Toppers conquer Vienna's Musikverein

Five days exploring Vienna and four concert evenings in the Große Saal of the Musikverein: you should be satisfied with nothing less. With a roster of composers on the program such as Bartók, Schumann, Mahler, Strauss, Dvorák, Verdi, Puccini and performers such as Jonas Kaufmann, Diana Damrau, Helmut Deutsch, Vilde Frang… It was quite something, that itinerary mapped out by the music travel organization Cimarosa.

Of course you know that Musikverein hall from TV with the annually broadcast New Year's Concert, full of golden glitter and glamour. You're glad you can finally be there in person without having to reserve a seat years in advance. Under all those TV spotlights the Musikverein looks polished and gleaming as never before, but when you step inside yourself you see that the hall does show signs of wear. It's not as dazzling beautiful as on the TV screen. Allure, certainly, but comfortable chairs, worn parquet, peeling gilding? It could be better, yet it remains an experience, especially when you can hear a violinist of stature: the Norwegian Vilde Frang.

First the Münchner Philharmoniker played a well-known Bartók: his divertimento for string orchestra, in a version with a full orchestra on stage. Usually the music of this composer grates harshly and discordantly. This is a divertimento and here the strings caressed most gently. Only towards the end did the first violinist manage to articulate the dissonances expressionistically. Even more skillfully on that instrument was Vilde Frang afterwards in the violin concerto by Robert Schumann. Yet a work you won't immediately hear at an Elisabeth competition. Schumann wrote it at the request of a fellow violinist and considered it a occasional work himself. The commissioner saw a certain weariness in it from the composer. It was only performed after his death, incidentally. Indeed, it starts rather bombastically and there's little surprise in it except for the moments when Vilde Frang solos. Effortlessly and with restraint she brings the numerous technically difficult passages virtuosically with romantic schwung. As a finale we could still listen to a better-known composition by Schumann, his Spring Symphony. It is conductor Pablo Heras-Casado, known to us from his collaboration with the Bruges Anima Eterna, who performs all this flawlessly with the Münchner Philharmoniker.

Exceptional "Liederabend" with Jonas Kaufmann and Diana Damrau

Our second concert evening at the Musikverein was sold out, even with seats on the stage and standing room at the back of the hall. We haven't seen that yet where we come from. This concerns a renowned trio, beside star of the evening Jonas Kaufmann also his singing partner soprano Diana Damrau and the quintessential accompanist for lieder, pianist Helmut Deutsch. The program: Lieder von Richard Strauss und Gustav Mahler. Not minor names in the lied genre and two lifelong friends. Strauss wrote more than 150 of them. He did this mainly in his young composer years. We heard his opus 10/1 as the first work, with the well-known love song Zueignung. Soprano and tenor took turns performing other lieder from that cycle and did so together on stage. It seemed somewhat theatrical as if they wanted to make a whole love story out of that cycle, including mime. Both have beautiful voices but the excellent control they have of their voice suffered under that theatrical staging and their sometimes too powerful volume. In the interpretation of the Strauss lieder, and especially in passages they sang "leise," the subtlety of their vocal ability truly came into its own. He for example in Nachtgang and she in Freundliche Vision. After the intermission Diana Damrau came on stage alone with Mahler lieder and felt precisely more at ease without the compelling presence of the imposing Kaufmann. She sang a selection from the Des Knaben Wunderhorn cycle. More familiar work of course, melodically richer and more mature. Then Kaufmann again with a couple of those magnificent Rückert lieder: Ich atmet' einen linden Duft or Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen. This is how you want to hear Kaufmann, at his best! Then the two once again took turns with a number of Strauss lieder with Diana Damrau enchanting in Morgen!

North and South American-tinged concert

Our musical program on the third evening at the Musikverein was colored by North and South America. With the Austrian Tonkünstler Orchester conducted by Venezuelan Domingo Hindoyan, an orchestra in permanent residence at the Musikverein. They perform a symphony by Puerto Rican Roberto Sierra and we hear North Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski in a concerto by Argentine Alberto Ginastera and finally listen to that New World composed by Dvorák when he arrived there.

For all concerts we received daily first a solid and smooth introduction in a typical Viennese coffee house by Klara presenter and musicologist Nicole Van Opstal, musical tour guide of the day with quality first!

