…This work, Symphony No. 2, however, had it all. With it, Andrea Marcon and “his” baroque orchestra set the bar high – so high that it could hardly be topped in the following. In the opening movement, it was above all the handling of the tempo that impressed: a slow introduction and a fast main section formed a strong contrast, the transitions between the sections nevertheless seemed organised.
Marcon took the Allegro at a measured tempo, letting the musicians play out the rhythms precisely and setting crashing accents in between. A brutal drumbeat at the end of the first movement showed that the musicians still had energy reserves.
These were unleashed in the finale. The conductor left the measured time behind, played with the tempo, accelerated, slowed down, gave the strings only a little time for transitional bars – and gave the
for transitional bars – and gave himself freely to the hiccup figures and chains of eighth notes. The rhythms embodied sheer joy of playing, a striving forward for the sake of striving, a willingness to give oneself up – one could not expect more from an orchestra…
Simon Bordier, 15.9.2020 Basler Zeitung.