![\"British](\"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/mkoClementPower2.jpg\")
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By ANDREW POWELL MUNICH \u2014 Few conductors can jump into a Berg-Zemlinsky-Honegger program on three days\u2019 notice and lead it fluently without change. Enter Clement Power<\/a> (33), a gray-haired Londoner, for the M\u00fcnchener Kammerorchester<\/a>\u2019s March 13 subscription concert here at the Prinz-Regenten-Theater. The newcomer showed an easy rapport with the players (6-5-4-4-2 strings) and technical mastery, resulting in persuasive readings of four challenging scores.<\/p>\n He fostered a warm sound, with precise articulation in Berg\u2019s Drei St\u00fccke aus der Lyrischen Suite<\/i> (1928) and clear, glowing layers in Honegger\u2019s D-Major String Symphony (1941). The MKO responded passionately in the outer two Berg \u201cpieces\u201d and sustained rhythmic exactness in the forwards-then-backwards Allegro misterioso<\/i>. The Honegger resounded with such refinement and allure that it was hard to channel the composer\u2019s morose wartime outlook. Ideas swirled vigorously, swooned more than mourned. Rupprecht Drees<\/a>\u2019s trumpet made a happily unobtrusive entry in the last movement, and the chorale tune soared to rapturous applause.<\/p>\n In between, Sandrine Piau<\/a> applied her elegant, bright lyric soprano to Zemlinsky\u2019s lush Maiblumen bl\u00fchten \u00fcberall<\/i> (1898) and Berg\u2019s Sieben fr\u00fche Lieder<\/i> (1908), both heard in arrangements, the Berg being Reinbert de Leeuw\u2019s pungent reduction<\/a>. Although sensitive to the German texts, however, she proved overparted.<\/p>\n String for string, the MKO may be Munich\u2019s most accomplished orchestra. An ensemble of two dozen musicians founded in 1950, it has scant competition yet plays at consistently high levels in enterprising programs (often resulting in enterprising CDs on ECM Records<\/a>). Its seasons in the Hellenistic-Romantic opulence of the Prinz-Regenten-Theater<\/a> (1901), an architectural cousin of Bayreuth\u2019s Festspielhaus<\/a> (1875), are rounded out by chamber performances in the Jugendstil<\/i> Schauspielhaus<\/a> (also 1901) on ritzy-retail Maximilianstra\u00dfe<\/a> and by much touring. The ensemble favors Classical, Modern and new scores, augmenting itself as need be. In marketing, the M\u00fcnchener Kammerorchester\u2019s acronym usually stands alone, in a neat insignia that reduces its K to a less-than sign: less than a symphony orchestra, perhaps.<\/p>\n Chief conductor Alexander Liebreich<\/a>, originally listed for March 13, enjoys a reputation for versatility but has compromised his career by numerous visits since 2002 to North Korea. Indeed the MKO itself ventured to Pyongyang in 2012 under a do-good Goethe Institute program<\/a>, explained by Liebreich to the BBC<\/a>. Anyway the players must like venturing beyond safe Germany: a trip to drug cartel paradise Medell\u00edn<\/a> comes on a tour next month. Call them adventurous.<\/p>\n Clement Power, meanwhile, remains barely known. While pretty-boy maestros in his age group win coveted awards and take up rural British opera company and New York chamber orchestra jobs, this prodigiously gifted artist works apparently without representation.<\/p>\n Photo \u00a9 M\u00fcnchener Kammerorchester<\/p>\n Related posts:
Published: March 24, 2014<\/span><\/p>\n
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