Critic’s Notebook: The Vienna Symphony in Mozart and Haydn’s Nelson-Mass w/Andrea Marcon

Also published in Die Presse: Mozart im Musikverein: Wo warst du, Ádám?

Wolfgang A. Mozart Symphony Nos. 32, 38, 40, Josef Krips / Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Philips, 2007) US | UK | DE

Joseph Haydn Nelson Mass John Eliot Gardiner / Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Orchestra (Archiv, 2000) US | UK | DE

Where Were You, Ádám?

A fine evening of great Viennese Classicism from the Vienna Symphony — but a lingering “what if?”

As long as the unmistakable sounds of Mozart’s “Great” G-minor Symphony still stir childhood memories in us, concert halls will never run empty. Whether that is an optimistic or pessimistic outlook is another matter. In any case, the Golden Hall was respectably full on Saturday night when the Vienna Symphony let this work unfold. A wistfully radiant mood emanated from the penultimate of Wolfgang Amadé’s symphonies — a piece that seems like the very quintessence of the Mozartian spirit. The orchestra supplied a good portion of that, playing the first movement with lively, if not exactly “light” but buoyantly supple, verve. On the podium, replacing the indisposed Ádám Fischer, stood Andrea Marcon, who managed to retain some of that spring in the third and fourth movements’ step as well.

At this point, Fischer — who has a great rapport with the orchestra — was not yet sorely missed. But in the ensuing “Nelson Mass” by Haydn, he decidedly was. The Wiener Singverein was not to blame; they sang with heart and commitment. The solo quartet, on the other hand, though each contributed something solid individually, never really blended. Peter Mauro: solid and unobtrusive, which is not the worst you could say about a tenor. Mezzo Yajie Zhang: milky, with generous vibrato, but somewhat vague and indistinct. Florian Bösch: dark-hued, clear, impeccable. And then Katharina Konradi, who in her opening notes sounded like a car alarm going off — piercing, sharp, impossible to ignore — but had found her voice by the Gloria, singing expressively, if several decibels above the rest, as befits a Bayreuth Woglinde.

The Rieger organ sounded like something out of the Addams Family, and the orchestra — ultimately a touch unfocused in the Agnus Dei — seemed to reduce itself to accompaniment. Thank goodness the music is magnificent.


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