EIF: Christian Tetzlaff and Camerata Bern

Usher Hall - 26/08/23

Haydn ‘The Seven Last Words of Christ’ 

Video installation by René Liebert  

Haydn with agitprop ends the Queens Hall concert series. 

Three weeks ago I reported that the Festival began with a whimper with a half empty concert hall listening to some nice chamber music. This morning the hall was a little fuller for Camerata Bern playing Haydn’s ‘Seven Last Words of Christ’, but playing it with a difference. They had a backdrop of a video playing on three white sheets which in between movements showed us harrowing scenes of environmental degradation, human suffering, refugees, war and other disasters. In one interval the musicians recited some concerned texts (in German with no subtitles!) to convey their anguish. Did it help the music ? No I don’t think so. In fact I think it interrupted the flow of the music in what is one of Haydn’s finest works in chamber music. Did it make us think of all these issues? Well maybe, but I would hope that a relatively intelligent audience at the Queens Hall was aware of world issues and don’t need reminding in this rather crude manner. However this is all part of Nicola’s question to us, “Where do we go from here?” What is the relevance of the festival to the community and to the world? This is a theme I shall return to in my final essay on the festival next week. However I did congratulate Nicola after the concert on introducing agitprop to classical music in the festival; she did look a little puzzled until I explained the political history of agitprop in theatre.  

So if the agitprop was in my view less than successful, the music was fabulous. The Camerata Bern confirmed their reputation as one of the finest chamber music groups in the world. Their playing was electric and despite having replaced Patricia Kopatchinskaja at the last minute due to illness with Christian Tetzlaff (what a substitution!) they showed no signs of disorder. To be fair they have been touring this work around Europe so by the time of their Edinburgh concert they were very fluent. Christian Tetzlaff is a very fine violinist and is used to working with chamber music groups including his own string quartet. He blended in perfectly with the Camerata in what must have been a fairly short rehearsal period and led them through this mighty work which begins quietly but ends with an earthquake. So we can say the Queens Hall series began quietly but ended with a bang musically and visually. But the question remains, “Where do we go from here?” That is a question we will consider further. 

Cover photo: Giorgia Bertazzi