Tuesday, August 6, 2019

Vienna Philharmonic, Grosses Festspielhaus

Last night I attended the Vienna Philharmonic concert in the large hall with some friends. The program was supposed to be the Prelude to Parsifal, Death and Transfiguration by Richard Strauss and, in the second half, the Symphony No. 14 by Shostakovich. As it turned out they dropped the Wagner without making any announcement which confused me all to heck for a while as I haven't heard either piece for decades and didn't quite know what was going on at first.

The Strauss was a wonderful performance, the Vienna Phillies showing just how to play a masterpiece of orchestration. After the pause, with the orchestra honed down to just a reduced string section and four percussionists and with the addition of soprano and bass soloists, they gave an outstanding performance of the Shostakovich, in Russian. I know this piece, and all the Shostakovich symphonies, quite well and have to say that this was the first time I fully appreciated it! What amazing and creative use of the strings. There are several sections in which he has half the strings playing col legno in unison with the others playing pizzicato. What a remarkable and very subtle effect. Just listening to the CD I wasn't quite sure how he was getting that sound.

The big question with this symphony, in eleven movements setting poems about death, is why it is called a symphony at all, and not a song cycle. The notes discuss Shostakovich's pointing to the return of themes, especially one from the first movement in the last movement, as to why he decided to call it a symphony. Also, it is not a cantata because there is no choir. In any case, great piece and I found this live performance quite fascinating.

The hall beforehand:


And with the orchestra:


We had pretty good seats in the balcony.

The Vienna Philharmonic, of course, likely have no superiors in the world at this sort of repertoire. This was one of the best orchestral performances I have heard. Two others of note were the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra with a terrific Rite of Spring two years ago and the St. Petersburg Symphony doing Glinka and the Shostakovich Violin Concerto, also two years ago.

Tonight is Evgeny Kissin with an all-Beethoven program.
at

2 comments:

  1. PatrickAugust 6, 2019 at 4:05 PM

    Thanks so much, Bryan, for your fascinating reporting from the Salzburg Festival. Much appreciated!
    It sounds like a great place for lovers of Classical to be. btw, what did you think of Ms. Bartoli in the Handel?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bryan TownsendAugust 7, 2019 at 1:40 AM

    Thanks, Patrick! Cecilia Bartoli was excellent in the title role of Alcina, but equally good were her co-stars, Philippe Jaroussky as Ruggiero, Sandrine Piau as Morgana and Kristina Hammarström as Bradamante.

    ReplyDelete