The next concert of the State Orchestra of Athens on May 27 turned out to be extremely interesting. Marcus Bosch conducted the orchestra with great success in three very different works: Symphonies no. 35 titled Mozart’s Haffner, Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto and Suite from Stravinsky’s The Firebird.

It began with a reading of Huffner that was breathtaking in every way. The high speeds chosen by Bosch in all four parts of the work sometimes put the strings in a difficult position, but the overall effect was very positive. It was a historically based performance, exciting, airy, but at the same time very dramatic, which was evident from the very first musical bars. The speed did not deprive either the lightness and elegance of the character of the second movement, or the elegance of the Trio of the subsequent minuet. The aforementioned elements come together in a tumultuous closing movement that is musically similar to Mozart’s The Abduction from the Serai, first performed around the same time, but atmospherically recalls the equally tumultuous Introduction from The Marriage of Figaro.

With a powerful sound, the pianist articulated the musical text and gave meaning to phrases.

The evening ended with a suite from the ballet The Firebird. The work, first performed in Paris in 1910 by Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, glorified the then unknown 28-year-old Stravinsky. In subsequent years, the composer created three orchestral suites (1911, 1919, 1945) from a roughly 50-minute ballet with the goal of presenting them independently in concert halls. Bosch chose the longest, 1945, which follows the development of the ballet’s plot. With the help of exemplary brass, drums and harp, the German chief musician gave a reading that preserved the theatricality of the narrative, but at the same time revealed the modernism of the score, that is, the element that makes it interesting in the concert hall. .

Between the two works, the audience enjoyed the magnificent soloist of Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto Nikos Kiriosoglu. Technically and virtuoso confident, the pianist has great musicality and seems to understand the emotions of this quintessential romantic music very well.

With a big and strong sound, he articulated the loaded musical text, giving meaning to the phrases. He was majestic in conversation with the orchestra, as well as extremely expressive in solo passages, he was tender and emotional in dialogue with the cello (Asterios Pouftis), and also highly skilled, which is expected in a Liszt work, even if in this case the composer is less oriented towards the soloist than in his first concert. Liszt called the piece a “symphonic concerto” and the orchestra, conducted by Bosch, showed why. He remained equally in dialogue with the pianist and effectively projected the composer’s symphonic thought, both aspects of the great lyric and the more extraverted parts.