“Roma aeterna” is celebrated in Salzburg – with Zubin Mehta and Maxim Vengerov, but above all with principal Cecilia Bartoli: as Sesto in a concertante Mozart “Titus” as well as with her baroque bravura program.
“They say in Viennese: Des woa a Hetz!” Joked Zubin Mehta after the mighty finale of Respighi’s tone poem “Pini di Roma” and the inevitable cheers. In it, the composer initially had an ancient Roman triumphal procession march up the Via Appia to the Roman Forum from a great distance: with shimmering air, groaning prisoners and the glow of warlike fanfares. “Now we want to play something Italian, very intimate for you,” continued the conductor – and added the intermezzo from Mascagni’s “Cavalleria rusticana” to this Saturday matinee with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino: delicate in the first part, drinkable, but without sentimentality in the prayer-like cantilena afterwards. “Cecilia, what per te – that was for you!” Mehta called afterwards, and Bartoli applauded as warmly as the rest of the guests in the Great Festival Hall.
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