Seattle Symphony on Saturday welcomed Ludovic Morlot as its new music director, taking over from Gerard Schwarz who led the orchestra for 26 years.
Morlot was welcomed with enthusiastic applause that only amplified during a night of sweeping music, including a transcendent performance by cellist Joshua Roman of Friedrich Gulda’s Concerto for Cello and Wind Orchestra.
The Gulda piece was at one moment jazz, Klezmer and then, in a beat, classical. Roman smiled at Morlot, the orchestra and the audience as he deftly moved about his cello.
While Roman was at his showman’s best, it was Morlot, 37, who took center stage time and again.
The Frenchman talked casually with the audience, staying on stage while the orchestra members took their seats. He sat quietly in the back of the percussion section while Roman played an encore. During Ravel’s Bolero, Morlot left the conductor’s podium and took a seat in the first violin’s, joining the orchestra on the instrument he first trained to play.
Still, it’s the orchestra that is his new instrument and he brought out the best, in the Gulda reading and in fine playings of Gershwin’s An American in Paris and in Bolero.
The conductor also brought Principal Percussionist, Michael A. Werner, to center stage, giving him the soloist’s position as he played the snare drum part, the underlying rhythm that continues throughout Bolero. (Roman also returned to the stage, sitting in with the cellos for Bolero.)
Morlot showed that he’s willing to mix things up. That’s exciting news for Seattle Symphony.
He told Saturday’s audience that he intends to make the symphony one of the best in the country. I hope Morlot sets his sights higher. Under his charismatic leadership, Seattle Symphony has the potential to be among the greatest in the world.
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