New Year's Concert by the Vienna Philharmonic 1946

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The New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic in 1946 was the 6th New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic and took place on January 1, 1946 at the Vienna Musikverein . It was conducted for the first time by Josef Krips .

Historical background

Part of the National Socialist cultural policy was the denial and suppression of the Austrian - as an antipode to German culture - and at the same time the promotion of the harmless, the local color and the lovely. In the Nazi regime, art was not allowed to hurt or disturb, but should either promote the sublime , see Wagner , Breker , Riefenstahl , or represent the lovely and pretty. In this respect, Anzengruber , Waldmüller and the Viennese operetta fit perfectly into Goebbels and von Schirach's cultural-political concept . The Vienna Philharmonic was explicitly mandated by Nazi cultural policy to promote works by the Strauss dynasty , pure escapism in times of a bloody world war brought about by the Nazis, the Holocaust , the Porajmos , the physical annihilation of political opponents, disabled people, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, so called antisocial, homeless, vagabond. Today the Philharmonic write on their website:

“The origin of this concert falls in the darkest period in the history of Austria and the orchestra. In the midst of barbarism, dictatorship and war, in a phase of constant fear for the lives of individual members or their relatives, the Philharmonic set an ambivalent accent on December 31, 1939: the net proceeds of an extraordinary concert dedicated to the Strauss dynasty under the direction of Clemens Krauss was Dedicated entirely to the National Socialist fundraising campaign for the War Winter Aid. "

The work of the brothers Johann and Josef Strauss had long been a special concern of Krauss. The prototype of the New Year's Concert took place on August 11, 1929 at the Salzburg Festival : a pure Johann Strauss Sohn program with the Philharmonic and Clemens Krauss at the podium. Similar concerts followed, again in Salzburg , every year until 1933, again in 1939, 1942 and 1943. From the start of the war, Krauss established the Salzburg concept as a concert at the turn of the year, as a piece of escape from the world, as a “real Viennese joy festival”, from the Großdeutscher Rundfunk to the front transmitted and conducted it every year until the fall of the regime.

From 1940 the Vienna Philharmonic increasingly played waltzes and polkas, also under other conductors. Leopold Reichwein and Hans Heinz Scholtys conducted RAVAG and NSDAP concerts with pure Strauss programs, Hans Knappertsbusch conducted Kraft-durch-Freude programs at the Salzburg Festival in 1940 with works by Strauss, Heuberger , Komzák , Lanner , Suppé and Ziehrer . Even Karl Böhm integrated Viennese waltz in its concert programs with the Philharmonic, which also Rudolf Moralt , Anton Paulik and Wilhelm Wacek a number of Wehrmacht concerts played with light entertainment, not only in Vienna but throughout Greater Germany and in occupied territories. In 1943 the Philharmonic made a guest appearance with a Schubert / Strauss program, directed by Wilhelm Furtwängler , in Gothenburg, Uppsala and Stockholm, and then in Berlin with an expanded program. In Berlin and Vienna, the orchestra Johann Strauss also played in the respective Siemens factories . There were also a number of work and work break concerts with Strauss, and in March 1945 Clemens Krauss and the orchestra traveled to Salzburg to play waltzes in the SS barracks Glasenbach and in the Festspielhaus.

The first New Year's concert after the liberation of Austria

The Viennese Clemens Krauss thought that his commitment to early Viennese music could make the transition to the post-Nazi era easier for him, and in fact he succeeded, as early as May 1, 1945, 18 days after the end of the Battle of Vienna , Conducting a Strauss program in the Wiener Konzerthaus at the podium of the Vienna Philharmonic. This time they played the Russian March op. 426 and the Polka Schnell Without worries op. 271. But the conductor's involvement in Nazi cultural policy quickly became apparent and he was banned from performing.

That is why Josef Krips was invited in 1946 and 1947 to take over the New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic. In the retrospective it can be stated that his independence from the Nazi cultural scene was used for the continuation of the concert and that he only served as a placeholder for Clemens Krauss, who took over the concert again in 1948 and conducted it continuously until his death in 1954. Even after the death of Clemens Krauss, Krips was no longer invited.

The concert was officially called the New Year's Concert for the first time in 1946 . At the turn of the year 1939/40, an Extraordinary Concert with works by the Strauss dynasty was given on December 30th and 31st . On January 1, 1941, the concert took place for the first time on New Year's Day and, like from 1943 to 1945, was called the Philharmonic Academy . On January 1, 1942, the concert was announced as the Johann Strauss concert .

