Wolfgang Rihm (1952-2024)
Saturday, September 14, 2024
Berliner Philharmonie, Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße, Berlin
The Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko have had a good run with Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony, opening the 24-25 season with it on August 23, then travelling with it to London, Lucerne and Salzburg, and now returning to Berlin, via Jonathan Nott conducting Ives Four, for three further presentations, of which this was the third, and the seventh performance overall. Consistent though Petrenko’s view of it is, this rendition was luxurious, as if bidding a fond farewell, without any suggestion of being on auto-pilot, to this most contrapuntal and cathedral-like of Bruckner’s eleven Symphonies (more when revisions and different editions are considered) until it appears again on the Berliners’ schedule, whenever that may be. If Petrenko sometimes drives the outer movements a little too quickly, he certainly has an instinct for the work’s solemnity, powerful passions (slow movement), rhythmic verve (Scherzo), wonderment (whether earthly or celestial), and compositional rigour (especially in the Finale). All in all, this was classy, and when the ultimate coda was reached there was the joy (on August 23) of hearing a flute line normally obscured brought out, and subsequently twice more, this time with keen anticipation knowing it would be audible, a glinting nugget. As if to close what has been a Brucknerian adventure, the conclusion was especially triumphant and emphatic. Petrenko returns to BP/DCH on November 8 – Rachmaninov, Korngold, Dvořák.
First up, additional this week, the late Wolfgang Rihm’s IN-SCHRIFT, composed 1995 for performance in St Mark’s Basilica Venice and inspired by the building. Rihm writes: “The basic idea is succinct: an Inschrift [“inscription” or “epigraph” – trans.]. This occurs in writing [in Schrift], both musical and writing notational characters, written into the line like adages.” Scored for an orchestra without violins and violas, with the cellos and basses placed between woodwinds and brass (the latter including six trombones), percussion where you would expect (six players, five of them with sets of bells and a variety of different-sized drums, the latter given a frenetic cadenza, and a timpanist), with a harp somewhat standalone. It’s a terrific piece, architecturally designed, sonorous, spiky and explosive, low registers exploited, an engrossing incident-packed twenty minutes. When the orchestra fades to nothing the harp continues to sound, loudly. Stunning performance of music with tempo, dynamic and graphic extremes.
Stefan Dohr (BP principal horn) introduces IN-SCHRIFT: https://www.digitalconcerthall.com/en/interview/55626-3