There was a lot of applause at the Salzburg Festival on Monday for stand-in Daniel Harding, who conducted the second concert of the Berlin Philharmonic in the Grosses Festspielhaus. Principal conductor Kirill Petrenko had to cancel due to a foot injury. Instead of the originally programmed 10th symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich, Bruckner’s 4th symphony sounded, for which Harding found an interesting approach.
Bruckner extraordinary
On the one hand, he paced the work at a brisk pace and stayed fairly close to the musical text. Harding took the dynamic disposition extremely precisely, making full use of the bandwidth between extreme pianissimo and sometimes too loud brass attacks, thereby achieving striking effects.
But that enabled the outstanding woodwind squad to savor their solos to the full. This resulted in sound images that are not usually experienced in this way, because the lines of the woodwinds are otherwise lost in the much too thick string sound. At the same time, Harding unleashed intense emotions with the Berlin Philharmonic. A Bruckner Fourth, which opened the ears in an unusual way and completely delighted the audience.
Tabea Zimmermann did the same thing in the first part as a soloist in Alfred Schnittke’s Viola Concerto. She fully explored the stylistic variability of the work, from the solitary plaintive recitative to the motor-driven virtuosity of a frightening restlessness. Fascinating how she brought out the many nuances of human abysses. But that was only possible because the orchestra, under the accurately reacting Harding, built the foundation for such a free development.
Source: Nachrichten
