Robert Schumann and Richard Wagner had many things in common and many convergent points between them. But also many divergent ones. Uniting them with the Rhine river as a common link is a good idea, because the fluvial knife that cuts a good part of Germany was the primary motive for Schumann’s third (chronologically fourth and last) symphony, while Wagner begins the cycle The Ring of the Nibelung with a prologue (Das Rheingold), the first scene of which takes place precisely at the bottom of the aforementioned river. In the case of the concert at the Palau de la Música, however, it was the final scene of the first day (Die Walküre) that occupied the second part.However, and unfortunately, what could have been a splendid end-of-season party for Palau 100 was left unfinished. We expected a lot from an orchestra that has set the bar very high in other concerts and recordings, with or without the baton of the one who on Wednesday occupied the podium in the modernist auditorium: an Iván Fischer somewhat disheveled, without many ideas and who led a Renana with an uncertain start and a finish without pain or glory. And the peculiar arrangement of the strings (first violins and cellos on the left, violas and second violins on the right, and double basses at the back) did not have the imaginative flair that many of us expected in service of Schumann’s magnificent symphony.And the second part disappointed due to the woody voice of Hanno Müller-Brachmann, a singer with more than sufficient volume and projection but with changing colors, scarce expressiveness, and zero authority in the role of Wotan, who demands more roundness and vocal presence. Fortunately, soprano Ingela Brimberg’s Brünnhilde had the sufficient metal that the Valkyrie demands, in a finale of the act that is a cocktail of feelings between father and daughter before she ends up asleep on a rock surrounded by fire.Nor did the orchestra here seem particularly involved in terms of narrativity and theatricality, despite the good level of the different sections (especially the velvety strings and the punchy brass), but without Fischer’s direction adding much to it.By the way, it would be appreciated if a scene like this, long and dense, had the corresponding subtitles, so that Wagner’s text would be understandable to everyone. Also for the Wagnerians who, in Barcelona, are legion.
