VPO 2011

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VPO's US tour next year is reminiscent of Karajan's early US visit: they will be playing in such venues as university auditoriums and local civic theatres.

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VPO mishap:

artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/01/and-the-band-played-on-at-carnegie-hall/?ref=music

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"Months before, the program had been changed from Bruckner’s monumental Eighth Symphony — death to many orchestras in its overtaxing ... but catnip to this one — to Smetana’s “Ma Vlast,” because Mr. Harnoncourt, 80, feared for his own stamina."

Karajan did drop the baton in Sinfonia Domestica (and cost him trip to hospital), but I think the piece is one of his finest in spite/because of this (see best list thread). Osborne did not say at which measure.

And then there is the Leonore II noise...

Still, hard to imagine - flip the score to the extent of falling? Harnoncourt does conduct w/o baton though.

In fact Karajan is without a baton in the April 1985 London live recording on Testament. Osborne liner notes: "Two idiosyncracies remained thruout Karajan's career where the Beethoven 4th was concerned. Exposition repeats were not taken, and bars 223 and 227". While I applaud the mentioning of missing repeats, an issue of great interest for me, I'm not sure why it's an "idiosyncracy", as K almost never repeats on anything save K 525 ("I Incline Not Music") and Beethoven 5. And there are many who do not repeat Beethoven 4.

Actually, the last time I was at a VPO Carnegie Hall concert wasn't a noiseless affair, either - I was in the 1st row and heard some heavy breathing when Tchaik 5 started. It was Gergiev grunting and continued to the end.

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For some reason beethoven 8 expo piqued K's interest in repeat more consistently.

So Op 53 is your favorite sonata?

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Conducting Brahms with Vienna is the same thing as conducting Tchaikovsky with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic - Bychkov

Doesn't seem to be a good sign for the VPO concert I'm going to next week...

David - I assume the Karajan Mahler 6 you went to was Scherzo first, then Andante? Any other recollections you wish to share? Thanks.

[David]

Hello tjh212,

I’m assuming the VPO Bychkov Mahler 6 you’re going to is in Costa Mesa this next Thursday.

Yes, you are correct about the sequence of the movements in the June 1977 London performance. Just to be certain I have referred to the programme which I still possess.

It’s always interesting to look back at these items and I found that there was an interesting description of the piece by Robin Golding which contains the following:-

“…… Not long before his death, in one of several revisions of the sixth Symphony, Mahler deleted the third hammer-stroke. At the same time he restored the four movements to their original order, with the Scherzo coming second and the Andante third. After the first publication of the score (in 1906) he was persuaded to place the Scherzo third, because of its close thematic relationship with the first movement - and many performances still observe this change, although it clearly does not represent the composer’s final wishes; tonight the symphony will be played as Mahler intended it, with the Scherzo as second movement and the Andante as third.”

The sixth is probably my favourite Mahler symphony. The final movement can be overwhelming. In Bruno Walter’s words “the mounting tension and climaxes resemble, in their grim power, the mountainous waves of a sea that will overwhelm and destroy the ship; the work ends in hopelessness and the dark night of the soul”.

Apparently the sixth was listed by Karajan as one of those works which left him emotionally drained for days, along with the likes of Sibelius 4, and Berg’s Three Orchestral Pieces etc.

In the Cleveland Orchestra topic last Christmas, you said that “if I bump into Bychkov after the concert perhaps I can ask him about sneaking into a Karajan concert mentioned in A Life in Music”.

Let us know how you go on!

As you said, Richard Osborne recalls that the 17-year-old Bychkov, at one of the June 1969 Karajan BPO Leningrad concerts, “clambered over a roof, eased himself in through the ladies lavatory, and was promptly arrested”.

Maybe he would have gained entry successfully without anyone knowing had he climbed into the hall via the gents lavatory !!

Anyway I hope you enjoy the concert. Speaking personally, I would be hoping that there would be no sort of encore to interfere with my ‘hearing’ of all the resonance of the Mahler for as long as possible afterwards.

Best Wishes -
David

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So we've come full circle back to score falling off. During VPO's Schumann 2 last night, it happened like Harnoncourt, except from one of the 1st violin stands instead of conductor.

Of the 3 VPO works I went to hear this week (also Mahler 6 and Brahms 2), the Schumann was the best technically (I went to Mehta's IPO Mahler 5 a couple days before the Mahler 6, and it had missed notes, too). I did pick up a couple more phrases where Mahler is similar with Brahms (list continues to grow).

Thanks David for the notes. According to Henri de la Grange it was in fact Bruno Walter who influenced Mahler's change to Andante first. I didn't meet Bychkov; however, did chat with a lady who attended a Furtwangler Beethoven 9. I still have never conversed in person with someone who'd been to Karajan, though.

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Another falling off, albeit more serious this time

artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/27/kurt-masur-in-good-condition-after-fall-off-podium/?ref=music

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Another falling off, albeit more serious this time

artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/27/kurt-masur-in-good-condition-after-fall-off-podium/?ref=music