Böcklin’s The Isle of the Dead (fifth and final version, 1893)
Friday, November 8, 2024
Berliner Philharmonie, Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße, Berlin
The Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko are soon off to the States, with this programme and the already well-travelled Bruckner Five. The Rachmaninov, owing to the above painting, was particularly suggestive of somewhere inhospitable in a performance as seamless and as pictorial as could be wished for, and climactically crushing, leaving the brooding impression that, tomorrow and beyond, the location will be exactly the same. Surprisingly, the normally superb DCH sound was a little diffuse, the orchestra somewhat distant, and remained so for the Korngold, if with good balance between Vilde Frang* and the Berliners for what was an expansive account, confiding in the first movement, with moments of voluptuousness in music that shares the concert hall with the cinema screen, Korngold donning his Hollywood hat. If a little more momentum had informed the first movement then the dreamy second would have offered greater contrast, although there was no doubting Frang’s stylish and affectionate approach, nor her virtuosity in the dashing Finale, the orchestra unanimously with her. As an encore Frang offered ‘Giga (senza basso)’ from a Sonata by Antonio Maria Montanari (1676-1737), which stays in the mind. Following the interval, Dvořák’s magnificent Seventh Symphony, with audio back to its standard excellence, for an intense propulsive first movement that didn’t overlook light and shade, then a slow movement of exceptional expressiveness, followed by a quick-paced dance movement of Slavonic fire, with a Finale of foot-stamping vitality to complete an account that overall was too inclined to charge along if leaving no doubts as to the powerful passions enshrined in this masterpiece. If there are to be extras on the tour they were being saved.
*Hilary Hahn during the tour
US tour details…