Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832)
Saturday, June 21, 2025
Berliner Philharmonie, Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße, Berlin
Yes, the Overture is a regular, the rest of Beethoven’s Egmont score maybe less so, but for fifty-plus years there’s been George Szell’s Decca recording that continues to do very nicely (understatement). From Gustavo Dudamel and the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Overture, despite poetic woodwinds (Pahud, Mayer, Fuchs, Schweigert – flute through to bassoon) and Vincent Vogel’s incisive timpani … was tensionless, lacking drama, an ingredient later picked-up upon by soprano Christina Landshamer and narrator Felix Kammerer, including his ‘acting’ of some of the idealist Egmont’s statements. All over in thirty minutes (which suggested abridgement or removal) the weakness of the musical whole is the return of the ‘Victory Symphony’, its thunder stolen by the Overture’s coda.
There’s nothing insubstantial about Tchaikovsky Five, yet it can seem somewhat superficial when, however plushly and powerfully played, is of phrasal and dynamic tweaks, doing something for the sake of it, with tempo-relationships that don’t always gel. From indulged opening to hard-driven coda (as if Fate can be outrun, but Fate hadn’t turned up) pulled-up abruptly for the final four chords with a gratuitous rallentando. The third movement was alternately suave and deft, and its predecessor featured a wonderfully poised horn solo by Yun Zeng.