Meanwhile, along the Danube, the LPO took Korngold home to Vienna. A fabulous trip, one of the rare tours when I can't resist going along - two concerts at the Musikverein with principal conductor Vladimir 'Vlad' Jurowski, pianist Jean-Yves 'Silver Shoes' Thibaudet (Ravel G major), violinist Christian 'Wow' Tetzlaff (not pictured, sorry), a stunning Tchaikovsky Pathetique Symphony that was mercifully free of both mobile phones and clapping after the third movement, a hair-raising Prokofiev 5th, and as encore on the second night, the Zwischenspiel from Korngold's Das Wunder der Heliane. It went down a treat in the golden hall's luminous acoustic; a strong round of applause greeted Vlad's announcement of it and far more followed the piece itself. At a post-concert reception, every dignitary in town seemed to be praising it and declaring delight that Korngold was back in the repertoire at last.
We visited the exhibition about Korngold and Papa Julius that's currently running at Vienna's Jewish Museum, put lovingly together by curator and record producer supremo Michael Haas. Highly recommended: you can see Jan Kiepura's costume from Heliane, the cigarette cases showing Jonny versus Heliane, Korngold's Oscar and his dinner suit; and the plentiful music examples, many of them exceedingly rare, could have kept me there all day. Particularly enchanting is a whole bank of historic recordings from Korngold's operetta arrangements - part of his work that today has been nearly forgotten but that kept his family in clover and got him away, to some extent, from the pernicious interference of Papa. It's hard to imagine a more Viennese sound than Korngold's aria arrangement of Tales from the Vienna Woods crackling gently out of a lost world. Closes 18 May, highly recommended to all fans.
The final photo shows Tom with Pieter Schoeman, who after seven years as the LPO's highly praised and inspiring co-leader has now been made official joint leader on an equal footing with Boris Garlitsky. Much goulash to celebrate.
4 comments:
Speaking of your favorite maestro, the other classical critic of The Philadelphia Inquirer (yes, they actually do have more than one - this is Philly, in the USA, after all, not London, or Manchester) has this feature on Mr. Jurowski, where you may note that Stearns is less gaga over him than Dobrin, though still fairly complimentary. I also need to give you some context, that Dobrin was strongly anti-Eschenbach in Philly from Day One, while Stearns has been more forgiving of Eschenbach's tenure in Philly (hence the last paragraph and the last sentence of the one prior).
It's also interesting that the LPO and Mr. Jurowski will have a mini-residency at New York City's Lincoln Center next season (assuming that nothing mad doesn't happen before then and we actually elect a sensible leader in November, but I digress). Will you be traveling to NYC then?
You might like to know that most of the national newspapers in Britain have three or four classical critics each!
I hadn't heard any confirmation of the NY residency, though had noted some rumours. Hope it comes off OK. And if you DO elect a sensible president in the US, then I will certainly consider coming over to what was once my favourite city.
Glad you liked the Korngold Exhibition Jessica. It was a two year 'labour of love'project and both Michael Haas & I had a ball putting it together. Those readers of your blog unable to get to Vienna before it closes on May 18 might like to know that it is possible to order a copy of the lavish exhibition catalogue directly from the Jewish Museum.
The catalogue (illustrated with hundreds of rare photos) also comes with a marvellous free CD with many of the rare recordings featured in the exhibition (drawn from radio archives, the Korngold estate and my own collection).
To get a copy, all you need to do is send an email to Judith Smulovics in the publications dept at:-
judith.smulovics@jmw.at
and she will happily process orders. It is a genuine collector's item and, as I seriously doubt that any of the recordings featured on the CD will ever be available commercially, well worth getting.
Those planning to visit the closing week of the exhibition might like to know that the State Opera will revive Die tote Stadt then (the terrific Salzburg production) so two reasons for getting to Vienna in May!
This page links to the overall 2008-2009 Lincoln Center Great Performers calendar which encompasses the LPO/Jurowski residency concerts. To cut to the chase:
(1) Friday 2/27/09
Mahler: Adagio from Symphony No.10
Mozart: Piano Concerto No.23 in A major, K.488 (Leon Fleisher, piano)
Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra
(2) Saturday 2/28/09
Vladimir Martynov: Vita Nuova (U.S. Premiere)
Mark Padmore (Dante)
Tatiana Monogarova (Beatrice)
EuropaChorAkademie
(3) Sunday 3/1/09
Rachmaninoff:
(a) Isle of the Dead
(b) Piano Concerto No.4 in G minor (Alexei Lubimov, piano)
(c) Symphonic Dances
Well, unfortunately, given the marginal status of classical music in US culture and the lame state of music and the arts in US education (NYC and upper-crust schools in other major US cities being the exception), that US cities have one classical critic is an achievement in itself. Even veterans like Peter G. Davis in NYC and Wynne Delacoma in Chicago have been either pushed out or "offered" retirement options in the past few years. Boston, to their credit, when Richard Dyer retired, hired a young fellow, Jeremy Eichler, to take his place full time.
Regarding the other, non-musical half of the equation, given the ignorance of half the US electorate and the dysfunctional dysunity of the other half, it is by no means assured that we will elect a sensible president, sad to say. However, that is something that we have to work on ourselves, those of us who care.
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