I am falling behind with the blog. Anyway, last Thursday we went to another live concert, the third after the Wagner Parsifal and the Mahler Seventh recently. This time we had the privilege to listen to the Budapest Festival Orchestra conducted by their trusted chief Ivan Fischer. We were lucky with the Hungarian presidency of the EU. The orchestra was only on a short European tour.
It was the third time I saw them live. First time was in the Brugge Concertgebouw with a Mahler Sixth and Bartok Music. Then, a few years ago, there was a genuinely memorable concert with a first Act of Wagner's Walküre. And so this time there was another full Wagner programme, consisting of the Siegried Idyll, the Tannhäuser Overture and Bacchanale, the Meistersinger Overture, Siegfried's Rhine Journey and Funeral March, and the final scene from Götterdämmerung. We were seated again in the 'logezetels' so that we had a very good view of the orchestra on the scene and Fischer conducting.
It was another truly stunning performance. Already from the very first bars into the Siegried Idyll it was clear we were going to experience something special. Through a phenomenal control over dynamics and tonal shadings Fischer and his musicians created a diaphanous and evanescent cloud of music. Lines were most lovingly shaped. It was as if the music was dreamt rather than actually played. An amazing feat.
With the Tannhaüser Overture we moved into a more energetic mode. Here it struck me how this wonderful, 100-man strong orchestra exhibited a most wonderful poise and restfulness when seated on the podium. There is not a hint of strain emanating from this collective. And the same applies to Fischer himself, who appeared supremely confident but in the most natural and self-effacing manner. Quite impressive! And how different from our experience at the Mahler Seventh performance. One third into the Overture and Bacchanale I was thinking that a little more excitement might have been welcome. But I underestimated Fischer's uncanny handling of the long, long crescendo forming the piece's backbone. In the Bacchanale the roof went really of the Bozar's Henri Le Boeuf hall.
The rest of the evening was a veritable feast which I witnessed misty-eyed and awestruck: a rousing Meistersinger Overture (echoes of the Mahler Seventh's Finale!), a wild and darkly romantic Funeral March, and a complex layered Götterdämmerung final scene (with Petra Lang as Brunnhilde). These are moments when I experience this level of music making as the pinnacle of civilisation, as the most perfect expression of a millennia long process of cultural accumulation and refinement. Elitist rubbish, maybe, but so be it.
What is so special then about the Budapest Festival Orchestra? As I said, there is unparallelled musicianship, with jawdropping perfection of execution (actually I was happy the lead trumpet had a tiny slip of tongue: at least they were human!). There is filigree precision, amazing clarity of layered voices, freshness and vivacity. The sound of the orchestra is rather lean and 'objective'. There's no fat, no ingratiating gloss, no oversaturated colours. It's like looking at an 8x10 contact print. And the music flows with unforced naturalness. What we hear also makes compelling musical sense! There is no doubt that Ivan Fischer and his BFO are one of the best orchestras around. Their modesty and lack of star appeal make them all the more adorable and admirable. Fischer has taken up a job in Berlin (Konzerthaus Orchestra, taking over from Lothar Zagrosek) but this will not compromise his work with his own orchestra. Let's hope we can look forward to a lot more of this fantastic partnership.
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