New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic 1992

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The New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic in 1992 was the 52nd New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic and took place on January 1, 1992 at the Vienna Musikverein . It was conducted for the second and last time by Carlos Kleiber .

status

The New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic in 1992 was supposed to be conducted by Leonard Bernstein , an honorary member of the orchestra, but he died in New York in October 1990. The Philharmonic then approached Carlos Kleiber - with the request to take on this task, also in memory of the high quality New Year's concert in 1989 , which the exceptional artist had conducted and which was celebrated by the press and the public . Kleiber agreed.

Carlos Kleiber conducted the New Year's Concert only twice, in 1989 and 1992. Both concerts are considered to be the absolute highlights of the interpretation of works by the Strauss dynasty in musical history. However, the relationship between the Vienna Philharmonic and the conductor was not always frictionless. In 1982 there was a scandal: “One day before a concert at the Musikverein, Carlos Kleiber stormed out of the rehearsal furiously. The musicians didn't listen to him, he said later. All the Philharmonic got from Kleiber was a card that read: "I went into the blue". Jumper Lorin Maazel was flown in by private jet. Reconciliation took years to come. ”After the rift, the Vienna State Opera led to a renewed rapprochement. In 1985, opera director Egon Seefehlner was able to win over Carlos Kleiber for three performances by Bohème . There the ice broke, finally the orchestra invited the conductor to take over the New Year's concert in 1989 and everything was fine. 1992 as well. These two concerts occupy a special place in the history of this institution, which is rich in highlights, as the maestro was and is still considered the Johann Strauss expert par excellence. Peter Overbeck described the reason for the high level of acceptance of the "exceptional conductor " (on the occasion of a review of a rehearsal of the Fledermaus overture in 2003) as follows: "the rare combination of elegance, lightness and clarity of conducting, paired with the highest musicality".

The program of the concert was again strongly geared towards the younger Johann Strauss. Nine of the 15 works presented came from his pen, plus two polkas and two waltzes by his younger brother Josef Strauss and the obligatory conclusion with the Radetzky March by Johann Strauss (father) . The prelude was the overture to the Merry Wives of Windsor by Otto Nicolai , a tribute to the Vienna Philharmonic, as Nicolai had founded the orchestra. The highlights of the concert included - in addition to the Gypsy Baron Overture - the three long waltzes Dorfschwalben from Austria , Thousand and One Nights based on motifs from the operetta Indigo and Spheres Sounds by the Strauss brothers, and the legendary Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka , which was served in the Gasthaus Zum Großen in 1858 Zeisig was premiered on Spittelberg . “So beautiful, so wonderfully soft, extremely delicate and finely nuanced down to the icing on the cake and extremely tense and annoying, you can only very rarely hear the music of the Strauss Vater & Söhne company. And even with the traditional New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic, this is by no means the norm. "

Audience and press cheered, as recently as 2014, on the 75th anniversary of the New Year's Concert, people remembered that “the two Kleiber concerts were among the best, most energetic of these 75 years”. When the Philharmonic wanted to win him over for a third New Year's concert, he is said to have told the orchestra director Werner Resel that two were enough, he couldn't smile for two hours.

The flower arrangement was - as it has been every year since 1980 - a gift from the Italian city of Sanremo .

Style and body language

“What highlights Krauss ' Strauss interpretations is a singular feeling for the rubato , which is so essential in this music , which, apart from Carlos Kleiber and Herbert von Karajan, hardly achieved a successor in the later decades , but the latter only appeared once (1987), Kleiber twice at the New Year's desk (1989, 1992). "

The body language of the conductor, who occasionally danced or even stopped conducting, for example with the Jokey polka , corresponded perfectly with the lightness and cheerfulness of the melodies of the Strauss dynasty. Although this genre demands the highest level of concentration in every measure, Kleiber managed to achieve a feeling of absolute relaxation with his facial expressions and gestures and at the same time lead the orchestra precisely and meticulously through the program. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on a radio interview with Kleiber from 1960 in which the maestro said that the operetta was "about the hardest thing there is." With this view, he was in good company. His father Erich taught him that “operetta is precisely where you learn to conduct the most”. He had learned to conduct and now stood in front of one of the world's best orchestras and controlled the process from time to time with a minimum of efforts, sometimes with a grand gesture.

