You can see ....

... why Mozart the elder, Leopold of that ilk, is not as well-known as Mozart junior, Wolfgang. The elder is quoted every time there is a debate about the use of vibrato - in his famous violin school he mentions that some people use it as if they have 'the palsy'.

But anyway. Tonight's concert of Musica Humana in Vilnius was all Mozart, père et fils. Frankly, père's symphony in G major is not worth hearing again. Pedestrian? Like a man with a walking stick. Three basic movements, all with repeats - as if a beginner had written it. Haydn was surely writing symphonies at that time, and they at least had some meat. This one was also wobbly on rhythms, and caused the very tiny orchestra of 8 to wobble even more at the start. I've commented on the unnecessariness of having a conductor for an 8-person band before, especially when he insists on conducting every single note.....

The band, incidentally, must have been scraped together a little. The usual stalwarts were there, in the viola, the cello, the oboe, flute and harpsichord, but otherwise it was all strangers (well-known to me, though). It's a question of finding the able and willing, I guess.

The WA Mozart flute and harp concerto followed. Interestingly, it involves a harpsichord, too. In addition to the 8 string players there were also a flute, an oboe, and two horns. When you have this level of wind forces, you need more than a couple of fiddles to each string part to be able to hear the string players. There was a bit of a struggle with this. The soloists, Ula Caplikaite (Flute) and Joana Daunyte (harp), played well. Caplikaite had a beautiful tone - though, was there a bit of improvisation in the final movement? Can you talk about a 'tone' in connection with the harp? The harpist did what harpists do, and I wondered if harpists sometimes see the world through a curtain of strings. I was not always sure whether the two were entirely together; the harpist seemed to be rushing off, particularly in the first movement - but perhaps that was just the visual impression.....

Back to dad and Leopold's Mozart's Missa Solemnis in C major. While the programme mentioned the overall structure of the piece, the usual mass structure, actually the piece had about 15 or 18 parts since each movement was broken down into others. That made it a long concert! Here the choir 'Jauna Muzika' appeared and the usual group of soloists, Ieva Prudnikovaite, Mindaugas Zimkus, Ignas Misiura, and a new one to me, Aiste Sirvinskaite. Vaclovas Augustinas, the choirmaster, took over the conducting - what a relief, compared to the overactive beating of the air before! This piece seemed to be better constructed than the symphony (apart from the choir-only entry at the beginning), though it had strange little mini-cadenzas for the solo singers, who all got a chance to do a little flourish her and there. I was not sure about Ms Sirvinskaite; her part involved a lot of sudden jumps up high, and these did not, generally, work well; don't think she'll make a Queen of the Night. And Ms Prudnikovaite's voice - I don't know how much of a market there is for a woman's voice that is so exceptionally deep. It's not really the done thing for a woman to sing men's parts. It also lacked warmth, I thought, and I wondered if I heard that awful step that I have in my voice where the quality is different between high notes and low notes. Zimkus was fine, and Misiura need not have got out of bed, given the tiny, tiny part Mozart père had written for him.

Somehow today intonation did not seem to be entirely fixed; it's wobbles affected singers, oboist, trumpets, the flute soloist (?), and some others. But this happened only sporadically and overall the packed audience was grateful and gave a standing ovation. Quite unusual in this church!

from this week's Arts Journal

• an article on the appointment of the first female concertmaster in the Vienna Staatsoper. A Bulgarian, Albena Danailova,got the job. Must be tough taking on that job without working her way through the ranks. Not totally convinced about the accuracy of all the statements, though; eg that the Staatsoper is the training orchestra of the Vienna Phil. The way I understand it, the Vienna Phil provides the players of the Staatsoper. And as for the Vienna Phil being all European, well, that's a lie. The Aussie twins Toby and ?? Lea, while they may have white faces and possibly European ancestry, are still not Europeans.
• Dumbing down in UK music - part of an occasional series. Though I never thought I'd say it about Nigel Kennedy....it seems he fell out with the team around the Classical Brits award ceremony at which he was supposed to perform. He wanted to do Mozart or Beethoven, but they wanted a piece of the same length as a pop song. Need I say more? More power to Kennedy's elbow.
• Another musician, Philippe Quint, left his fiddle in a cab in New York. It was a Strad, valued at 4 million USD. When the driver returned it, he got 100 USD as a reward (and he will get concert tickets, and the fiddler will perform for half an hour at the New York airport taxi stand, where probably no-one will be able to hear him). Maybe he would have preferred a little more cash?
  

