Salzburg Festival: Currentzis tries to…

At the start of the Salzburg Festival, the politically and musically controversial conductor seeks to combine the iron-clad biblical word of the Protestant tradition with the drama of the Catholic Jesuits. Including lighting direction and a long-distance choir.

“Et exspecto” is the motto of the spiritual opening of the Salzburg Festival: And I expect. This is what the Christian Creed says. However, it may happen that the waiting and anticipation of the traveling auditor in Salzburg does not begin at 6 p.m. with Bach's “St. Matthew's Passion at Home”, but in the morning in Bregenz – when the trains arrive there. They stand still. “What can I know?”, you ask yourself with Immanuel Kant, not so much when the station announcements only announce the expected delay by the minute as a delay tactic. “What should I do?”, do you get nervous, take a taxi to other train stations, book an expensive car ride to your destination? Do you know the signs of the times when the Federal President abandons the waiting on the platform and takes to the streets? They are not that important to us. At some point, the train is officially cancelled. “What can I hope for?”, at least not on the alternative railway service. Or the regional train, the first one out of Bregenz, made it possible to change to the Railjet at Feldkirch: maybe a five-minute wait is too much. So another hour of waiting; a total of four hours after the scheduled time in Salzburg – and that also means: just barely into the second part of the St. Matthew Passion conducted by Theodor Currentzis.

This performance must have been both hot and sensitive, as confirmed by reliable sources.