Germany Mendelssohn, Widmann: Karajan-Akademie / Kirill Petrenko (conductor). Kammermusiksaal, Berlin, 17.5.2024. (MB)
Mendelssohn – String Octet in E-flat main, Op.20; Symphony No.4 in A serious, Op.90, ‘Italian’
Widmann – Quintet for oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon, and piano
The Berlin Philharmonic’s Karajan-Akademie, based on the initiative of the person himself in 1972, is maybe the final word in orchestral scholarships. Its graduates are to be present in orchestras internationally. On the premise of this night live performance whose second half was performed by Karajan’s successor however two, Kirill Petrenko, it might appear unwise to guess towards that persevering with. Any good orchestra will excel in chamber music enjoying too. The primary a part of the live performance, providing a piece for strings by Mendelssohn and one for wind and piano by Jörg Widmann confirmed a lot to admire in that respect as effectively.
Mendelssohn’s music practically at all times lifts the spirits — until performed poorly (which doesn’t bear interested by). The Karajan-Akademie’s Octet supplied no exception. From the off, the primary motion had a way of rightness that implied spontaneity, but likely entailed a lot preparation. Tempo, stability, poise, and sheer élan characterised the efficiency that mirrored Mendelssohn’s personal extraordinary mixture of youth and maturity. Counterpoint was vividly current with out congestion of textures. Not that sterner passages, as an example within the improvement, have been undersold. The melancholy of exhaustion and its differentiation advised its personal story, as did the revival of spirits for the return. Above all, it made me smile.
If Beethoven’s inheritance was not absent within the first motion, it was instantly extra obvious within the second. A eager architectural grasp was mixed with ethical seriousness and due sense of the elegant (with out a trace of pomposity). The featherlight, fairytale fantasy of a Mendelssohn scherzo held no fears for these gamers; their relish proved correctly infections. They stepped ahead and blended in ensemble like musical actors in a play (A Midsummer Night time’s Dream solely simply not far away). Beethoven’s affect, worn ever so frivolously, additionally characterised a finale of vigour, rigour, and launch, which appeared to thrill within the very essence of music. The gamers’ delight each of their efficiency and the heat of its reception have been palpable, and rightly so.
Subsequent got here Widmann’s Quintet for oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon, and piano, a 2006 fee from the Karajan-Akademie. The mixture of piano, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon has as its most celebrated, unmatchable instance that of Mozart, though Beethoven’s early work is a high-quality instance too. Schoenberg’s Wind Quintet, Op.26, and Suite, Op.29 between them comprise the devices, although neither after all matches instantly. It was Schoenberg’s music and maybe additionally that of his alleged antipode, Stravinsky, which appeared extra to hang-out on this event, for who would dare observe Mozart’s KV 452 instantly? Widmann claims to have finished so, however that was not so obvious to me, and extra to the purpose, appeared to matter. His longstanding – even then, because the recipient of the Akademie’s Claudio Abbado Composition Prize – preoccupation with German Romanticism registered strongly: not solely in its Second Viennese Faculty end result, but in addition in Schumannesque (at one take away) piano writing. There was humour; there have been what as soon as we would have referred to as ‘prolonged strategies’; and there was a ‘misplaced waltz’ that appeared to have strayed from the Vienna of Schoenberg and Berg (maybe the Wozzeck tavern). Eighteen miniature actions in not way more than twenty minutes supplied a vivid, youthful conspectus that once more appeared simply the factor for excellent younger performers. They appeared to take pleasure in it too. Piano was exchanged for celesta within the remaining motion, ‘Flugtraum’, casting a spell of enchantment not solely over what had gone earlier than, but in addition over what was to return.
Petrenko joined a full chamber orchestra (strings 6.5.4.3.2) for the return of Mendelssohn in his Italian Symphony. Classes of chamber-musicmaking appeared very a lot to have been discovered, each for the gamers of their listening and sheer responsiveness, and in addition for the conductor, who in his knowledge – once more, one might additionally see and listen to his enjoyment – knew exactly when and when to not conduct. If one might hear, even within the glorious acoustic of the Kammermusiksaal, this was not an particularly giant string part, that didn’t matter within the slightest: it was completely different, neither higher nor worse, and stability with wind was impeccable all through. The primary motion obtained off to a high-quality begin, as well-judged because the Octet. Nice clarinet solos deserve particular point out, although there was nothing approaching a weaker hyperlink. Petrenko likewise formed the second motion effectively, crucially with out giving a lot impression of doing so. His activity was to attract out the musicianship of his gamers, a activity achieved to a tee. Line endured, nevertheless a lot the surroundings modified: the procession, in any case, by no means stops. The Minuet once more gained a lot from the sense of chamber enjoying writ giant; it isn’t the one means, after all, nevertheless it labored effectively. Its trio appeared all of the extra to breathe the air of A Midsummer Night time’s Dream. The Presto Saltarello danced on scorching coals, infectious and cathartic as a summer time evening’s fever. Mendelssohn finally appeared to have turned unhealthy; maybe it was so, if solely within the second.
Mark Berry
