This DVD is a permanent
record of yet another May Day concert
given by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra,
this time in the beautiful surroundings
of the Teatro Massimo in Palermo. The
DVD comes complete with a short (20
minute) documentary on Palermo and its
theatre which whilst not worth buying
the DVD for, is a very good bonus and
well worth having, particularly if you
have been on holiday in this city.
The disc is a co-production
with a number of European broadcasting
organisations, and once again, the BBC
is noticeably absent from the proceedings.
The concert is directed by the usual
DVD director, Bob Coles. His name is
promise enough that you are in for a
visual as well as an audio feast.
The concert gets off
to a very lively start with Beethoven’s
Egmont overture. As you may know,
Abbado has just recently completed a
Beethoven Cycle (also in Italy, but
Rome). I am not sure whether Sicilians
consider themselves Italian, but no
matter. The theatre is a spectacular
visual feast, and Bob Coles makes the
best of this.
Abbado’s style with
Beethoven is quite well known, and here
the interpretation is clear and direct
with plenty of adrenaline flowing in
the closing pages.
The orchestra is then
joined by Gil Shaham for a performance
of the Brahms Concerto, which Abbado
and he recorded some years ago for DG.
This studio performance was well received
and I am pleased to be able to say that
this performance is similar and well
worth having on DVD. I do not know how
he does it, but with Shaham, I find
that there are very few extraneous noises
from the instrument, and this is replicated
here.
The main work is the
Dvořák
Symphony, complete with first movement
repeat, and played with the kind of
commitment that one is used to hearing
from the Czech Philharmonic. Towards
the end of his tenure with the Berlin
Philharmonic, Abbado had a long and
serious illness, which some pundits
reckoned he wouldn’t survive. On the
visual evidence of this concert, he
still wasn’t out of the woods, even
allowing for his deep suntan. However
his control of the orchestra is never
in doubt, to say nothing of their commitment
to their Music Director.
They receive a tremendous
response from their Sicilian audience
(standing ovation plus a deluge of flowers)
which is rewarded with an encore. In
the circumstances this was highly appropriate
to the location. Here, Abbado is in
his element with Italian Opera: the
overture fizzes with excitement. One
would not believe that we had reached
the end of a long concert and the audience
once again goes wild. In common with
other Southern European cities, the
conductor continually is recalled for
curtain calls after the orchestra has
left the podium. Almost, but not quite
as good as being there.
John Phillips
Gil Shaham (violin)
TDK
DVD EUC02 [90 minutes main programme + 28
minutes documentary] 
