Last Sunday afternoon Ödön Racz, born in Budapest in 1981 and solo contrabassist of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, guest-starred at the church concert of the Sinfonia Christkoenig orchestra. He has travelled widely both as member of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and as renowned chamber musician. In the Friedenskirche he could be heard with the Concerto for Contrabass by Giovanni Bottesini (1821 – 1889), a baroque virtuosic piece, which he mastered with intriguing verve and beautiful sound.
At the beginning, Mozart’s Divertimento in F major was interpreted in a precise, easy-going and playfully animated way. After the intermission Eduard Matscheko proceeded mit Haydn’s last but one symphony in E flat major “with the drum roll“ in a totally different way. With “Intrada“ the Upper Austrian composer Albin Zaininger succeeded with a vigorous, well matched drum roll. Matscheko managed to draw special attention to a “choral“ from Haydn’s work. The colourful and imaginative art of instrumentation by ”doyen” Haydn can be experienced in each of the four movements: a cheerful waltz in the first movement, a gentle andante in the second movement, a menuetto in the third movement, and eventually, a brilliant finale.
The audience in the full church reacted with enthusiastic applause for all performers.