If only conductors would always program such exciting concerts beyond the mainstream between Beethoven, Brahms and Bruckner: Just under a month before his 80th birthday, Sir John Eliot Gardiner performed with the BR Symphony Orchestra in the Hercules Hall Joseph Haydn’s symphony in F minor “La Passione ” from 1768, arias from operas by Carl Maria von Weber from the 1820s and to crown the first symphony by the 16-year-old Franz Schubert.
Although played with a relatively large cast, the sinewy tension, electrifying liveliness and drive that one would have wanted to dance with astounded; not only in the scherzo trio, which is so full of life, but also in the exuberant finale, which is performed with great verve. Already after the first movement the enthusiasm of the audience was so great that there was a hair’s breadth of applause.
Between the two symphonies from the Classical and early Romantic periods, 45 years apart, the soprano Lucy Crowe sang the original version in English with a precise attack in the high notes and great passion, the virtuoso challenging scene of the Rezia “Ocean! Thou mighty monster” and the contemplative funeral aria ” Mourn thou, poor heart” from Weber’s last opera “Oberon” (1826), after the break followed Agathe’s “Leise,quiet, pious way!” from the “Freischütz”. They are all arias that are actually through-composed scenes depicting changing feelings.
In contrast, the beginning with Joseph Haydn’s “La Passione” was sometimes a little too measured and calculated. This was perhaps also due to the minor key, which was unusual for all four movements, and the slow tempo of the first movement, or to the fact that the Schubert symphony was given more rehearsal time – and the strings were played standing up! Maybe it was just imagination, but one believed that this posture and tension, which was unusual for the BR-Symphoniker, was perceived not only with the eyes but also with the ears.