Herbert Blomstedt conducts the San Francisco Symphony in Mozart and Bruckner
The San Francisco Symphony
Davies Hall, San Francisco
Friday, February 26, 2010
Herbert Blomstedt, Conductor
Mozart: Symphony No. 36 in C major, K.425, "Linz"
Bruckner: Symphony No. 6 in A major
There appears to be something of a tug-of-war going on in the world of Mozart performances.
In the ascendancy these days, self-confident revisionist scholars, seeking to sweep away Victorian accretion, place before the public spiky, twangy and fiercely rhythmical works for small forces of original instruments. Traditional Mozart conductors, on the political defensive and seemingly chastened as romantics, come to audience rescue with slightly more refined, slightly less detuned, slightly more softly sprung music for slightly larger forces. Scarcely anyone anymore, (perhaps Barenboim), will stand before 100 players and lead a symphony by Mozart or Haydn in the manner of a Bruno Walter, an Otto Klemperer, a Herbert Von Karajan or a George Szell.
