Latest news with #ElegischerGesang
Scotsman
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
RSNO & Patrick Hahn, Edinburgh review: 'vivid and dramatic'
This death-themed evening was a sold-out triumph for the RSNO and Patrick Hahn, writes David Kettle Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... RSNO & Patrick Hahn, Usher Hall, Edinburgh ★★★★ Death might seem an unlikely concert theme to draw a capacity crowd to Edinburgh's Usher Hall. When one of the evening's works is Mozart's lavish, legendary Requiem, however, that popularity is perhaps more understandable. The Requiem's notorious associations with shadowy strangers and Mozart's own mysterious demise – courtesy of the Milos Forman's movie Amadeus – are largely hokum, but the piece's uncanny power and granitic seriousness remain, and it received a brisk, vivid and deftly dramatic reading from RSNO Principal Guest Conductor Patrick Hahn. Patrick Hahn PIC: Kow Iida The slimmed-down orchestra was on incisive form, even if Hahn's four vocal soloists seemed oddly matched, from stentorian baritone Laurent Naouri to the exquisite soaring purity of soprano Mhairi Lawson, who made several silvery contributions. The RSNO Chorus – pushed firmly into the spotlight in Mozart's demanding writing – sounded occasionally underpowered, but delivered a crisp, energetic, resonant account, particularly in an urgent 'Confutatis'. They spun sumptuously velvety threads, too, through the concert's opener, Beethoven's rarely heard Elegischer Gesang, in Hahn's nicely restrained but richly conceived account. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Hahn took the unusual but very effective decision to segue directly from Beethoven's silky choral miniature into the far harder-edged, grittier world of Berg's Violin Concerto, which, famously written in memory of family friend Manon Gropius who died aged just 18, continued the concert's fateful theme. And it received a commanding but deeply human performance from violinist Carolin Widmann, who unravelled the piece's structural intricacies expertly, but played with such open-hearted, unadorned sincerity that she clearly won over listeners who were maybe less familiar with Berg's sometimes violently dissonant sound world. As in the Mozart, Hahn's tempos were on the speedy side, but that only re-emphasised the performance's absence of wallowing indulgence, and he drew inner lines and details from Berg's often dense scoring to telling and moving effect.
Scotsman
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
RSNO & Patrick Hahn, Edinburgh review: 'vivid and dramatic'
, writes David Kettle Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... RSNO & Patrick Hahn, Usher Hall, Edinburgh ★★★★ Death might seem an unlikely concert theme to draw a capacity crowd to Edinburgh's Usher Hall. When one of the evening's works is Mozart's lavish, legendary Requiem, however, that popularity is perhaps more understandable. The Requiem's notorious associations with shadowy strangers and Mozart's own mysterious demise – courtesy of the Milos Forman's movie Amadeus – are largely hokum, but the piece's uncanny power and granitic seriousness remain, and it received a brisk, vivid and deftly dramatic reading from RSNO Principal Guest Conductor Patrick Hahn. The slimmed-down orchestra was on incisive form, even if Hahn's four vocal soloists seemed oddly matched, from stentorian baritone Laurent Naouri to the exquisite soaring purity of soprano Mhairi Lawson, who made several silvery contributions. The RSNO Chorus – pushed firmly into the spotlight in Mozart's demanding writing – sounded occasionally underpowered, but delivered a crisp, energetic, resonant account, particularly in an urgent 'Confutatis'. They spun sumptuously velvety threads, too, through the concert's opener, Beethoven's rarely heard Elegischer Gesang, in Hahn's nicely restrained but richly conceived account. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Hahn took the unusual but very effective decision to segue directly from Beethoven's silky choral miniature into the far harder-edged, grittier world of Berg's Violin Concerto, which, famously written in memory of family friend Manon Gropius who died aged just 18, continued the concert's fateful theme. And it received a commanding but deeply human performance from violinist Carolin Widmann, who unravelled the piece's structural intricacies expertly, but played with such open-hearted, unadorned sincerity that she clearly won over listeners who were maybe less familiar with Berg's sometimes violently dissonant sound world. As in the Mozart, Hahn's tempos were on the speedy side, but that only re-emphasised the performance's absence of wallowing indulgence, and he drew inner lines and details from Berg's often dense scoring to telling and moving effect.
The Herald Scotland
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
RSNO Hahn at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall review: 'remarkable eloquence'
On paper it looked an odd programme, teaming mid-20th century masterpiece Berg's Violin Concerto with Mozart's Requiem, but, as RSNO Principal Guest Conductor Patrick Hahn explained, preceding both with Beethoven's rarely heard late choral miniature Elegischer Gesang created a sequence of works that all shared a memorial purpose. More than that, however, all three were never heard by their composers, because Mozart and Berg had themselves died before the first performances and Beethoven was deaf. So it was especially appropriate that the concert was signed by the remarkable BSL performer Paul Whittaker. It is not necessary to be reliant on his interpretation of the music to appreciate its remarkable eloquence. Earlier in the week, the RSNO, Hahn and soloist Carolin Widmann had been recording the concerto for a new disc that will pair it with the Violin Concert of Benjamin Britten, who was one of those who recognised its stature at the first performance. Berg's champions are still fighting their corner, and Widmann and Hahn made their case with a performance that relished the range of orchestral colour as much as the virtuosity required of the soloist, particularly in the second movement. Read more reviews from Keith Bruce: With alto sax joining bass clarinet and contrabassoon in the winds, that section's exchanges with Widmann were wonderfully expressive, the whole work framed by sections in which they were joined by the harp of Eluned Pierce. If Hahn was meticulous, precise, but understated in the first half, we saw his more expansive side after the interval as he guided the RSNO Chorus, prepared by director Stephen Doughty, through the Mozart. This was quite a brisk Requiem, a pace that only seemed to catch the large choir out at the end of the Sanctus, and the conductor integrated the choir, players and quartet of soloists in a way that brought out the operatic elements of the score. That front line – Scots soprano Mhairi Lawson and tenor Jamie MacDougall, mezzo Hanna Hipp and baritone Laurent Naouri – were especially good in ensemble in that regard and the might of the full choir was perfectly matched by the crisp playing of the RSNO's trombones in the concluding Lux Aeterna.
