Now and Then

Looking over the program for the 2024 Salzburg Festival the differences between it and the first one I attended, in 1988, come to mind. Back then I was an impoverished student (and sessional lecturer, but that's almost the same thing) enrolled in Pepe Romero's master class. And that is the first big difference: back then the guitar had a significant presence at the Mozarteum summer courses and a very minor one at the festival itself. Now that presence has been erased. I wonder if replacing Pepe Romero with Eliot Fisk had something to do with that?

Another absence is contemporary composers. In 1988 one of the guests at the festival was Polish composer Witold Lutosławski who conducted the premiere of his new violin concerto played by, if I recall correctly, Anne-Sophie Mutter. Another composer guest was Karlheinz Stockhausen who brought his "family" of associated musicians with him from Köln. They gave seven different concerts of his chamber music, all from memory. It was in a smaller hall at the Mozarteum and I had the opportunity to chat with him afterwards. Prominent contemporary composers do not seem to be invited to current festivals, though each year there is a focus on a particular 20th century composer. This year it will be Schoenberg, last year it was Bartók and a couple of years ago it was Morton Feldman. No-one living.

Another feature of the 1988 festival that seems to have disappeared is the integral cycle. Back then Alfred Brendel gave a series of concerts in which he played all the piano sonatas of Schubert and the Alban Berg Quartet gave another series of concerts in which they played all the Beethoven string quartets. I'm afraid I didn't have much interest in opera back then so I don't recall what they did in that area. I was also too busy to attend many concerts what with master class every day and practicing in the evening. I did get to an open rehearsal of the Berg Quartet as well as one of their Beethoven cycle and one of the Stockhausen concerts.

On thing I find a bit surprising is that, while there are quite a few piano recitals now, there don't seem to be any violin recitals, with or without piano. But I don't recall if there were any back in 1988 either. Back then, as I recall, there were, apart from the Vienna Philharmonic, five guest orchestras. This year there will be eleven.

Here is a piece for solo flute by Stockhausen that I think was on the program in 1988.

Salzburg Festival 2020

Holy cow, I thought they didn't announce the programs until December, but I just noticed that the offerings for next summer's Salzburg Festival are already up. Let's have a look: eight operas including Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute, Electra, Boris Godunov and Don Pasquale. But also operas by Nono and Morton Feldman (the latter in concert performance). A few plays including Richard III by Shakespeare. Five concerts by the Vienna Philharmonic plus a host of guest orchestras: City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra · Orchestre des Champs-Élysées · SWR Symphonieorchester · West-Eastern Divan Orchestra · musicAeterna · ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien · Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester · Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra · Berliner Philharmoniker. Igor Levit is playing eight concerts that look like they include all the Beethoven piano sonatas!

There are all sorts of hidden gems such as the series of Moments Musicaux concerts where they don't tell you the program in advance, but it is sure to be good. On July 20 there is a chamber concert pairing Steve Reich's Different Trains with Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps. How could I miss that? On August 12 is a chamber concert devoted to a single long piece by Morton Feldman, Crippled Symmetry for flute, percussion and piano. How could I miss that? And the day after, the Belcea Quartet play an evening of Beethoven and Webern. August 4 is a Grigory Sokolov concert and it looks like half will be Mozart. July 30 there is a lieder recital by Christian Gerheher and Gerold Huber of works by Schubert, Berg and Fauré. Plus a gazillion other concerts including a bunch by students of the Mozarteum, stars of tomorrow.

Here is that Feldman piece, Crippled Symmetry:

I think I wrote something a lot like that, only it was four minutes long...

UPDATE: On August 28 Daniil Trifonov is playing this program:

ALBAN BERG

Piano Sonata, Op. 1

SERGEY PROKOFIEV

Sarcasms, Op. 17

BÉLA BARTÓK

Out of Doors – Five Pieces, Sz. 81

AARON COPLAND

Piano Variations

OLIVIER MESSIAEN

'Le Baiser de l’Enfant-Jésus'
from Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus

GYÖRGY LIGETI

Musica ricercata for Piano Nos. 1–4

KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN

Klavierstück IX

JOHN ADAMS

China Gates for Piano

JOHN CORIGLIANO

Fantasia on an Ostinato for piano

And how could I miss that! I think I am going to be buying a lot of cheap tickets just so I can see more concerts. For this concert tickets range from 25 to 120 Euros.

Salzburg Preview

I leave for Salzburg on Tuesday, so I was just reading up on it. People were asking.

• Salzburg is just a bit bigger than the small city I live in in Mexico, around 150,000. It has thirty-five churches, a few palaces and a bunch of concert halls
• These include the Grosse Saal in the Mozarteum as well as the Wienersaal, a smaller hall there (where I played a concert when I was a student)
• The Grosse Festspielhaus, the main concert hall of the festival, was opened in 1960 and seats over 2,000. It is inscribed with this motto: SACRA CAMENAE DOMUS / CONCITIS CARMINE PATET / QUO NOS ATTONITOS / NUMEN AD AURAS FERAT (The Muse's holy house is open to those moved by song / divine power bears us up who are inspired)

Click to enlarge

• Salzburg lies just to the north of the alps and one quite imposing mountain, the Untersberg, is less than ten miles to the south

Untersberg, looking over the south of Salzburg, click to enlarge

• When I was in Salzburg as a student, we went up to the top of the mountain via cable car. Spectacular view into Bavaria!
• Despite its small size, Salzburg has a lot of universities. These include:

