Valery Gergiev is a great inspirer, and live, the impact of his Kirov Company is even greater than in their strong roster of recordings. Their concert performance of Prokofiev's War and Peace at the Salzburg festival was even further distinguished by the fact that the performers were so fluent in their roles that they did it without scores.
It was a pity that substantial cuts had to be made to this epic score: the shortened council scene in act two meant that the emotional climax of Gennady Bezzubenkov's monologue as General Kutuzov was muted, while the touching role of Karataiev, Pierre's fellow-marcher from Moscow, was cut to almost nothing.
Even so, the great span of this work was vividly presented, and the massive sound of the Kirov Chorus was riveting, especially in the stirring martial music of the war scenes.
The casting of the two lovers, Andrei and Natasha, could not have been starrier, yet a commanding Dmitri Hvorostovsky and a youthfully passionate Anna Netrebko remained very much part of the team, as was the fruity mezzo of Larissa Shevchenko, formidable as Maria Akhrosimova.
Another fine Russian contribution to the festival was violinist Maxim Vengerov's programme of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms with Turkish pianist Favil Say. If they seemed hardly at home in Bach's B minor Sonata, their vigour was refreshing, while Brahms's second Violin Sonata was ecstatically songful, and Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata had thrust and power.
Memorable too were Vengerov's encores: not just a dashing Brahms Hungarian Dance and the Meditation from Massenet's Thaïs, but an extended bravura piece for solo violin illustrating the story of Ferdinand the Bull, with Vengerov himself enthusiastically providing the bedtime-story narration in English.
There was a similar relaxed feel at an earlier recital by Moldavian violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaya. Accompanied by the Romanian pianist Mihaela Ursuleasa, she followed up a passionate account of Wilhelm Furtwängler's Violin Sonata no 2 of with John Cage's dotty five-minute piece, Variations 1. After a sequence of false endings, Kopatchinskaya started eating an apple and went on to inflate a balloon, lying on the floor. All great fun, particularly after Furtwangler's effortful platitudes.
Finnish soprano Karita Mattila, in her lieder recital, sang with a power that rattled the ears in the limited space of the Mozarteum. Every note was firmly in place and warmly delivered, whether in Duparc, Dvorak, Rachmaninov or an overblown cycle written for her by compatriot Kaija Saariaho. It was more of a dramatic occasion rather than a conventional lieder recital.
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