![\"Ivan](\"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/chefdirigentIvanMRO.jpg\")
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By ANDREW POWELL MUNICH \u2014 It was a short courtship by recent standards. Dalmatian conductor Ivan Repu\u0161i\u0107<\/a> (pr. REP-oosh-itch), 39, debuted with the M\u00fcnchner Rundfunk-Orchester<\/a> in a concert La rondine<\/em> in Oct. 2015, returned for a gala two months later and signed his contract* last June. His background, happily, is stable: general music director of Staatsoper Hannover<\/a>, in a relationship dating back to 2010, and chief conductor since 2005 of the Zadarski Komorni Orkestar<\/a> (by the sapphire waters of Dalmatia\u2019s coast: no fool he).<\/p>\n Before stepping as Chefdirigent<\/em> into Ulf Schirmer<\/a>\u2019s big shoes this fall, he agreed to fashion an MRO Paradisi gloria<\/em> program March 17 here at the Herz-Jesu-Kirche<\/a>: Respighi\u2019s Concerto gregoriano<\/em> (1921) and the Durufl\u00e9 Requiem (1947) \u2014 not the most obvious repertory from which to judge a conductor but a thoughtful and satisfying journey unified around chant and modal harmonies.<\/p>\n Repu\u0161i\u0107 built tension in both works, attending to dynamics and stressing the flow of ideas where he could. In the \u201cconcerto,\u201d this produced a structure greater than the sum of three perilously disparate movements and gave his unassuming violin soloist, Henry Raudales<\/a>, a basis for tracing the rhapsodic lines assertively as well as ethereally, even if the church space somewhat diffused the instrument\u2019s sound.<\/p>\n In the Durufl\u00e9, it meant a bold performance grounded in lyrical contrasts and vying choral and orchestral assertions. The BR Chor<\/a> served the divine rhetoric with verbal clarity and sure intonation. The MRO strings played passionately (for the concerto too), the brass gloriously. Max Hanft<\/a> managed the demanding organ part with aplomb despite his equipment\u2019s relatively muted colors. Mezzo-soprano Okka von der Damerau<\/a> applied her magnificent voice to the Pie Jesu<\/em> but, alas, conveyed little of its meaning. Ljubomir Pu\u0161kari\u0107<\/a>\u2019s firm and focused baritone, on the other hand, found a wealth of plaintive expression in his brief solo duties.<\/p>\n [*One downside of the haste is that he is not fully available for his debut season, as announced at a Pressekonferenz<\/em> April 26 to formally introduce him. Only five Repu\u0161i\u0107 concerts are slated in Munich for 2017\u201318: another gala, a family program of symphonic dances, a concert performance of Luisa Miller<\/em>, and two Paradisi gloria<\/em> programs. The church plans, in a series created<\/a> by Marcello Viotti, continue the Respighi-Durufl\u00e9 eclecticism: Britten\u2019s A Ceremony of Carols<\/em> and Variations on God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen,<\/em> together with Vaughan Williams\u2019s Tallis Fantasia<\/em> and Bernstein\u2019s Chichester Psalms<\/em>; and a pairing of Kod\u00e1ly\u2019s Psalmus hungaricus<\/em> with his Budav\u00e1ri Te Deum<\/em>, sung by the Hungarian Radio Choir<\/a>, no less. Separately at the conference, the MRO\u2019s new website<\/a> was launched and we learned some trivia: the orchestra is 32% women; the longest service among active members is 41 years; the mean age is 44; and the oldest played instrument was made 312 years ago. Schirmer, absent, received a warm round of applause from the 100 or so assembled journalists for his eleven years of MRO work.]<\/span><\/p>\n Photo \u00a9 K\u00fcnstleragentur Seifert<\/p>\n Related posts:
Published: April 24, 2017<\/span><\/p>\n
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