• Salzburg University of Applied Sciences
• University of Salzburg, a federal public university
• Paracelsus Medical University
• Mozarteum University Salzburg, a public music university
• Alma Mater Europaea, a private university
• SEAD – Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance

• I'm afraid I was rather unkind to a Juilliard student once. He was bragging about being a graduate of that fine school and I couldn't resist saying, after a measured pause, "I attended one of the very few music schools that has a higher reputation than Juilliard..." He gave me a startled look to which I replied "the Mozarteum in Salzburg." That ended that conversation.
• Salzburg during the festival has five orchestras in residence so when you get on a bus you might find yourself fighting to get past several cello cases. And that's not even counting the hundreds of music students!
• Speaking of master classes, I hope to sit in on a couple and maybe see some student concerts. A student concert in Salzburg is probably near the level of a professional concert in most other places.
• I have to confess that one of the things I am particularly looking forward to is wienerschnitzel!

• Accompanied, of  course by a weissbräu, a somewhat cloudy wheat beer:

Let's have some music! This is one prominent resident, Herbert von Karajan, conducting the music of another prominent resident, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This is the Symphony No. 39 with the Berlin Philharmonic in a concert in Tokyo in 1988.

Salzburg 2019

I am going to get to Salzburg this summer and the slate of concerts looks pretty good. I have applied for the tickets already--you have to select them online and then wait to see if they have been "allocated" to you. I notice that the production of the Mozart opera Idomeneo is sold out already. Looks like there are tickets for everything else. I requested tickets for Grigory Sokolov on August 1st, the Bavarian Radio Symphony on Aug. 2 conducted by Mariss Jansons (Beethoven and Shostakovich), on Aug. 3 the Mozarteum Orchestra conducted by Ivor Bolton playing Mozart of course, on Aug. 4 Igor Levit playing Mahler and Liszt, on Aug. 5 the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Franz Welser-Möst playing Wagner, Strauss and Shostakovich, on Aug. 6 Evgeny Kissin playing Beethoven and that's all for now. I may try to get an additional ticket to the Camerata Salzburg conducted by Roger Norrington doing Mozart, Stravinsky and Haydn. I have been dying to hear Stravinsky in an historically informed performance on original instruments. 8>)

Here is a photo of the Big Hall, or as they say, the "Grosses Festspielhaus"

Next Year, In Salzburg?

One thing I tend to do, just after a trip, is think about the next place I would like to go. After last year's brief trip to Madrid, I decided that what I wanted to do was return for longer, which I did this year. After this year's trip I am starting to realize that the main motivation and enjoyment of this year's excursion was not Madrid or Spain so much as the opportunity to hear some great concerts. Plus, I'm a bit tired of jamón Iberico!

Quite a while ago, when I was working very hard on my career as a performer, I spent a month at the Mozarteum's Summer Academy in Salzburg, Austria. This may be the most prestigious music school in the world and I had a wonderful experience. The guitar maestro was Pepe Romero and I spent most of the time studying the Concierto de Aranjuez, on which he is an authority. At the same time as the Summer Academy, is the Salzburg Festival, one of the most distinguished music festivals in the world. When I was there, decades ago, the Alban Berg Quartet were performing the whole cycle of the Beethoven string quartets (I attended both a concert and a rehearsal), Alfred Brendel was playing the whole cycle of the Schubert piano sonatas, Karlheinz Stockhausen was there with his ensemble from Cologne giving seven concerts of his chamber music (and I met him after a concert and had a very interesting conversation), Witold Lutosławski was there conducting the premiere of his violin concerto, Jessye Norman gave a solo recital and on and on. There were at least five orchestras in attendance. Salzburg is a city devoted to music with one (1) cinema, but at least a dozen concert halls! At the end of the course, I gave a short recital in the Wiener Saal, the smaller of the Mozarteum's two concert halls:

Click to enlarge

Now that's a beautiful concert hall!

What I would really like to do next summer is spend a couple of weeks attending concerts at the Salzburg Festival. There are some five or ten every day! I don't think next year's schedule is out yet, you have to apply for tickets in January, but here is a little glimpse of what will be on this year. The festival runs from July 21 to August 30.

In opera:

• Mozart, Clemenza de Tito
• Shostakovich, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District
• Verdi, Aida
• Berg, Wozzeck
• Handel, Ariodante
• Monteverdi, Orfeo, Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria and L'Incoronazione di Poppea
• and a bunch of others

Orchestra Concerts:

• Vienna Philharmonic giving ten concerts under five different conductors
• Berlin Philharmonic, two concerts with Simon Rattle
• Pittsburg Symphony
• Mahler Youth Orchestra
• West-Eastern Divan Orchestra with Barenboim
• Vienna Radio Symphony with Meister
• Bavarian Radio with Nagano

Theme concerts:

• Nine concerts with focus on Shostakovich
• Eight concerts with focus on Grisey
• Six lieder recitals

Solo recitals:

• Three by András Schiff
• One by Grigory Sokolov
• One by Evgeny Kissin
• Two by Igor Levit (one entirely of Shostakovich)
• One by Mitsuko Uchida
• One by Maurizio Pollini
• One by Ilya Gringolts
• and duo recitals by Argerich/Barenboim and Mutter/Orkis

There is also a host of chamber music and an entire festival of drama.

Hard to resist...

For our envoi, let's listen to Mitsuko Uchida playing a little Mozart.  Here she is with the Camerata Salzburg and the Concerto in C major, K. 415: