diario del direttore
Conductor’s Diary No.6 — Mozart “Linz”, one full day
One rehearsal and the concert on the same day. Mozart’s “Linz” Symphony, worked through step by step, with careful preparation, fatigue, an attentive audience, and a risky finale.
Yesterday the Mozart Symphonies Challenge No.20 took place, dedicated to Mozart’s “Linz” Symphony K.425.
We started the rehearsal a little late, waiting for a few musicians. After the first twenty minutes, we were informed that the YouTube stream audio was too low. Once adjusted, everything worked fine. To our surprise, there was already a good audience presence during the rehearsal.
We began with the first movement, focusing extensively on articulation, accents and dynamics — always a crucial issue in Mozart.
In the second movement, attention shifted to balance and darker sonorities, especially given the presence of trumpets and timpani in the slow movement.
The fourth movement was the one that concerned me most, due to its speed and writing. In hindsight, I realized that some bowings I had accepted might have worked better if we had kept the original ones — a point I’ll return to another time. The final minutes before the break were devoted to the third movement.
The break was relaxed and pleasant, with a good atmosphere despite the fatigue.
Afterwards, we resumed from the third movement, particularly the opening, then returned to the fourth. At that point, I did not pay enough attention to a tendency to rush that was already emerging.
We didn’t manage to run through the entire symphony. We revisited some transitions in the second movement and worked on the exposition and repeat of the first. Then a short pause before the concert.
Meanwhile, rain started and the temperature dropped, yet part of the audience stayed for the entire rehearsal.
In the evening, despite the weather, the church was almost full, including the upper gallery. MSC concerts are usually slightly less crowded, but the atmosphere was attentive and engaged.
The concert went well overall.
Some initial uncertainty in the first movement reflected the fatigue. The second movement was particularly beautiful. The third worked well, with a few misalignments in the trio.
The fourth movement was the most critical: the tendency to rush fully emerged, causing several disconnections between sections. Nothing dramatic, but noticeable.
The audience enjoyed it greatly, and we repeated the fourth movement as an encore, without repeats and with more control — this time almost perfect.
In the end: shared music, a focused audience until the very end, and happy musicians.
A total of €562.52 was raised for the instrument maintenance fund of the Waldensian Church of Piazza Cavour.
Available materials (edited version coming soon)
– Open rehearsal – live stream
https://youtube.com/live/XOD9djEM-o0
– Concert – live stream
