Thielemann inspires at the Salzburg Easter Festival
Christian Thielemann’s orchestral concert at the Salzburg Easter Festival on Monday evening was an encounter between two works that couldn’t be more different. Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Viola – a work that the composer only left behind in sketches – and Richard Strauss’ “Alpine Symphony”, which has already been performed countless times by the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden alone. But, as is well known, opposites attract.
The fact that Bartók’s work can still be performed today is primarily due to his descendants, who put together the sketches left after the composer’s death like a jigsaw puzzle to create an orchestral score that is still not heard too often today. In the Großes Festspielhaus, violist Antoine Tamestit began to set the first parts with an extended solo. Dark and with an almost electric tension, it forms a voluminous framework that the Saxon State Orchestra gradually filled in with many colors. The result was neither major nor minor, followed its own rules and controlled precisely through this intangible state. Even Meister Thielemann was blown away by the great applause of the audience.
Then, after the break, a true classic from the Saxon Staatskapelle Dresden: Strauss’ “Alpine Symphony”, a home run for the Saxons, not only because it was once dedicated to the Dresden Hofkapelle, today’s Staatskapelle. And on Monday, Christian Thielemann let the orchestra slosh over the audience in its sheer beauty of sound. In the “Nacht”, the opening and closing movement of the “Alpine Symphony”, a few memories of the “Lohengrin” on Saturday came up with the wafting and pastel opening sounds. The ascent up the mountain did not pose a real challenge for the Saxons, the orchestra and conductor know the route too well for that, but were still able to audibly enjoy the surroundings.
Like a radio play, Thielemann created the stages as sonorous images of streams, alpine pastures and thundering thunderstorms, through which he led his orchestra at a brisk pace. The audience pays homage to his mountain guide and his soloists with great cheers and applause and didn’t want to stop. Then they could actually smack the beloved conductor back onto the stage. Unfortunately, they won’t be able to do that for the next Easter Festival. Thielemann does not make Salzburg’s farewell easy either.
(SERVICE – The concert will be repeated on April 16; )