A Sound Tradition. Christoph Wagner-Trenkwitz

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СКАЧАТЬ the Kärntnertor-Theater premiered performances of, among other things, a Schauspielmusik and a piano concerto of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, operas by Joseph Haydn, Antonio Salieri, Conradin Kreutzer, Carl Maria von Weber and Franz Schubert. Schubert’s song Der Erlkönig was first heard here in 1821, and eight years later, Frédéric Chopin had his Viennese debut as a pianist in this theater.

      The most significant moments in the house’s history are associated with the name of Ludwig van Beethoven: the premiere of the final version of Fidelio occurred on May 23, 1814, and that of the Ninth Symphony on May 7, 1824. And both were performed by members of the orchestra that was to become the Vienna Philharmonic. The Viennese public felt such a close connection to this musically important site that when the Hotel Sacher was built on the same place, it was forbidden in writing to have any opera performance there.

      We could turn right and go on along the continuation of Philharmonikerstraße (Walfischgasse no. 13 was once “Café Parsifal”, frequented equally by opera cast, staff and audience members) but we shall instead stroll up Kärntner Straße. At the end of the block is Maysedergasse, named for the violin virtuoso Joseph Mayseder, who was both a “Concert and Solo performer” at the Court Opera Theater. He never became a member of the Philharmonic, but nonetheless appeared as a soloist in the orchestra’s first concert. We turn right onto Annagasse, at the start of which we are greeted by a memorial star for Arturo Toscanini. The Italian “maestrissimo” shaped the history of our orchestra for only a few years: his debut in October 1933 marked the start of the guest conductor system at the Philharmonic. In early 1938, the fiercely democratic Italian decided to shun Austria, now joined to the German Reich by the Anschluss, and its top class orchestra.

      The Haus der Musik

      We saunter down Annagasse (passing by the Ristorante Sole, where artists and the public like to go after opera performances), at the end of which is the Haus der Musik. Here we come excitingly close to the founding moment of the Vienna Philharmonic: the composer and conductor Otto Nicolai lived in this building during his service as Viennese Hofopernkapellmeister (Court Opera conductor). A memorial tablet placed in 1942 (at the hundred year jubilee of his once-in-a-century idea to form a concert ensemble from the opera orchestra) shows Nicolai’s portrait, the dates of his all-too-short life (1810-1849), and the date of the first concert he conducted (March 28, 1842—a date we shall not forget so quickly!) remind us of this music-historical milestone.

      The text on the house on Seilerstätte opposite turns out to be much more flowery: the marble tablet commemorates the legendary dancer Fanny Elßler, who was born the same year as Nicolai, but lived until 1884, and whose fame became downright mythical. The inscription: “She was the smiling face of her century, one of those rare masterworks whom the creator weighs in his hands for many ages, before releasing them to life.” The most frequently performed work of the 1823/24 season in the Kärntnertor-Theater was the magical ballet The Fairy and the Knight/Die Fee und der Ritter—and the record-breaking number of performances was due to none other than its star: Fanny Elßler.

      Let us enter the Haus der Musik, the former “Palais Erzherzog Carl” in the Seilerstätte. It houses, among other things, the Historical Archive of the Orchestra as well as certain publicly accessible memorabilia from the rich history of the orchestra in the Museum of the Vienna Philharmonic.

      On the first floor, we pass by displays devoted to the history of the Vienna State Opera before entering a room containing information on the history of the world-famous New Year’s Day Concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic. To the right we are led into an imaginary concert hall, where visitors can experience the high points of the last New Year’s Concert or the Summer Night Concert of the Philharmonic, on large-screen displays. To the left is the historic Hall of Mirrors. Here there is documentation on concert tours, honors and distinctions, the Vienna Philharmonic Ball and the orchestra’s artistic collaborations with composers such as Johannes Brahms, Anton Bruckner, Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Hans Pfitzner, Franz Schmidt and Alban Berg, using original objects.

      One’s eye falls on the batons of numerous prominent orchestra leaders— at first glance, that of Toscanini looks to be as long as the others. But if we recall that the Italian maestro used to use an especially long stick to conduct with, we look a bit closer—and in fact, the stick is broken off. This probably occurred as the result of one of its owner’s legendary fits of rage…

      The adjoining Nicolai Room has a special document of Austrian cultural history on display: the decree founding the Vienna Philharmonic (see page 27). It also contains the first photograph of the orchestra (1864) and pictures of Otto Nicolai, the violinists Georg and Joseph Hellmesberger and others. And last but not least, the program of the first Philharmonic concert…you surely remember the date!

      1842—What a Year!

      We could continue our wanderings onto Singerstraße; the inn “Zum Amor” once stood there, where, according to a romantic account, the founding of the orchestra is said to have occurred; then, around the corner in Grünangergasse, in the editorial room of the Allgemeine MusikZeitung the plan was in fact conceived to form the first professional “sound body” of Vienna to give independent concerts…But now it’s time for a pause. If we put that mythic year of 1842 under a magnifying glass, it shows itself to be a most significant year. Let’s pull out the most important dates:

      On March 3^rd, the “Scottish” Symphony of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy had its world premiere in Leipzig’s Gewandhaus and was conducted by the composer. A short week later, on March 9^th, Giuseppe Verdi’s first international success, Nabucco, first appeared on stage at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. Verdi was a fateful figure for Otto Nicolai in two senses: for one, the latter had rejected the (in his opinion) inferior Nabucco libretto (“endless raging, blood-letting, screaming, beating and murdering is no subject for me”) and in so doing opened up a pathway for the younger Italian to world fame. And for another, Nicolai’s greatest opera success, The Merry Wives of Windsor, was outmatched more than 40 years later by Verdi’s masterpiece on the same subject, Falstaff, and—unjustly—eclipsed by it. It is no surprise to us that Nicolai could simply not abide the Italian’s music: “He orchestrates like a fool […he] must have a heart like a donkey’s, and is truly in my eyes a pitiful, contemptible composer.”

      The scarcely thirty-year-old Verdi visited Vienna in April of 1843 and conducted his Nabucco at the Kärntnertor-Theater—and thus with the musicians of the Philharmonic Orchestra. They had already performed the world premiere of Gaetano Donizetti’s Linda di Chamounix on May 19, 1842. It is noteworthy that the “Rossini-Craze” of the early 20’s, that is, the rage for the composer of the Barber of Seville, was “reignited” two decades later with Donizetti. Back then, German opera played second fiddle in Vienna, even though its greatest master was already standing at the door: Richard Wagner’s Rienzi was produced on October 20, 1842, at the Royal Court Theater of Dresden. It was not to have its first Austrian performance until May 30, 1871, in the “new” house on the Ring. Other new works of note in the year 1842: Michail Glinka’s Ruslan and Ludmilla (December 9 in Saint Petersburg) and finally, on the last day of the year, Albert Lortzing’s Der Wildschütz at the Stadttheater in Leipzig.

      Arrigo Boito, the Italian composer and librettist (of Verdi’s last operas, Otello and Falstaff, among others) was born on February 24 of 1842, the operetta composers Carl Millöcker, Arthur Sullivan and Carl Zeller on April 29^th, May 13^th and June 19^th. Our orchestra had hardly any contact at all with the latter-mentioned composers; more, though, with the works of the Frenchman Jules Massenet, who was born on May 12^th: his opera Werther had its world premiere in the Vienna Court Opera in 1892.

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