Review – Vienna Philharmonic in Salzburg
Strauss only
24.08.2024 by Fridemann Leipold
Gustavo Dudamel, Asmik Grigorian and the Vienna Philharmonic: This line-up has to be topped. In Salzburg they served up two Strauss classics: “Four Last Songs” and the “Alpine Symphony”. Our critic was there.
Are Richard Strauss’s “Four Last Songs” really about the last things? At least the introductory “Spring” comes across as a “blessed present” in Hermann Hesse’s verses. Audience favorite Asmik Girgorian welcomes spring euphorically, exuberant in the flooding fullness of her precious soprano voice. She effortlessly savors Strauss’s flights of fancy, throwing herself into his wide-ranging cantilenas with relish. But the cycle of the “Four Last Songs” moves from the outside in, in the order of publisher Ernst Roth, from Hesse’s poetic observations of nature to Joseph von Eichendorff’s explorations of the soul: “Is this perhaps death?”
Grigorian has difficulty with German
However, Asmik Grigorian finds this journey into the inner self difficult. She still feels unfamiliar with the German language, one can hardly understand a word, the hard consonants are completely missing. Compared to her Munich performance with the same cycle a year ago, her interpretation has not changed much. It does not seem deeper or more mature. Surprising, actually, because she has just released the “Four Last Songs” on CD, coupled with the piano version – with the Salzburg Festival director Markus Hinterhäuser at her side. But her full-sounding voice sounds too compact, and she modulates it too little. She can also play the piano, for example in the last two lines of Hesse’s “September”: “Slowly he closes his tired eyes.” Even in the last song, the suicidal “Abendrot”, there is nothing morbid about Asmik Grigorian’s cycle – her “Four Last Songs” seem too superficial, this-worldly, even mysterious, especially since the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Gustavo Dudamel accompanies the piece in a rather casual manner, albeit with a beautiful sound.
The impression is completely different after the break, when Gustavo Dudamel conducts Strauss’s monstrous “Alpine Symphony”. The gigantic orchestral composition on the wide-screen stage of the Great Festival Hall alone is impressive, even terrifying. And Strauss certainly teaches us to be afraid in his last sound painting, when he lets a deafening thunderstorm rain down on the summiteer. There is also a touch of Nietzsche’s “Antichrist” in there – that is what Strauss originally wanted to call his “Alpine Symphony”. As in Debussy’s “La mer”, Strauss also shows us in his piece the threat to human existence posed by the forces of nature.
Alpine hike with South American temperament
This is not the only thing that makes the huge score seem modern, beginning and ending with a descending B minor scale in 20-fold divided string sound – the descending night becomes audible. The unexpected cluster formations and reverberations that result have even fascinated the new composer Helmut Lachenmann. Dudamel makes the most of these bold sound effects before he urges the mountaineer on his way up at the start of the day. It is impressive how Dudamel, who conducts everything by heart, keeps an overview even in the greatest chaos and clearly structures the sound of the huge orchestra, which is also given an archaic foundation by an organ (digital here).
Full speed ahead to the summit. In the storm, Dudamel lets it all rip with howling wind machines and thundering sheet metal noise – he exaggerates a little, but that can be forgiven for his South American temperament. This opulent soundtrack that Dudamel serves up here, between cowbell idyll and thriller suspense – he knows all about it, having produced a lot of film music. And on this morning, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra offers all of its Strauss brilliance, its fabulous string sound and its never crudely boastful sound culture. The audience appreciates this culinary program for spoiled festival guests with a standing ovation. Somewhat overwhelmed by the flood of orchestral music, one leaves the Great Festival Hall – and almost longs for a thunderstorm on this sweltering day in Salzburg.
Broadcast: “Allegro” on 26 August from 6:05 am on BR-KLASSIK
