A Sound Tradition. Christoph Wagner-Trenkwitz

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СКАЧАТЬ der Musikfreunde had wanted to merge its orchestra into the Philharmonic, but this dissolution plan was likewise never realized. Our orchestra only made the concession of sending some of its musicians to play in the Gesellschaft’s concerts. On Sunday, November 13, 1870, it was done: “the first Subscription Concert, performed by the members of the Imperial and Royal Court Opera Orchestra (still not “Vienna Philharmonic”!) took place in the “Great Hall,” works of Weber, Beethoven and Schumann were on the program. Subscription series conductor Otto Dessoff, whose main job continued to be conducting at the opera, also started bringing international conductors in guest appearances for the “Philharmonic” players, including Hans von Bülow and Richard Wagner. On December 29, 1872, Dessoff conducted his 100^th subscription concert, and a few days before that, Emperor Franz Joseph had authorized the formation of a “Pension-Institute of the Imperial and Royal Court Opera Theater.” The first Opera Ball took place on April 22, 1873—though not in the Ring building, but in the Vienna Musikverein. On this occasion, Johann Strauss the Younger conducted—violin in hand, of course—the world premiere of his waltz Wiener Blut (Viennese Blood). Just a few months later, at a Musikverein festival concert at the World Exposition in November 1873, Strauss conducted The Blue Danube Waltz. Those who enjoy the Blue Danube as an encore at the New Year’s concerts should remember that the composer himself led one of the earliest performances of this “secret national anthem of Austria” with the Philharmonic players. This concert was made possible, incidentally, by the generous donation of the Chinese World Exposition Commission—it was to be another century before our orchestra toured China!

      On October 26, 1873, Anton Bruckner conducted our orchestra in concert: the world premiere of his Second Symphony. Prince Johann II von und zu Liechtenstein had made available the means for a special concert: Arthur Nikisch, temporary first violinist of the Court Opera Orchestra, recalled “how Bruckner came to the podium, and then said to us (in his Austrian provincial accent), ‘All right, gentlemen, we can rehearse as long as we want, I’ve got somebody who’ll pay.” Bruckner, highly elated by its success (the audience interrupted with thunderous applause after every movement, which was still “allowed” back then!), wrote a letter to the “Musikervereinigung” (musicians’ association) asking “May I dedicate the work to you?” It is one of the dark spots in the history of our orchestra that they did not bother to reply to the composer, whose admiration for the orchestra they in no way reciprocated, for two years…

      Paralleling the Philharmonic’s high points—such as appearances of Franz Liszt and Johannes Brahms with the orchestra—were historic performances at the opera, too. On April 29, 1874, came the premiere of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida. At one rehearsal, there was tension between conductor Dessoff and his director Herbeck, who yelled: “the third flute is missing, Herr Kapellmeister, can’t you hear that?” to which Dessoff replied: “the third flute is out today, Herr Direktor, can’t you see that?”

      Because he thought his opera salary insufficient, Dessoff left Vienna after fifteen years with a series of triumphal Philharmonic concerts, and even his adversary Herbeck resigned, “morally and physically half destroyed.”

      Within a few weeks, our orchestra gave concerts in the spring of 1875 under the direction of the two outstanding opera composers of the 19^th century. After Wagner had given three acclaimed concerts, Giuseppe Verdi appeared in June to rehearse and conduct his Requiem Mass and Aida. To be sure, the latter did no “Philharmonic” concerts per se, but during a visit to the conservatory of the Musikverein he paid it a lasting double compliment: “With a school like this, Vienna will long have the first orchestra of the world.” Hellsberg sums up the Wagner and Verdi visits and also the guest appearances of Brahms (of which more later) and Bruckner as follows: “The practical tests the orchestra passed as partners of great composers inspired that consciousness of tradition which lent a new dimension to the self-image of the Vienna Philharmonic.”

      A new Director, a new Chief Conductor

      On May 1, 1875, a new Court Opera director took office: Franz Jauner did not hesitate to offer the opera to the Philharmonic for its concerts. Our orchestra never considered this offer again (with a few extraordinary exceptions at the end of the 20^th century): “the physical separation of opera obligations and the concert business was final” (Blaukopf).

      Along with Jauner also came a new 32-year-old conductor, to whom neither the opera nor the orchestra were new. Hans Richter was a native Austrian and former hornist in the Vienna orchestra. In 1866 he gave up his position in order to copy the Meistersinger score for Richard Wagner. This close connection lasted a lifetime: Richter was the best man at Richard’s and Cosima’s wedding, and he conducted the world premiere of the Ring des Nibelungen in Bayreuth in 1876 and its first performance at the Vienna Court Opera a little later. He died at Bayreuth in 1916 and is buried there. Richter was not only the leading Wagner conductor of his time, he was also leader of the Philharmonic concerts for a quarter of a century (with a short interruption).

      As a former colleague, Richter did not enjoy the status of a detached, aloof magus at the podium, but rather that of a primus inter pares, as Arthur Nikisch later did, who had spent three years as a violinist in the orchestra, or like Willi Boskovsky, who while officiating as concertmaster led the New Year’s Concert 25 times.

      In his last letter to “his” orchestra (which he had left long before for a lucrative career in England), Hans Richter wrote in April 1913 that he must “gratefully acknowledge that I learned how to conduct from the orchestra. Of course, it has to be an orchestra as splendid as the Vienna Philharmonic; it is only in dealing with an orchestra like that you can learn what you can dare to do as a conductor.”

      Developing the Repertory

      In the 1840’s, Viennese Classicism played the dominant role in the programming of our orchestra, first of all Beethoven, who composed 60% of all the works performed. Johann Sebastian Bach was not in the repertory of those years, nor was Franz Schubert, who only “debuted” in 1857 with his “Great” Symphony in C major. Otto Nicolai had performed his own works only rarely. Rather, we find “stars” of the composer scene in the 19^th century such as Cherubini, later Meyerbeer, Goldmark or Rubinstein— almost forgotten nowadays.

      However, the “hostility” of the Philharmonic toward “modern” composers is a myth; in the 120 subscription concerts of the Dessoff era (1860-1875), 208 of the 265 works performed were new compositions. These were played through in so-called “Novitätenproben” (new work tryouts) and then voted on. Isolated new works would occasionally be accepted even “per acclamationem,” that is, unanimous approval by applause, as for example the 1865 overture to Sakuntala by Karl Goldmark. The fact that certain other works of Brahms and Bruckner, for example, fell through the cracks may seem ridiculous from today’s standpoint. In his first committee meeting as Chairman on June 4, 1875, Hans Richter cautioned that Hector Berlioz and Liszt were not getting enough attention; the former’s Symphonie fantastique first found a slot in 1862, while Liszt had his last concert with the Philharmonic in January 1874 (the celebrated pianist played his Hungarian Rhapsody and his orchestration of Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy). In the 19^th

      Conductor Hans Richter dominated the “Golden Era.” century, the canonical repertory of today was still, while the works were brand new, the object of feuds and hostilities.

      Let us take the now uncontroversial Peter I. Tchaikovsky as an example: the first work of his to be heard in the Philharmonic was the overture to Romeo and Juliet in 1876. Five years later, events led to a noteworthy Tchaikovsky world premiere, though rejected by public and critics alike: Adolf Brodzky, who had temporarily been a violinist in the СКАЧАТЬ