Vienna Philharmonic New Year's Concert 2019

[LHC]

Perhaps a couple had initially been hiding behind the drums.

Rather oddly, there were more women in the second half than the first (for example, the flautist Karin Bonelli featured in the second half only), so it may have depended when the count was taken!

[Alison]

What struck me most when listening to the music, which isn't a repertoire I listen to very often, was nothing to do with who was conducting and how wooden or animated his conducting was, but the great imagination of the music in terms either or both of melodic inventiveness and orchestration. Obviously the Strausses had a pretty classy ensemble available for their performances and an endless store of more or less extreme variations on the pool of Viennese turns of musical phrase. I thought the introduction to Sphärenklange, for example, was the equal of anything else being written around that time, harmonically not so far removed from the Munich Strauss in fact. I'm sure there are plenty of hidden gems that hardly get an outing even in this concert series.

Good to see a respected heavyweight writing this!

I so agree; the craftsmanship is breathtaking at times.

This music stirs my little heart and I love the range of feeling achieved within such short works.

It amazes me each year we hear so many NYDC ‘firsts’.

[hmvman]

The stand-out piece for me this year was the charming Hellmesberger Entr'acte Valse, a delicious confection that reminded me of some of the British light music pieces as written by composers such as Charles Williams. I also enjoyed the other work by Hellmesberger Elfenreigen. Both of those works benefitted from the VPO's precision and lovely string playing.

[Petrushka]

What struck me most when listening to the music, which isn't a repertoire I listen to very often, was nothing to do with who was conducting and how wooden or animated his conducting was, but the great imagination of the music in terms either or both of melodic inventiveness and orchestration. Obviously the Strausses had a pretty classy ensemble available for their performances and an endless store of more or less extreme variations on the pool of Viennese turns of musical phrase. I thought the introduction to Sphärenklange, for example, was the equal of anything else being written around that time, harmonically not so far removed from the Munich Strauss in fact. I'm sure there are plenty of hidden gems that hardly get an outing even in this concert series.

You have, whether unwittingly or not, put your finger on precisely why we Strauss connoisseurs love this music so much and why Brahms and Wagner, who knew a thing two about music, counted themselves as admirers. Johann said that his brother, Josef, was the more talented while he, Johann, was the more popular and the real Strauss connoisseur knows this to be true. In his short life, (1827-1870), Josef created some masterpieces, Transactionen, Delerien, Dynamiden, Aquarellen and Dorfschwalben aus Osterreich as well as Sphärenklänge among the waltzes, that are simply works of genius, beautifully crafted with a rich vein of wistful melancholy and an endless stream of melody.

Not even Johann's full output has been heard at these concerts, never mind Josef's, and, yes, there are less inspired pieces there as you would expect but at their very best, the works of the Strauss family are certainly the equal, a bold word perhaps but true, of anything written at that time.

[Alison]

You have, whether unwittingly or not, put your finger on precisely why we Strauss connoisseurs love this music so much and why Brahms and Wagner, who knew a thing two about music, counted themselves as admirers. Johann said that his brother, Josef, was the more talented while he, Johann, was the more popular and the real Strauss connoisseur knows this to be true. In his short life, (1827-1870), Josef created some masterpieces, Transactionen, Delerien, Dynamiden, Aquarellen and Dorfschwalben aus Osterreich as well as Sphärenklänge among the waltzes, that are simply works of genius, beautifully crafted with a rich vein of wistful melancholy and an endless stream of melody.

Not even Johann's full output has been heard at these concerts, never mind Josef's, and, yes, there are less inspired pieces there as you would expect but at their very best, the works of the Strauss family are certainly the equal, a bold word perhaps but true, of anything written at that time.

[Sir Velo]

Good to see a respected heavyweight writing this!

I expect he's slightly over indulged this christmas but surely there's no need to be personal!

[Prommer]

Good! Because that was the furthest thing from my mind.

