Salzburg Easter Festival in autumn with Christian Thielemann
E.t are crazy times we live in. Who would have thought two years ago that the Salzburg Easter Festival would take place in autumn? But because everything was still closed in spring, the organs of the festival were postponed and shortened to the days around All Saints’ Day. With its four concerts and without the usual opera productions, the “Easter Festival in Autumn” was a success in terms of numbers: the organizers reported a capacity utilization of almost 85 percent. Even the ailing Vienna State Opera is now dreaming of this, and 99 percent will die before the corona pandemic thanks to numerous dreamy tourists. This is mainly thanks to Christian Thielemann, the outgoing artistic director of the Easter Festival and chief conductor of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden until 2024. Between him and the managing director Nikolaus Bachler, artistic director from 2022, there had been a crash in advance. Confidential e-mails, letters and ultimatums found their way out in public. Bachler finally won the power struggle. The supervisory board parted ways in September 2019, so that the 2022 festival would be organized by Christian Thielemann and the Saxon State Orchestra.
Public taunts
In the meantime, the two adversaries have replaced their feud with a more professional work ethic – and yet Thielemann’s last work, which he conducted as the sole artistic director of the Easter Festival, was chosen quite cryptically: Richard Strauss’ strongly autobiographical tone poem “Ein Heldenleben”. The six programmatic subheadings, which the composer deleted when going to press, can all be applied as a slide to Thielemann’s own situation. The grumbling, squeaking and growling horns in “Des Helden Gegenacher”, the sound of public taunts, suddenly stop the heroic theme that was triumphant in front of them. In the section “Des Helden Friedenswerke”, Strauss tellingly quotes those own tone poems with which Thielemann was already able to celebrate huge successes. And the demonstratively roaring applause after “The Hero’s Flight from the World and Perfection” shows that Thielemann’s punchline sparked. The Salzburg audience rose from their seats and celebrated the obviously moved conductor with a demonstration of devotion. Even after the Saxon State Orchestra had left, he was called onto the stage three times by the cheering guests. Thielemann knows about his attraction, a fact that Bachler had to take note of in the meantime. What that means for the future of the festival remains to be seen.
But not all works of the hero Thielemann are good. One example is the concert with Wolfgang Amadé Mozart’s Requiem at the beginning of the festival, a fifty-minute spectacle at a top price of 230 euros! For fans of the original sound, this interpretation is a fitting soundtrack to Dante Alighieri’s sixth circle of hell, which is intended for the heretics. But even more conciliatory minds have to admit: Mozart is not Thielemann’s business. Without a break, without breathing, without moments of contemplation, he rushes through the work together with the Saxon State Orchestra, knows neither phrasing nor piano, degrades the Salzburg Bach Choir to an inflexible and tense declamation machine and punctually pulls the ritardando brake towards the end of each movement. Thielemann is a little more flexible with the solo parts, in which Golda Schultz, Sebastian Kohlhepp and René Pape – especially in Recordare and Benedictus – ensure a few conciliatory moments. Only Christa Mayer, an outstanding Wagner and Mahler interpreter, got lost in the otherwise harmonious Mozart ensemble.