With Khatia Buniatishvili and Paavo Järvi, disappointing closing concert in Verbier

Despite the presence and the enthusiasm of the public for the pianist Star Khatia Buniatishvili, the closing concert of the 30th Verbier Festival did not hold the musical promises awaited.

The more than 1,800 places in the Combines room were all occupied for this closing concert of the 30th Verbier Festival. Rightly, on the bill, Khatia Buniatishvili. What’s more in the Concerto for piano and orchestra n ° 1 From Tchaikovski, one of the most popular works in the repertoire. There is no one who does not hum the first measures of this work at the end of this concerto. The impressive number of existing records leaves the listener a memory of “sound” recording which is difficult to make its reference. Therefore, it is always very interesting to hear what other pianists than that of “our” own disc may have to tell about this music.

The orchestra sets up, agrees, the lights of the room go out, silence is done and … we wait. We wait. We expect long seconds, a time that becomes almost worrying. Unusual time for concert followers. What’s going on behind the scenes? The chef and his soloist are slow. A discomfort undergone? A last -minute defection? A sudden paralyzing stage fright? While the tension is at its peak, that the public is about to release its silent attention, phew! The two artists enter. Khatia Buniatishvili in a blue-marine dress enhanced with a large veil of lace floating behind her, sits carefully with her piano, pushing with an expert and theatrical gesture her ethereal veiling. A quick look at the chief who launches the orchestra in the solemn call of the Cors, before she hit the first piano responses.

From these first notes, we perceive the mind, if not the color of which this interpretation will adorn. The technique is there. Fully. Just if the joint appears to be lacking in pulse, incision. The fingers spin easily, the hands plate the chords with precision but, perhaps an excess pedal gives a rendering Pasty to the young woman’s interpretation. All this first movement obviously lacks force. For his part, Paavo Järvi and the Verbier Festival Orchestra accompany more than they print an orchestral direction. At the entrance to the second movement Simple andantinKhatia Buniatishvili offers some beautiful pianissimo which soon exaggerated, the head plunged on the keyboard, hair covering her face, underlines her useless propensity for theatrical effect. His piano loses his phrasing. Languous that it is when it is expected lyrical and singing. It’s in the third movement Cheerful with fire that we fully appreciate the virtuosity of the pianist. The piano-orchestra dialogue seems to be settled happily. The soloist smiles. Fortunately, we are witnessing an accomplice and suspended time. It will be short -lived. Upon resumption of the grandiloquent theme at the beginning, the pianist took herself to direct the orchestra by making great gestures of the arms. It nevertheless ends with an energetic demonstration of rhythmic agreements with the orchestra which, from the final note sent sees the public reserving a beautiful ovation, to our taste more due to the notoriety of the pianist than to her interpretation. If it is possible that Khatia Buniatishvili had a critical look at her performance and that of Paavo Järvi, she certainly had one on the work of press photographers since no photo of her in action has had the heart of pleased her enough for her to authorize that her image appears in this article.

In the second part, Paavo Järvi directs the Symphony n ° 1 from Gustave Mahler. From the first measures, we remain pending a speaking musical discourse. None of this. The chief walks us in a patchwork of orchestral sounds which he seems to be looking for in the assembly of a few desks rather than with an intention to tell. Between heaviness and deep silences, his music is completely disjointed. Without any conviction. Boredom settles down. Some Fortissimo shards suddenly break a heavy monotony. It is said that finally life will get out of the orchestra. Las, soon the tension falls. We get impatient. The gaze escapes towards the people around us to see if something happens. We look, we no longer listen to. We no longer hear. Between two fortissimo, long pianissimo beaches. And yet, Paavo Järvi continues to beat the measure, pointing his wand towards this one or this other, with an obvious satisfaction. Rarely was given to us to attend a symphony of Mahler, as routine and boring as the one offered to us paavo Järvi in front of a Verbier festival Orchestra under orders.

Photographic credit: © Sofia Lambrou

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