VPO New Year's Day Concert 2015

[Barbirollians]

Good concert, dire presenting as usual by PT and laughable camp ballet .

[Prommer]

Most of them conduct without a score, I think... But they do have three performances of this programme to conduct so by showtime (ie New Year's Day) it should have 'stuck', and no, it is NOT just a case of remembering what time to beat.

Have a look at this, it is just glorious and addresses this point rather well... And this is Carlos of course...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dunn_2wAs0o

[kernelbogey]

[...]it's pretty amateur not to time the prattle properly...

I have some sympathy here. It may be that there is a time slot for announcements agreed between the Austrian producer and the conductor. But who knows what the maestro will do on the day? And the Beeb is working through the Austrians. I had a sense that PT had a series of sentences ready to fill in, each of them able to stand on their own. Part of the problem is producers' insane hatred of silence.

[Petrushka]

They all do, don't they? Karajan certainly did - resulting in his forgetting the traditional Blue Danube and starting to conduct the Radetsky March.

Yes, Karajan did forget the running order but the item he forgot was the first encore, Ohne Sorgen by Josef Strauss and he began The Blue Danube. It was a pity that this was edited out of the subsequent video release for the look of hilarity on the faces of the VPO members is wonderful to behold.

Incidentally, if you go to the Vienna Philharmonic Museum in the Haus der Musik in Vienna http://www.hausdermusik.at/en/sound-...t-floor/33.htm there is an exhibit where you can 'conduct' the Annen Polka. I don't know how it does it but the music reacts to your beat and, believe me it is very difficult and the results are hilarious.

I went in 2008 and it's well worth a visit.

[LeMartinPecheur]

The orchestra member's comment ("we don't want to change the character of the orchestra too much") is a perfectly valid one on its own terms though it just doesn't fit into today's world, unfortunately. In these days when all orchestras sound the same, the VPO still manages to sound like no other. It manages this by handing down the tradition, often from father to son, and where members stay for very long periods. A constant turn around of women members getting pregnant and leaving the orchestra has the potential to dilute that special sound that the VPO has.

Some people get hot under the collar about this issue though I can see both sides of the argument. However, I most definitely want the VPO to retain that unique sound quality however it goes about it.

Mightn't the unique sound have more to do with 'outmoded' C19 instruments being handed down from father to, er, progeny?

[Pabmusic]

What issue of The Oldie is that, Alison? I must seek it out. As it was (vide Wiki) written to comemorate the battle of Custoza in 1848, when (along with the battle of Novara shortly afterwards) Radetsky crushed the Italian independence movement for another 10 years, and given that it was first played to a clapping and stamping audience of Austrian officers, difficult to avoid the merest hint of military overtones - how does RO wriggle out of that one?

It was written for a banquet held on 22 September 1849 in the Redoutensaal of the Hofburg Palace. The banquet was put on by the Vienna city council to honour Field Marshal Radetsky, who had been in overall charge of putting down the 1848 rebellion. I suppose it's possible he was actually being honoured for charitable work with the poor, but the timing was unfortunate.

But the "Radetsky-Bankett-Marsch" wasn't actually played because the Hofball-Musikdirektor failed to appear to conduct the orchestra. He was lying ill from scarlet fever in his apartment in the Kumpfgasse, where he lived with his mistress, Emilie Trampusch, and their several children. Eventually word got to Anna Strauss - his wife - who sent Josef and Eduard to investigate, but they were refused permission to see their father. Then on 25th September a messenger arrived at Anna Strauss's house to say that her husband had died suddenly during the night.

Josef went straight away and found the apartment door open, the apartment in a state of complete disarray, Emilie Trampusch and children gone and his father lying dead on a bed.

[Most of this taken, badly translated and heavily paraphrased, from Josef Strauss - Genie wider Willen, by Franz Mailer]

So Johann Strauss never performed the march; it was his eldest son who introduced it.

[DublinJimbo]

Have a look at this, it is just glorious and addresses this point rather well... And this is Carlos of course...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dunn_2wAs0o

Superb.

[greenilex]

Might it not be possible to find women players older than the ones we saw? People who might be more experienced, have completed their families, and (shock horror) stand up to the rows and rows of stuffy old buffers full of Weinachtskugeln or whatever?

[Richard Tarleton]

But the "Radetsky-Bankett-Marsch" wasn't actually played

Thanks Pabs - Wiki has enough problems without people like me misreading it! I read it as saying it was first played to an audience of stamping clapping Austrian officers, whereas what it in fact says is "When it was first played in front of Austrian officers" which is a different thing entirely

[Ferretfancy]

Poor old Brian Kay.

Poor old oleaginous Brian Kay

[verismissimo]

I thought Mehta was a bit uninteresting, so I put Carlos Kleiber on the gramophone. So much more vital, more nuanced.

[Demetrius]

Might it not be possible to find women players older than the ones we saw? People who might be more experienced, have completed their families, and (shock horror) stand up to the rows and rows of stuffy old buffers full of Weinachtskugeln or whatever?

Well, that's the thing - if the modus opperandi is slowly introducing the children etc. from the older players, then naturally there are only a few young players in the mix, and of those, only half would likely be women. The keyword is slow - if you don't cast new faces from the outside of the big philharmonic family, or introduce some affirmative action scheme, the inclusion of women will be slow, and those included will be young, even if the orchestra has stopped discriminating against women and picks their additions without regard to gender (whether it has completely or not - who knows?).

[slarty]

Well, that's the thing - if the modus opperandi is slowly introducing the children etc. from the older players, then naturally there are only a few young players in the mix, and of those, only half would likely be women. The keyword is slow - if you don't cast new faces from the outside of the big philharmonic family, or introduce some affirmative action scheme, the inclusion of women will be slow, and those included will be young, even if the orchestra has stopped discriminating against women and picks their additions without regard to gender (whether it has completely or not - who knows?).

One can only be elected/invited to the ranks of the VPO from the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera. It is not an automatic elevation once a member of the VSO.
First the trial year, must be successful after which as a full member of the Opera Orchestra, paid by the city, virtually as a civil servant, one has to wait for the invitation.
Not all members of the Opera orchestra are in the VPO. One can be invited to try out at a concert or two(or a tour) or one can be elected as a full member.
The opera orchestra has almost 170 players - the VPO has approx 100 active members.

[kernelbogey]

[...]When I tried, as someone suggested here last year, to access ORF I couldn't get the sound but there was a message saying it was for copyright reasons only available on the radio.[...]

Did anyone listen to the ORF output via internet or any other method (e.g. Sachertortewelle)?

[makropulos]

Did anyone listen to the ORF output via internet or any other method (e.g. Sachertortewelle)?

Yes, I heard the ORF audio (not video). I'm afraid it couldn't do anything to enliven Mehta's awfully dull conducting.