There is nothing standard about performance, nothing predictable about experience, unless, of course, it is drained from all communication by an imperative to supply a product. Then, perhaps only then, the restrictions are taken over and dominate. And a concert program with the Overture of Don Giovanni by Mozart, the Brahms violin concert and then Schubert’s ninth symphony could sound a bit of interpretation. Therefore, expectations were not high, although it was nice to return to the Adda Auditorium of Alicante without vacancies designated to enforce social distancing. At least we were a audience again.
The initial impressions were that this tour orchestra, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, would be quite small, since the chairs organized on the stage seemed to leave significant spaces. But, at least on the orchestration scale, none of these works is approaching the great, although Schubert clearly applied the term to the duration of his work.
On reflection, how could any concert be considered when the director is Vladimir Jurowski and the soloist Leonidas Kavakos?
And what is, first note last, the brilliant glow of the strings of this orchestra? They have a texture that seems acute, in their attack, not in their tone! There seems to be an advantage, due to lack of a better word, which shapes music phrases in something much more than reproduction, much more than reading on the page. The brilliance of sound surprises, making even the completely familiar in a new experience. And so, Mozart’s overture was properly dramatic, but also fresh and even surprising. After a month without orchestral sound, the opening chords worked magic.
Vladimir Jurowski is high. Leonidas Kavakos is higher. During the long orchestral introduction to the Brahms concert, he faced the orchestra. This, surely, was nothing more than an indication of how much this soloist considered the orchestra as his partner rather than his vehicle. And the Brahms concert is an integrated work, a true collaboration between orchestra and soloist, never a competition. The quality of the shared experience was communicated perfectly by the artists and, therefore, even in this work that the audience had heard so many times before, collectively breathed fresh air to the auditorium. And the audience breathed freely, despite the masks. The perfection achieved on stage resulted in a forty minutes performance that received a full silence, with each recorded note and each phrase understood. This was communication, does not mere brave. Leonidas Kavakos offered a bis of JS Bach and, after the Brahms, euphemism was almost more intense than preceded it.
In some hands, Schubert’s ninth symphony, the so -called Great C Major, can continue a bit. This action was announced as lasting fifty minutes, so all the repetitions were clearly played. They are very rarely.
But it must be recorded that under the Jurowski cane, this long work seemed fresh, original and committed. There was not a single note at the time when someone at the audience felt that this was the standard repertoire that was delivered with standard interpretation. This felt particularly special.
The second movement, together with the Scherzo trio section, could be confused with Mahler, almost an early century. It is worth remembering, as the program signs pointed out, which Schubert never listened Difficult, unjustable and probably many other things that do not dare to say why they did not adjust to their expectations. Or maybe, given a modern analogy, they considered the required effort as above their salary degree. This performance of Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin under Jurowski reproduced a feeling of freshness and originality, perhaps something like Schubert had planned, the sound world that baffled the composer’s contemporaries. This time the mystery was enlightening.