Every note in the right place, but soul??

Should one write critical reviews of children? Won’t that damage the sensitive souls for life?

Given the hugely commercial machinery of the Vienna Boys’ choir I believe this is justified. While of course they are some neighbour’s little boys primarily they are now a money-making outfit. In any case, what I am going to say is less about the boys and more about the less than inspirational choirmaster.

It was the opening concert of the Vienna City Marathon, at 29 Euros a pop. As well it was part of the sponsorship by the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) which I had not heard about before, but it seems to be a fine organisation. This explained the presence of many African-looking gentlemen in the audience who were not built like runners.

As was to be expected, the hour-long concert was a mixture of everything, ranging from Purcell’s ‘Sound the trumpet’ (bringing back loads of memories and huge emotions – my son tells me he performed it about a dozen times at school) to Franck’s ‘Panis Angelicus’, Frank Sinatra, and, inevitably, Viennese Waltzes.

Frankly, the performance was disappointing. Yes, the notes were all there, but the inspiration was not. It was as if a northern German Protestant pathologist had taken the notes apart and reassembled them, but lost the soul in the process. ‘Sound the trumpet’ sounded messy and lacked the clarity of English cathedral voices. ‘Panic Angelicus’ was raced through and the notes dropped as if they were hot potatoes. ‘Amazing Grace’ (yes, really…) was presented as an American invention and had a dreadful piano accompaniment. South American music, Sinatra, the waltzes, all of which should go with a swing (and that can even be done without the boys moving) – it was dead and dull.

I am sure the boys are extremely musical – but it needs to be allowed out, Mr Choirmaster.

Buona serra (sp?)

Last night at the Volksoper Stefan Mikisch performed an introduction to Rossini’s ‘Barber of Seville’. I know and love the piece, and don’t need an introduction, but will do almost anything to hear it.

Mikisch apparently is famous for his introductions to Wagner’s operas in Bayreuth, and people flock to them. Here the opera house was also almost sold out. But I really must take my hearing aid when someone talks from the stage….

Anyway, it was quite interesting. Whereas I had thought that Rossini was behind his times (what with the recitatives and his strong rhythms, kind of baroque wrapped in classical harmonies) Mikisch suggested he was ahead of his time in terms of writing catchy tunes, which people, even on hearing them for the first time, think they know. He even pointed out some similarities between Rossini and Verdi, and Rossini and Wagner in the use of harmonies (is Wagner spinning in his grave?).

When he was talking Mikisch seemed extraordinarily nervous – to such a degree that it set me on edge, too – his legs were going under the piano like the clappers – might have been easier for him to walk the talk.

The piano playing of the transcriptions was quite good, but only quite good. He played mostly the right notes, but did not always bring out the right parts, and it lacked emotion and fun. Far from setting the heather alight. I left at the interval. But at least it set me up for dealing with the Italians in the hotel left after my return, who I said a nice ‘buona serra’ to – and the tune is still in my head at 8 in the morning….

Funding problems at the Burgtheater

The Burgtheater in Vienna is a venerable, if not entirely to be venerated these days, institution in Vienna. Everyone who is anyone needs to be seen at this theatre. Next to it is the Café Landtmann, a similarly venerated institution, which, like the Burgtheater, has recently suffered lapses in taste (one with its theatrical productions, the other with its architectural extension). Café Landtmann, incidentally, is also the place where Sigmund Freud used to hang out – a park named after him is not far from there. I digress.

Shakespeare’s ‘Measure for Measure’ is a new production. Like many non-English productions it uses the text very freely – in this case almost only as a skeleton. I’m not very familiar with this play, but the joins between the new bits and the original bits were so obvious that it was like being hit with a sledge hammer.

What makes me think the Burgtheater is short of cash? It’s the first theatre I have come across where you pay (albeit voluntarily) for a pee, and a woman looks after the two toilets, wiping them down after each customer. Are the Viennese so disgusting in their toilet habits that this needs to be done? (Ask Mr Freud). I hate having someone stand outside my door, waiting for me….

The inside of the auditorium is not only astonishingly plain, but it has seen better days. Someone should tell them that these days there are non-smelly paints that do not give people headaches – these should be applied freely, especially to the ceiling (it is also possible to rent scaffolding…).

