The Vienna Philharmonic is flying to Japan
mainWith all other orchestras grounded by Covid, the Viennese will have the skies to themselves.
They are playing Suntory Hall the week after next with Valery Gergiev and Putin’s other pal, Denis Matsuev.
The hall says:
We are delighted to announce that Wiener Philharmoniker / the Vienna Philharmonic will be able to travel to Japan and the following concert will take place as scheduled under the highest level of precautionary measures and self-restrictions to prevent the infection during the orchestra’s stay in Japan. Also, the orchestra and Suntory Hall appreciate your kind cooperation for practising precautionary measures.
John Williams taught them how to fly and how to use the Force.
Bollocks mate.
Good to see! Programs (@ $400) are:
9th
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2 (w/Matsuev)
Tchaikovsky: Rococo Variations (w/Tsutsumi)
Stravinsky: The Firebird (1910, complete)
10th
Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64, excerpts
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2 (w/Matsuev)
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, “Pathétique”
13th
Beethoven: Overture to “Coriolan”
Tchaikovsky: Rococo Variations (w/Tsutsumi)
Strauss: Ein Heldenleben
14th
Debussy: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
Debussy: La mer ― Trois esquisses symphoniques
Stravinsky: The Firebird (1910, complete)
TchaiCOUGHsky: RoCORONA Variations
The usual LSO programme with Gergiev! Good luck not catching Covid….
Question to cellists: what do you think of Tsutsumi? I like recordings of his I have heard, but I am not a cellist.
Boring programme, take out Strauss Debussy and the Russian stuff and replace it with Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert. Would not pay or fly for that.
Maybe they will make the new year concert for us in Japan…
With Heldenleben instead of the dull Johann Strauß.
These programmes are hardly adventurous
But flying the entire orchestra halfway around the world right now to play them definitely is.
Well, with the actual tragic situation, with thousands of death and thousands of unemployed musicians and lockdowned orchestras, I find this really indecent. For me it’s like walking on bones.
Either that or maybe it is a courageous and possibly even heroic act of sacrifice for the art of classical music.
Yes, I’m sure the WP is donating all profits from the tour to medical research…
It heartens me no end to know that the Asian nations are embracing art music with both hands. It will stand in good stead in perpetuity!! Well done Wiener Philharmoniker. I hope you all are safe (and don’t go climbing any mountains!).
Touring during the pandemic, really? Doesn’t sound like a smart decision to me… but to each his own.
Concerts have been back in Japan for a while. I believe a full audience is now allowed, although some performances choose to play to half capacity only, for social distancing.
I just took a look at the schedule of Suntory Hall for November https://www.suntory.com/culture-sports/suntoryhall/schedule/ The Gergiev-ViennaPhil concerts are listed along with quite a few cancelled performances (“due to the coronavirus”), including recitals by Itzhak Perlman, Yundi Li & Jose Carrera; orchestral performances by Staatskapelle Dresden, Taiwan Symphony Orchestra & Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra; AND some Japanese orchestra performances (such as Yomiuri Nippon Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra).
Japanese audiences are the best they don’t cough up a storm like in the U.S.
Superspreader event.
WPO could not find a better combo of conductor/pianist for a tour to Japan?!? WOW, that’s a shame!
Great.
Like it very much as long as pandemic protocols will be ther
Irresponsible!
Great…another superspreader event. Despicable actions here. The program should read
Stravinsky: The Firebird (1910, complete) followed by “Mass Death Event 2020 (potentially 2021 depending on the lag). Don’t people realize the catastrophic stuff going on? I pray that this gets canceled. Maybe another Hong Kong style strategy is necessary here?
Agree. Hospitals are crowded, there are not enough doctors (let alone the fact that many of them receive unfair salaries), this is really not the time to fly an entire orchestra to another continent… but now that Austria cancelled all events maybe the orchestra will not be allowed to travel. Who knows.
We should not mix things up – not a single infection seems to have happened in an opera house or concert venue due to the sophisticated safety measures at those events in Austria. Calling concerts a „superspreader event“ is very dangerous, leads to destroying long grown and immensely important cultural structures and does not help anyone who is really affected and maybe hospitalised… The real problem are private gatherings and parties, not the places, where people just want to enjoy some of the finest pieces ever composed, and thus accepting strictest rules.