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Vienna calling
Philharmonic's trip to Ann Arbor is a noteworthy occasion
Saturday, March 04, 2006
BY SUSAN ISAACS NISBETT
News Special Writer
Like a sighting of an ivory-billed woodpecker, an Ann Arbor appearance by the Vienna Philharmonic is an occasion to crow about.
Over the last 50 years, the orchestra has made nine Ann Arbor appearances. Visit No. 10 - which marks the golden anniversary of the orchestra's first Ann Arbor visit, in 1956 - is just around the corner: Thursday evening, in fact, at 8 p.m. at Hill Auditorium.
And you can bet the hall will be full as the University Musical Society presents the Vienna in music of Viennese composers Schubert, Mozart and Richard Strauss, with a conductor much beloved of the orchestra - and much in the news this last year as he made a stormy departure from La Scala, where he had been music director from 1986-2005 - Riccardo Muti.
Muti has made six Ann Arbor appearances, at the helm of the Philadelphia Orchestra at two May Festivals, in 1979 and 1983, that seem like ancient history. But along with other storied conductors - Toscanini, Furtwangler, Bohm, von Karajan, Bernstein and Mehta - Muti has become a favorite with the Vienna orchestra, which, save for the war years and Furtwangler's continued tenure until 1954, has had no regular conductor since 1933.
The Vienna also had no women until 1996, when it made a decision to open auditions to women.
There are now five women in the orchestra, the first of whom, harpist Charlotte Balzereit, has already achieved tenure. More women can be expected in the ranks as members retire.
A democracy of musicians, which elects its own officers and still has far less than a dozen paid administrators - a huge contrast with orchestras all around the globe - the Vienna picks its conductors from the moment's créme de la créme of stars.
What do they admire in Muti? Longtime Vienna violinist and chairman of the orchestra since 1997 Clemens Hellsberg, who has also written extensively about the Vienna Philharmonic, took time out from teaching, playing and administration to respond to that question and answer others posed in an e-mail addressed to him in Vienna.
Q. What qualities have made Maestro Muti a favorite with orchestra?
A. Riccardo Muti has been working with this orchestra for 35 years, the first time being 1971. It was love at first sight. It is very interesting that even recently, Maestro Muti stopped the orchestra during a rehearsal, saying that the VPO must care about its tradition of sound and that he still has the VPO sound in his ear from 35 years ago. Now he feels that he is at an age where he is obliged to protect this way of music making and that he has been influenced by his musical predecessors at the VPO.
He is very conscious of his responsibility to keep this tradition. I feel that this is the closest type of collaboration imaginable.
Q. Could you talk a bit about the "Vienna sound,'' for which the orchestra is revered? To what is it attributable and how is it maintained?
A. There are two key points that answer this question
First: Some instruments used by the Vienna Philharmonic are very different from other instruments used around the world, for example, the Viennese horn and the Viennese oboe.
And second, there is a tradition to the way the VPO makes music. Many generations have been taught by one great teacher - this is a very lucky situation, especially in the string instruments. In the winds, for example, a master teacher always had one best pupil who went on to succeed that teacher in the VPO as well as in replacing that teacher as the new master teacher.
This dates back to 1819, the year that the conservatory was founded in Vienna, it also being the time of Beethoven and Schubert. So, as you can see, there is a direct line.
Q. In Ann Arbor, the orchestra plays Schubert's "Overture to Rosamunde,'' D. 644, and his Symphony No. 4 in C Minor, D. 417 ("Tragic"); Mozart's Symphony No. 35 in D Major, K. 385 ( "Haffner''); and Richard Strauss's "Death and Transfiguration,'' Op. 24. Could you talk a bit about the orchestra's traditions of Mozart, Schubert and Richard Strauss, either as it relates to these composers in general or the pieces in particular? I am also curious what original or early-edition scores and papers of these composers the orchestra might hold.
A. Beethoven and Mozart are among the pillars of the orchestra repertoire. We have no personal tradition with Schubert, who died 14 years before our orchestra was founded, and Schubert was not played a lot in Vienna early on.
As you know, our orchestra was founded in 1842, and many of the players in the founding orchestra actually would have played the world premiere performance of the Beethoven Ninth Symphony in 1824, as many of these players knew Beethoven personally.
Richard Strauss conducted the VPO in over 80 concerts between 1906 and 1944. He also did a major tour with us in 1923 to South America when the orchestra traveled by ship. The world premiere in 1919 of "Die Frau Ohne Schatten'' was played by us under his baton.
From 1919-1924, he was director of the Vienna State Opera (to which all VPO members belong). He was an honorary member of the VPO. We have many of his letters in our archives, along with the manuscript of "Fanfare,'' which he wrote for our first-ever Vienna Philharmonic Ball in 1924, and which we have played at that ball every year since.
We also have many sketch books of his. In 1939 when he celebrated his 75th birthday, and in 1944 when he celebrated his 80th birthday, he was at the Musikverein in Vienna with the VPO conducting concerts and celebrating in a private ceremony following these concerts. These birthday artistic events were organized for him by the VPO, and this is where he wished to be.
Q. Are there any players with the orchestra who would have come to Ann Arbor for the orchestra's debut here, at Hill Auditorium in 1956?
A. No. That was 50 years ago, so it is not possible that any members from that time are still playing with us. As you probably know, there is a mandatory retirement age of 65. It is also interesting to note, that the oldest living person who was a VPO member is now 91 and long retired.
Well, its less than a week away.
Even Calibaby, who does not care for classical music (other than a couple of Beethoven pieces) is starting to get excited.
I am thinking that there might be even more scalpers at this concert than when the New York Philharmonic came to town last year.
Wonder if the crowd will have excited classical fans yelling out that the soloists are badasses again like they did at the NY Philharmonic concert?
edit:
They have changed most of the music they are planning on playing on Thursday night. Now their program will consist of:
Program
Schubert Overture to Rosamunde, D. 644
Mozart Symphony No. 35 in D Major, K. 385 "Haffner"
Schubert Symphony No. 4 in c minor, D. 417 "Tragic"
Strauss Death and Transfiguration, Op. 24
so the same composers, but most of the musical selections have been changed...
...there could still be snow storms, or even worse, it could possibly be mud season. 
The Vienna players rule in this repertoire! Heh, and in just about everything else they set their hearts on playing. This month's issue of Gramophone magazine happened to do a profile on the VPO. The author writes: 
Ticket prices run from a high of $150/seat to a low of only $10/seat. 
I have to give the Vienna Philharmonic a mixed review. 
Seriously. 
About halfwy through the Schubert piece, I thought to myself, with shock and horror:
After each break in between the movements in the Mozart symphony more and more people got into it until there were hundreds of people coughing these loud roaring coughs, like what you would expect to hear coming out of a great dane's chest. 