Salzburg Festival

[salymap]

I am sorry that there was no film of the famous Frau Strauss, who was reputedly a scary lady, according to Sir Henry Wood and others. His account [somewhere] of a shopping trip in london with the Strausses is hilarious. I think Beecham too had some stories of her outspokenness.

[DracoM]

Part 2 tonight on BBC4

It was excellent - the portrait of Karajan was unflinching, complex, just aabout even-handed, and the treatment of the politics behind the festival carefully and admirably handled. Touch less music and more chat, but fascinating, honest, and smouldering. all the 'big names' were on, speaking very bluntly. VERY fine Arts TV.

Really worth LA-ing.

[Bert Coules]

That was an interesting glimpse of Solti at the end: a curious Magic Flute performance which seemed to have Papageno in costume in the pit and something else entirely going on on the stage above. Was it from a gala of some sort, I wonder? Overall I thought this second installment slightly less interesting than the first, maybe because the historical clips were simply more fascinating than the more recent ones. Some nice contradictory reminiscences of Karajan, though, as well as the usual snobbery regarding both avant garde productions and the audiences they attract ("One can even find oneself sitting next to someone in blue jeans!").

[Petrushka]

Part 2 tonight on BBC4

It was excellent - the portrait of Karajan was unflinching, complex, just aabout even-handed, and the treatment of the politics behind the festival carefully and admirably handled. Touch less music and more chat, but fascinating, honest, and smouldering. all the 'big names' were on, speaking very bluntly. VERY fine Arts TV.

Really worth LA-ing.

Frustatingly, I missed both programmes so it's off to the i-player second week in a row. I do hope they get an early repeat.

[DracoM]

Bert

Erm...........I think that was the amazing Princess inveighing against a production of Don Giovanni with the Don wearing jeans?

On stage behind Solti - the cartwheeling witch on broomstick? Papagena in yet an other disguise?

[Bert Coules]

DracoM, there were, I think, two mentions of "blue jeans": one was certainly relating to that Don Giovanni and came, if I remember correctly, from a rather matronly singer; the other was about the dreadful possibility of encountering said garment in the auditorium: that was the Princess Thingammy, I believe.

Yes, that could have been Papagena. Interesting production, if so.

I was sorry to see so little evidence of the great Salzburg Wagner tradition, though that brief glimpse of a very trad-looking Siegfried trying to cleave his anvil convincingly was fun.

[Dave2002]

Well, if you're familiar with the i-player, you can watch the whole thing at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...ival_Part_One/ to your heart's content!

Not according to the link provided, apparently. Part 2 is available. This seems odd, as they were both on TV this week - maybe a glitch in the iPlayer today. Perhaps I should have recorded these after all.

[Mr Pee]

Unfortunately I forgot this was on, and only started watching from about 8pm, just as the programme got to the end of the Karajan era. ( I was watching "Come Dine with Me" instead- my guilty TV pleasure! ).

The last hour was fascinating and I wish I'd seen the whole thing. The tradition/ innovation debate was interesting. I certainly believe that opera productions need to move on, but what was with the clip we saw of a motorcycle driving around the stage and drowning out the music? When that was first mooted during the production process, surely somebody should have taken the director outside for a reality check?

I-player isn't an option, as my computer has some sound problems at the
moment, so I'll hope for a repeat - and next time I'll be sure to leave the bickering dinner guests until later!

[Keraulophone]

Had held off for years, but recently sold out to Murdoch and capitulated to BSkyB - but what riches I am discovering on Sky Arts 2. [Test cricket (not this pseudo-cricket nonsense aka the World Cup) is another joy.] But last night my digibox was having a nervous breakdown attempting to decide which programmes I had unreasonably asked it to record simultaneously. It was moving to hear the witness of wartime members of the Berlin PO in The Reichsorchester, while the hard disk captured Salzburg Pt 2 over on BBC 4. Then Boulez giving himself an 80th b'day pressie of Mahler 2 with the Berlin State O, followed later by the Lindsays playing Haydn and the Takacs with Bartok 6. The day began with Argerich and Chailly on Schumann, and progressed via The Pirates of Penzance to the BPO's 2009 Europa Konzert from Naples, to the highly annoying The Full Monteverdi - this one being the only dud of the day.

Hope this doesn't read like an ad for subscription TV while we enjoy the wonderful BBC 4 included in the license fee, but even if one continues with freesat after the one year contract, many £s may have been saved on DVDs and the hardware. One of the most enjoyable examples so far has been the BPO/Barenboim Europa Konzert from the Sheldonian in Brahms 1 and Elgar CC - wonderful performances in an intimate setting, but strangely the overture wasn't included, though it's on the DVD (£30 on BD from the Big River).

Next week Rosenkavalier from the Met (de Waart), Salome (no details in RT), Abbado's Brandenburgs, a history of the RPO and Ashkenazy's Chopin Preludes.

This also serves to remind us what Auntie is not providing for our daily bread these days.

[Nick Armstrong]

The iPlayer Downloader for Mac seems to be working again, so I am glad to have both halves of this programme on the hard drive and the iPod for permanent reference, and looking forward to watching both. If anyone misses it, and wants an mp-4 copy to download, I could probably upload one and PM a link.

[mercia]

I notice that these films were made in 2006. Where have they been all this time?

[DracoM]

Being dismembered by lawyers??? Just a guess!

[Dave2002]

The iPlayer Downloader for Mac seems to be working again, so I am glad to have both halves of this programme on the hard drive and the iPod for permanent reference, and looking forward to watching both. If anyone misses it, and wants an mp-4 copy to download, I could probably upload one and PM a link.

You may be right about the iPlayer downloader program (Mac) working again, but it still seems to be the case that the first part of the Salzburg programme is not available. I've not checked the schedules enough to see whether it'll come round again - have a repeat, but for now it looks out of reach.

I'd hazard a guess that you've been bombarded with requests for "assistance".

Bws.

[mercia]

I don't know whether I blinked and missed it but there didn't seem to be an explanation of why Karajan and the festival fell out, or, in the words of I think a councillor, Karajan "ruined" the festival. Was it that he was a perfectionist, or backward-looking in terms of production, or somehow glamourised the festival so that only the rich-list types attended (or could afford to)?

[formbyman]

For those that missed the program ,it is available on dvd from Amazon for £7.48.