

each other’s company, which is another way of saying that the evening’s program

felt like more than the sum of its parts.

Dutilleux’s concerto of 1970 is the least well-known of those parts. The piece carries

many references to Baudelaire’s poetry in its title - translated here as “An entire

distant world’’ - and in the epigraphs that head its various interconnected

movements. Like so many Dutilleux works, the concerto traffics in a kind of densely

imagined atonal impressionism, but the exquisite precision of its detail, and the

distinctive interplay of soloist and orchestra make it one of his most accessibly

ravishing scores.

Last night’s excellent cellist was Gautier Capucon, in his BSO debut. The cello part

is extremely demanding and exposed, yet it mostly sidesteps the triumphalism and

!"#$%

Get full access to the new BostonGlobe.com; just 99¢ for your first 4 weeks.

03/02/12 10:03A steady hand guides a kinetic French program - Music - The Boston Globe

Page 2 sur 2http://bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2012/02/03/steady-hand-guides…netic-french-program-with-bso/0pJXEX2dN3FhpBYjebS9VM/story.html

© 2012 THE NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY

heroic tropes of earlier Romantic models in favor of a kind of dreamier, meditative

give-and-take with orchestra. Capucon was calmly charismatic throughout,

conveying direction and life in small details like his tightly coiled pizzicato but also

flourishing in the many quiet floating passages, which he rendered with uncommon

clarity in stratospheric registers.

Dutoit and the orchestra were full and supportive partners. Strauss’s suite is a

charming work, especially when played with as much, well, charm. Dutoit

summoned all the character and breezy elegance this score requires, despite a few

moments of more studied insouciance. And Debussy’s “La Mer’’ was a smart closer,

contrasting with the scale of the Strauss, and reminding you of that original roiling

impressionism from which Dutilleux’s music descends. Dutoit had the orchestra in

fine form, playing with both the mystery and clarity this music demands.

Try BostonGlobe.com today and get two weeks FREE.

GAUTIER CAPUÇON

Boston Classical Review February 3, 2012

Capuçon’s memorable debut highlights the BSO’s French-accented

program BY DAVID WRIGHT

In some ballgames, the famous stars are outshone by players down the lineup. In some orchestral concerts, the likes of

Richard Strauss and Claude Debussy have to take a back seat to…Henri Dutilleux.

A master of orchestral color and expression, Dutilleux—who turned 96 on January 22—is hardly a celebrity with most

concertgoers. No matter—his Tout un monde lointain… for cello and orchestra, rendered Thursday by the Boston

Symphony Orchestra under Charles Dutoit with the superb cellist Gautier Capuçon, earned the biggest ovation of the

night. Hampered by un-idiomatic performances, Strauss’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme Suite and Debussy’s La Mer

could only look on in envy.

To be fair, the Strauss piece is the product of such a jumble of impulses and influences—Molière’s satirical play,

elegant music composed for it 300-plus years ago by Jean-Baptiste Lully, the stage director Max Reinhardt, Strauss’s

poet-collaborator Hugo von Hofmannsthal, an opera-within-the-play (which later became Ariadne auf Naxos), and

Strauss’s own inclination to both elegance and buffoonery—that a coherent interpretation of it is a tall order indeed.

Still, one should at least expect the work’s small (by Strauss standards) orchestra to sound clear and vigorous, in the

Baroque spirit. Dutoit’s performance Thursday fell short of that most of the time, stubbornly refusing to come into

focus amid ragged ensemble and lax rhythms. Straussian moments of grace, high ardor, and low sentimentality

slipped by unrealized; even the usually impeccable solo playing of concertmaster Malcolm Lowe ran into some flat

high notes.

Eventually, the ensemble rallied to partially rescue the performance with a courante in intricate canons, a tender

sarabande for strings playing non vibrato like a consort of viols, and a suitably pompous grand dinner scene for the

play’s nouveau riche hero.

Still, with the opening of the Dutilleux work—a whisper on suspended cymbals, a pianissimo rising line for the solo

cello—one sensed that the evening’s main event had arrived.

Composed in 1967-70 for Mstislav Rostropovich, Tout un monde lointain… (An Entire Distant World…) sprang, like

the Strauss piece, from a problematical stage project, in this case a proposed ballet in honor of the poet Baudelaire’s

centenary. Although dancing to the poet’s complex evocations of sensuality and ideal beauty proved impractical, the

composer’s immersion in Baudelaire’s “distant world” found expression in purely musical terms. Rostropovich had

requested a concerto in 1960; ten years later, he received a tone poem for cello and orchestra in five movements, each

with an epigraph selected from Baudelaire’s poetry.

For the most part, Dutilleux uses the large orchestra sparingly, applying and mixing tone color in transparent layers,

which Dutoit rendered exquisitely audible in the clear acoustics of Symphony Hall. The piece’s movements could be

described as variations, slow movements, scherzo, and presto finale, but that wouldn’t do justice to Dutilleux’s

endlessly mutable mood-painting; the first movement’s title, Énigme, could apply to them all.

Gautier Capucon

Boston Classical Review February 3, 2012

page 2 of 2

The solo cello moves through this sound world with a subtlety worthy of the poet who inspired this music. Making a

memorable debut with this orchestra, the French cellist Gautier Capuçon held the audience in thrall with a simple

eloquence that made one forget the music’s considerable technical demands—although the sound of his perfectly-tuned

double stops was a reminder of the approximate intonation we’ve learned to put up with from some other soloists.

Dutilleux is said to have admired Rostropovich’s playing in the cello’s upper register, and written this piece’s cello part

accordingly. Capuçon also shone there Thursday night, with agility and a wonderful variety of tone and inflection—

but one wouldn’t have minded hearing a few more of his room-filling low notes as well. The cellist’s tone never

became harsh or grunty even in the most vigorous passages.

With this poetic vision still glowing in the mind (the intermission having already occurred between the Strauss and the

Dutilleux), the audience settled back to savor that classic evocation of natural beauty in French music, La Mer.

Unfortunately, Le Desert might have been a more appropriate title for the excessively bright, even strident,

performance that followed, which seemed more driven by Dutoit’s baton than by elemental forces of nature.

One longed to hear waves, not cellos, and sea breezes, not flutes—a situation not helped by the hall’s lucid acoustics.

Better to put this dry ocean out of mind and return to the sensuous enigmas of Baudelaire and Dutilleux.