Tage Alter Musik – Almanach 2017

6 With 16 concert in four days, held over the pentecost/Whitsun weekend, the annual regensburg Tage Alter Musik festival is quite a challenge for a reviewer, but a sumptuous feast for those who manage to attend all the concerts, most of which are sold out. The entire centre of the historic Danube city of regensburg has been declared a World Heritage site, and all the venues for the fes- tival are in important historic buildings. These range from extreme Baroque and ro- coco to austere gothic churches, and the his- toric reichssaal, part of the altes rathaus, and for centuries the permanent seat of the parliament of the Holy roman empire. This was the 33rd festival and featured groups from 12 countries, and musicians from a great many more. Friday 2 June The festival traditionally opens with the Re- gensburger domspatzen , the famous boys choir of the cathedral, directed by roland Büchner accompanied, as last year, by l’or- feo Barockorchester from austria in the Dreieinigkeitskirche (Trinity Church). The programme was three works by Haydn, ope- ning with his early Symphony in C (Hob. i:38, c1768), its festive opening leading to a jovial second theme. The lilting pastoral An- dante molto later gave the work its nickname of the ‘echo’. The final two movements are in rather different style than the first two, and feature virtuoso roles for the two ob- oists, here very well-played by Carin van Heerden and anabel röser. This was follo- wed by a slightly later work, the Salve Regina in E (Hob. XXiii b:1, 1771) with soprano Hannah morrison as an impressive soloist with her clear and well-focussed voice. The pianissimo ending was particularly ef- fective. The final piece was the earliest of the programme, the 1766 Missa Cellensis in ho- andrewbensonwilson.org Andrew Benson-Wilson Early Music Reviews Susanna Ogata, Violine & Ian Watson, Hammerflügel spielen Beethovensonaten im Neuhaussaal Regensburg: Tage Alter Musik 2017, 2-5 June // Autor: Andrew Benson-Wilson