Days 8 and 9: Britten Meets Bruckner
November 1, 2003
Thursday night the orchestra performed the Britten War Requiem in Linz. This city is the birthplace of both Anton Bruckner (whose seventh symphony the orchestra played earlier in this residency) and music director Franz Welser-Möst. However, it’s been almost ten years since Welser-Möst last conducted here.
Linz is even today a center of steel-making and machinery manufacturing. That industrial base, already established by the second world war, made it a bombing target. Roughly three-quarters of the town was levelled. A good portion of the Linz Cathedral, one of the churches where Bruckner was organist and where he composed his E-minor mass, was destroyed in the bombing, and has been restored. The portion of the original which survives includes parts of the organ on which Bruckner performed, but unfortunately the instrument isn’t in playable condition. Several of the old wing’s windows date from Bruckner's time, including one in which he’s depicted standing with Beethoven. The latter’s brother Johann had a pharmacy in Linz; the building still stands, and it’s still a pharmacy. Beethoven also finished work on one of his symphonies in this city.
The concert hall where they played Thursday night is the Brucknerhaus, named for Bruckner, of course. It was built in 1974, and the Cleveland Orchestra’s is the first in a series of concerts which celebrate their 30th anniversary season. You’d think that the orchestra would have brought their Bruckner program here, but instead Welser-Möst is conducting the Britten War Requiem. Maybe this performance is a preview (or warmup) for the two they’ll give in Vienna… In any case, it’s clear that Welser-Möst intended to make something of a statement through the Britten’s strong antiwar sentiments. (Vienna, by the way, seems to have developed something of a taste for Britten. Recently the Stattsoper has staged his opera Billy Budd; the Volksoper did Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Death in Venice is scheduled for 2006.)
Like all the other Cleveland Orchestra concerts during this residency, this one was sold out. Even the least desirable seats near the stage were filled. The Stehplatz (standing area) audience in the back of the house spilled down into the aisles.
— David RodenWKSU Classical Music Producer
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Day 8: Wien Wine
November 1, 2003
After the final Saturday show, Conductor Franz Welser-Möst is holding a private reception for the orchestra at a traditional Vienna hueriger (pronounced HOY rig gur). These country restaurants (now part of the nearby suburbs) can be spotted by the evergreen branches hanging outside their doors. The food is buffet style—step up, pick out what you want.
The specialty is the house new wine. The good heurigers keep with tradition and bottle their own wine. A white ribbon on the evergreen branch over the door means the Riesling wine is ready. A red ribbon means the red varieties are available.
The waitresses go for that low-cut blouse look and the entertainment (besides the waitresses) comes from a particular type of folk music called Schrammelmusik that uses accordion, violin, and guitar.
— Mark UryckiWKSU News Reporter
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Days 6 & 7: A World Series of Orchestras?
October 29, 2003
Shortly after we arrived here, a few of the musicians noticed something intriguing—the Vienna Philharmonic was scheduled to perform part of the Cleveland Orchestra’s repertoire. On Saturday and Monday, Zubin Mehta conducted them in Richard Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks. Then, this coming Thursday, Christian Thielemann will lead the Philharmonic in the Beethoven Pastoral Symphony, which Cleveland played on Tuesday.
This juxtaposition is probably just a coincidence, but still it’s hard to avoid seeing some competition here.
And so far, the Cleveland Orchestra seems to scoring a lot of points.
Regarding Conductor Franz Welser-Möst abilities…Of course there are other conductors who are this physically expressive (and more so). But some of them often seem to be putting on a show, entertaining the audience with their acrobatics without having much effect on the orchestra’s music making. That wasn’t the case here. Everyone in the Musikverein could see the electricity crackling between the maestro and the musicians. Welser-Möst’s tempos were brisk, the players’ articulation was crisp and clear in the Musikverein’s warm, wooden acoustic, and Strauss’s phrases were shaped to suit the devilish Till. Near the end of the tale, when the judge sentenced Till the troublemaker to death for his antics, Welser-Möst set up another challenge: the trombones (playing the judge) did their best to drown out Daniel McKelway’s clarinet (as Till). Till’s musical nose-thumbing escape was laced with jubilation—am I going too far to suggest that Welser-Möst and the Clevelanders may all have that in common with their protagonist?
WKSU Classical Music Producer
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