The plainness was exarcerbated, in this case, by the stage set resembling a DDR asylum for the homeless dining room of ca 1975. Which shortly afterwards was peopled by the people belonging in this place. Again the shortness of cash showed seeing that most actors had several roles (though no doubt this was An Artistic Methodology).

The punters of the asylum talked pure Austrian apart from one guy who, I realised with a start, sounded like a Berliner. Homeless people migrate, too, I guess. So I did not understand what they talked about, mostly. But there was much talk about how the German ‘schlager’ (an particularly atrocious form of

popular music) was true, much mention of the unemployed and so on. In the interval I overheard that the ‘native’ actors might have been from the Volkstheater (folk theatre). The audience laughed at this, quite a lot, so I guess they liked being taken to the underbelly of society (it’s kind of safely exotic, you know).

And then there were the Shakespearean bits, where the language suddenly completely changed – and boy, these parts were so boooooring! The audience was restless in these, when they were not asleep (a guy a couple of rows behind me had three severe snoring spells, all coinciding with fairly quiet Shakespeare). Another guy, in the theatre on his own, checked his text messages and picked his nose and ears extensively during moments like this. Memo to him – when you are bored, people around you may be bored, too – and watch the audience rather than the stage.

I left at the interval – I was not the only one. Should have gone to the Musikverein to hear Daniel Mueller-Schott in the Dvorak cello concerto instead....

Getting into the Musikverein, Vienna

It's a piece of cake! What do you mean 'you need to book months ahead and it costs a fortune!'? Absolutely not.

Well, sometimes it does - you just need to pick your concerts...

On Wednesday afternoon I landed in Vienna, and on the way to the Cafe Landtmann I read one of those dirt cheap (actually free) Austrian papers, and spotted the name 'Poppe' under 'Musikverein - even the dirt cheap papers say what's on at the Musikverein, that's Kulture!

'Poppe who?' you'll ask? If you are in the music business, it's worth knowing about him. He's the rising star of German music making, having won lots of prizes and awards. I've talked about him before, seeing as he is also my music-and-maths teacher's son. We were scandalised when young Enno appeared a good long time after his sisters, and what a name 'Enno'....This photo by Mark Nyffeler could be a photo of Dad, especially with all that wonderful hair (Mum's colour, I think) - though young Enno looks as if he could do with a good square meal.

So I thought 'oh well, I really can't be bothered', went off to Landtmann and had my Wiener Wuerstl and my Kaiserschmarrn (the Wuerstl allow for this), looked at my watch...it was early, flight to Tbilisi not till after 10....so off I shot to the Musikverein. I bought my 19 Euro ticket at 19.29 - concert started at 19.30. Seating was unlimited, so I could sit wherever I liked. Brilliant or what?

Then I discovered that Poppe's piece, an Austrian premiere, was right at the end of the concert, after Georg Friedrich Ha....as, and Luciano Berio. I had to leave at the interval. Haas' piece was interesting; for full orchestra plus piano, much into tone colours. Starting with the pianist hitting a note, for 1.5 minutes the note was handed round the band, sounding different from each instrument, and then the next note....the pace picked up. Occasionally the pianist had some playing to do, too - it was interesting and colourful. Not too much life about it, though.

This was followed by a piece by Berio involving a harp soloist, two other harps, and some fiddles placed right at the back of the orchestra. I wish I could remember more about it; I know that I did not die of boredom, and it was not shocking either, so it must have been all right. And if I had had a programme, I could tell you much more about it....

Viennese foibles

Vienna, on a sunny spring day, was packed with mostly Italian tourists, but also Viennese. Vienna is a much more cosy place than Berlin, where it's all happening. In Vienna, one relaxes, and sits down here and has a chat there. The Museumsquartier is a brilliant little neighbourhood with a large arrangement of fibreglass sitting/lying/dozing areas, all of which were taken on this sunny April Monday with people alone, in groups, with grandchildren, reading, listening, or chatting to their friends.

But see the Viennese and their ice creams? They eat the biggest cones I've ever seen. All are Italian icecream, of course, and no-one has fewer than 3 flavours - which in Lithuania would almost break the bank!

