skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Showing posts with label
vienna philharmonic orchestra.
Show all posts
Showing posts with label
vienna philharmonic orchestra.
Show all posts
If you want to start a fascinating thread write about Leonard Bernstein's Mass. Here are some comments from my most recent Mass post:
Movie commented - It's not a dishonest piece and I think it still works today.
I commented - But what are examples of dishonest pieces of music?
Pentimento commented - I'd say much of Strauss's oeuvre is dishonest.
I couldn't live without Metamorphosen, Capriccio or the wind concertos, and one of my most memorable, and disturbing, evenings in the opera house was Hildegard Behrens singing the title role in Salome with Karajan and the Vienna Philharmonic at the 1977 Salzburg Festival. But, despite that, you may be right Pentimento. Which leaves me with only one possible back link - Herbert von Karajan Ein Heldenleben
Sorry I cannot credit the lovely portrait of Richard Strauss (I do hope you meant Richard and not Johann, Pentimento), but I do not know who it is by. It comes from Ferdinand Von Galitzien's blog. Help with attribution much appreciated. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
Good to see that youth is still a state of mind, not a time of life, in Vienna where the 83 year old Georges Prêtre (above) conducted the Vienna Philarmonic's annual New Year's Day concert. Prêtre has the huge range of musical experience that only age can bring, including giving the premieres of Francis Poulenc's opera La voix humaine at the Opéra-Comique in 1959 and his Sept répons des ténèbres in 1963.
More Poulenc here.
A Dance to the Music of Time is the title of a twelve novel sequence by Anthony Powell. Image credit RAI National Symphony Orchestra. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
'I would like to hear this concert for a whole host of reasons ... I hope to hear the VPO in better shape than one year ago at their Prague Spring Festival performance' ~ Jiri Belohlavek (left) previews the Vienna Philharmonic BBC Prom conducted by Daniel Barenboim on September 4 in today's Guardian.
But is the pot calling the kettle black?
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
My recent Bernstein story clearly struck some chords. So here, by popular demand, is another Lenny snapshot from John Drummond’s autobiography.
Bernstein made his first appearance at the Proms in 1987, with the Vienna Philharmonic. It was a very successful concert, with a memorable performance of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, and he was on his best behaviour, as he usually was with the Vienna Philharmonic, who, despite their legendary anti-Semitism, liked him very much. Backstage afterwards, he was full of praise for the audience, especially for the attention and stillness of the promenaders. He explained to me, as if to a slightly backward child, that nobody knew about the Proms. He would make it his ambition to tell the world. So we looked for further possibilities of collaboration.
The following year he was scheduled to conduct the youth orchestra specially formed for the newly established Schleswig-Holstein Festival, an initiative of the German 
pianist Justus Frantz, who had gone out of his way to befriend Bernstein. Negotiations were carried out through Bernstein’s manager, an inscrutable American called Harry Kraut, distinguished by one of those bizarre Abraham Lincoln beards that cover only the jawline. Kraut said – and Jacky Guter, who was with me, can confirm this – that Bernstein would do a concert in the Proms with the Schleswig-Holstein Orchestra either free, out of enthusiasm for them and for the Proms, or, at the very worst, for a special low fee. Kraut has always denied that this exchange took place.
The administration of the orchestra proved totally incompetent. Despite warnings from us, they failed to sort out work permits for the non-EEC players, and two days before the concert Frantz (photo below) was ringing up none other than the German Foreign Minister to sort out the mess. The van with the instruments and the orchestral parts arrived in London the day before the concert, but was unable to find the Albert 
Hall; most of the rehearsal on the day of the concert was lost because of its late arrival. In the first half of the programme, three young conductors from the summer course were to conduct short pieces. They got no rehearsal at all, because the second half - which was to be televised – consisted of Bernstein’s own song cycle Songspiel. The evening came, and by 7.25 there was no sign of Bernstein. He showed up at 7.28 and was obviously under the influence of some substance or other. He could not be persuaded to get ready to go on. Jacky said, ‘We’re live on the radio in two minutes.’ ‘Who gives a fvck about radio?’ said Bernstein. ‘Well, we do – and they are, after all, paying your fee,’ said Jacky – a reference to the fact that we had in the end been forced to pay something approaching Bernstein’s normal rate.
