James Conlon\u2019s performances with the Buenos Aires Philharmonic at the Teatro Col\u00f3n on February 28 and March 1, which included Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 Leningrad, were met with several positive reviews. Translated highlights include:<\/p>\n
“His masterful touch was evident from the outset in the musical and emotional intensity achieved in the opening unison\u2014an expansive introductory melody of wide range and striking contours. Expressiveness and certainty flowed naturally from the orchestra, revealing a clear sense of unity between conductor and musicians.” La Nacion<\/em><\/p>\n “…Conlon maintained absolute control at every moment. In ways that remain something of a mystery\u2014known only to great conductors\u2014even at the densest points one could clearly perceive the timbral details, the polyrhythms, and the most delicate contrapuntal lines.” La Nacion<\/em><\/p>\n “Conlon held the bow with ample, unsentimental grace, understanding that the lyrical depth of this music demands restraint rather than rhetoric.” Clar\u00edn<\/em><\/p>\n “…Conlon\u2014who introduced the concert in fluent Spanish, a courtesy that is always appreciated\u2014is the ideal maestro to work with orchestras such as the Philharmonic, which thrives on challenges of this caliber.” Sobreviviente en la Ciudad<\/em><\/p>\n “Conlon balanced the orchestral planes admirably…he generated genuine tensions, never merely superficial ones, probing the darker undercurrents of the music as deeply as its ostensibly triumphant brilliance.” Sobreviviente en la Ciudad<\/em><\/p>\n From Clarin<\/a><\/p>\n The Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra celebrated its 80th anniversary with a concert that prompted reflection on totalitarianism.<\/strong><\/p>\n By Laura Novoa<\/p>\n Before raising his baton, Conlon addressed the audience to underline the double event: the orchestra’s 80th anniversary and the exceptional magnitude of the symphony that would be heard – without intervals – in a single, demanding journey.<\/p>\n It had been three decades since the Symphony had been performed in this hall; a work premiered in 1942, in the midst of World War II, whose historical and symbolic weight resonated once again with renewed force. The symphony became associated with the siege of the Soviet city and the narrative of the resistance. But its power is not exhausted by the historical context : Shostakovich wrote a score capable of supporting opposing interpretations, of functioning as both a public statement and a private reflection.<\/p>\n One interpretation understands the symphony as a portrait of the eruption of violence and resistance against the Nazi invaders . From the mechanical advance of the first movement to the mournful Adagio, the work traces an arc of devastation and memory, culminating in a finale that affirms a hard-won victory.<\/p>\n Another interpretation, however, suggests that the music is directed not only at the external enemy, but also at the oppressive machinery of the Soviet system itself . The famous opening march would not merely be an image of the advancing army, but the sonic representation of any form of totalitarianism: repetitive, empty, mechanical. Its enduring unease lies in this ambiguity\u2014between official epic and coded critique.<\/p>\n Under Conlon’s baton, the work found a firm and focused pulse from the outset. The strings vibrated with controlled tension, and the transitions were managed with structural intelligence. The first movement, with its famous “invasion theme,” unfolded as a construction of progressive accumulation\u2014often compared to Maurice Ravel’s Bolero \u2014but here stripped of all timbral seduction.<\/p>\n Conlon avoided sensationalism: the snare drum advanced with almost impassive regularity, and the orchestral density transformed a banal melody into an oppressive machine. The unisons, launched with a harsh gesture, sounded like slogans repeated without reflection. The tension grew without descending into caricature, to a climax of suffocating intensity.<\/p>\n Read the full review.<\/a><\/p>\n From La Nacion<\/a><\/p>\n Under the baton of James Conlon, the Buenos Aires Philharmonic shone in its inaugural concert<\/strong><\/p>\n The orchestra began celebrating its 80th anniversary with a remarkable performance<\/em><\/p>\n By Pablo Kohan<\/p>\n An orchestra’s first concert of the season holds special significance. For these inaugural occasions, the program, the presence of a prestigious soloist, and, crucially, the choice of the conductor who will lead such a singularly important concert are all carefully considered. In the case of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic , it was also the start of its eightieth season, a milestone that lent the event even greater importance.<\/p>\n Two crucial, and certainly very wise, decisions were made. James Conlon , an American conductor with a brilliant track record both in strictly musical matters and in the challenging world of cultural management, was hired . It’s reasonable to assume he was responsible for the second major decision. This concert dispensed with soloists and featured a single work, Shostakovich’s monumental Symphony No. 7, “Leningrad.” And to state it unequivocally, the concert given this Saturday by the Buenos Aires Philharmonic was excellent, intense, and moving. Shostakovich was in the best of hands.<\/p>\n For a little over eighty minutes, the Philharmonic demonstrated that when conducted by a great artist, it can tackle the most complex challenges, such as bringing to life a work as intricate and difficult as the “Leningrad” Symphony. This colossal work was written by Shostakovich in Leningrad, under extreme conditions, in 1941, when the city was besieged by the Nazi Wehrmacht, plunging it into a horrific situation. Beyond the strictly military aspects\u2014the constant and indiscriminate bombings and attacks\u2014its inhabitants had to endure the terrible consequences of hunger and extreme cold. In this programmatic work, composed solely of sound, Shostakovich, a definitively superior composer, narrates, in his own way, life before the siege, the sustained and stubborn advance of the invading army, memories of life before the ordeal, the requiem for the victims, and finally, a victorious ending\u2014a declaration of optimism, since the desolate and inhuman siege would end two years after the composition was completed.<\/p>\n Read the full review.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" James Conlon\u2019s performances with the Buenos Aires Philharmonic at the Teatro Col\u00f3n on February 28 and March 1, which included Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 Leningrad, were met with several positive reviews. Translated highlights include: “His masterful touch was evident from the outset in the musical and emotional intensity achieved in the opening unison\u2014an expansive introductory … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3613,4401,3686,3612],"class_list":["post-17941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-conductor","tag-james-conlon","tag-orchestra","tag-review"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17941"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17942,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17941\/revisions\/17942"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/1168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}