Well, indeed, but you unwittingly commit a sin in the other direction - suggesting that despite the relative absence of women, the VPO still managed to play well.

I'm not sure the gender composition of the band is actually relatable to the quality of the playing, in any meaningful sense that could be expressed. It may well be socially desirable: a different thing.

[DracoM]

Great playing but some pretty leaden conducting - rather flat champagne to my ears so far.

Absolutely spot on.
Thielmann makes sort of airy gestures but the band are totally in charge and quite obviously at some points even when he IS conducting, they watched the leader, and relied on their years of collective know-how. Pretty impressive that know-how is.........

I thought Thielmann was feeble and hugely overrated.

[Alison]

Having listened twice, I thought the performances were pretty good, certainly a notch or two above Muti and Mehta in their most recent concerts.

Have been unable to actually watch the concert and I do wonder if CT’s rather off putting manner has influenced opinions.

Really not sure how we can tell apart the conductors influence and the orchestra’s know how.

It sounds as if DracoM might have been impressed but for the visuals.

[bluestateprommer]

Didn't watch but on the radio version Petroc mentioned there were 11.

Petroc later qualified his earlier remark to say that there might be 13 total. His second number was correct, per my own count:
* Albena Danailova in the associate concertmaster's chair
* 4 first violins
* 2 second violins (the 2nd of these way at the back, hidden from view of the other lady 2nd violinist)
* 1 viola
* 1 cello
* 1 bassoon
* 1 flute
* 1 presumed piccolo (but she didn't seem to get much to do in the part that I saw, of which more anon)
* Anneleen Lenarts in the harpist's chair

To be fair to Petroc, and which he acknowledged himself, he may not have had the most optimal view to do the count. It took careful checking on my own part to discern the back desk 2nd violinist, for one.

Also, to recap on what we get here: compared to you guys, we benighted Yanks only get the second half of the concert, and a truncated version of the 2nd half at that, with the Eduard Strauss selection cut. (Given that Eduard appallingly burned so many Strauss family manuscripts towards the end of his life, following the deaths of his brothers, perhaps that snip is modest poetic justice.) I can see where some folks might have been mildly disappointed with Thielemann, in that his interpretations seemed a tad dramatically inert at time in several of the waltzes. The more charitable description might be "relaxed" or "easy-going" at those moments. Maybe that's Thielemann's way of trying to be "charming", given his image as a specialist in the heavyweight core German repertoire (not to mention his reputed ego and arrogance as about the size of Texas, where he seems to consider himself the living reincarnation of both Furtwangler and Karajan, so I've heard). However, to give him credit, his conducting was fairly modest in manner, which is a very good thing. As Prommer summed it up very well in # 6: CT "is rather wooden, but the preparation, rehearsal, and understanding of tradition will be there." Sums it up very nicely. Plus, any VPO New Year's concert that includes my very favorite Strauss family work of all, op. 335 (whose alternative name, the "Circassian March", I didn't know about until Petroc mentioned it) is fine with me :) .

You have, whether unwittingly or not, put your finger on precisely why we Strauss connoisseurs love this music so much and why Brahms and Wagner, who knew a thing two about music, counted themselves as admirers. Johann said that his brother, Josef, was the more talented while he, Johann, was the more popular and the real Strauss connoisseur knows this to be true.

There's a bit of a qualification, IMHO, required here, since I know that Petrushka has been beating this drum for years. I heartily concede that Josef was the more multi-talented Renaissance man among the 3 Strauss brothers, given that Josef showed talents as an engineer, architect, and draftsman, among other areas. That is certainly indisputable, and no doubt part of Johann II's praise of his brother as being "the more talented of us". But in terms of the music, which is part of your subliminal meaning, I have to draw the line. Johann II had the wider range of the two, and the widest range of the 3 (4 if you include his father). There is a reason that Johann II's works dominate concert offerings which include the Strauss family, and it is not simply because of the tragic happenstance that Josef sadly only made it to his early 40's. By contrast, Johann II lived into his 70's. Johann II's works in more "public" manner, for the stage beyond the individual dance works for various charity events and such, gave Johann II ample opportunity to flex his compositional muscles that fed back into his dance pieces. Even factoring in proportions for lifespan, Johann II had a consistently higher magnitude and level of achievement. To use an Isaiah Berlin-ish analogy, perhaps Josef was the fox, while Johann II was the hedgehog.