He, the shy and shy one, graciously and gratefully accepted the ovations from the audience. When Kleiber began to play the obligatory waltz on the beautiful blue Danube and the audience began to applaud, he interrupted - as planned - and turned to the audience, spoke in a clear and unambiguous voice: "The Vienna Philharmonic and I wish you," continued together the whole orchestra "Happy New Year". The former director of the State Opera, Ioan Holender, described Kleiber's conducting, whom he regarded as the greatest conductor and the "greatest musician of all", as "unreachable great moments" . "Carlos Kleiber knew how to create a classical-looking, perhaps even Mozart-like, structural seriousness and balance without neglecting virtuosity."

program

1st chapter

  • Otto Nicolai : Overture to the comic opera "The merry women of Windsor" (duration 8:56 minutes)
  • Johann Strauss (son) : City and Country. Polka Mazur, op. 322 (04:24)
  • Josef Strauss : Village swallows from Austria. Waltz, op.164 (08:34)
  • Josef Strauss: Fireproof. Polka française, op.269 (?)
  • Johann Strauss (son): pleasure train. Polka fast, op.281 (02:49)

Part 2

Encores

Official list of works and order from the Musikverein archive.

occupation

Carlos Kleiber rehearsing

Television broadcast

Brian Large was responsible for the picture direction of the 34th ORF broadcast. The concert was broadcast in numerous countries.

Recordings

A live recording of the concert was released on two compact discs, which were released in 1992.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Carlos Kleiber, Life and Career , accessed on December 20, 2016. The term “jump in” used here does not appear correct, as there were more than 14 months between Bernstein's death and the concert. The conductor of the upcoming New Year's concert is traditionally not announced until January, after the concert.
  2. ↑ Rainer Elstner: Carlos Kleiber (conductor) makes music: Deniers with miracles , August 9, 2013, accessed on December 19, 2016
  3. ↑ Peter Overbeck : Carl Maria von Weber, Johann Strauss Carlos Kleiber at the rehearsal & in concert; Freischütz Overture / Fledermaus Overture , Rondo, May 24, 2003, accessed on November 27, 2016.
  4. ↑ Matthew Boyden and Nick Kimberley write about the Münchner Fledermaus recording with Kleiber at the desk and with Popp , Varady , Kollo , Prey , Rebroff and Weikl in The Rough Guide to Opera , Rough Guides 2002, p. 286, accessed on November 27 2016 under [1] : "Carlos Kleiber reinvents almost every score he turns to, and this [ Die Fledermaus ] is no exception."
  5. ↑ Bocks Music Shop: SCL BSIN03743378 (2 CD set) Wiener Philharmoniker / Kleiber, Carlos - New Year's Concert 1989 (2 CD set) , including the complete list of all pieces of music from the CD release and an excerpt from a review from Stereoplay, accessed on 27 November 2016.
  6. ↑ Rainer Elster: Carlos Kleiber (conductor) makes music , Ö1 bis zwei , August 9, 2013, 1:00 p.m. to 1:55 p.m., accessed on November 27, 2016.
  7. ↑ Alexander Werner: Carlos Kleiber: Eine Biographie , Schott Music 2013, quoted here. according to [2] , accessed on November 27, 2016.
  8. ↑ Flower arrangements at the New Year's Concert for 25 years from San Remo . City hall correspondence of October 21, 2005, accessed on November 27, 2016.
  9. ^ Die Presse (Vienna): The New Year's Concert: A gold mine turns 75 , December 31, 2014, accessed on December 20, 2016.
  10. ^ Eleonore Büning : AUCH DAS STILL , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , January 14, 2012, page Z5, quoted here. According to Musikverlag Josef Weinberge: Great found light difficult , accessed on December 20, 2016.
  11. ^ Die Presse (Vienna): Musikverein: Nur das Beste für Carlos Kleiber , June 20, 2010, accessed on December 20, 2016.
  12. ↑ Carlos Kleiber - I Am Lost To The World , TV documentary about the life and work of the conductor, 2010, accessed on YouTube on December 18, 2016.
  13. ↑ Ernst Müller: Highest intensity: the conductor Carlos Kleiber , Aus der Rille, accessed on December 20, 2016.
  14. ↑ amazon.at - Vienna Philharmonic - New Years Concert 1992 . Retrieved December 20, 2016.