It has been a fine long stay at the Edinburgh international festival for Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra: long enough for Fischer to injure his foot playing basketball on a day off, long enough for us to get to know multiple facets of this intoxicating conductor-orchestra team. Last week, they presented The Marriage of Figaro in a debatable production whose most inspired move was putting the musicians centre stage. A superb chamber recital featured ultra-charismatic playing in Bartók and Prokofiev, and now this all-Mozart concert provided a joyous culmination – despite containing a requiem. The sheer musicianship of this ensemble, its depth, grace and dynamism, is invigorating to witness.
They opened with the Prague Symphony: immaculate, warm, elegant. Natural brass and minimal string vibrato coloured the textures, but Fischer is no period purist: it was the glowing weight of the opening chord, the long, limpid lines that followed, the alert dialogue among players, the collective darkening at a minor-key turn and bloom at the top of a phrase – in other words, the intuitive, detailed musicality – that made this such a fine performance. The Andante had simple grace and space; the Presto was exuberant but never forced the point.
Mozart’s Requiem (the standard Süssmayr completion) was likewise thoughtful and incisive. The Introit was serene; rage and pain came later. A chilling Dies Irae, hushed sorrow in the Lacrimosa, rays of light in the Sanctus and Lux Aeterna – Fischer created drama out of carefully applied shades and shapes and drew artful word painting from the Edinburgh Festival Chorus. He positioned the soloists – an understated quartet of Miah Persson, Barbara Kozelj, Jeremy Ovenden and Konstantin Wolff — among the orchestra and reserved front-of-stage for basset horns and bassoons, whose lyrical counterpoint relished the attention.
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