WKO Heilbronn on Tour in Spain

  • In late January 2016 the WKO Heilbronn under the direction of Ruben Gazarian toured Spain. On three nights in Madrid, Burgos, and Zaragoza, works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Divertimento in F, K. 138; and Piano Concerto no. 12 in A, K. 414, with Alexander Schimpf as soloist), Hugo Wolf (Italian Serenade), and Antonín Dvořák (Serenade for Strings) were heard. The appearances aroused the audiences’ unanimous, enthusiastic acclaim—at the Great Hall of the Auditorio Nacional in the Spanish capital, at the Auditorio de Caja Circulo in Burgos, and at the Great Hall (Sala Mozart) of the Auditorio de Zaragoza.
  • The reviewer of Heraldo de Aragon judged: “The sound of the well-attuned strings is clean and nuanced, with much sense of acoustic balance in the tutti passages [of the Mozart] and also in those passages where the strings blend with the pianist. Already carried away into a romantic mood by the preceding piece, the musicians tackled the Czech’s composer’s [Dvořák’s] compilation of reminiscences of folk themes with elegant assurance. It is appealing and effective music that Gazarian conducted with much attention to the contrasts between the euphoric and nostalgic feelings that characterize this work. In the Larghetto the musicians displayed utmost subtlety in their bowing in order to express the depth of the pain, which is compensated in the subsequent final movement, Allegro vivace, by surging joy and the rhythmic play of the voices, transmitting the joy of life.”
  • Foto: Hans Georg Fischer und Martin Windhorst

    WKO Heilbronn and Ruben Gazarian in Auditorio de Zaragoza    Photo: Hans Georg Fischer and Martin Windhorst