Classical stars thrilled at the open-air concert at Traunsee

With the overture to the opera “Carmen”, the Bruckner Orchestra under chief conductor Markus Poschner started the sold-out Salzkammergut Open Air concert on Saturday, which had been moved forward by two hours due to a storm warning – right in the middle of the sweltering afternoon heat in Gmunden’s Toscana Park. The first thing Erwin Schrott, star bass-baritone from Uruguay, said on stage was: “It’s hot!” And with that he spoke from the heart of everyone, musicians and audience alike.

But neither Erwin Schrott nor his wonderful stage partner Erica Eloff, a crowd favorite at the Linz Music Theater, nor the orchestra showed any signs of the heat. Especially since the Bruckner Orchestra had already performed a large open-air concert on Linz’s main square on Thursday. While there the focus was on hits from classical music, film and pop music, on Saturday in Gmunden the highlights were from opera, operetta and – thanks to Erwin Schrott – Spanish/South American songs. Here the classical music fans were among themselves. The orchestra and soloists buzzed wonderfully light-footedly through the concert as part of the Salzkammergut Festival Weeks. Erwin Schrott, who had been on stage in Verona the day before, showed how much power and expressiveness he masters his parts with, spiced with wonderful lightness. Only during Franz Lehr’s duet “Lippen schweigen” did he briefly lose this effortlessness. Erica Eloff revealed how playfully she masters the light music, for example in Johann Strauss’ “Sounds of the Homeland”, including temperament and rousing joy of playing. The Bruckner Orchestra proved to be a sensitive accompanist for the soloists and shone in the orchestral works, especially in the “Hunting Scherzo” from Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony.

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