And then there are the Viennese and their dogs, ranging from extremely large to extremely tiny. Think the good soldier Schwejk and his dog poaching story, and you have the Viennese and their dogs - and they seem to be welcome everywhere. Not, maybe in the Musikverein, but certainly in shops and museums. You see intense conversations going on between dog owners and their charges, and those of their friends. Must be a great life, being a dog in Vienna!

Maris and his Mahler

A packed Musikverein, Maris Janssons, his Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Mahler's 7th, as always a monumental piece with a huge orchestra, with 5 movements. The podium was tightly packed, and those poor audience members sitting at the top of the rostrum had to peer round the double basses.

I must admit to not knowing this symphony very well, though there were moments that I recognized. I was also thinking about what makes Mahler distinctive, apart from his monumental scores, and very long pieces. Decided that it's his use of Austrian motifs, both rhythmic and in terms of intervals, and his heavy use of trills, often from the clarinet, but also the upper strings (maybe they are supposed to remind of a zither??). Don't think anyone else after the Baroque period uses them quite so often.

It's funny how often his second movements are quite relaxing, after very tortuous and heavy first movements, often with rural dances or well-known tunes - that's the case in the second, seventh and ninth symphonies, as far as I can remember, and which one is the one with 'Frere Jacques'? Apparently this symphony describes the journey from night to day. I wish I had read the wikipedia entry before the concert...

Janssons has a delightful way of conducting, very active, dancing around on the rostrum, sometimes both feet flat on the floor but more often not, often smiling at his players - it must be a joy to play for him, at least in a concert. But it takes it out of him, and he needs quite long rests between movements to catch his breath.

It was a wonderful performance, full of energy, with Janssons drawing the sound out of his orchestra by his fingertips, massaging the music. The double basses really drove the music on and supported everything. The violas had some beautiful solos, and especially one long passsage together with the cellos was oozing with chocolate. Some of the instruments were almost inaudible, though, such as the lute and guitar in the fourth movement, and the cowbells which we could see but not hear. Perhaps some of the Austrian moments could have been a little more Austrian, but you may have to have that in your blood. Overall it was a fantastic evening, and I know now which seat to buy next time I go to the Musikverein.....

Stört Ihnen das?

One of the many things I love about coming to Vienna is the difference in language between German German and Austrian German. Not only are there specific words, but sometimes they change grammar, too. Much like British English and American, really, divided by a common language. Eg

die Ecke (German German) ; der Eck (Austrian German) ; corner
die Sch**sse (GG); der Sch**ss (AG); sh*t
Ausverkauf (GG); Abverkauf (AG); sale
die Treppe; Stiege; stairs

Having said that, the German Germans, even educated ones, can be pretty rough on grammar, as I noticed in Berlin recently.

Today's saying (see headline) is cringingly, toothachingly, eyewateringly ungrammatical. It should be 'Stört Sie das?', using accusative rather than dative. It translates directly as 'Does it disturb to you?', and came out of the mouth of an extremely elegant and smart looking middle-aged lady in the similarly elegant Wiener Musikverein. I nearly wet myself! She was temporarily disabled due to an injured foot, which was sticking out of the wheelchair she was using, and might have been in someone's sightline (don't ask, and don't try to imagine it... takes too long to explain). Funnily, then the lady addressed then answered, 'Nein, ich übersehe es einfach' - which can be translated both as 'no, I'm simply going to look over it', as well as 'no, I'm simply going to overlook it'.

Happy Easter!!

Return to Georgia

Another long return journey from Kigali to Tbilisi - this time also landing in Bujumbura, Burundi. This time my luggage is taking an even longer way round - and still travelling.

On the plane chatted to a tall Rwandan who works in China; he had studied computer science in China (and chinese) and now works there as a systems engineer, to make money and return to Rwanda eventually. He does not think he will stay in China or marry a Chinese.

Landed in Vienna, eventually and shot round to my favourite Cafe Landtmann. To my surprise, at 9.30 am it was packed - and I could only just get a seat. Where else would a cafe be so busy? The folks in it all had an age and appearance which suggested they should be sitting at their desks rather than spending time in a cafe. Or is this the 'canteen' for the nearby Foreign Office?

Every time I wander round Vienna I find new, lovely little side streets and corners - the centre really is delightful!

