George Hunka

Notes and comment

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    Opernachmittag

    I couldn’t let the day go by without noting that tomorrow’s Metropolitan Opera broadcast will feature the new Met production of Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, featuring Lise Davidsen and Michael Spyres; Yuval Sharon directs and Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts. You can stream this via Philadelphia’s WRTI tomorrow afternoon, March 21, at 12:00 noon Eastern time.

    The New York Times‘ Josh Barone was enthusiastic about the new production earlier this month — “the event of the season,” he says (gift link to his review here) — and it will undoubtedly be worth the time. Davidsen is reputed to be nothing less than miraculous (director Sharon has given her a baby in this one; I’m thinking I’ll be glad to listen and not sorry to miss the visuals), and Nézet-Séguin conducted a terrific in-concert version with Nina Stimme last season. I confess I’m somewhat skeptical of director-centric productions by the likes of Sharon; on the other hand, I was spellbound by the Chereau Ring at Bayreuth and recently very much enjoyed Barrie Kosky’s Don Giovanni for the Vienna opera. The little I’ve read of Sharon’s A New Philosophy of Opera is intriguing and tempts me to read further — what do I know? Still, a baby?

    Event of the season or not, Tristan is one of the great achievements of the aesthetic imagination, an extraordinarily erotic and meditative work, Schopenhauer as music. Listen, and before a second listening read Bryan Magee’s The Tristan Chord.

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    Quasquicentennial

    Or, to be rather less threatening about it, the Philadelphia Orchestra is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year. The orchestra is very closely associated with the historic Academy of Music, which is where I saw them in my youth, and my first visit to the Kimmel Center last year suggested that the new hall is fully worthy of the orchestra, acoustically and architecturally.

    Enthusiasts for the orchestra can tune into WRTI this Sunday at 1:00 pm Eastern for the start of a special two-week celebration, “examining the evolution of ‘the Philadelphia Sound’ through the performances and comments of the conductors who have nurtured it,” as WRTI host Melinda Whiting at this web page has it. Sunday’s program begins with the earliest years of the orchestra under Leopold Stokowski and carries through to the orchestra under Eugene Ormandy and Riccardo Muti; next week the celebration picks up with a look at the orchestra under Wolfgang Sawallisch, Christoph Eschenbach,  and its current music and artistic director Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

    You can livestream WRTI’s programming directly from its home page. For a little more context, look up Bruce Hodges’ insightful introduction to the Philadelphia Sound, which reveals that it’s about more than the string section.

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    Auf wiedersehen, Wien

    Bernardo Bellotto: View of Vienna from the Belvedere, 1759–1760.

    I’ve just returned from a meaningful week-long journey to Vienna, and especially memorable was the generous hospitality I enjoyed from the utterly charming Arabella Fenyves and the most gracious Christoph Wellner at radio klassik Stephansdom, then a few days later from the gentlemanly John Haynes over a few glasses of wine at the Cafe Schopenhauer. This, along with a fine and meditative St. John’s Passion at the Stephansdom itself; visits to the Belvedere, the city museum (excellent, I must say), the Leopold Museum and the Peterskirche; and Sunday mass at the Hofmusikkapelle on my birthday made for a very special week. When I first visited Vienna many years ago, I was most intrigued by the city’s fin de siècle culture; now, it seems, I’ve gone fully Baroque. I make no apologies for this, though of course I’ll never abandon Schnitzler, Klimt and Schiele (not to mention Thomas Bernhard). One day I’ll write all this up.

    One exhibit that I will miss, however, will be the Canaletto & Bellotto exhibition opening at the Kunsthistorisches Museum later this month. The painting at the top of this post will undoubtedly be front and center of the exhibition; the Museum web site notes:

    The panoramic view looks north from the Upper Belvedere, the summer palace built for Prince Eugene of Savoy but purchased in 1752 by Empress Maria Theresia. The city unfolds as a sequence of monumental landmarks. Bellotto seems to render Vienna with near-cartographic precision, but subtly compresses distances and steepens towers to guide the viewer’s eye inward and upward. The result is a carefully constructed image of Imperial order, presenting Vienna as flourishing under the rule of Maria Theresa and Francis I Stephen.

    Having just enjoyed that view myself from the Upper Belvedere, I can report that the charm of the landscape is undimmed after 250 years. Thank you especially to my lovely wife for the opportunity. Arabella, Christoph and John: I’ll be back.

    One response to “Auf wiedersehen, Wien”

    1. J. Haynes

      George, Vienna is better off because of your visit. Thanks for spending a few hours in conversation with me at Cafe Schopenhauer, and we all look forward to your next visit.

      As Billy Joel sang:

      Slow down, you crazy child
      And take the phone off the hook and disappear for a while
      It’s all right, you can afford to lose a day or two, ooh
      When will you realize Vienna waits for you?