Pianist Jan Lisiecki and the unguided Camerata Salzburg
An outstanding young pianist meets an ensemble that is selling for less than its value.
Shouldn’t the Camerata Salzburg look around for a chief conductor after all? The concept of playing the majority of the performances under the direction of its two concert masters does not help the ensemble any further. An original choice of program in the Vienna Konzerthaus could not hide this this time. Even the overture to Gluck’s “Orfeo ed Euridice” lacked accuracy in the interaction and tonal differentiation. Musical verve alone is no more useful here than with the final piece, Étienne-Nicolas Méhul’s First Symphony. A work that has long puzzled whether Beethoven’s Fifth could have been intended as a model. In fact, thematic similarities here are obviously due to the zeitgeist.
Not even these echoes of Beethoven came out vividly and pointedly this time in the camerata conducted by Gregory Ahss. The middle part of this opening concert of the Symphonie Classique cycle was also disappointing. Annoying, since one of the most outstanding soloists of the younger generation was a guest: 27-year-old Jan Lisiecki.