BR photo from rehearsals
Friday, September 25, 2026
Herkulessaal, Munich
This Bach/Beethoven pairing was given last night at this venue as a “Charity concert to benefit the Stiftung Lichtblick Kinder- und Jugendhilfe” and tomorrow travels to Passau. Following, and meanwhile, for the Bach (‘O eternity, you word of thunder’, Wiki’s translation) the required members of the BRSO played on period instruments and then the much-fuller ensemble for the Beethoven went modern.
The Bach, performed wonderfully well, may not have done much for me, although there were striking moments of musical imagination as well as a dedicated and perceptive musical response; highlights included a florid yet poised baritone aria, Konstantin Krimmel, and a dazzling trumpet solo, the antique instrument under firm control.
Beethoven Nine, a work that Rattle believes goes “backwards” from a first movement that anticipates Bruckner and a Finale that looks back to the Enlightenment, specifically to Mozart’s Magic Flute. Well, the fleet and fiery first movement, with recesses of pianissimo, driven into the stormy development with direction and intent, a floodgate-opening uninterrupted until the end, didn’t suggest a Bruckner connection, although, on reflection, it could be to his own Ninth. Beethoven’s Scherzo pattered along like clockwork (if a shame to lose the second repeat) and the the tempo increased for the Trio, bejewelled of detail. The Adagio was rapt, the Andante contrasts less clunky than they can be, and the solo for the fourth horn complemented the characterful woodwinds that had already been so distinguished. The turn from turmoil to joy during the Finale was finely chartered, Andrew Staples’s ‘Turkish March’ playing its part in such a change of circumstance. Vocally the BR Chorus was lusty and reaching out, and there was little to object to with countertenor Tim Mead (a consistently fine artist) taking the alto part. Getting nearer to the end, the light textures reflected Rattle’s Mozart connections, so too the avoidance of portentousness, the measured tempo for the coda making tying-together sense, and certainly enlightening, the BRSO, superb throughout, in complete command of its conductor’s intentions.
Johann Sebastian Bach
“O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort”, cantata, BWV20
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No.9 in D-minor, Op.125
Lucy Crowe soprano
Tim Mead countertenor
Andrew Staples tenor
Konstantin Krimmel baritone
“BRSO Chief Conductor Sir Simon Rattle will open the season with Ludwig van Beethoven’s joyful Ninth Symphony, thus offering a first glimpse of the upcoming Beethoven Year 2027. For Rattle, it is the first – and perhaps the only – symphony that moves from immense heaviness and darkness to transcendental lightness, “as though it had taken a giant leap forward in time to Bruckner’s own Ninth Symphony and travelled into the idealistic world of the Enlightenment embodied by Mozart’s Magic Flute”. Rattle precedes Beethoven’s Ninth with Johann Sebastian Bach’s solemn cantata O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, performed on period instruments. For Beethoven’s Ninth, the BRSO then switches to modern instruments; the outstanding soloists are equally at home in both worlds.” [BR]