[Dixielandjazz] Vienna Austria 6/23/09 (part 1)

[Katie Cavera]

June 23, 2009
Vienna, Austria

Grüss Gott!
This past Sunday I went to see the Vienna Philharmonic.  This wasn’t my first trip to see them - I actually saw them the previous Sunday as well, so let me backtrack a little.  The main thing I wanted to do here in Vienna was see the Philharmonic perform.  And they perform frequently, but the trick is, finding time to see them when I’m not working.  Luckily the past two Sundays, they’ve had performances at 11 am and since our Sunday show isn’t until 6 p.m. it worked out perfectly.  

The first performance I saw was on June 14th at the Musikverein.  I was able to get a ticket for a mere 28 euros and I sat *onstage* (!) right behind the percussion section. Ironically the program was made up of French music conducted by Pierre Boulez. Still I was about to see a performance by a legendary orchestra in a legendary venue and they could play just about anything and I’d be thrilled.

The day of the show I took my seat behind the orchestra.  They had about 15 or so moveable chairs set up (and people *did* move them for a better view once the concert began!) and every chair was filled.  In fact I think the hall was pretty much filled to capacity and I could even see people standing in the back. When the orchestra entered about half of them passed right by where I was sitting. This was really interesting because I could see how many girls were in the group. I counted three and I was hoping there were a few more on the other side too which I couldn’t see -but more about that later. Then Boulez entered and the concert began.

I’m going to do my best to describe the sound of this particular orchestra in this particular venue, but I don’t know if words will do justice to what I heard that day.  The first piece was Debussy, and when the strings played the first pianissimo sustained notes, it was like a warm wave of sound washing over me.  I felt like I was inside the music rather then hearing it come at me from some remote location.  I heard sounds and colors that I know I would never hear if I listened to a recording from the exact same performance. As the harp and flute played a unison line, I could hear each voice distinctly as well as the ‘new’ sound of the two voices blending perfectly together. It’s no surprise that this city is so passionate about classical music when they get to hear it like this on a regular basis.  The only microphones I saw in the hall were the ones that were recording the performance.  The acoustics in this hall were so natural and pure
 that even when a single violin played solo everyone could clearly hear every note.  When the piece concluded, everyone stayed absolutely quite for at least 5 or 6 seconds after the orchestra stopped because that’s how long it took for the hall to stop ringing.

On the intermission I took a walk around and saw no less then three different salons with large windows overlooking the city where people were having coffee or wine and little pastries. It all seemed very civilized.  And I walked to the back of the hall where the people were standing.  I hadn’t noticed from where I was seated that most of the people in the standing room area were students.  Kids with iPods and notebooks wearing jeans and laughing with their friends.  If I were a student in Vienna I’d be doing just that every chance I could. 

After intermission the concert concluded with a piece that was heavy with percussion.  Where we only had maybe 2 or 3 percussionists before, we now had about 8 or 9 playing things like kettle drums, a marimba, and a gong.  One guy played a giant hanging chime with two big rubber mallets that sounded like a church bell when he struck it.  From this point out I was either in the best seat in the house or the worst depending on how you looked at it.  You can decide for yourself.

(to be continued)



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