The highlight of the five Amazing Haydn concerts came from the almost twenty-member Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester Mannheim and conductor Johannes Moesus, who is as it were a regular guest in Mechelen.
The famous crescendo with which the Sinfonie in F, opus 2, nr.2 by Franz Xaver Richter opened made it clear: the successor to the once world-renowned Mannheimer Hofkapelle, which even blew the young Mozart away, was visiting the Mechelen Sint-Janskerk. The music they brought surprised even the most loyal audience.
Tell me, who hears Franz Xaver Richter, Antonio Rosetti, Johann Stamitz or Franz Ignaz Beck every day? And precisely that music makes you happy and leaves you wanting more. In the midst of this surprising immersion, suddenly, as an "Aha-erlebnis": the well-known Flute Concerto KV.313 by Mozart. This was entrusted to the delicate hands of flautist Pirmin Grehl, professor at the music conservatories Luzern and Karlsruhe and holder of a Diapason d'Or, who conjured up a very playful cadenza. The interplay between the soloist, conductor Moesus, concertmaster Marie-Denise Heinen and the orchestra was excellent.
Even the closing piece of the cycle, a Haydn, as befits, shared in the unknown. The three-part Overture to the 'Festa teatrale' "Acide e Galathea" prompted spontaneous reaching for the programme booklet and led to grateful applause, flowers and the presentation of a piece of Mechelen in the form of a detailed pen drawing by Alfons Sempels.
