Saturday, February 28, 2009 at 8 PM
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Zubin Mehta
Hugo Wolf | Italian Serenade
Joseph Marx | Lieder: “Hat Dich die Liebe berührt,” “Selige Nacht,” “Zigeuner,” “Barcarole.” Soloist: Angela Maria Blasi, Soprano.
Franz Schubert | Symphony No. 9, “Great”
Encores: Johann Strauss Jr. | “Tritsch-Tratsch” Polka, Op. 214 & “Unter Donner und Blitz,” Op. 324
Joseph Hellmesberger Jr. | “Leichtfüssig”
Eduard Strauss Sr. | “Bahn Frei!”
The Wiener Philharmoniker’s sound is still different from that of any orchestra I’ve heard live. Lucky the New Yorkers who can make the Vienna ensemble’s three-night appearance each year here an annual tradition of their own. The first half of this concert presented two works entirely new to me—Hugo Wolf’s lyrical, lovely Italian Serenade and a set of songs by Joseph Marx, both composers from the Age of Mahler—though selections, I suspect, chosen as a breather for the orchestra as they recovered from the Bruckner Ninth 24 hours ago and prepared for the Schubert Ninth to come after intermission. It was of course the mammoth, marathon Schubert symphony that provided the revelatory vehicle for this orchestra’s flawlessly rich sound. (One might characterize it as “robust creaminess,” but that’d risk evoking the curdled decadence or mere afterthought status of dessert.) It was one densely woven fabric of sound, with no relenting whatsoever in intensity and no bristling over of texture. In the moment, one felt as if this is what an orchestra should be, must be.
[Update: James Oestreich in the NYT reflects a few days later on the Vienna Philharmonic’s choices of encore during this series of Carnegie Hall concerts.]