Vienna Philharmonic New Year's Concert 2020

[Bryn]

Well, put it this way, I've never encountered or even heard about press-gangs going around Vienna shouting at people "ve hef veys of making you attend das Neujahrskonzert!" but perhaps I missed out there...

I would expect the conductor to be obliged to attend, once the contract is signed, probably the orchestra's players, too. Then there's the house staff, etc.

[ahinton]

I would expect the conductor to be obliged to attend, once the contract is signed, probably the orchestra's players, too. Then there's the house staff, etc.

Yes, but for those involved to be obliged to attend in accordance with contractual terms is rather different from suggesting the same of everyone!

That said, in terms of the conductor and the orchestral players, you remind me of one of the final (if not the final) LNOTP speeches by Malcolm Srgent in which he said that he'd like to thank the BBC Symphony Orchestra without whom his conducting would look rather silly.

[ahinton]

Anyway, it was not only the Second Viennese School who made arrangement for straitened times:

Indeed - and Schulz-Evler and others, most notably Godowsky, long before them...

[Bryn]

Anyway, it was not only the Second Viennese School who made arrangement for straitened times:

[Richard Barrett]

Never understood why bourgeois is thought to be a bit of an insult.

It isn't an insult, it's a term referring to the class that, subsequent to industrialisation and the breakdown of the feudal system, owns the means of production in capitalist society and therefore constitutes the ruling class, ie. the sort of people who can afford to pay for the best tickets in the New Year concert at the Musikverein. They do tend in my experience to be rather conservative in their musical tastes.

If someone gave me a ticket I would go along for sure.

[makropulos]

Which player was this?

Presumably the trumpeter, Wobisch, who was also Vorstand of the orchestra.

[Zucchini]

If someone gave me a ticket I would go along for sure.

I would also go but pass the time on the Ferris Wheel

[Bryn]

Presumably the trumpeter, Wobisch, who was also Vorstand of the orchestra.

https://www.thejc.com/comment/comment/beautiful-music-does-not-drown-out-shameful-history-of-the-past-1.42994

[hmvman]

I wish more of it featured in regular concert programmes including the Proms.

If memory serves, there was a time when it did feature at the Proms.

[cloughie]

If memory serves, there was a time when it did feature at the Proms.

I’m trying to unravel these exchanges - the Halle and JB used to devote the second half of a prom to things Viennese - I seem to remember Loughran also did one in the 70s but not much since - maybe Dr Who, Michael Ball and messed about Nina Simone’s repertoire became more attractive - not to me but some seem to like it!

[Alison]

The last such Prom I can recall is LPO/Welser-Möst.

So we must be talking mid-nineties.

[Once Was 4]

Presumably the trumpeter, Wobisch, who was also Vorstand of the orchestra.

That is correct - a very fine player too. Strangely enough, one of the BPO players actually sacked for being an active Nazi during WW2 was also the Principal trumpet (Adolf Sherbaum) who also made a fine recording of the Haydn concerto and was a very highly regarded trumpet soloist in the 50s and 60s.

[cloughie]

The last such Prom I can recall is LPO/Welser-Möst.

So we must be talking mid-nineties.

Thanks Alison (and good to see Leicester recover in style from the Boxing Day battering!)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

All contributions gratefully received!

Please, please count me in. I want to go too.

This year I had to be content with the Northern Sinfonia's New Year Concert at the Sage. (And very good it was too.)

[Petrushka]

That is correct - a very fine player too. Strangely enough, one of the BPO players actually sacked for being an active Nazi during WW2 was also the Principal trumpet (Adolf Sherbaum) who also made a fine recording of the Haydn concerto and was a very highly regarded trumpet soloist in the 50s and 60s.

According to Misha Aster in 'The Reichs Orchestra' (p 224), Scherbaum was indeed a Party member but it's unclear why he, and others, did not return to the BPO after 1945, though Aster reports him being in 'poor technical form'. His Nazi past does not seem to have bothered Otto Klemperer (of all people) who handpicked him for the trumpet part in his 1960 recording of the Bach Brandenburg Concerto No 2 with the Philharmonia. Had there been any serious doubt about Scherbaum's past I can't imagine Klemperer either being unaware of it or hiring him in the first place.