Golden Oldies
mesmerising as ever) were more interestingly handled by Warlikowski.
Musically, it was a matchless evening – though, should you watch it, feel free to skip the spoken prologue in which Clytemnestra explains why she murdered Agamemnon. Lifted by Warlikowski from the final scene of Aeschylus’s
Agamemnon, this ruins the impact of Strauss’s own unforgettable opening.
If it’s unalloyed pleasure you seek, turn to Christof Loy’s white-box staging of Mozart’s Così fan tutte (ARTE until 30th October). It’s been cut to last 150 minutes (no intervals at Salzburg this year) but then, weirdly, Salzburg has always cut Così – witness the 1974 Karl Böhm performance that’s included in Deutsche Grammophon’s new 58-CD box 100 Jahre Salzburger Festspiele.
Other ARTE highlights include a deeply moving account of Mahler’s tragic Sixth Symphony from Andris Nelsons and the Vienna Philharmonic (until 6th November); and Martha Argerich, still amazing us at the age of 79, with a recital of sonatas by Beethoven, Schumann and Prokofiev with star violinist Renaud Capuçon (until 18th November).
Not the least of Salzburg’s annual delights are the 11am Mozart Matinées, and this year was no exception: septuagenarian Ádám Fischer led one of the most vibrant and life-enhancing concerts I’ve heard for quite some while (until 21st November). Elder brother of the better-known Iván, Ádám is an ebullient, warm-hearted, smiling man of music whose aim is ‘to help the musicians play better’.
And, boy, how the Mozarteum Orchestra played! The programme itself was a joy: a career-spanning journey, beginning with the eight-year-old Mozart’s astonishing, J C Bach-inspired first symphony, written for London’s Haymarket Theatre in 1764, and ending with his last, the Jupiter, in a performance guaranteed to make any heart rejoice.
As long-serving festival president Helga Rabl-stadler said in her farewell address, ‘How fortunate we have been to be able to make a statement of the power of the arts in powerless times.’ Fortunate, yes – and brave, too: immensely brave. The founding fathers would be proud.