From the bank safe to the podium
Daniel Dodds has recorded Mozart's Haffner Serenade with the Festival Strings Lucerne and presented a Stradivarius at the same time.
It is called the "Sellière", was built by Antonio Stradivari in 1680 and was played by the legendary Wolfgang Schneiderhan, co-founder of the Festival Strings Lucerne, from 1934 until the end of the 1970s. The fine instrument then disappeared into the owners' bank safe until 2019. Since then, it has been on permanent loan to the Festival Strings and Daniel Dodds.
Dodds is now using this "gift from heaven" for a recording, recorded at the KKL Lucerne. Remarkably, the makers of the program did not opt for violin concertos, but chose Mozart's Haffner Serenadewhich is described in the CD booklet with a great deal of understatement as "almost forgotten". Just think of concerts with Ton Koopman or Thomas Zehetmair, to name but two.
Be that as it may, it is a wise choice, as this serenade not only showcases the violin in numerous solos, but also gives the Festival Strings ample opportunity to demonstrate their art. The result is more than worth listening to, even if the tempi sometimes take some getting used to.
The playing is almost always vibrato-less, gripping and fast. One cannot shake off the suspicion that the interpretations of the above-mentioned conductors served as a model to set themselves apart. Of course, Dodds can shine with virtuoso solos in his "Sellière", for example in the Rondo. However, the rather slow, melting movements are unfortunately somewhat "rushed"; a minuet is, after all, a shouting dance. However, Mozart's Serenade is also the Festival Strings' best entertainment music, which is a pleasure to listen to.
The world premiere recording of a work by Vincenzo Righini (1756-1812) at the end is somewhat ambivalent. The almost six-minute ballet music from Gerusalemme liberata is composed for bassoon, horn, violoncello and solo violin, resulting in idiosyncratic instrumental colors. In itself an exciting new discovery, but after the Haffner Serenade lost something.
Mozart: Haffner Serenade. Festival Strings Lucerne, Daniel Dodds, violin & direction, Sony Classical 0196587250621
