Sinfonia Christkoenig under Eduard Matscheko with works by Balduin Sulzer.
10 year of Sinfonia Christkoenig under the patronage of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra – it is also 10 years of Eduard Matscheko, who – as conductor and driving force of this undertaking – includes great musical works of different epochs in his programme and discovers and regularly performs Upper Austrian contemporary music.
Therefore the performance of Balduin Sulzer’s Symphony Nr. 1, op. 60, attracted great attention in the Sinfonia Christkoenig’s first concert after the pandemic. Each member of the orchestra knows the composer, who died two years ago. Some of them were his students or close friends, some remember him as ”Herr Lehrer” as regular visitor of concerts. This symphony was first already performed in the Brucknerhaus concert hall in 1978 by the Bruckner Orchester under Leopold Mayer. According to the composer, this symphony is ”dedicated to the audience whose musical taste has been trained by the great traditional works of music, therefore there is less emphasis on experimental phrases than on aiming at general comprehensibility“. By doing so Balduin Sulzer makes use of the accuracy of his understanding of organology. In this symphony he entrusts the soft contrabasses of the ”Matutina“ with the ”night music“ that stands for tranquility and reflexion. What takes the place of the scherzo in traditional symphonies is a ”Burlesca“ in Sulzer’s symphony. This movement is characterized by coarse humour and fierceness and is actually hidden in a real ballet music, which could not be fuller of contrasts. In the centre as elegant coquetry in its allegro parts is the solopart of the violin, which was played by Rainer Honeck as a surprise and won special attention. Various percussion parts have very attractive functions in this movement.
In the third movement ”Oration“ Sulzer returns to the religious sphere of music and its serene, solemn dignity. In the 4th movement ”Marcia“ the whole orchestra is in action, a grand finale, which was appreciated by the audience for its momentum and happy elegance. Big applause for the commitment to this rather new sort of music.
To perform the violin concerto in D major by Brahms, the concert master and principal violinist of the Vienna Philharmonic, Rainer Honeck (*1961) came to Linz with his Stradivari (”Chaconne, 1725, owned by the Austrian National Bank). This concerto is the most important solo concerto of the whole 19th century besides Beethoven’s violin concerto, and its four movements present a big challenge for each violinist. 40 minutes of operation as soloist!
It was a joyful, excellent performance by Rainer Honeck, who did not only master this work but realized it with special brilliance. There was a wonderfully balanced cooperation with the well conducted orchestra.
There was great enthusiams and grateful cheers for the soloist, the conductor and the musicians of the Sinfonia Christkoenig.