Sunday, June 8, 2025

Golden Hall, Musikverein, Vienna

Replacing Franz Welser-Möst for this Sunday matinee, if not this Tuesday when the same-programme concert is cancelled, Iván Fischer led a stylish Haydn 52 (C-minor), a no-nickname rarity (if familiar to Fischer, it seems) with Sturm und Drang elements offset by serenade contrasts; such divergences made whole by genius composing. Fischer then brought intensity and vividness to the Mahler, thrilling and moving, with two wonderful soloists, tenor Daniel Behle imbibing the first setting heroically, unstintingly, yet with musical and verbal focus, sweetly lyrical and high-note ringing in his other two contributions, while in her three numbers mezzo Tanja Ariane Baumgartner found contralto-like depths of tone to activate various emotions compellingly. Fischer kept things moving along, without rushing, with virtual attaccas between the first five movements, the final ‘Abschied’ a little more detached if not in musical involvement, like its predecessors never standing still, although always sensitive and poignant, arriving at “Ewig” seamlessly (your correspondent chilled and transported, somewhere). Throughout, Fischer brought out reams of significant detail, judiciously balanced, the Vienna Philharmonic responding as a chamber ensemble, interactive, precise, with meatier fuller sounds also within its gift.