First, in world premiere for Austria, that symphony by Roberto Sierra, the 6th. Because it had to, just like Beethoven's 6th, become a Pastorale. The nature from Beethoven's years has certainly come to sound quite different in the meantime. In the first part (Reflexion urbana) this Puerto Rican composer first tries to escape the noisy city. An extensive percussion instrument arsenal, including xylophone marimbas and bongos, helps him do so and then in the second part (La noche) he dives into the silence of the night but then collides with a tropical hurricane that dissolves into a finale full of Caribbean music. Do I hear Puerto Rican sounds here that remind one of Bernstein's West Side Story? The flair with which the Venezuelan Domingo Hindoyan conducts his orchestra inevitably recalls that other impressive compatriot of his, Gustavo Dudamel.

With the "Concierto Argentina" by Alberto Ginastera we land in South America. Jazzy and rhythmic, sometimes somewhat dissonant, the brilliant pianist from North Macedonia Simon Trpceski waltzes fortissimo through a charming simple theme. With an Adagietto Poetica we enter a calmer mood and conclude with swift runs and a heavily orchestrated Allegro. The orchestra plays very articulated both in the quieter passages and in the tremendously explosive moments. All of this in a distinctly recognizable South American musical idiom. The icing on the cake of that evening was Dvořák's ninth. It is known as a masterpiece. Everything has already been said about it. The Tonkünstler Orchester can only confirm this status and does so. It made the reputation of the New World Symphony only more perfect.

"Il Fiamingo della Tiorba": Philippe Vermeulen

We encountered not only composers of course but also all those other famous Viennese of their time: Klimt, Schiele, Wagner, Loos, Hofmann, Kokoschka, also our Breughel and Rubens and not to forget Franz-Joseph I. With him came an end to that exceptional Viennese period but he did leave behind a world heritage of buildings. We visited that famous Belvedère, the Leopold Museum, Kunsthistorische Museum, the Sezession building. Cimarosa Music Tours ensured that we could meet two Flemish people for a private concert. They were two theorbe players: a lively Adriaan Lauwers and the 17th century Philippe Vermeulen.

The latter was a musician-lutenist at the court of Albrecht and Isabelle in Brussels and traveled at their behest on a study tour to Rome to learn that "new" instrument there, the chitarrone (bass lute or theorbe). Expert Adriaan Lauwers talked at length about his adventures and also played for our enjoyment a number of works by the German-Italian composer Johannes Kapsberger whose music our Flemish musician had learned there in Italy. Surprisingly interesting.

Puccini and Verdi their respective Requiems

For our fourth and final concert in the Große Musikvereinssaal Wien two opera composers with their Requiems. Puccini wrote his as a homage to Verdi and Verdi wrote his in memory of Rossini. Puccini's work we heard in an arrangement for string orchestra, viola and choir. It lasts barely five minutes but can still awaken quite a bit of quiet emotion in that short time. Verdi's Requiem is of a different order. Even though it begins almost quietly, the choir, the strings and the soloists lead the orchestra in an ascending line with brass and timpani to a deafening opening. Fierce and robust passages throughout and an enormous ensemble. The Dies Irae alone lasts 40 minutes. A masterwork full of contrasts and above all a vocal work. What a beautiful instrument the human voice is, what a powerful ensemble voices are in a choir and what a mighty combination they are with an orchestra. An opera in liturgical vestments was one criticism. And yes, when you hear those singers in quartet or in trio, in duet and solo it also sounds like arias from the opera. With the still outstanding bass of the legendary Ferruccio Furlanetto (76 years old!) flanked by young soloists from the Vienna University of Music, two South Koreans, tenor Sehyun Kyung and soprano Eunhye Grace Kwon and the Croatian Anthea Barac. All of this under the direction of the Italian Roberto Zarpellon, founder of that Orchestra Lorenzo da Ponte with the Venice Monteverdi Choir. Gasping for breath was the order after this performance. Whoever is accompanied to the grave with this musical artwork can certainly rest in peace. At the conclusion of our musical Vienna journey, the last words from the first song of Richard Strauss that we heard fit perfectly, from Zueignung: Habe Dank.