The Sinfonia Christkoenig concert was the reason why the Friedenskirche church in Linz was almost fully booked up last Sunday. Schubert’s “Unfinished Symphony“ was enjoyable to listen to. Eduard Matscheko knows what to ask for from his Sinfonia Christkoenig orchestra. His high-quality creative work on the conductor’s stand guarantees a solid realisation of music and does not need any stagely gestures. Ingo Ingensand must have known about that when he dedicated his latest composition to him. “Gioia“ (Joy) op. 16, stands for a harmonically and densely woven movement, not free from stylistical echos of classical and polytonal models, but skillfully processed (also in respect to instrumentation), which results in a very personal image of creativity.
Then the main work of the programme: Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s second symphony, which has gone down in history as “Hymn of Praise“, op. 52. It was a more than rare encounter, nevertheless this weak work of a romantical classicist succeeded in achieving great praise this time. Here Mendelssohn’s symphonical style reaches utmost cocinnity, and it must have required a lot of love and mastership to make the dramatical scenes and rich sounding chorales shine brilliantly without burying the lyrics of the psalms. Backing up the choir through the Viennese choir Choriandoli seemed superfluous. Markus Petsch‘ tenor solos relied on top volume whereas the sopranists Tabea Mitterbauer and Mara Mastalir from the Viennese Volksoper supplied beautiful moments of duets.