Vienna Philharmonic replaces Barenboim with a concertmaster
NewsDaniel Barenboim, still struggling with health issues, has cancelled this weekend’s concerts at the Musikverein at 24 hours’ notice.
Kirill Gerstein will replace him as soloist in a Mozart piano concerto.
But in a striking change of policy, the orchestra has called upon one of its concertmasters, Volkhard Steude, to conduct the concerts from his seat.
Steude, 50 and originally from east Germany, has been concertmaster since 1994.
The programme is all-Mozart: Symphony in G minor, KV 183; Concerto for piano and orchestra in G major, KV 453; Symphony in D major, KV 504.
Here’s the announcement:
Due to illness, Maestro Daniel Barenboim will cancel the concerts in the Vienna Musikverein. This affects the Concert of the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna on Friday, March 18th at 07:30 pm, and also the subscription concerts on Saturday, March 19th at 03:30 pm and on sunday, March 20th at 11:00 am.
Concertmaster Volkhard Steude thankfully agreed to serve as artistic director of these concerts from the podium of the first violin.
Kirill Gerstein will perform the piano concert in G major, KV 453, as soloist.
Concerto’s Andante is one of my fav’s , so exquisite music …. listen to it almost every day now 😉
This is no big deal, period bands have been taking this approach for years, nice to see the VPO catch up.
But still a very great risk; without a big name/big bucks ‘maestro’ to direct them will the VPO know what to do/where to go?
The Konzertmeister has been in place for nearly 30 years. I think he will do an EXCELLENT job.
Whoosh! My fault — I should have typed this in ironics.
In their sleep!
Easy enough to do for any leader or concert master to in this repertoire. Shame Danny is still so indisposed. Old age and injury comes to us all eventually … really wish them all well with the concert, and Danny a quick and full recovery.
Volkhard Steude joined the Vienna Philharmonic in 1998 after being in the opera orchestra. Not sure when he became a concertmaster. He may be able to lead from the first chair for the early symphony but not for the Prager! Should be a good concert.
Staatsoper CM 1994
VP CM 2000
Kirill Gerstein isn´t just a replacement…He is a big improvement!!!
Gerstein is not as overrated as Barenboim. That would be an improvement in relative terms.
Superior pianist in every way…
Definitely! Barenboim is a fantastic musician / conductor but his piano-playing these days has become a little sub-standard. I think he’s too busy & doesn’t have enough time to practise these days to sustain an international piano career.
The Brahms 2nd concerto last year was a train wreck…He really shouldn´t play those things anymore
I remember concertmaster Erich Binder taking over from Christoph von Dohnanyi a VPO subscription concert at the last minute. Early 80s.
A year or two later, Binder took over the last two acts of La Boheme from Giuseppe Patanè at the State Opera. Reportedly Patanè was physically unable to continue and Binder happened to be in the building, off-duty. (The press pointed out that Maazel, then director of the State Opera, happened to be in Zurich. They never missed a chance to take shots at him, before and during his tenure.)
A sensible move since he did study under Hans Swarowsky…….
Rainer Honeck led the VPO strings in Strauss´Methamorphosen a few years ago
Mr Steude is a marvelous player and great chamber musician. Damm, how I wonder if this concert will be streaming on-line.
“Originally from East Germany” is a slightly odd thing to write. If the guy’s 50 years old, it means he was born in 1971/72, which means he was 17/18 when the GDR collapsed in 1989. In other words, he’s spent his whole adult life in a unified Germany. So why even bother to bring it up, except as a kind of underhand othering exercise?
I think one could argue that East Germany’s musical culture is a bit more closely related to Vienna’s than West Germany’s. Germans often talk about their east and west cultural communities. It’s not othering, but a recognition of identity. They go even further and often speak of their tribal origins like Saxons, Bavarians, Hessians, Prussians, Alemanni, Rhinelanders, Frieslanders, Schwabs, Franks, etc. Part of what makes Germany’s culture rich and interesting. It’s also amazing how they hold on to and celebrate these identities in the highly interconnected modern world and in a country about the size of Montana.
That’s one way of looking at it. On the other hand, I’m actually married to someone from “East” Germany, and he gets thoroughly bored of West Germans hearing from his accent that he is (was?) an Ossi and even now cracking jokes about whether he’s ever seen a banana. If you think this a just a celebration of tribal origins and there are no underlying power dynamics involved in pointing out that someone is East German, then you’re a bit more naive than I’d have otherwise assumed.
When it comes to orchestral culture, don’t eastern German orchestras have more distinct identities? Think of the Berlin Staatskalle, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Dresden Staatskalle. (Same with the Czech Philharmonic) Arguably one of the very few positive legacies of the iron curtain.
Staatskapelle, not Staatskalle. My god, sometimes we write too fast.
Perhaps. But why doesn’t any mention the genius of Meyerbeer???
War doch bekannt ,dass Barenboim krank ist. Nicht rechtzeitig für einen eventuellen Ersatz zu suchen ist eigenartig..
Barenboim hat doch vergangenes Wochenende (11 – 13. März) dreimal Verdi Requiem in Berlin dirigiert. War wohl zu viel, zu früh …
May Daniel Barenboim get well soon…
Surely, an improvement.
Hope you get well soon, Maestro Barenboim.