Two works were played in 1945 and 1946: the overture to the operetta Indigo and the forty robbers , in both cases the opening piece, and the pizzicato polka by Johann and Josef Strauss. The Radetzky March was first included in the program in 1946 by Johann Strauss (father) . How far this was a conscious decision for the Austrian - after all, an important novel by the early Nazi emigrant Joseph Roth bears the title Radetzkymarsch - is not known. In any case, the Radetzky March has since firmly established itself in the program and traditionally represents the final piece of the television broadcast. The concert took place a few days after the legendary radio speech by Federal Chancellor Leopold Figl , who spoke the following words:

“ I can't give you anything for Christmas, I can't give you any candles for the Christmas tree, if you have one at all, no piece of bread, no coal to heat, no glass to cut into. We have nothing. I can only ask you, believe in this Austria! "

- Leopold Figl, 1965 reconstructed Christmas speech from 1945 on Austrian radio .

Performance by Josef Krips

Josef Krips conducts

Since he was unencumbered, Krips saved the institution founded by the Nazi regime into the post-Nazi era. He, who had already proven himself to be a connoisseur and excellent conductor of the Fledermaus at the Vienna State Opera in the 1930s , brought the music form occupied by the National Socialists back into Austrian culture . The commitment of the “half-Jewish” Krip also made it possible to conceal the Nazi entanglements of the Vienna Philharmonic for decades, which only became fully visible in the 21st century. It was not until October 23, 2013 that the Philharmonic decided to withdraw the awards (ring of honor or Nicolai medal ) that had been awarded to six Nazi grandees . Among them were the Reichsgauleiter Arthur Seyß-Inquart and Baldur von Schirach . The New Year's Concert in 1946 paved the way for the institutionalization and revaluation of the works of the Strauss dynasty from distraction and glossing over (during the Nazi regime) to work of hope and a message of peace (after 1945).

Apart from this cultural-political achievement, Krips was also an excellent conductor and Strauss connoisseur, as can be seen from the audio files available. An "anthemic" review of the 1946 New Year's Concert by Peter Lafite was published in the Wiener Kurier .

program

The list of works and their order are taken from the website of the Vienna Philharmonic.

Quote

“For me, Johann Strauss is a real genius. His music was a gift to the world at the end of the 19th century. I let it play with the same care as Mozart's works. I am often asked what is special about the three-beat of a waltz. A Viennese has that in their blood. [...] In a Strauss waltz, the conductor is not allowed to specify absolutely regular tempos. "

- Josef Krips : Pas de musique sans amour , Paris 2004, p. 387f

occupation

Audio documents

There is no sound recording of the 1946 New Year's Concert.

However, at a later point in time, Josef Krips recorded five pieces of music by Johann Strauss (son) with the Vienna Philharmonic, including the Kaiser Waltz . The other four recorded pieces all came from the program of the New Year's Concert of 1946: the three waltz Accelerations , Roses from the South and On the Beautiful Blue Danube as well as the Pizzicato Polka . This record appeared in five different editions, including 1958, 1975 and 1981.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Vienna Philharmonic : The First New Year's Concert , accessed on January 4, 2017.
  2. ^ Archives of the Salzburg Festival : 3rd Orchestra Concert - Clemens Krauss , accessed on January 4, 2017.
  3. ^ Archives of the Salzburg Festival: 5th Orchestra Concert - Clemens Krauss , accessed on January 4, 2017.
  4. ^ Archive of the Salzburg Festival: Clemens Krauss , accessed on January 4, 2017.
  5. ↑ Archive of the Salzburg Festival: CLEMENS KRAUS 1 , accessed on January 4, 2017.
  6. ↑ Archive of the Salzburg Festival: CLEMENS KRAUSS 1 , accessed on January 4, 2017.
  7. ↑ Austria Press Agency : New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic: The Conductors , published in the Tiroler Tageszeitung (Innsbruck), January 1, 2015, accessed on January 4, 2017.
  8. ↑ The subscription concerts of the Philharmonic were considered regular concerts .
  9. ↑ The American occupation in Upper Austria The audio document obtained from this speech was recorded a few years later, because in 1945 there was no tape.
  10. ↑ Die Presse: Figl's radio speech 1945: The "Poldl" still moves us today (December 24, 2009)
  11. ↑ Sound recording on ORF from December 24, 2015
  12. ↑ In the 1930s, Krips conducted Die Fledermaus 18 times, Millöcker's begging students 9 times and Lehárs [[Giuditta (operetta) |]] 3 times at the Vienna State Opera .
  13. ↑ Johannes Kunz : Light and Shadow: Memories , Vienna: Amalthea Signum Verlag 2014, here quoted from [1]
  14. ^ Vienna Philharmonic: New Year's Concert 1946 , accessed on January 4, 2016
  15. ↑ Discogs : The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra *, Josef Krips - Strauss: The Blue Danube , accessed on January 4, 2016