Review: LISE DAVIDSEN's 'Wesendonck Lieder” Highlights Met Orchestra Concert at Carnegie under Nezet-Seguin

The foray of the Met Orchestra under Music Director Yannick Nezet-Seguin into the concert hall the other night—Carnegie Hall to be specific, during its “Fall of the Weimar” series—was in some ways like a three-part meal that mixed the order of the courses.

First came an appetizer (running less than 10 minutes) in the form of Bach’s “Fuga [Ricercata] a 6 voci” from Musical Offering, BWV 1079, a late work by the composer (1747) rethought by Anton Webern in the 20th century. Then there was dessert in the form of Wagner’s “Wesendonck Lieder,” a five-song cycle, gloriously sung by soprano Lise Davidsen to thunderous applause. Finally, there was the main course: Mahler’s 5th Symphony, a 75-minute work that was greeted rapturously by concertgoers.  

I guess I’m a dessert man, and I wasn’t disappointed for an instant. From the moment she debuted at the Met in Tchaikovsky’s QUEEN OF SPADES, soprano Davidsen has been an unmissable asset to the company, with a voice that has a broad scope, a wondrous sheen and floating high notes. She even started the Met’s season with a solo recital this past September. This time around, her contribution was all Wagner, first with the “Wesendonck Lieder” then an encore of her “calling card” aria, “Dich, teure Halle” from TANNHAUSER.

The nature of Wagner’s relationship to Mathilde Wesendonck—an amateur poet who supplied the text for the songs—has been the subject of some speculation (Mathilde and her husband provided help to the Wagners, who were stranded without resources in Switzerland), but, frankly, who cares when they get a performance like the one provided by Davidsen. It was a pleasure to hear a singer who sounded gorgeous from the moment she opened her mouth and didn’t need warming up to make her singing palatable.

Wagner called two of the five songs—“Im Treibhaus” (“In the Greenhouse”) and the finale, “Traume” (“Dreams”)—“studies for TRISTAN UND ISOLDE,” and it was easy to hear a future Isolde bursting forth from Davidsen. She has a substantial voice that pours out of her but easily (or at least sounding like it) scales it back when necessary, with floating high notes that were otherworldly.

Her control was notable in “Im Treibhaus,” with vocal production that always seems so very thoughtful. The audience was wild for her and she came back for a gleaming account of TANNHAUSER’s “Dich, teure Halle.” (She sang it lovingly and I enjoyed it thoroughly, but wish she’d come up with an alternative, since she did it in her recital at the Met as well.) The orchestra and conductor didn’t just accompany her, but built on her performance, with music that was beautiful in its own right.

If I seem to have skipped over the Bach, it was not an accident. Even at eight minutes, it seemed long and rather disappointing, especially compared to the two other pieces of the concert.

As for Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, by the it came to an end, the audience at Carnegie Hall was in a frenzy. They stood and cheered from the moment Maestro Nezet-Seguin completed the long work. No wonder. The last movements of the piece—the Adagietto leading into the Rondo Finale—showed the orchestra and conductor in incredible form.

After the first round of applause was over, Nezet-Seguin began wending his way through the orchestra to single out players and sections, all of whom played spectacularly and dazzled the listeners, for their contributions to the performance’s success. Who were the orchestral champs? It would be difficult choose the finest accomplishments among the strings, horns and winds.

Though sections were breathtakingly beautiful, I can’t say the piece as a whole is near the top of my list of favorite Mahler symphonies--the opening section of the music (the Funeral March opening through the downbeat ending) was a little hard going—but you can’t fight music that gets the kind of reception that this received from the concertgoers at Carnegie.

Caption: Soprano Lise Davidsen and Met Music Director/Conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin

Photo by Chris Lee