Boos for Beethoven’s 9th in Vienna

The Konzerthaus audience voiced its dismay at the end of a revised Beethoven 9th on Saturday night.

Between the second and third movements, the conductor Omer Meir Wellber inserted a new work by the Israeli composer Ella Milch-Sheriff (pictured). ‘The Eternal Stranger’, a monodrama on homelessness for actor and orchestra, did not go down well with the Viennese bourgeoisie. The newspaper Die Presse designated it ‘a completely unnecessary experiment’.

UPDATE: Hwere’s a different view from Kurier:
Kurier, 02.01.2024 (Wien)

Beethoven’s Ninth” as an appeal for human love and against anti-Semitism

Meir Wellber and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra at the turn of the year

Review.
Before Omer Meir Wellber handed over his post as music director of the Volksoper to Ben Glassberg, he transformed the traditional performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Ninth” with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra at the Konzerthaus into a stirring appeal for human love and against anti-Semitism.

This was achieved by means of the disturbingly powerful composition “The Eternal Stranger” by Ella Milch-Sheriff, which he wove into Opus 125.

Milch-Sheriff set a letter by Beethoven to music, in which he imagines a journey to Syria, Arabia and Israel. Joshua Sobol wrote a monologue that tells the story of someone stranded in our world. It is a moment of disturbance when Beethoven’s harmonies mutate into shimmering string sounds, an oboe suddenly intones an oriental-sounding solo, the actor Eli Danker rises from the orchestra to speak rhythmically, telling of his love for everything that exists, but which offers him no protection against the hatred of others.

Associations with Gaza

Danker acts brilliantly, drumming, dancing, falling, awakening associations with the sentence: “My son, where are you?” with current events in Gaza. How many parents shout this in their thoughts to their children who are still being held hostage? Wellber leads seamlessly to the Adagio of the Symphony in D minor, leading with verve to the finale. Christopher Maltman, Michael Schade, Mari Eriksmoen, Wallis Giunta and the Vienna Singakademie are excellent and expressive.

It was unfortunate that some of the audience did not want to appreciate the memorable nature of this performance and protested against the new music, but in the end the cheers dominated.

Susanne Zobel