Schönberg, Mahler, Korngold and John Williams by La Monnaie at BOZAR in Brussels

BOZAR, Brussels, Sunday February 18 2024

Conductor: Alain Altinoglu. Baritone: Stéphane Degout. Violin: Saténik  Khourdoïan. La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra.

• Schönberg: Fünf Orchesterstücke, op.16
• Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
• Korngold: Concerto in D major for Violin and Orchestra, op. 35
• Williams: Harry Potter and the sorcerer's stone, suite for orchestra. I: Hedwig's Theme. II: The Sorcerer's Stone. III: Nimbus 2000. IV Harry's Wondrous World.

Alain Altinoglu rehearsing Parsifal in 2022 at the BOZAR. Photo: Simon Van Rompay

The blurb for this concert on La Monnaie's website puts the emphasis on magic in music, saying it would be 'An ideal evening for both Wizards and Muggles.' (I had to look 'Muggle' up.) This is no doubt a clever way to draw people who might not normally go to symphonic concerts into one that opens with a work by Schönberg. But I think the programme could more plausibly be described as simply a small selection of works illustrating the debt Hollywood, even today, owes to Vienna.

It struck me years ago, when I still sat on the sofa watching TV with my family, that if, as some people say, Schönberg has never really found a home in the hearts of the public, even seventy years after his death, film and TV scores have long brought his legacy into people's homes without their even noticing. Schönberg's expressionistic Five Orchestral Pieces could easily serve as the score for a psychological thriller, and nobody on the settee in front of the box would bat an eyelid.

Meanwhile, by coincidence, only the other day I sent a friend who loves John Williams' film scores but has no notion whatsoever of the influences they incorporate links to YouTube clips of Korngold (and Stravinsky, Holst, Mahler and Messiaen).

I've said it before: Alain Altinoglu's impact on La Monnaie's orchestra is astonishing. I mean, it's hard to believe one conductor, presumably through a combination of vision, hard work and charisma, can take an orchestra so far. (Unable as yet to find a photo of this concert, I posted, above, one of rehearsals in the same excellent, art-déco hall for a 2022 Parsifal described by Bachtrack as 'close to perfection'.) Now, after all this shared effort and shared success, it's as if Altinoglu and his orchestra are one, and everything, to put it simply (and risk seeming simplistic), sounds just right. 

For a start, the orchestra is thoroughly rehearsed. In the BOZAR's clear acoustics, I didn't catch a single wrong or cracked note. The horn surges in the Korngold and Williams, for  example, were simply thrilling, and the massed upper strings had that glassy sheen that's an audible sign of the very best.

Then, there's the respect for the score, the delicate attention to the smallest detail (without sounding finicky), the brisk but not frantic tempi, the perfectly-judged dynamics, the range of instrumental colour, the complicity between conductor and orchestra; the sheer joy of music-making they project together... And always striking the right balance, the right tone: the Schönberg, which got off to a vigorous start, was played with warmth, not austerity; the Mahler songs were serious of course) but not mawkish, not wallowing in self-pity; the Korngold was glittering and gorgeous but never slushy or self-indulgent; the Williams, in which, with the programme coming to its end, things might have slackened off, while played with a smile, remained as unstintingly professional as the rest. This rigorous (but by no means stiff) consistency of style, upheld from beginning to end, really knitted the unusual programme together into a convincingly coherent sequence.

The choice of soloists was also just right for this approach. Stéphane Degout's singing was, as usual, all warmth, humanity, judgment and sincerity: simple sadness, without histrionics, though his outcries at the top of the range were truly thrilling. The only question in my mind was whether Degout is actually miserable enough by nature for Mahler. Similarly, Saténik Khourdoïan's on-stage personality comes across as naturally reserved and introspective, so her Korngold, while glorious (at the end of the first movement, the audience couldn't help bursting into applause), was never over-the-top, never overplaying its obvious 'Hollywood' potential. She is, by the way, one of La Monnaie's two principle violins. I take her appearing as soloist in this concert as another sign of Altinoglu's already evident regard for the musicians of his orchestra.

Just for the record, the encores were, after the Mahler, 'Zu Straßburg auf der Schanz' introduced with a smile by Altinoglu as matching the mood of the rest (and in fact echoing the funereal rhythms of the last of the foregoing Lieder). And after the Harry Potter suite, a raucous march from - so my neighbour told me - Star Wars.

This was one of the most impressive and enjoyable concerts I can remember. The audience loved it. Having brought La Monnaie to this degree of excellence, and developed such a rapport with his players and audience, if ever Altinoglu gets an offer he can't refuse from elsewhere (and I'm sure he must get offers: Paris, for example, is still without a replacement for Dudamel), he will be sorely missed.

There were, by the way, microphones on stage, so I guess we might get a chance to hear the concert online. I must try to find out where and how: there's no mention of a broadcast on La Monnaie's website, and so far, Googling has thrown nothing up.