I do agree with you, however, on one other point that you've mentioned on other occasions, namely that Manfred Honeck would be an excellent choice down the line for the New Year's Concert. What's unfortunately working against MH is history, or his lack thereof as a guest conductor with the orchestra (as opposed to his past tenure as an orchestra player there). According to the VPO's archive, MH has only led the VPO on 3 occasions: once in 1994, and twice in 2006, all in Salzburg. MH has not yet, for whatever reason, guest-conducted the VPO at the Musikverein as part of their subscription series. So even with his family history (or maybe because of it?) and connections to the orchestra, the VPO have somehow not seen fit to give him more guest dates with them on home turf. In other words, unless that changes any time soon, it's next-to-impossible that MH will make his 4th, 5th, and 6th appearances with them at the New Year's Concert. I'd have to trawl the archives and the current guest roster to make even half-educated guesses as to whom the VPO are considering for 2021 and beyond, for the New Year's Concert.

Honeck, however, will be guest-conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra this coming December 12-14, where the second half is supposed to include works by Johann II and Josef. If this is anything like the New York Philharmonic concert that I saw before this past Thanksgiving, where MH did the Strauss family 2nd half there, then Chicago audiences and the orchestra themselves are in for a treat. Getting way off-track now, I wonder if the CSO might now be shifting their sights on Honeck as a possible successor to Muti. The CSO seemed to have plans for Jaap van Zweden, based on the latter's number of guest gigs with the CSO in the past few years, but "the First City" beat "the Second City" to the punch in hiring JvW as music director. Assuming we all get that far, we'll see.

[Barbirollians]

Having listened twice, I thought the performances were pretty good, certainly a notch or two above Muti and Mehta in their most recent concerts.

Have been unable to actually watch the concert and I do wonder if CT’s rather off putting manner has influenced opinions.

Really not sure how we can tell apart the conductors influence and the orchestra’s know how.

It sounds as if DracoM might have been impressed but for the visuals.

I don’t know about that but Carlos Kleiber certainly seems in charge in the video of his two appearances. Two utterly unmissable CDs- only the 1987 Karajan is in a similar league to my ears.

[Once Was 4]

Rather oddly, there were more women in the second half than the first (for example, the flautist Karin Bonelli featured in the second half only), so it may have depended when the count was taken!

I am sorry, I have not followed all of this thread so somebody else may have contributed this: Karin Bonelli was Principal Flute of the Vienna SYMPHONY Orchestra and was on a trial period at the Vienna Philharmonic. By all accounts she did not get the job but has not gone back to the VSO.

[Petrushka]

I am sorry, I have not followed all of this thread so somebody else may have contributed this: Karin Bonelli was Principal Flute of the Vienna SYMPHONY Orchestra and was on a trial period at the Vienna Philharmonic. By all accounts she did not get the job but has not gone back to the VSO.

Still in the list of musicians according to the VPO website: https://www.wienerphilharmoniker.at/.../personid/1060

[LHC]

I am sorry, I have not followed all of this thread so somebody else may have contributed this: Karin Bonelli was Principal Flute of the Vienna SYMPHONY Orchestra and was on a trial period at the Vienna Philharmonic. By all accounts she did not get the job but has not gone back to the VSO.

Sylvia Careddu is the flautist from the VSO who has not passed the trial period. Karin Bonelli is still there.

[Once Was 4]

Sorry - my mistake.