Vienna Philharmonic at Centre College

Ever since Centre College officials announced that the Vienna Philharmonic was coming to Danville, I have eagerly anticipated the concert. I was not disappointed in the orchestra. Just the audience.

Founded in 1842, the Vienna Philharmonic has been led by legendary conductors such as Mahler, Weingartner, Furtwangler, Strauss, Toscanini and Bernstein. It premiered works by Brahms and Bruckner. There is a twelve-year wait for subscription tickets to their weekend concerts. In short, seeing them was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me.

The program for last night was Dvorak's New World Symphony, Bernstein's Divertimento for Orchestra (erroneously identified in the concert program as Divertimento for Band--it was transcribed for band, but originally written for orchestra--the Boston Symphony, to be exact), Ravel's Pavane for a Dead Princess and Bolero.

The Dvorak was definitely the most memorable. The unison cellos that begin the first movement obtained a beautiful pianissimo blend, playing like one instrument. Being a brass player, I appreciate the difficulty of the chords that begin the famous Largo movement. They must be played softly--the most difficult thing a brass player is called to do. There were no cracked or missed notes. The brass section sounded like a pipe organ, with every attack together, in tune, and with a perfect blend. To sum up the Dvorak, the orchestra knew this masterpiece so well, they were able to execute it at the highest level--nearly perfect.

I was impressed by the orchestra's performance of the Bernstein. I believe there is one American on stage (a trombonist from Tennessee). You wouldn't know it. The Viennese captured the proper jazz styles and blues inflections. Special note: The soft, high tuba solo was AMAZING!

I could have done without Bolero. In fact, I don't care if I don't ever hear it again. I mean, how many times can you hear the same tunes played over and over and over and over? It is a bit like the Chinese Water Torture for me. In spite of my dislike of the piece, the orchestra played it well, except for some surprisingly out of tune woodwind solos at the beginning.

Now on to the primary negatives of the evening. Because the concert was filmed, the audience was met with bright spotlights, shining on them for at least 30 minutes prior to the concert. I felt like I was on stage myself. When they dimmed the lights for the music, it took a while for my eyes to adjust so that I could actually see the orchestra. I know they wanted shots of the happy audience members in their tuxes (not me--I wore a black suit!). But when you pay a minimum of $100 per seat, this was a ridiculous and unnecessary distraction.

The concert program was clearly designed to impress. Unfortunately, it didn't contain all of the usual information one would hope to see in a program. For example, the Vienna Philharmonic personnel were not listed. For some of us, it's like going to a baseball game and not knowing who the players are. Also, there was the embarrassing bit about the Bernstein, which I mentioned above. Couldn't they have found someone to proof the program, who knew something about music?

There was also the irritating pre-concert speech. Centre's president gave Gustavo Dudomel (the conductor) an honorary doctorate. He looked thrilled (No. Actually, he looked like he wanted to get on with the business at hand, which he mentioned during his thank you speech). The concert was about the orchestra coming to Kentucky--not the conductor. The orchestra chooses who conducts it . (It hasn't had a full-time music director since the 1930s.) Dudomel was their guest (who was quite impressive, by the way). A better choice--if absolutely necessary--would have been to honor the orchestra's concertmaster with the doctorate. After all, he represents the orchestra.

Finally, I have to comment on some of the ridiculous behaviour of the audience members around me. I had waited several months to hear the Dvorak. The Largo movement is one of my favorites. I waited to hear how the brass would handle the difficult opening. I'm on the edge of my seat for that passage and...a cell phone rings! Then, as the English horn begins the famous tune (known as Goin' Home to most people), the man behind me starts snoring! If that wasn't enough, I had to hear a person in front of me audibly tell her husband that it was cellos that were playing at the moment. All of this during the most quiet moments of the symphony. Of course, there was also the inbetween-movement applause. I could just imagine what the Viennese were thinking. "Yep. Just what we expected in Kentucky.")

Now, those who know me know that I'm not a stickler on concert etiquette. Clapping between movements was commonplace during Mozart's time, for example. But EVERYONE should know to silence their cell phones. And if you didn't get a good night's sleep and are that tired, stay home and go to bed. The audience doesn't want to hear the music accompanied by your sleep-deprived-induced noise! (I couldn't believe that his spouse didn't wake him. Maybe she was afraid of hearing a loud snort if she did!)

Now that I got that off my chest, I feel SO much better! Tomorrow, I will begin to discuss the music to be performed at our October 25th concert.