ConcertPulse
Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Joana Mallwitz
Konzerthaus Berlin, Großer Saal (Berlin)
The chicken that seems to cluck through the first movement of Haydn's Paris Symphony No. 83 in the second theme was not sighted there by the composer himself but, as is so often the case, by posterity. But with Haydn's numerous symphonies, epithets are certainly helpful. With ‘La Poule’ from 1785, Joana Mallwitz continues her Haydn focus at the Konzerthausorchester, which spans several seasons. This is followed by a leap into the 20th century: Béla Bartók's Third Piano Concerto, interpreted by Igor Levit, touchingly demonstrates that shortly before his death in exile in the US in 1945, the seriously ill composer managed to free himself from the gloom of his final years and write a cheerful, luminous work for his wife, the pianist Ditta Pásztory. He was only unable to orchestrate the last 17 bars himself. The suite from Stravinsky's ballet ‘Petrushka’, which takes place at an early 19th century Russian fair among Punch and Judy puppets, forms the furious conclusion to the evening.