Austria Mozartwoche Salzburg [2] – Mozart and Schubert: Igor Levit (piano), Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra / Joana Mallwitz (conductor). Grosses Festspielhaus, Salzburg, 27.1.2024. (MB)
Mozart – Le nozze di Figaro KV 492, Overture; Piano Concerto no.9 in E-flat main, KV 271
Schubert – Symphony No.9 in C main, ‘Nice’, D 944
Joana Mallwitz’s account of the Overture to The Marriage of Figaro revealed the Vienna Philharmonic as of outdated. (Conductors silly sufficient to attempt to change its sound will shortly be rebuffed. If you don’t prefer it, work with one other orchestra.) Heat sound, positive turning of phrases, and a swift tempo that but permitted time for the music to breathe provided a correct curtain-raiser. Certainly – a superb signal, this – when the overture had come to an finish, I anticipated and wished the opera to proceed.
Alas not on this event, however as an alternative we had been handled to a efficiency of ‘one of many best wonders of the world’ (Alfred Brendel): the E-flat Piano Concerto, KV 271, with Igor Levit as soloist. This was the one work on the programme for which Mallwitz used a rating, although her head was definitely not in it. It was fascinating to notice the change in her – and the VPO’s – strategy: though utilizing the identical physique of strings, there was even within the opening tutti extra of a way of chamber music writ massive than within the overture, while retaining heat and variegation. That impression was confirmed upon Levit’s entry, when he took the prevailing musical line and ran with it, till handing it again or sharing, in what was very a lot a shared endeavour. Replete with imaginative touches that by no means went towards the grain, this was a primary motion energetic. With Levit’s pearly tone and the heavenly sound of Vienna strings and woodwind, it’s troublesome to think about anybody feeling shortchanged, although simply often I questioned whether or not one thing deeper was lacking.
The reply got here within the sluggish motion: not that one thing had been lacking, however reasonably that one thing had been stored in reserve. Its darkish C minor opening, direct from the world of opera seria, ready the way in which for a profound expertise wherein a finely spun Mozart line, wherever it’d lie, was revealed to be possessed of infinite sentiment. It was not valuable, however reasonably appeared to talk of one thing, to borrow from Mendelssohn, too exact for phrases: a grief-stricken lament from the deepest of all composers, or so it appeared right here. Its radical interiority could possibly be heard significantly in Levit’s solo passages, even within the voicing of a trill. After that, a finale each lighter and sooner than one often hears once more had Mendelssohn’s presence hover earlier than us. The orchestra responded to Levit’s opening problem in helter-skelter vogue as if a nightmare had ended, and we had been again to the day, albeit a day that might not fairly banish reminiscence of what had preceded it. The subdominant minuet emerged pristine in stunning simplicity: once more at a fastish tempo, however in proportion to the music surrounding it. A stunning – and surprisingly apt – solo encore got here within the quizzical guise of Shostakovich’s ‘Waltz-Scherzo’ from the Ballet Suite No.1.
The second half was given over to Schubert’s ‘Nice’ C main Symphony. Right here there was a lot to admire – how might there not be with the Vienna Philharmonic onstage? – even when the entire felt missing within the import and inevitability of the best performances. Mallwitz presents the work, particularly its first two actions, extra as companion items to the early symphonies than harbingers of Romanticism. There isn’t any Schubert performing custom right here, in fact, so one is at liberty to do what one desires as long as it really works; however does it? The primary motion proceeded fluently with out a lot in the way in which of tempo modifications (save for precise transition of tempo). Voicing of interior components was a specific energy. The coda, nevertheless, felt much less like a end result and extra a signoff.
If the second motion had been additionally on the quick facet, it was proportionally so. Such tempo relationships are essential; Mallwitz has clearly given them due thought. Element was current and proper. Alternation of string and wind choirs made its level, with out veering too strongly in the direction of Bruckner. There was drama too in climax, silence, and aftershock, troublesome not to consider in quasi-military phrases, given the unfailing march-like high quality to the VPO’s build-up. The Scherzo I discovered engrossing; it provided weight and motion with out galumphing, appeal in addition to type. Its trio proceeded just a little an excessive amount of bar-to-bar, its regularity too apparent. When it got here to the Finale, it definitely appeared like one — and a finale to what had gone earlier than too. It was very properly put collectively, with clear understanding and communication of harmonic rhythm, certainly rhythm extra usually. I couldn’t assist however ask, although: what, if something, would possibly all of it imply? Not that such ‘which means’ might or needs to be put into phrases, besides.
Mark Berry
