![\"Winter](\"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/snowSalzburg.jpg\")
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By ANDREW POWELL SALZBURG \u2014 There is a pleasure in arriving in Salzburg with snow on the ground. Or maybe the word is reassurance: the city will be real, not a theme park; the people mostly locals, despite the hollowing out of property ownership here; the profile quiet, even intimate, affording a chance to connect with the past. Of Salzburg\u2019s festivals, the snowiest inevitably is Mozartwoche<\/a>, planned and manned by the Mozarteum<\/a> to straddle the composer\u2019s birthday, often by more than a week. Last year\u2019s edition achieved a coup by returning horses to the Felsenreitschule<\/a>, for Davidde penitente<\/em> as realized<\/a> by \u201cFrench equine artist and theatrical genius\u201d Bartabas<\/a>; next year, managers Marc Minkowski and Matthias Schulz<\/a> let Bartabas loose on Mozart\u2019s Requiem (Mel Brooks having declined) and promise some thirty concerts besides, including three by the Vienna Philharmonic, with Haydn as \u201cfocus composer.\u201d<\/p>\n Mozartwoche 2016, placing Mendelssohn in focus, opened Jan. 22 with spoken words lauding the long contribution of Nikolaus Harnoncourt not only to Mozart\u2019s music but specifically to this festival, where he was again due to conduct before declaring several weeks ago his instant retirement. The packed day teamed Katia et Marielle Lab\u00e8que<\/a> with the Mozarteum-Orchester<\/a> in the morning, continued at 3 p.m. with an Andr\u00e1s Schiff<\/a> recital, and ended soberly with Mozart masses at the Gro\u00dfes Festspielhaus<\/a> led by John Eliot Gardiner<\/a>. Rewards were many, irritations few.<\/p>\n The matinee sorely needed a conductor to temper dynamics and coordinate the shaping of lines. Where was Ivor Bolton<\/a>? It began with a Mendelssohn Trumpet Overture (MWV P2, 1826) that knew no piano<\/em>. Next came Mozart\u2019s E-flat-Major Concerto for Two Pianos (1781) and chronically clunky phrasing by the French sisters; this was redeemed somewhat by a neatly sprung Rondo. Quality rose with a still loud, yet spry, Schauspieldirektor<\/em> Overture (1786), the music\u2019s inventiveness laid out vividly. The teenage exuberance of Mendelssohn\u2019s Concerto in E Major for Two Pianos (MWV O5, 1823), in conclusion, proved a good match for the Lab\u00e8ques; alas they then imposed a duo encore (and an insipid one, the last of Glass\u2019s Four Movements for Two Pianos, 2008) to ruin our exit.<\/p>\n The Mozarteum\u2019s Conrad-Graf-Fl\u00fcgel<\/a> and Walter-Hammerfl\u00fcgel<\/a> (1839 and 1782) stood side by side on the platform for Schiff\u2019s recital. Mendelssohn came first: the Variations s\u00e9rieuses<\/em> (1841) and the F-sharp-Minor Sonate \u00e9cossaise<\/em> (1833), played on the later instrument with its charming pearly highs and fuzzy, attenuated lows. Schiff made inspired sense of the lines in both works and bound Mendelssohn\u2019s ideas together expertly without shying from a breakneck pace where needed. The Walter\u2019s clarity and evenness through the range made a stark contrast, its modest sound easy to settle into in this artist\u2019s hands. Ideal tempos and immaculate voicing sustained Mozart\u2019s late major-key sonatas, in C (f\u00fcr Anf\u00e4nger)<\/em>, B-flat and D; the poise of Schiff\u2019s playing overcame passing glitches.<\/p>\n Gardiner\u2019s highly musical, not especially spiritual, reading of the Gro\u00dfe Messe<\/em> K427 (1783) closely resembled the adjusted Aloys Schmitt reconstruction<\/a> he recorded<\/a> in London decades ago. His crisp rhythms and airy textures, and the way these flattered the score\u2019s abundant lyricism, seemed designed to please, as if Mozart had composed the truncated service just for today\u2019s Monteverdi Choir<\/a> and English Baroque Soloists<\/a>. From this listener\u2019s seat, vocal soloists Amanda Forsythe<\/a>, Hannah Morrison<\/a> (sopranos), Gareth Treseder<\/a> (tenor) and Alex Ashworth<\/a> (bass) could not be seen or properly heard, but the choir, also mostly out of view, sounded disciplined. Orchestrally it was a performance with resilience, wary balances, individual style; veteran sackbuttist \u200eStephen Saunders<\/a> managed to nod off during Forsythe\u2019s Et incarnatus est<\/em>, nearly losing his instrument off the riser\u2019s edge. A horseless Mozart Requiem followed the break; for practical reasons we could not stay.<\/p>\n Photo \u00a9 Tourismus Salzburg<\/p>\n Related posts:
Published: February 15, 2016<\/span><\/p>\n
\nSalzburg Coda<\/a>
\nHorses for Mozartwoche<\/a>
\nMariotti North of the Alps<\/a>
\nA Stirring Evening (and Music)<\/a>
\nMaestro, 62, Outruns Players<\/a><\/p>\n
![Walter-Hammerfl\u00fcgel<\/a> (1839 and 1782) stood side by side on the platform for Schiff\u2019s recital. Mendelssohn came first: the Variations s\u00e9rieuses<\/em> (1841) and the F-sharp-Minor Sonate \u00e9cossaise<\/em> (1833), played on the later instrument with its charming pearly highs and fuzzy, attenuated lows. Schiff made inspired sense of the lines in both works and bound Mendelssohn\u2019s ideas together expertly without shying from a breakneck pace where needed. The Walter\u2019s clarity and evenness through the range made a stark contrast, its modest sound easy to settle into in this artist\u2019s hands. Ideal tempos and immaculate voicing sustained Mozart\u2019s late major-key sonatas, in C (f\u00fcr Anf\u00e4nger)<\/em>, B-flat and D; the poise of Schiff\u2019s playing overcame passing glitches.<\/p>\nGardiner\u2019s highly musical, not especially spiritual, reading of the Gro\u00dfe Messe<\/em> K427 (1783) closely resembled the adjusted Aloys Schmitt reconstruction<\/a> he recorded<\/a> in London decades ago. His crisp rhythms and airy textures, and the way these flattered the score\u2019s abundant lyricism, seemed designed to please, as if Mozart had composed the truncated service just for today\u2019s Monteverdi Choir<\/a> and English Baroque Soloists<\/a>. From this listener\u2019s seat, vocal soloists Amanda Forsythe<\/a>, Hannah Morrison<\/a> (sopranos), Gareth Treseder<\/a> (tenor) and Alex Ashworth<\/a> (bass) could not be seen or properly heard, but the choir, also mostly out of view, sounded disciplined. Orchestrally it was a performance with resilience, wary balances, individual style; veteran sackbuttist \u200eStephen Saunders<\/a> managed to nod off during Forsythe\u2019s Et incarnatus est<\/em>, nearly losing his instrument off the riser\u2019s edge. A horseless Mozart Requiem followed the break; for practical reasons we could not stay.<\/p>\nPhoto \u00a9 Tourismus Salzburg<\/p>\nRelated posts:\nSalzburg Coda<\/a>\nHorses for Mozartwoche<\/a>\nMariotti North of the Alps<\/a>\nA Stirring Evening (and Music)<\/a>\nMaestro, 62, Outruns Players<\/a><\/p>\n](\"http:\/\/www.mozarteum.at\/assets\/images\/Hammerklavier.jpg\"){kind=link}