EGN NEWS DESK
The Vienna Philharmonic hasn’t had a chief conductor since 1933. But it has had favourite conductors.
Of the good musicians who’ve led this self-governing, proudly idiosyncratic orchestra, Leonard Bernstein and Pierre Boulez have been made honorary members; Herbert von Karajan and Karl Böhm got honorary conducting titles. The violinist Daniel Froschauer, the Philharmonic’s chairman, has mentioned that at the moment, the ensemble not so secretly has two maestros on the prime of its roster: Riccardo Muti and Franz Welser-Möst.
At Carnegie Hall final weekend, it was the Austrian-born Welser-Möst, 63, who performed three breathless, exhilarating and sometimes shifting performances by the Philharmonic, in meaty applications of Bruckner and Mahler symphonies, and works by Berg, Hindemith, Schoenberg, Strauss and Ravel.
It takes lots to win over the love of the Philharmonic, one in all Europe’s best ensembles, simply because it takes lots to affix its ranks. These gamers — recognized for his or her lush sound, their brighter, increased tuning frequency and their distinctly Viennese articulation — could be haughty and cussed; I’ve seen them outright defy a conductor in rehearsal.
Welser-Möst has not solely penetrated the Philharmonic’s inside circle, but additionally has executed so whereas main the Cleveland Orchestra — one other top-notch ensemble, although one whose sound differs enormously from that of the Viennese.
The fundamental distinction between the Cleveland Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic is that whereas the Clevelanders have been criticized for giving performances which can be too good, nobody may ever accuse the Viennese of the identical.
In Cleveland, Welser-Möst has for the previous twenty years maintained and deepened the orchestra’s clear, clear sound. (He will depart his put up in 2027.) Its taking part in is essentially the most exact of any American ensemble, impeccably balanced to the delight of perfectionists and the frustration of those that crave extra daring of their live shows.
The Philharmonic can be impressively expert, however with a contact of messiness that tends to enliven relatively than diminish a rating. These gamers are, above all, human: Expressivity pervades their huge tremolos, wailing glissandos and bodily gestures that verge on theatrical.
If the Clevelanders like their music lean, the Viennese prefer it fatty, “mit Schlag.” Together, these orchestras embody two approaches to musical excellence. And capable of stroll both path with them is Welser-Möst.
At Carnegie, the Philharmonic’s type was at its most pronounced in Bruckner and Mahler’s ninth symphonies — which have been becoming inclusions in Welser-Möst’s Perspectives collection on the corridor, however not in its pageant “Fall of the Weimar Republic: Dancing on the Precipice.”
The Weimar Republic, throughout its brief life from 1918 to 1933, was a rare interval for all sorts of artwork. Audience members on the Philharmonic live shows, although, may barely glean that from its three applications, which solely glanced on the period and grasped at thematic relevance. The performances extra richly represented the Germanic world inching into modernism on the cusp of World War I, and the disillusioned temper of the struggle’s aftermath: the decline of Romanticism and the rise of embittered irony.
That concept can overlap with, however isn’t the identical as, the precarity and collapse of the Weimar Republic. And the place they met was the Philharmonic’s Saturday program, which opened with Hindemith’s Konzertmusik für Blasorchester, written in 1926 for a army band with the form of satirical spirit you can hear on the revue levels of Berlin on the time. It was there that Schoenberg’s Variations for Orchestra premiered in 1928, disastrously mishandled by the Berlin Philharmonic beneath Wilhelm Furtwängler. But at Carnegie each obtained simply legible readings; the Schoenberg, performed with a consolation that permit its underlying expressiveness come by means of, supplied proof that “atonal” doesn’t inherently imply “disagreeable.”
From there, the Philharmonic’s programming trailed away from the Weimar Republic, with works like Ravel’s “La Valse,” first carried out not in Germany however within the Paris of 1920; and Strauss’s Symphonic Fantasy from “Die Frau Ohne Schatten,” a 1947 transforming of an opera written earlier than and through World War I.
Which is to not low cost the performances of those items. The Ravel unfurled like a dreamy reminiscence of the Philharmonic’s well-known New Year’s live shows — one that provides option to a nightmare. And the Strauss, troublesome to steadiness with its massive scale and dense writing, was an alluringly perfumed stroll by means of the luxuriant sound world of “Frau.”
Furthest, maybe, from the Weimar theme was the Bruckner, devoted to God and left incomplete on the composer’s demise in 1896. Welser-Möst likes to play with juxtaposition, and on Friday, he paired it, as one thing of a finale, with Berg’s Three Pieces for Orchestra, written within the 1910s — Berg’s music bringing Bruckner’s throughout the brink of modernity.
Bruckner’s Ninth, discursive and inconclusive, at one level rivaling the thriller and mystical energy of Wagner’s “Parsifal,” acquired dramatic form and cohesion beneath Welser-Möst. Its introduction started quietly till it escalated to an explosive declaration, and the passages that adopted rose and fell like a misery sign, flaring brightly and fading. From silences emerged wisps of melody and balletic delicacy, earlier than extra eruptions that left behind softly glowing halos of sound.
There was an analogous sense of form — a wrangling of immensity — in Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, which stood alone on Sunday. Welser-Möst took a brisk tempo, however with vitality relatively than impatience, making for a operating time of about 75 minutes the place some conductors stretch the rating to greater than 90.
This is a piece stuffed with farewells: an allusion to Beethoven’s “Les Adieux” sonata, inscriptions by Mahler of “Leb’ wohl!” and an ending that quietly takes depart whereas, as Theodor Adorno wrote, trying questioningly into uncertainty.
Welser-Möst’s interpretation was one with a lot to say on the best way out. The first motion developed with defiant freedom earlier than giving manner, in later actions, to a ländler, a folks dance notably widespread in Austria, that started with rustic earthiness however ended with a cosmic dance, and, by the finale, a passionate elegy.
That final motion is usually carried out as a form of extended demise. But the course “ersterbend,” or “dying,” doesn’t seem within the rating till the penultimate web page, and the Philharmonic gamers didn’t take a linear journey to reach there, with swerves of vitality from passages of glacial tranquillity. The music wasn’t able to say goodbye, and after three days, neither have been they.
