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The second concert of the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival brought a juxtaposition of Richard Wagner’s simple Wesendonck lieder and Anton Bruckner’s lavish Symphony No. 4 in E flat major, the “Romantic”, in which Christian Thielemann managed to draw a wide arc tension and even find common ground in terms of romantic design.
Thielemann’s move from Bayreuth to Salzburg was therefore worthwhile, especially since the head of the Saxon State Orchestra Dresden, who was always sovereign, brought the whole force of the “romantic” Bruckners into full swing with a touch of Wagner.
The five poems come from Mathilde Wesendonck, Wagner’s married lover, who expressed her grief over the unfulfilled possibilities of the relationship in simple verse. The piano part was transformed into an orchestral version by none other than Felix Mottl, whereby extreme consideration was given to the value cases and their statements.
Mezzo superstar Garanca became an “angel”
Mezzo superstar Elina Garanca turned out to be one in the first song “Der Engel”, not only because of her subtle optical appearance, but also because of her warm voice, which is developing more and more from mezzo to soprano. What does the angel do: “On shining plumage, far from any pain, he now leads my spirit skyward!”
In “Stand still!” Mathilde emphasizes the end of all hope. “In the greenhouse” and “Träume” are studies of Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde”, which ultimately result in sinking into the crypt. The way Garanca, Thielemann and the Vienna Philharmonic achieved all the nuances of this negative-ending idyll was accompanied by detailed subtleties, and the applause was accordingly carried by the overall impression.
Anton Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony in E flat major, which took almost an hour and a quarter, naturally offered a picture-book story, a continuation of Mathilde Wesendonck’s romantic feelings, unsurpassed in terms of its superb sound and all the contradictions in the romantic expressiveness of instrumental music. The title “Romantic” comes from Bruckner himself, who also creates visible images of romanticism.
The horn as a representative of the hunt, the fog that the strings associate with rises before our eyes. Every listener can envision his or her own romantic ideas in the diversity that Thielemann elicits from the orchestra. Especially since Bruckner’s sentence designations such as “Moved, not too fast” or in the trio of scherzo “Not too fast, by no means dragging” and in the finale “Moved, but not too fast” did not offer strict information, but rather information that had to be decided by the interpreters, Thielemann had them all Opportunities, such as was the case with Herbert von Karajan’s interpretations, to bring out his ideas that prefer extremes.
The Vienna Philharmonic was visibly and audibly delighted in fully supporting Thielemann in his romantic, sharply accentuated world of ideas. The result: an interpretation that touches the heart and shows many facets of romanticism, which, after a moment of emotional silence, led to an ovation.
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