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Schnittke and Tchaikovsky: Gidon Kremer (violin), Marie-Elisabeth Hecker (cello), Munich Philharmonic, Christian Thielemann, Philharmonic Hall, Gasteig, Munich, 30.10.2008 (JFL)

Schnittke: MOZ-ART à la Haydn, Concerto Grosso No.2 for Violin, Cello & Orchestra

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.6 “Pathétique”


Out of complete darkness – just a dim spotlight on conductor Christian Thielemann – emerged the sounds of Alfred Schnittke’s MOZ-ART à la Haydn, until the lights over the semi-circle of two small string orchestras (five violins, viola, and cello each, one double bass behind them) suddenly went on, timed precisely to the first tutti entrance. The character of a game in this playful music around two solo violins (taken by the principle first and second violins of the Munich Phil) was underscored by the roving musicians who changed positions – while playing – as the music dictated different combinations among the players.

The ensuing romp is mildly humorous (it doesn’t take much to get a classical music concert crowd laughing), and even Thielemann may have reluctantly entered into the spirit. Mozart quotations, some blatant and some more subtle, coexist peacefully with fragmented, joyously dissonant, sounds, typical of the more harmless side of Schnittke. As the music ended, the lights went out on stage again, and in reference to Haydn’s 45^th Symphony the players left for the exits, the last notes sounding faintly from behind the stage.

More accurate than inspired was the Concerto Grosso for violin, cello, and large orchestra. It’s a bombastic work for 90+ players, including harpsichord, piano, a battery of classical percussion instruments, drum kit, and electric guitar. Gidon Kremer and the 21-year old Marie-Elisabeth Hecker performed the buzzing, spiky solo parts, he with merry routine, she with aching sincerity. The harpsichord busily stalks through the score where lyrical ‘historicist’ passages, percussion interruptions, huge orchestral swells, flageolet wire-acts, the “Brandenburg theme” all took turns. The climax of the third, Allegro, movement sounds like two old fashioned Bach concerto performances thrown in with a Shostakovich symphony rehearsal at feeding time. Unlikely repertoire for Thielemann, who didn’t look completely at ease, but led the orchestra with very economical means, great detail, and precision.

Some critics in Munich think that Tchaikovsky, too, is outside of Thielemann’s realm. The excerpt from Eugene Onegin he produced at the Odeonsplatz Open Air in July, however, suggested a happy relationship between the foremost conductor of German romantic repertoire and the Russian romantic of a more shallow persuasion. This Pathéthique bore that out. Not surprisingly, the Parsifal opening was audibly Wagnerian before the nutcrackerish lightness (the flutes, especially) intrudes and creates the atmosphere of a ballet-within-a-symphony. To charm the ears (these, at least), Tchaikovsky’s 6^th Symphony should be played with sumptuous, rich orchestral sound – but without giving in to the temptation of making it so syrupy that the Bach & Beethoven reared listener goes into a diabetic shock. If treated so, there’s actually a good deal of grim thunder to be found in the Pathétique. Thielemann, who has committed the score to memory (a notable sign of how much importance he attaches to the work), did just that – and the Munich Philharmonic delivered on the sound to go with it.

Instead of delving into ‘exploitable’ moments and melodies, as Thielemann is successfully prone to do with Brahms, Wagner, or Beethoven, he never allowed Tchaikovsky to linger uncomfortably. At the same time, his tempi were of the usual flexibility so that the parts taken at a brisk clip didn’t march toward the finish line with undue haste. The brass collaborated beautifully, the softness of the last cymbal clash in the third movement was astounding, the march predictably precise without denying the frequent interjections of gaiety, the arch and tension in the fourth movement superb. This was a performance more deeply probing than I thought the music would permit – perhaps not for lovers of sugar-coated Tchaikovsky, but surely for those who suspect actual drama beneath the surface. There is clearly something in Thielemann that responds to Tchaikovsky, and it made for the finest account of the Pathéthique I have yet heard in concert.

Jens F Laurson 


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