Bavarian Radio photo from rehearsals for yesterday’s and this evening’s concerts
Friday, February 27, 2026
Herkulessaal, Munich
A wild party is suggested in the first of Bartók’s Village Scenes, the composer capturing effortlessly and idiomatically the colours and exuberance of a pre-wedding bash, the reflective aftermath, the ceremony itself, and general festivities. Presumably sung in Hungarian rather than the original Slovakian, the ladies of the Bavarian Radio Chorus were terrific as were the members of the BRSO stoking the celebratory fires, all entirely tied to Iván Fischer’s insider knowledge of terrain and tradition. Similarly, he was at-one with the ingredients of the Violin Concerto No.2, alive to distinct details to create a lively basis for Vilde Frang to give an impassioned account of the solo part – buzzing and electrifying in the outer movements, with heartfelt expression to the fore in the second. Following this performance of meaningful exchanges and vivid suggestiveness, as an encore Frang offered ‘Giga (senza basso)’ from a Sonata by Antonio Maria Montanari (1676-1737), music that stays in the mind. Mendelssohn’s ‘Scottish’ Symphony was scenic from the off – reminding that Scotland is the Land of the Mountain and the Flood – Fischer measured if purposeful throughout, not rushing the Scherzo (not repeating the first-movement exposition either), although however brush-stroked this traversal was there was impressive weight and, in the slow movement, intensity, with the ultimate coda majestic to further unite this imaginatively conducted, beautifully played, atmospheric, continuous reading with dignity and gravity.
Béla Bartók
“Three Village Scenes” for women’s choir and orchestra, Sz 79
Concerto for violin and orchestra No. 2, Sz 112
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
Symphony No. 3 in A minor, op. 56 (“Scottish”)
Iván Fischer
Vilde Frang violin
Bavarian Radio Chorus
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks