Mariss Jansons conducts Bruckner: Mass in F minor
Friday, 25 January 2019
Munich, Herkulessaal der Residenz
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra / 2nd Subscription C
Start: 8.00 pm | Introduction: 6.45 pm
Anton Bruckner
Mass No. 3 F minor
for soli, choir and orchestra, op. 58
Sally Matthews soprano
Karen Cargill mezzo-soprano
Ilker Arcayürek tenor
Stanislav Trofimov bass
Richard Strauss
Four Last Songs
for soprano and orchestra, TrV 296
Diana Damrau soprano
Bavarian Radio Chorus
Chorus master: Howard Arman
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Mariss Jansons
Conductor
Mariss Jansons is the principal conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, and his joint projects with the chorus, headed by Howard Arman, are invariably highlights of the concert season. Now, for the first time in his Munich era, Maestro Jansons will conduct a Bruckner Mass, and since he is a great Bruckner conductor his choice fell on Mass No. 3 in F minor. Laid out on a symphonic scale, this monumental creation offers the Bavarian Radio Chorus and the quartet of young solo vocalists ingratiating tasks ranging from lyrical cantilena to mighty jubilation. Not by accident, the use of a solo violin and the introverted inflection recall Bruckner’s model, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis.
In the first half of the concert listeners can again welcome the soprano Diana Damrau, last heard with the Bavarian RSO in their “Klassik am Odeonsplatz” series. This time the Strauss specialist will treat listeners to the other-worldly beauty of the Four Last Songs, a work perfectly in tune with the crepuscule mood of Bruckner’s mysticism. Three settings of poems by Hesse lead to the Eichendorff setting “Im Abendrot” (At Sunset), which ends with the question “Is this perhaps Death?” – a question left unanswered, but lightened by a tranquil postlude from the orchestra.