Saturday, November 2, 2024
Berliner Philharmonie, Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße, Berlin
Haydn 54 in G, without a nickname, which probably doesn’t help its cause, is typically inventive and surprising. Giovanni Antonini opted for the second version, which adds a slow introduction, and chose well-judged tempos, finding a gracefulness in the otherwise bustling first movement (marked Presto) and located much detail including hard-stick timpani contributions. Contrasts of moods and expressions inform the slow movement, generously spacious, ethereal, if interrupted by stabbing accents. A swinging Minuet, shapely Trio, and joyous Finale, all confirmed that each Haydn Symphony probably (no duds so far) has numerous unsuspected reasons to explore them: this one issued an immediate ‘listen again’ invitation.
Haydn’s Italian-text cantata runs a gamut of emotions, fully absorbed by Fatma Said and returned by her in the most impassioned and spellbinding way, vocal accomplishment feeding vivid description, as Ariadne becomes more and more disillusioned and unhinged. As an extra, and just as sympathetically accompanied, Said offered ‘Dido’s Lament’ (“When I am laid in earth…”) from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, intense and poignant, as was, following the interval, Haydn 44 (Trauersymphonie), anguished music and – highlighted by Antonini – harmonically raw, outer movements dispatched urgently, consoled by the blissful placed-third Adagio, played at the composer’s funeral; one might call it heavenly. Finally, with trumpets and timpani returning, music by Mozart for Thamos – Entr’actes and an Allegro – which no doubt served their purpose in the theatre if, despite continuing executional excellence, came off as second-best to Haydn.
Throughout, the members of the Philharmoniker (Noah Bendix-Balgley, concertmaster) were very responsive to Antonini – authentically-minded, every repeat, if not pedantic (violins not antiphonal, for example, surprisingly, with a harp and harpsicord for the vocal works’ continuo) – for performances that leapt off the pages with relish.
Joseph Haydn Symphony No.54
Arianna a Naxos, cantata
Symphony No.44 “Mourning”
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Thamos, King of Egypt: excerpts
“Few people are as passionate about the music of Joseph Haydn as Giovanni Antonini. In this concert, he presents two Haydn symphonies of captivating originality and inspiration. Soprano Fatma Said also performs the cantata Arianna a Naxos, a poignant psychological drama about a woman who has been abandoned. The conductor will also present Mozart’s little-known entr’actes for the play Thamos, King of Egypt.”