Successful start for the revived Mozart Week
Culture
After the 2021 Mozart Week could only be “visited” via stream due to the lockdown and had to be canceled in 2022, the festival is back today in all its glory. At the opening concert on Thursday evening in the Great Hall of the Mozarteum Foundation, the musicians and audience were delighted to see each other again.
A program booklet was not really needed that evening, because artistic director Rolando Villazón more or less takes over this part himself. Between the individual pieces he appeared on the stage again and again, provided facts about the artists and works and even played entire dialogues between father and Son Mozart followed – much to the delight of the audience, who couldn’t stop clapping. Villazón’s enthusiasm for Mozart is undeniable.
Project managers from Mexico in action
Programmatically, the evening represented a transition from the last to this year’s Mozart Week. In 2022, Mozart’s string works would have been the thematic focus, and at least the first half of the concert was dedicated to them. The Mozarteum Orchestra, conducted by Ivor Bolton, received solo support from violinist Clarissa Bevilacqua. It was a home game for the young Italian. In 2020 she won the Salzburg Mozart Competition in the violin category and also the prize for the best Mozart interpretation.
In the opening concert, too, her playing of Mozart’s Adagio in E major and Rondo in C major was characterized by the highest technical precision and great ease, with which she infected the Mozarteum Orchestra. The soloists in the “Serenata notturna” before the break proved that this orchestra is a really good Mozart orchestra. Villazón rightly announced them beforehand: “Mozart once wrote: ‘I don’t like Salzburg, there is no good orchestra here.’ My friend, you left too soon, that’s a very good thing and it’s set here.”
Graduate of the master of the house
After the break, Ivor Bolton pulled harder on the dynamics and tempo levers again. With a furious overture from Mozart’s “La clemenza di Tito” he celebrated the juxtaposition of the old and the young Mozart, which is the focus of this year’s program. Baritone Rafael Fingerlos controls individual arias. While he was still a bit weak on the chest in the first from “Bastien und Bastienne”, he was much more confident in “Zaid”.
After the concluding “Haffner Symphony”, Rolando Villazón insisted on bringing an aria himself. “Just a little bit,” joked the Mexican, who once again has a number of his own performances at his festival this year. The audience is happy for him and donated great reunion applause for all artists.
The extensive program runs until February 6th.