Herrenchiemsee: Munich Chamber Orchestra with Beethoven’s Fifth – Munich

The welcoming applause in the Hall of Mirrors at Herrenchiemsee Palace has just reached its climax when, jumping onto the podium, Clemens Schuldt gives the Munich Chamber Orchestra the entry for Beethoven’s Fifth. From there to the numerous whipping final chords of this symphony of symphonies, there is a level of energy and a desire to make music that any measuring device would collapse.

But after a last subscription concert in the Prinzregententheater (fourth with Beethoven), an equally great Gubaidulina portrait concert in the Pinakothek der Moderne, it is the third and really last concert as chief conductor before Clemens Schuldt takes over an American orchestra. So Schuldt gives it his all and so does the MKO, because if there’s one thing in life that counts, it’s that farewells have to be celebrated so that you can remember them with joy for the rest of your life, no matter what the future brings.

Time flies like in flight

So every note, every phrase, every chord is sharpened, time flies by because you simply can’t make music in this symphony more exciting and gripping. The wonderful melody of the movement, which is not so slow here, is wonderfully flowing, the scherzo is concisely roughened and flows even more stringently than usual into the rushing finale.

Before the break after Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” overture, the contrasting program to Beethoven’s vitally sparkling celebration of life: Mieczysław Weinberg’s fourth and last chamber symphony for string orchestra and a lonely plaintive clarinet, which sometimes also evokes the use of solo violin or solo cello or at central points , also at the very end, the triangle strikes mysteriously: so much sadness, melancholy and yet captivating beauty in a good half hour with four movements that merge into one another!

The core cast of the chamber orchestra is there and one can only marvel at how groping and yet always pushing forward, and not only in the only fast, second movement, this music from 1992 sounds. A piece completely out of date and yet a very contemporary requiem!

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