ConcertPulse
Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice / Vikram Francesco Sedona / Markus Stenz
Elbphilharmonie, Großer Saal (Hamburg)
Nomen est omen: true to its name, Venice’s legendary opera house, the Teatro La Fenice (Italian for phoenix), rose from the ashes in 2003 after a devastating fire. Since its reconstruction, the theatre has once again stood for splendour and radiance as well as impressive acoustics. The theatre is also home to a renowned orchestra, with which Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss worked. It gave important Verdi premieres, has a special history and is now bringing some of this aura to the north. Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto is one of the most popular works of all time, rich in beguiling melodies, full of romantic intensity and rousing in its gesture. Accordingly, the solo part demands highly expressive playing, and this is precisely what the violinist Vikram Francesco Sedona, who trained partly in Venice, is known for. Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 forms the crowning finale with its sacred-sounding grandeur, monumental Wagnerian references and late-Romantic, smoldering expressiveness. »Bruckner’s music seems to me to breathe inexhaustibly. At the same time, his constantly evolving sounds allow flexible arcs to be spanned – Romantic, grand music,« says conductor Markus Stenz.