New York and Vienna Philharmonic go Dutch on anniversary
mainBoth orchestras will be 175 years old in 2017. They’ve decided to put on a joint show in NY and Vienna.
press release:
The New York Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic, both celebrating their 175th anniversaries this season, will present an unprecedented joint exhibit of archival material from throughout the venerable orchestras’ histories, to be housed at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York, February 23–March 10, 2017. The exhibit will then travel to Vienna in March, where the New York Philharmonic will be performing on its EUROPE / SPRING 2017 tour (March 29 at the Konzerthaus) — the exhibit will open at the Haus der Musik on the Vienna Philharmonic’s 175 th birthday, March 28.
The exhibit, “Vienna and New York: 175 Years of Two Philharmonics,” will launch with a private event on February 22 featuring a joint performance of chamber music by musicians from the New York and Vienna Philharmonics.
They could do Mahler 8, as both orchestras had him as their conductor.
That would celebrate the Munich Philharmonic!
ugh, like mixing oil and vinegar.
Hopefully during that short time the violinists in the NYP can learn a thing or two about producing a lush, homogeneous, non-strident sound…..
No orchestra can do that in Geffen Hall. Try listening to them when they occasionally play at Carnegie and you will see that they can!
I have neither heard them play in Carnegie Hall nor in Geffen Hall, I have heard them play in several halls in Europe, most recently in the Philharmonie de Paris two years ago.
While the violins for the most part produced a homogenous sound, it was anything but lush. I would call it a bright and sometimes penetrating sound that consistently had an excessively crystalline quality.
All the while, the violists, cellists and bassists managed to draw a perfectly lush sound from their instruments.
It does have something to do with who’s waving the stick too. Kurt Masur and – sometimes – Lorin Maazel got a more ‘European’ sound out of them. Lately, they’ve sounded more like a big Broadway pit band. Tilson-Thomas very much gets the same sort of sound out of the S.F. Symphony. I’ll tell you one thing, the N.Y. Phil’s brass section sure has a lot of lung power – for better or for worse.
(Ahem)
Well, this sounds like a wonderful celebration. I’m sorry I won’t be in Vienna this year for it, going instead in 2018. I hope some of it ends up on TV or U-Tube. I had the pleasure of seeing/hearing the NYPO/Gilbert in the Musikverein in 2011. I’d been living there in Vienna for some months and was desperate to hear some spoken English. I was sitting right next to the first violins and, joy of joy, I loved hearing them talk to each other and watching them take pictures of one another!
How self-indulgent!
Isn’t that why we listen to music?
Yes, isn’t it!! And I’m going back next year for a re-run!! Alas, only for 3 months this time – but I have a lovely apartment to go to and this will make it bearable.