Stefan Henneken Solid

…Fritz Brun can be considered the last symphonist of the old style, one whose death was announced on 29 th November, 1959 at the age of 82. Born in Lucerne in 1878, Brun stayed true to his time – through thick and thin, one might be tempted to say – because he was a con­servative, though not in the worst possible sense of the word. Brun completed his first symphony at the age of 30 and a tenth and final symphony as a seventy­some­ thing year­old. If he happened to write a concerto for piano or cello in the meantime then it resembled a symphony with obbligato solo instrument and the one­ movement orchestral works were also in the same vein. Even the four momentous string quartets remain true to this line despite the fifty years separating the firstand last…

Founded by the late, great conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt in 1953, Concentus Musicus Wien was one of the very first period-instrument orchestras, its recordings of baroque and classical masterworks setting benchmarks for their sheer energy and spirit. Today, the orchestra continues that powerful legacy under the baton of Austrian conductor Stefan Gottfried, whose ingenious programme here invites us to make musical links between Schubert and the earlier Haydn. On the surface, Schubert’s youthful Symphony No. 5, completed in 1816, owes a clear debt to Beethoven. But listen to Haydn’s sophisticated Symphony No. 99, the first of his second series of “London symphonies”, and you can hear that same charm and boisterous exuberance shining through in Schubert’s later work. The performances, captured live at Vienna’s famous Musikverein, are a pure joy.