Intimacy and refinement at NNO – Haenchen conducts Wagner and Shostakovich | review ★★★★☆

Dimitri Shostakovich’ Fifteenth Symphony starts with a glockenspiel and develops differently than what one is used to from this composer. The caustic tone of previous works, such as the Leningrad Symphony , is hard to find. To name but a few: in the opening part one seems to be in a toy store. And passages from Rossini’s overture to Guillaume Tell pass by. A conductor can influence the character of this symphony quite a bit. Like the late Bernard Haitink. He opted for a fairly mild approach.

The NNO followed the course of Hartmut Haenchen, who in the opening movement was rich in details, sounded pointed, rousing and – due to the tight rhythms imposed by the conductor – rather crazy. In the slow second movement he sometimes let the music stop for a moment with the danger that the tension was lost. But he avoided that.

Swirling climax full of copper

Haenchen concentrated on the cellos and basses. In doing so, he laid a warm foundation under, for example, a violin solo and under the many reassuring pizzicati. It was the prelude to a swirling climax full of brass. After a fairly long follow-up course full of dreamy passages and a few Wagner quotes, the closing bars of a performance that excelled in refinement were reached.

And then Wagner. Which inspired him to the opera Tristan and Isolde to compose? His extramarital relationship with Mathilde Wesendonck, the wife of one of his benefactors. At the hands of Wagner’s wife, it became an unhappy love. One of the “fruits” of this is his five Wesendonck Lieder .

Intimate get-together

The NNO opted for the transparent orchestration of Hans Werner Henze. The mezzo Marina Prudenskaya acted as a replacement for the announced singer. Together with Haenchen, she struck a beautiful balance between her vocals and the orchestral part, which was kept slender. She did not turn out to be an exuberant, decibel-grossing singer. Prudenskaya opted for refinement, for a more or less intimate get-together with the audience. However, her contribution was occasionally marred by her phrasing.