In 2022, the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra in Spain celebrated its 100th anniversary. On March 8, 1922, the orchestra made its debut performance under the direction of the Belgian conductor – well-known in Greece – Armand Marsick. During these hundred years, and ever since, the orchestra has regularly performed in its home city and abroad. Since 1999, its home has been the Euskalduna Conference Centre and Concert Hall, a former shipyard transformed into a multi-purpose venue with six concert halls and many smaller conference rooms. The Bizkaia Provincial Council, one of the three provinces of the Basque Country in northern Spain, owns both cultural organizations.
For about a year now, the orchestra has been facing some challenges; among other things, it has been without an artistic director since the previous one’s term ended in the summer of 2024, while last season, the musicians went on strike due to practical disagreements – not financial in nature – with the management. However, programming continues, and the orchestra presents three operas and 12-14 concerts per season. In recent years, significant soloists have appeared with them, such as Emmanuel Pahud (flute), Frank-Peter Zimmermann, Sergei Khachatryan, Alena Baeva, Bomsori, Sergei Dogadin (violin), Johannes Moser, Julia Hagen, Asier Polo (cello), Garrick Ohlsson, Alexandre Kantorow, Wayne Marshall, Nobuyuki Tsuji, Juan Floristán, Jan Lisiecki, Vadym Kholodenko, the Jussen brothers (piano). However, although Bilbao is the largest city in the Basque Country, it is only the tenth most populous city in Spain. Therefore, conductors do not have the same fortune, with the exception of a relatively recent visit by Leonard Slatkin and the younger – rapidly rising – Tarmo Peltokoski.
Thus, the visit – always for two concerts (Thursday and Friday, November 6 and 7, in this case) – by Vasily Petrenko, was a rare opportunity to see this very good orchestra with an excellent conductor. The program featured Dmitri Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony, dedicated to the city of Leningrad, which was under German siege for almost 900 days from 1941 to 1944. The program notes included a moving bilingual text by the Basque writer Karmele Jaio in four parts: one for each movement of the symphony. She even read these texts to the audience (alternating in Basque and Spanish) before the performance began.
I’ll highlight some points from the text: “I hear words like freedom, heroes, nation, pride, triumph. And I remember what my grandmother used to say. She said that big words are very cheap. That they are used with great cheerfulness and that you should have to pay to use some of them, at least 5 pesetas for each word.” “There are no big words for all that builds what wars destroy. There are no grand symphonies that glorify the heroism of those who care, who tend, who feed a baby.” “Wars are also exile, having to flee from your home, from your country, often never to return.” “Young Olga Kvade, who was among the audience at that Leningrad concert [August 9, 1942], recounted many years later: ‘The only thing we feared was that the Germans would start bombing. I thought, ‘My God, let us hear the concert to the end.’” “It is a good example of the usefulness of the seemingly useless. The value of music, art, literature, when the world is collapsing. As is happening today in many parts of the planet.”
Then a tall, slender conductor appeared on stage. Austere, unadorned, Spartan in every way, one might say. With minimal movements, he ‘worked’ a large orchestra (with a 16-14-12-10-8 string section)*, doing only what was absolutely necessary, without a single superfluous gesture. He didn’t dance, he didn’t fence, he didn’t even seem to sweat. He conducted an orchestra as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
From the timpani’s entrance in the ostinato of the first movement – the first 4 measures were barely audible – with the famous ‘invasion’ theme shifting between instrument groups, to the bass clarinet solo in the second movement (accompanied by flutes and harps), to the ‘just right’ brassiness^ in the 4th – mainly – movement, everything worked exceptionally well: the dynamics from absolute niente to the deafening triple forte with the brass, the synchronization, the cooperation between the sections. It was evident from the musicians’ applause at the end that they adored him.
Even the audience, which as Southern Europeans often applauds between movements of a symphony or concerto, was attentive on this occasion. They certainly rewarded their city’s orchestra and the conductor lavishly, calling him back for a bow 4-5 times. It seemed he particularly enjoyed it too: he singled out individual instrument sections and soloists more than once, as is customary. In conclusion, it was an impressive concert, with the right choice of all contributing factors: conductor, program, presentation.
* The numbers refer respectively to the first violins (16), second violins (14), violas (12), cellos (10), and double basses (8).
^ In musical jargon, ‘brassiness’ refers to the intensity and volume that brass instruments can bring to the orchestra.
Listen:
Vasily Petrenko conducts Shostakovich’s 7th Symphony (studio recording)
1st movement | 2nd movement | 3rd movement | 4th movement