SOV Vorarlberg:

Exciting program, excellently performed

The Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra was completely convincing under the direction of conductor Roland Kluttig.(Bild: Mathis Fotografie)

Classical modernism combined with Viennese classical music - this is how the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra (SOV) greeted its subscription audience for the new season. The opening was convincing!

On the surface, the program of the SOV's first subscription concert, which took place on Saturday in Feldkirch and on Sunday in Bregenz, may have seemed brittle or even incoherent. But that was not the case. This was experienced while listening to these amazing works, and this was expressed by the sympathetic conductor of the evening, Roland Kluttig, in a short speech with which he filled the break between the first two pieces of the program. The orchestra's arrangement for the first work, Béla Bartók's "Music for Strings; Percussion and Celesta", was unusual: two equal groups of string players sat opposite each other. At the center back were the other instruments mentioned in the title.

The most important composition of modernism
This "music", first performed in 1937 as a commission from the legendary Basel Chamber Orchestra under Paul Sacher, is considered one of the most important compositions of modernism. Formally almost meticulously crafted, it delights the listener with its immediate beauty. Be it the gentle beginning of the violas, which gradually builds up powerfully in a "fan fugue". Or the distinctive instrumentation when the xylophone begins the third movement or the strings surprise with hard, percussion-supported pizzicati. Excellently performed by the musicians of the SOV and carefully conducted by Roland Kluttig, this unusual music was able to convince the subscription audience.

The second work of the evening, the violin concerto by the composer Boris Blacher, who was very renowned in his day, was comparatively well-adapted and was intended to convey lightness and cheerfulness to people after the war when it was published in 1948. The composer's son, Kolja Blacher, who has already been a guest at the SOV, played his father's work with dedication. He delighted the audience with his elegant tone in the beautiful middle movement and created an energetic transition to the lively finale.

Magnificent concert
With a partita by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed in a well-phrased manner, Kolja Blacher illuminated the secret bracket of the program: Bach as a model for perfectly crafted scores with maximum beauty of sound. Mozart's last symphony, composed three years before his early death, the so-called "Jupiter Symphony", was also influenced by Bach. It was also carefully performed by the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra under guest conductor Roland Kluttig. The rather slow tempi offered enough time to formulate the rhetorical phrases of its wonderful melodies and to build up to the radiant finale as a climax. A great concert and an outstanding performance by our SOV!