Stunning, masterful, extraordinary. The audience – and the critics – were full of praise on Friday, January 22 at the Nice Opera House for maestro Oleg Caetani’s interpretation of Symphony No. 11 in G minor, “The Year 1905,” by Dmitri Shostakovich. Even the Nice Philharmonic Orchestra joined in, refusing to stand at the conductor’s invitation, applauding vigorously and showing their satisfaction at having participated in an exceptional musical moment. Without a score for this piece, which nonetheless lasts nearly an hour, equipped with an incredible range of gestures to signal to the soloist or a section of the orchestra any minute intervention, this pupil of Nadia Boulanger managed to conduct a Philharmonic Orchestra in perfect technical and emotional harmony with its director. As a result, there was an impression of watching the images induced by this formidable palimpsestic work commissioned from the composer to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the October Revolution unfold before one’s eyes: Dmitri Shostakovich subtly chose to denounce, through the evocation of the tragic events of January 9, 1905 – the bloody tsarist repression of the popular march on the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg – the oppression suffered by people living under totalitarian regimes.
Each of the four movements corresponds to a dramatized sequencing of the drama: the first Adagio sets the scene of the Winter Palace in a somber and icy “pianissimo” atmosphere, the Allegro describes with musical ferocity rarely equaled the shooting of January 9, the second Adagio opens at the tempo of a funeral march before a final Allegro non troppo, the “Tocsin,” awakens the revolutionary fervor.
The first part of the evening also allowed the audience to appreciate pianist Mikhail Rudy, who skillfully interpreted two pieces “for the left hand”: the Concerto in D major for piano and orchestra by Maurice Ravel, followed by an encore: a nocturne by Alexander Scriabin, “also for the left hand,” as the famous virtuoso candidly explained. One can only wish the renowned soloist, whose usual poetic qualities of his pianistic play were not diminished despite the failures of his right hand, a swift recovery.
