On Saturday evening, the concert with the OSM of guitarist Miloš took place in Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, preceded by excerpts from Bizet’s Carmen and works by Rossini, Ravel and Mel Bonis.
Let’s ignore the opening L’italiana in Algeri, which didn’t bring anything masterful and was too much in this concert. Ravel’s Cinq mélodies populaires grecques is a short, brilliantly orchestrated collection. Mezzo-soprano Emily Sierra unfortunately performs it almost without any difference in nuances, only exaggerating the consonants in the fast melodies. Conversely, in Carmen, she plays the part. With a suave, mischievous and resonant voice, adding a few vocal inflections, the rendering of this classic is successful, despite poorly coordinated accelerations with the orchestra in the Chanson Bohème.
Before the Aranjuez, we were treated to a short four-minute work by Mel Bonis, Salomé. We would have taken more because this composer, a student of Franck, knows how to orchestrate. We will remember the central portion of the work in five beats.
Then came Miloš. He plays with great precision and a sensitivity to nuances that takes us into another world. His dialogue with the English horn remains memorable and the orchestra adjusts in its accompaniment, too present in the first movement.
Alas!, this moment of grace was spoiled by (another) cell phone ringing. As such, through the coughs and the multiple escaped programs, we heard three last night, including one between the end of the warning message and the entrance of the solo violin, which did not fail to raise general laughter.
