Concerts in the 19th century must have felt something like this: works from a wide variety of genres in three hours. But those were rather colorful evenings, while the Munich Chamber Orchestra invited to a dramaturgically well thought-out evening in the Prinzregententheater.
Ludwig van Beethoven was the center of attention with two overtures (the wonderfully “fresh” Leonore No. 1 alongside the one for “Coriolanus”) and his triple concerto as the finale. The three soloists of this concert presented themselves in between in Salvatore Sciarrino’s nervous, virtuosic six capricci for solo violin, often shimmering immensely in the flageolet (grandios: Ilya Gringolts), Robert Schumann’s strangely hybrid “Concert Allegro with Introduction” (on the grand piano: Alexander Lonquich) and Nicolas Altstaedt in the magnificent Concertino by Mieczysław Weinberg. It is the original version of his cello concerto op. 43 and was only rediscovered a few years ago.
What a suggestive work, in which two slow movements frame the two flowing middle movements and deal with Jewish themes in a variety of ways, for example cantor singing in the first or klezmer in the third. Composed in a few days of August 1848, this concertino in the dense fabric of solo and tutti strings sounds extremely serious and gloomy, almost depressive, and yet has a peculiar vitality, an ambivalence that Altstaedt implemented in a fascinating way.
Completely different is Beethoven’s wonderful concerto, unfortunately rarely heard in concert, in the unique instrumentation for piano (dedicated to Archduke Rudolf and also played by him!), violin, cello and orchestra, a combination of piano trio and orchestra, so to speak. Their relationship is constantly being redefined – often with tongue-in-cheek twists and turns that show no grim humor that is supposed to be typical of Beethoven. The soloists like the MKO had a lot of fun, both audibly and visibly. The slow movement from the trio by eleven-year-old Erich Wolfgang Korngold thanked the thunderous applause.