The Fascination of the String Orchestra

On Saturday, 20th April, after a long time, I once again attended a concert by the Haydngesellschaft Hainburg at the Kulturfabrik. To be honest, it was less the programme that attracted me, and more the performing artists, who presented works by Mozart, Joseph Haydn, and Antonin Dvorák under the motto “Slavic Fantasy”.

For me, a dilemma as a critic begins right here: should I now list that Mozart’s “Divertimento for Strings in D major”, Haydn’s Violin Concerto in G major, and Dvorák’s Serenade for String Orchestra in E major were performed? This probably means something to one or two classical music insiders, but they would have been happy with other works by the three composers too. Therefore, I will focus on the performing artists.

And with that, I finally come to the orchestra “Academia Allegro Vivo” and its conductor and violinist Vahid Khadem-Missagh. And they are all truly excellent. It is not for nothing that the ensemble is internationally recognised as a musical institution in Austria. And Vahid Khadem-Missagh, who has led the “Allegro Vivo Chamber Music Festival” founded by his father Bijan Khadem-Missagh since 2016, is in demand worldwide as a violinist.

The musicians whirled classical dance moods into the hall with Mozart’s Divertimento (“Entertainment”), Khadem-Missagh pulled out all the stops of virtuosity with Haydn, presenting the violin almost as the 18th-century electric guitar, and finally, the audience was transported into a flatteringly melancholic atmosphere with Dvorák. An encore: a witty arrangement of one of Dvorák’s Slavic Fantasies by the exceptional Austrian violinist Fritz Kreisler.

Location
The ballroom in the former tobacco factory has long proven itself as a sophisticated concert hall. If you have one of the unavoidable support pillars in your line of sight, you just have to tilt your head left and right to see all the musicians. On the other hand, during the interval (especially in good weather), you have a captivating view of the Danube from the terrace.

Organiser
For 43 years now – originally still close to the “Iron Curtain” – the Haydngesellschaft Hainburg has been bringing top-class musicians “to the countryside” in the eastern tip of Austria. And this at admission prices that are sometimes considerably higher for the same concert a few days before or after in Vienna. – A cultural treat that would not be possible without chairwoman Beate Linke-Fischer.