Riccardo Chailly has appeared in Berlin several times over the past few years, but this evening marked his first visit with the Filarmonica della Scala since taking up his new position as their chief conductor in 2015. The evening’s programme, with its first half devoted to Brahms and its second to Verdi, may have been reasonably conservative by the standards of Musikfest, but one could hardly complain: there was tremendous satisfaction to be found in hearing these grand classics given nobly spirited performances by such an excellent orchestra.
The first movement of Brahms’ Violin Concerto is infused with great severity and one of the questions facing any interpreter is precisely how much of its internal struggle should be brought to the fore. On this evening, Leonidas Kavakos seemed initially resistant to admitting anything more than a…
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