A Great Success
Spiritual and religious music at the Salzburg
Festival,
heard by GIUSEPPE PENNISI
The Salzburg Summer festival has a very strong spiritual
and religiouscomponent.
This year there are nineteen concerts of
religious content during the six weeks of the festival.
Ten are of music directly related to theRoman Catholic tradition.
The others deal with Christian music:
Protestant (of various schools), Russian orthodox,
Byzantine and Armenian.
Some of the concerts make up the Ouverture spirituelle preceding the festival; others are
part of the festival program until
31 August and are scheduled among the other events.
A large section is devoted to contemporaryspiritual and religious music.
As I attended the
first week of the festival, I had the opportunity to listen to two very different but
very remarkable concerts: Mozart's Mass in
C minor in St Peter's Church, sung at
the start of each festival and the worldpremiere
of Peter Eötvös' oratorio Halleluja.
Mozart's C minor Mass
is almost the musical counterpart of von Hofmannsthal's Jedermann, in that since the 1920s, they have both been
performed at the beginning of the festival, at 6pm in St Peter's Church and at
9pm in the Dom square, respectively.
Mozart's Mass was
first performed on 26 October 1783 in St Peter's. It marked the composer's
return to his native town. Many scholars consider that it was a wedding gift
to Constanze when
they married a
few months before. The score is
incomplete, either because Mozart left it unfinished or because of the poor
conditions of the archives. Musicologist Peter Quantrill compares it to
the unfinished Sagrada Familia by the Catalanarchitect
Gaudí. On 29 July, Camerata Salzburg and the Salzburger Bachchor conducted by Ádám Fischer, and the four soloists (Christina Gansch, Claire Elizabeth Craig,
Maximilian Schmitt and Manuel Walser) provided a performance full of love and devotion.
 Christina Gansch, Claire Elizabeth Craig, Ádám Fischer, Maximilian Schmitt and Manuel Walser with (behind), Camerata Salzburg and the Salzburger Bachchor - Mozart's Mass in C minor as part of the Ouverture spirituelle at the Salzburg Summer Festival. Photo © 2016 Michael Pöhn. Click on the image for higher resolution |
On 30 July 2016, in the huge and sold-out Grosses Festpielhaus
(2,800 seats), Halleluja by Eötvös had its world premiere with
the Wiener
Philharmoniker and the Hungarian Radio Chorus conducted by Daniel Harding, a narrator (the actor Peter Simonischek), a high register tenor(Topi
Lehtipuu) and a soprano (Iris Vermillion).
 Peter Simonischek, Topi Lehtipuu and Iris Vermillion acknowledging applause at the end of their performance of Peter Eötvös' 'Hallelujah' in the Großen Festspielhuas at the Salzburg Summer Festival. Photo © 2016 Andreas Kolarik. Click on the image for higher resolution |
The libretto by the Hungarian poet Péter Esterházi is based on a plotabout a
monk who was also a musician in St Gallen in the ninth century, Notker
Balbulus, later canonized. He was a stutterer; thus he had difficulties in
communicating his messages. In Eötvös' oratorio, the narrator tells about the
communication difficulties between an angel (the soprano) and a stuttering
prophet (the tenor) who because of his stuttering cannot respond in a timely fashion. The
chorus sings Hallelujawith quotations
from Monteverdi, Händel,
Mozart, Mussorgsky andBruckner, but the
angel and prophet cannot have a dialogue. It's a
parable of the difficulties of our current age. A final grand Halleluja is the message that only the Almighty
can solve the key issues.
 Peter Simonischek, Iris Vermillion, Daniel Harding, Topi Lehtipuu, the Vienna Philharmonic and Hungarian Radio Chorus performing Peter Eötvös' 'Hallelujah' at the Salzburg Summer Festival. Photo © 2016 Andreas Kolarik. Click on the image for higher resolution |
The orchestra was set on three levels on the left side of
the stage, with the chorus on three levels on the right side. The musical writingemphasizes
the percussion, organ and cellos. There
are echoes of Ligetias well
as Bartók. It was
a great success. In the
Fall, the oratorio will be performed in Vienna and Budapest.
Hi
Keith,
for
photos and credit, the link è www.salbugererfestpiele.at/fotoservice
G
TO THE GLORY OF
GOD
Giuseppe
Pennisi
The
Salzburg Summer festival has a very strong spiritual and religious component.
This year there are nineteen concerts of religious content during the six weeks
of the festival. Ten are of music directly related to the Roman Catholic
tradition. The others deal with Christian music: Protestant (of various
schools), Russian orthodox, Byzantine and Armenian. Some of the concerts make
up the Ouverture spirituelle preceding
the festival; others are part of the festival program until 31 August and are
scheduled among the other events. A large section is devoted to contemporary
spiritual and religious music.
As
I attended the first week of the festival, I had the opportunity to listen to
two very different but very remarkable concerts: a) Mozart’s Mass in C minor played in St. Peter’s church
sung at the start of each festival and b) the world premiere of Peter Eötvös’
oratorium Halleluja.
Mozart’s
C-Moll Mass is almost the musical
counterpart of von Hofmannsthal’s Jedermann
in that since the nineteen twentieth, they are performed at the beginning
of the festival, respectively at 6pm in St Peter’s church and at 9pm in the Dom
square.
I
listened to Mozart’s Mass on 29 July and due to my poor German I did not attend
Jedermann.
Mozart’s
Mass was first performed in 26 October 1783 just in St. Peter’s. It marked his
return to his native town. Many scholars consider it a wedding gift to
Constanze he had married a few months before. The score is incomplete either
because Mozart left it unfinished or because the poor conditions of the
archives. Musicologist Peter Quantrill compares it to the unfinished Sagrada
Familia by the Catalan architect Gaudí.
On 29 July, the Camerata Salzburg, conducted by Ádám Fischer, the Salzburger
Bachchor, the four soloists (Christina Gansch, Claire Elizabeth Craig,
Maximilian Schmitt e Manuel Walser) have provided a performance full of love
and devotion.
On
30 July, in the sold out huge Grosses
Festpielhaus (2,800 seats) Halleluja by
Eötvös had its world premiere with the Wiener Philharmoniker conducted by
Daniel Harding, the Hungarian Radio chorus, a narrator (the actor Peter
Simonischek), a high register tenor (Topi Lehtipuu) and a soprano (Iris Vermillion).
The libretto by the Hungarian poet Péter Esterházi is based on a plot about a
monk who was also a musician in St. Gallen in the ninth century, Notker Balbulus,
later canonized. He was a stutterer; thus he had difficulties in communicating
his messages. In Eötvös’ oratorium, the narrator tells about the communication
difficulties between an angel (the soprano) and a stuttering prophet (the
tenor) who because of his stuttering cannot respond timely. The chorus sings Halleluja with quotations from
Monteverdi, Händel, Mozart, Mussorgsky and Bruckner but the angel and the
prophet cannot have a dialogue. A parable of today’s difficulties. A final
grand Halleluja is the message that
only the Almighty can solve the key issues.
The
orchestra is set on three levels on the left side of the stage. The chorus on
three levels on the right side. The musical writing emphasizes the percussions,
the organ and the cellos. There are echoes of Ligeti as well as Bártók. Great success.
In the Fall, the oratorium will be performed in Vienna and Budapest.
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