29/07/2025
Surprise at La Roque-d’Anthéron: Débora Waldman With Beethoven, Malofeev
“It had a musicality, a frankness, and an intellectual and instrumental honesty that are the very essence of this music.”
— Alain Lompech
Débora Waldman conducted her Orchestre national Avignon-Provence in last weekend’s performances of the famous International Piano Festival of La Roque d’Anthéron. In an all Beethoven programme at the legendary open-air Parc du Château de Florans, featuring Alexander Malofeev as soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 5, Ms Waldman also led the orchestra in a remarkable performance of Beethoven’s Third Symphony.
The famously critical Alain Lompech wrote: “Sunday's performance held a surprise. To be honest, we were a little apprehensive about the Orchestre National Avignon-Provence in Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto and even more so, probably, in the "Eroica" Symphony. We were wrong, and the lesson was a tough one. (…) [Malofeev’s] "Emperor"? Free from all intellectual, psychological, and formal constraints. New, moving, always listening to an orchestra that evolved in total complicity with Debora Waldman, its music director. We were on the edge of our seats and transfixed, drawn in by the character of a music that seemed so revolutionary, so unpredictable, played without the bloated compunction that pasteurizes its flavors and sterilizes its novelty. In the "Eroica" Symphony, the accuracy of tempos, accentuation, articulations, and phrasing, even in a "Funeral March" that moved forward without tearing up or giving itself inappropriate Wagnerian airs. It was not luxurious. No! But it had a musicality, a frankness, and an intellectual and instrumental honesty that are the very essence of this music. And that doesn't come without hard work.” (Bachtrack)
Photo (c) Pierre Morales
https://www.felsnerartists.com/news-database/surprise-at-la-roque-danthron-dbora-waldman-with-beethoven-malofeev
