The Arcadian dimension of the flute at the Palau de la Música

A true virtuoso of the flute, Emmanuel Pahud (a student of Jean-Pierre Rampal), lends his talents to Mozart's first concerto—and, in fact, the only one originally written for the instrument. The Swiss musician explores the piece's discourse and makes it his own with impeccable execution and admirable artistry. cantabile The second movement was distinguished by its well-connected phrases and a sensitivity devoid of affectation and sentimentality. It was pure Mozartian discourse, unaffected yet free of the philological flourishes that can sometimes render original pieces unrecognizable. Well supported by the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, expertly conducted by François-Xavier Roth, Pahud closed the first half of the concert, setting the bar very high.

It had begun with a transparent reading of the Prelude to the après-midi of a faun by Claude Debussy, in which Roth knew how to seek out and find the ranges, colors, and iridescence of the score, conceived from a poem by Mallarmé and which in 1912 Wassily Nijinsky would turn into a choreographic piece, later inherited by Rudolf Nureyev. More than a narrative succession of gestures or landscapes that could legitimately be projected within his mind, Roth opted for a corporeal and unified reading, like an arc that began with the gliding harmonies of the beginning and ended with the Arcadian evocation of the finale.

Instead, Daphnis and Chloe It demands something else, and Roth clearly put his heart into it, starting from the miniaturism with vaguely oriental resonances that also pivot on Maurice Ravel's ballet. He worked with meticulous detail, with well-crafted phrases serving an exquisitely rendered tapestry of colors, thanks also to the superb performance of an orchestra comprised of great musicians. Among them, three splendid flautists, to whom Roth gave timbral prominence, even if only to remind us that the flute was the absolute protagonist of the concert. Once again, the Arcadia that serves as the backdrop for the ballet's three acts made its presence felt in a second half that maintained a clear and intelligent connection with the first. This is what it means to do things well and to know how to convey them, always serving the music and not the egos of those who take to the stage.