The couples did not go off the whistle – Newspaper Kommersant No. 163 (7364) dated 09/06/2022

For the first time after a long covid break, the best symphony orchestras of the Old and New Worlds are performing in Berlin, at the Musikfest Berlin festival. The competition within the rare “parade of bands” – British, continental, American – was followed by Gular Sadykh-zade.

What is the difference between the sound of American orchestras and European ones? Why do British orchestras sound different than German ones? How does the globalization of music education and the internationalization of performing teams affect the sound quality, intonation features and phrasing of string and wind groups? The festival concerts at the Berlin Philharmonic raise many interesting questions for the professional listener. And there are many such listeners too – at almost all concerts of the festival, the audience joyfully fills the halls, as before. The only exception was, perhaps, the performance of the famous Cleveland Orchestra under the baton of the no less famous Austrian maestro Franz Welser-Möst, the laureate conductor of the aforementioned American orchestra. And it was a shame: Schubert’s so-called Grand Symphony in C major was played almost like a standard. Welser-Möst knows how to give the sound of the orchestra a truly Viennese discreet charm, softness and splendor, effortlessly achieving the impression of a swirling orchestral sfumato: without the brightly sparkling brilliance of timbres, but with purely Schubertian warmth and shy, almost childish sincerity of expression.

To gather first-class world orchestras into a single poster, to coordinate complex tour schedules with them, to persuade them to play one opus (to choose from) either avant-garde classics such as Ligeti, Xenakis and Feldman, or the latest music, just written – such an ability is worth a lot and requires a long and painstaking work. Winrich Hopp, long-term art director of the festival, by his first profession a musicologist, specialist in Stockhausen, by his second profession a successful manager, head of the oldest contemporary music program “Musica Viva” on the basis of the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, certainly possesses such skills and abilities. Musikfest is held on the basis of the most powerful cultural institution in Germany – Berliner Festspiele – together with the Berlin Philharmonic.

For about three weeks, music of the classical and romantic era, from Beethoven and Schubert to Mahler, is heard, but at the same time music of the first half of the 20th century (Bartok, Shostakovich) and post-war avant-garde is abundantly present. The festival model is simple and functional: ceremonial symphony concerts, interspersed with a series of chamber evenings, which take place, respectively, in the Grand and Chamber Halls of the Philharmonic. The program always features five leading Berlin orchestras: the level of orchestral performance in the German capital is unusually high.

Topping the list is the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra; this year two concerts are planned with different programs and different conductors: the British Thomas Ades, who, among other things, will perform his own symphonic opus, and with the current chief of the orchestra, Kirill Petrenko. The second most important Berlin orchestra is, of course, the Konzerthaus Orchestra, so named because it is assigned to the second most important Berlin concert hall – the famous historic Konzerthaus building, which stands on the Gendarmenmarkt. This year the Konzerthaus Orchestra will perform with Christoph Eschenbach; the program includes works by the venerable German composer Aribert Reimann.

Of course, there are scheduled performances by the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (RSB) with its current director Vladimir Yurovsky, the Deutsche Oper Orchestra with Donald Runnicles and the high-class Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (DSO), which contests the title of the Konzerthaus orchestra second in importance and quality. With the current conductor, Robin Ticciati, the DSO stands a good chance of getting ahead: Ticciati has a reputation for being a talented and vibrant musician with an extensive repertoire range. However, the distribution of seats among Berlin orchestras is an eternal topic: the rivalry between them does not stop, success largely depends on who is the chief conductor of the orchestra (in this sense, the Berlin Radio Orchestra has great prospects now), and the lively symphonic life of Berlin and the cruel competition is the key to the highest quality of orchestral performance.

Even with a cursory glance at the poster, the consistent principle of pairing in the choice of orchestras is clearly visible: this is clearly not a coincidence, but the result of thoughtful planning. For example, two leading Dutch orchestras have already performed at the festival: the famous Royal Concertgebouw with Klaus Mäkelä and the Rotterdam Orchestra with the recently appointed Lahav Shani, a relatively young Israeli conductor and pianist who enjoys the special patronage of Daniel Barenboim. Shani, of course, successfully conducted Ligeti’s “Atmospheres”, but the First Mahler in his interpretation lost its liveliness and drive – a lot of poses, too much attention was paid to details to the detriment of the dramaturgy of the whole.

Two (again!) brilliant orchestras from the so-called Big Five arrived from the New World to Europe as part of extensive tours: the Philadelphia Orchestra led by the temperamental Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the already mentioned Cleveland Orchestra. For the first time after a long break, the best Italian symphony group, the Santa Cecilia Academy Orchestra, came to Berlin together with Antonio Pappano. From Britain – the magnificent, powerful sounding of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) under the direction of the current chief, Sir Simon Rattle, who replaced Valery Gergiev as chief conductor; from next season, Rattle will move to Munich, where he will take up the position of chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Orchestra.

The second British group – Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique (“Revolutionary-Romantic Orchestra”) performed together with its founder and leader Sir John Eliot Gardiner; the orchestra plays historical instruments from the French Revolution era. Together with the Monteverdi Choir (an even more famous brainchild of Gardiner), they performed Beethoven’s monumental Solemn Mass, which the already completely deafened author wrote almost simultaneously with his opus magnum, the Ninth Symphony. “Missa solemnis” is based on the same circle of ideas, permeated with the all-human pathos of movement towards light and joy. However, in Gardiner’s interpretation, it sounded somewhat dry and dogmatic; not enough, for my taste, open jubilation, depth and brightness of contrasts, liveliness and joy. For all his awe-inspiring erudition, the nobility of his conductor’s manner and the taste refined by decades of authentic practice, Gardiner clearly lacks spontaneity and spontaneity. And without this, the didactic tone of Beethoven, which the composer adopted in his great mass, is unbearable.

But the drive, direct emotional experience and celebration were more than enough in the performance of the Philadelphia Orchestra. The stunning opening of the evening was the performance of the First Symphony by Florence Price (1887–1953), an African-American woman, the first female composer whose works were played by the acclaimed Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Her unreleased scores were recently miraculously found in the attic of a shed in Illinois by workers during renovations. Price’s rediscovery of music in the 21st century has become a musical sensation. The symphony was written in 1932; 90 years later, we hear the true voice of the American South with its gospel chant, spirituals, jazz rhythms and charming pentatonic turns of song themes, which are influenced by Dvořák’s From the New World symphony.

The Berlin Festival has not yet reached the middle of its program, but it is already clear that in terms of the quality of performance and the variety of orchestras presented, this festival is extraordinary. Even compared to what it was in previous years. It seems that all the creative energy that has accumulated over a long period of covid prohibitions has been transformed into a collective artistic outburst and each orchestra shows the best it is capable of: as it sometimes happens, there would be no happiness, but misfortune helped.