In the evening caught half of Boris Eifman's ballet 'Anna Karenina' in the Volksoper. This is a new production for Vienna - the premiere took place last November - but actually Eifman has produced this ballet for his St Petersburg 'Eifman Ballet' some time ago, and toured other countries, including Germany with it. In Vilnius we have had an alternative 'Anna Karenina' with music by Shchedrin (a Royal Danish production). The Eifman production uses music by Tchaikovsky, and this music lover tended to focus on the music rather than the dancing. Also because she had been travelling for about 36 hours by that time, and it was easier to rest the eyes....

In this production the famous train is a tiny toy train, as opposed to a stage filling train in the Vilnius production. The Eifman production has wonderful, but fairly traditional, costumes, a very flexible set and dancing that ranges from classical ballet to modern dance (in the 1920's sense, not post-modern), with an entrancing final scene at the end of the first act. The quality of the dancing was of course great, as you would expect in Vienna.

I know that Anna Karenina is a very fat book, but reduced to ballet it seems a bit of a thin story - girl meets dashing young officer, falls out of love with elderly husband, is torn between lover, husband and son.....not a great deal happens! I assume that this ballet was as short as the one in Vilnius; the first act was finished in less than 45 minutes and there were only two acts....

Yesterday, in Tbilisi, seeing Hamlet again, this time with simultaneous translation. Fantastic performance again - as thought the Director of the British Council. Funny moment - someone sitting in the fifth row answered his mobile phone - Hamlet, in midflow in a chat with his mates, happening to be looking in the direction of the offender, stopped and waited till the conversation had finished....

Vienna!

Left from Tbilisi's new airport this morning - it had opened last week. The old one was not bad, a whole lot better than Yerevan, Dushanbe and Moscow's Shcheremetyevo 1 airport - which are all run down and treat their customers like animals (especially the last two).

The Tbilisi airport is run by the Turks, the same company that runs Istanbul's Ataturk airport, and it is just like any other airport anywhere. Georgians are good at customer service anyway, so it's all very pleasant. I don't suppose there's a cat's chance in hell of the Turks taking over the Yerevan airport!

Popping up in the middle of Vienna at 7 am is always brilliant, even more so on a Saturday when no-one is seen on the streets. It's sooo quiet and peaceful! Though at 7.30 am already I saw someone leaving a diagnostic centre - they get up early, these Viennese. This was confirmed by the many cafes which were already working at the time. But not everyone had got up early....

Running round to the post office in Fleischmarkt, which I am astonished to say seems to be the only one open on a Saturday according to the Austrian Post Office website, I came across the most charming little side street which I would not have found otherwise (cannot load up pictures for a fortnight....). Really romantic stuff, and quite different from Schubert's 'Dreimaederlhaus' (three girls' house) which is near the Burgtheater. Really glad that I had to post those letters!

Passed the Stephansdom, and a row of fiakers (sp?) waiting for customers at 8 am - not a person in sight. Had a brief, very brief thought of employing one to take me to the cafe - but then thought it would be a wee bitty over the top...I'll do that when I am old. Then off for breakfast to my beloved Cafe Landtmann - whose new permanent extension is a total excrescence (sp?) which completely destroys the aristocratic proportions of the building. How did they get planning permission for that? (Photo to follow...).

The entrance was blocked by an extremely well-dressed party, in ballgowns, fur coats, absolutely immaculate hair and clothes. Were they going to a ball? At 8 am? No, it seems they had been to a ball, possibly the cafe house ball. It certainly had not been like Prince Orlovsky's ball in 'Die Fledermaus' - no-one gave an impression of drunkenness - not in many countries people, after a whole night out, would have looked so impressive. One gentleman, in a velvet opera hat (the floppy kind) held some tulips which were similarly floppy and a little jaded....It was funny hearing the cafe waiters saying 'good night' to their customers as they left at 8.30 am....

Then off to do various bits of shopping - restrained myself severely in bookshops and music shops. Tried to get some Tshirts for Rwanda but it seems that it was still a bit cold in Vienna for that sort of thing. Had to buy some items of feminine apparel, what with the weight loss and everything, and was astonished when on not more of a brief glance at my upper body (wrapped in a thick jacket) the salesgirl immediately picked the right size. It really pays going to a specialist! I then changed in the train back to the airport and left a baggy old bra in the toilet wastebin....

Noticed also, in passing, how very good looking many Austrian men of a certain age are; though usually accompanied by similar wives. Oh well.

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