Grossly unfair to all the young conductors, Bernstein took all the limelight. And when afterwards a considerable number of people were invited back to the Savoy for supper, 
he kept the company waiting for over an hour and a half. I was tired and wanted to go home. Humphrey Burton and his wife begged me not to. When Bernstein finally arrived, and we were seated at several tables in a private room, I found myself with Bernstein at a table with a lot of women whom I did not know. Bernstein started telling a string of really disgusting stories, full of four-letter words and sexual references. After a while, I protested. Bernstein turned to me and said, ‘What’s the matter with you, you dreary old queen?’ The project to tell the world about the Proms came to an unhappy end.
But, read about Bernstein’s musical genius in Critical Mass.
John Drummond's Tainted by Experience is published by Faber, ISBN 0571200540. Header image credit Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
My recent article Anti-Semitism comes full circle generated a lot of interest. So here, with thanks to a regular reader, is a link to another thought provoking article about the Vienna Philharmonic -Tokenism and Firings . This is just one of several important articles on the website of William Osborne, a site that promotes inclusiveness of race, religion and gender in the classical music community. Need I say more?
And don't let's pretend the problem is confined to distant Vienna - read here about the UK and the US.
My photo, from William Osborne's website, shows a New York protest against the Vienna Philharmonic's equality policies outside Carnegie Hall in 1997. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
There was a real feeling of camaraderie and shared aspiration. Yet the (Vienna Philharmonic) orchestra was riddled with anti-Semitism, and Solti’s relations with it were frequently troubled. When he later received the Gold Medal of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde for the Ring and other opera recordings, practically no one from the professors of the orchestra committee turned up. They all had their excuses – teaching, travel or prior engagements.
On the morning of the presentation day, Solti was telephoned in his room at the Imperial Hotel and a woman’s voice said, ‘They are not coming because you are a dirty, Hungarian Jew.’ After receiving the award, as Solti walked along the corridor, the door of the office of Ernst Vobisch, the orchestra’s Chairman, was open, and all the missing committee members were sitting there having coffee. Vienna doesn’t change.
The much-missed John Drummond recalls Georg Solti and 1960s Vienna in his autobiography Tainted by Experience (Faber, ISBN 0571200540). For more on this terrible subject read about a rare performance of a holocaust opera.
Any copyrighted material on these pages is included for "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
The Overgrown Path leads to the symphonies of Leonard Bernstein. There have been very perceptive posts from Hucbald (check his excellent blog A monk's musical musings) and Fairhaven Friend (who contributed my guest blog A year at the symphony) on my recent Mass post. These prompted me to listen last night to Bernstein’s Kaddish Symphony (No 3) in his own performance with the New York Philharmonic and soprano Jennie Tourel.
It strikes me that Bernstein’s symphonies contain the same blazing creativity that crackles through Mass, without the excesses and indulgences that flaw it. Why aren’t these works better known? Or am I wrong? Are these simply chic symphonies?
Whatever we think of his Mass and symphonies, there is no doubt that Bernstein was a larger than life figure. When I was at EMI/Angel in the ‘70s he was one of our artists. He was contracted with us to record with the French National Orchestra. I clearly recall a Milhaud album with La création du monde and the wonderful jazz inspired Le boeuf sur la toit, and was there also a Berlioz Harold in Italy?
Lenny (right) came to London's Royal Festival Hall on tour with the Vienna Philharmonic. At the time he was having a mutual, and passionate , affair with the orchestra. He conducted a typically over-the-top Eroica which included all sorts of gymnastics on the podium. Immediately after the applause died down my wife and I ducked round backstage to congratulate him on cloning Martha Graham with Beethoven. In the Green Room the maestro was stark naked apart from a skimpy shot-silk bath robe. As we both went to congratulate him he started to play with the chord fastening the robe. I’m still trying to work out who that performance was for.
* My photo actually shows Bernstein with sister Shirley in the Green Room at Carnegie Hall after a performance with the Israel Philarmonic, March 1951. The image credit is an interesting article Leonard Bernstein Talks About the Theremin, the Ondes Martenot and the Tape Recorder, which also allows me to add another Overgrown Path my own theremin article Neil Armstrong finally reveals his moon music. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk If you enjoyed this post take the overgrown path to My first classical record * This article was originally published on August 2, 2005, and is reblogged here as part of On An Overgrown Path's second anniversary celebrations of Music beyond borders. Follow this link to read the comments posted to the original article.
