Criticism winter term 2005/06
In the summer term 2026 we will play
- the Violin Concerto in E minor for violin and orchestra by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
- arrangements with the band "Balkanologic" (https://balkanologic.com)
under the direction of Rida Murtada.
The concert will take place on Thursday, 25 June 2026 at 19:30 in the university auditorium.
Criticism winter term 2005/06
The secret of the airy orchestral sound
End-of-semester concert at the university - works by Haydn, Beethoven and Mendelssohn
BY HORST HOLLMANN
OLDENBURG - If you can play Haydn, you can play anything - but if you can play anything, you can't play Haydn! Simon Rattle, chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, outlined the problem of performing the revolutionary symphonist and the classics in general in such drastic terms. His words may shed light on the courage with which the University Orchestra tackled Josef Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven and Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in the final concert of the semester.
What is supposed to be easy demands evenness, precision and spirit, and even less trained listeners recognise or suspect failure. If the applause in the almost full auditorium was hearty, it was evidence of more delightful than frightening moments under Rida Murtada's scholastic (not: schoolmasterly) direction.
The German-Jordanian conductor kept the basic tempo of the broad first movement of Beethoven's Violin Concerto stringent and calm. He rarely softened the structures by stretching them, even in the "beautiful passages". Alongside the soloist Vasile Darnea, he had the cultivated strings on his side. The Romanian violinist, who lives in Bremen, used little vibrato to create the delicate silver tone that is considered modern. Despite his firm technique, the 30-year-old did not risk too much and did not embarrass any of his fellow players. Similarly, the orchestra achieved Mendelssohn's mysterious, airy sound early on in the Hebrides Overture.
Haydn's Symphony No. 99 in E flat major made the deepest impression. The technical security of this symphony allowed the orchestra to respond to its demonic traits. In the Adagio in particular, the musicians created the impression that the cheerfulness was only superficial but not genuine: the E flat major symphony as a work of looming farewell mourning. Murtada convincingly exorcised this music of all the pettiness that it only has when it is underestimated. And the University Orchestra did not make this mistake.