Following the Cleveland Orchestra's problem plagued visit to the Proms, another über-orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic, came for two concerts in the final week. On Wednesday Zubin Mehta (left) conducted them in Haydn, Berg and Stravinsky's Rite. On Thursday, after a quick baton change, Christoph Eschenbach led them in a leaden Bruckner 8. (On the basis of this performance, and Franz-Welser Most's similarly funereal Mahler 3 the previous week, the new generation of jet-setting maestros are avid readers of that book of the moment - In Praise of Slow). The two lacklustre Vienna Philharmonic concerts drew lukewarm reviews (and here, and here as well), which is not really surprising.
The orchestra played in no less than twenty-three concerts and operas during their August Salzburg Festival residency, with their last concert on the 28th of that month. On the Saturday before the Proms concerts (4th September) the same forces that played in London gave the Haydn, Berg and Stravinsky programme in the beautiful Großer Saal of the Musikverein in their native Vienna. They then travelled 1000 miles to the gorgeous new Sage Gateshead Hall in the north of England where they played the programme again on the Monday evening at the start of a three day back-to-back UK tour organised by their agents Askonas Holt (Mehta is one of their artists) .
On the Tuesday morning after the Gateshead concert the orchestra travelled more than 250 miles south to London for their Proms. They did a hall check in the afternoon, and played their first programme with Mehta in the evening. For the following day's concert they were joined by Eschenbach who had not conducted them in the previous month. (Star conductors in Salzburg had been Muti, Harnoncourt, Gergiev and Gatti).
Following the halting Bruckner 8 in London on Thursday, the orchestra travelled 500 miles on Friday to Lucerne in Switzerland, where they were joined by, yes - you've guessed it, Mehta and soprano Katarina Dalayman for exactly the same Haydn, Berg and Stravinsky programme on Saturday. (At least, in my day, touring orchestras varied their programmes, it prevented lacklustre performances) . The next day (Sunday) in Lucerne Eschenbach rejoins them to reprise Brucker 8. On Monday and Tuesday Daniel Gatti is back as conductor for two different Mahler programmes. Then after returning to Vienna, and a three day break, the orchestra return to the platform in their own hall, the Musikverien under Muti.
Memo to Askonas Holt and the Vienna Philharmonic management. If you are going to inflict that sort of schedule on your musicians at least equip them with some more appropriate encores. Johann Strass Jr. offers a wealth of possibilities. There is the fast polka Pleasure Train, plus the waltzes Morning Papers and Artist's Life.
And, of course, there is his Opus 257 - Perpetuum Mobile.
Visiting orchestras and the BBC will be delighted to hear this is my last 2005 Proms season story. For my views on the Last Night open this link. And if you enjoyed this post take an overgrown path to No such thing as an unknown Venezuelan conductor. 
The Overgrown Path leads to the symphonies of Leonard Bernstein. There have been very perceptive posts from Hucbald (check his excellent blog A monk's musical musings) and Fairhaven Friend (who contributed my guest blog A year at the symphony) on my recent Mass post. These prompted me to listen last night to Bernstein’s Kaddish Symphony (No 3) in his own performance with the New York Philharmonic and soprano Jennie Tourel.
It strikes me that Bernstein’s symphonies contain the same blazing creativity that crackles through Mass, without the excesses and indulgences that flaw it. Why aren’t these works better known? Or am I wrong? Are these simply chic symphonies?
Whatever we think of his Mass and symphonies, there is no doubt that Bernstein was a larger than life figure. When I was at EMI/Angel in the ‘70s he was one of our artists. He was contracted with us to record with the French National Orchestra. I clearly recall a Milhaud album with La création du monde and the wonderful jazz inspired Le boeuf sur la toit, and was there also a Berlioz Harold in Italy?
Lenny (right) came to London's Royal Festival Hall on tour with the Vienna Philharmonic. At the time he was having a mutual, and passionate , affair with the orchestra. He conducted a typically over-the-top Eroica which included all sorts of gymnastics on the podium. Immediately after the applause died down my wife and I ducked round backstage to congratulate him on cloning Martha Graham with Beethoven. In the Green Room the maestro was stark naked apart from a skimpy shot-silk bath robe. As we both went to congratulate him he started to play with the chord fastening the robe. I’m still trying to work out who that performance was for.
* My photo actually shows Bernstein with sister Shirley in the Green Room at Carnegie Hall after a performance with the Israel Philarmonic, March 1951. The image credit is an interesting article Leonard Bernstein Talks About the Theremin, the Ondes Martenot and the Tape Recorder, which also allows me to add another Overgrown Path my own theremin article Neil Armstrong finally reveals his moon music. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk If you enjoyed this post take the overgrown path to My first classical record
