Arts & Events

The illustrious Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra is currently in Berkeley under the auspices of Cal Performances, and on Tuesday, March 7 they presented the first of three concerts they will give here over three days. Under conductor Christian Thielemann, who makes his Bay Area debut, Vienna Philharmonic will traverse a century of Viennese music. When Christian Thielemann walked on stage at Tuesday’s concert, he struck me as looking more like a rugby player than a symphony conductor. He is husky and square-jawed. But make no mistake, Thielemann is a consummate conductor. 

Tuesday’s opening concert began with Arnold Schoenberg’s 1899 Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night). Originally written for a string sextet, Verklärte Nacht was expanded by Schoenberg for full string orchestra in 1917, and that is the version performed here by the Vienna Philharmonic. I actually prefer the chamber music version, where I find this work’s remarkable colours and textures stand out more clearly than in the version for string orchestra. That notwithstanding, it was a treat to hear the storied Vienna Philharmonic perform what is by far Schoenberg’s best-loved work. 

Based on the 1896 poem “Zwei Menschen” (“Two People”) by Richard Demel, Verklärte Nacht tells a shockingly unconventional love story about a man and woman who walk one night “through the bare cold woods.” She confesses that she is bearing a child that she conceived when, longing for motherhood, she gave herself to a stranger. Now, she notes, “I met you, you,” the man she truly loves. Hearing this, the man surprises her with his compassionate response, saying, “The child that you have conceived be to your soul no burden.” He then remarks on the glittering stars that will transfigure the child. The man and woman embrace then walk on through the now transfigured “high, bright night.” The overall trajectory of this work moves from a D minor beginning to a D Major conclusion. Glittering arpeggios and pizzicato strings are featured in the transfiguration music.  

After intermission, Vienna Philharmonic performed Richard Strauss’s Eine Alpensinfonie, Op. 64. 

Written between 1911 and 1915, Strauss’s Alpine Symphony was a work of the middle-aged composer, though his inspiration for this monumental symphonic tone poem came from a hiking party to the top of an Alpine peak he had engaged in back in 1879 when he was only 15 yeas old. 

Obviously, Strauss retained vivid memories of that ascent and the vistas that greeted him at themountain’s summit. 

Eine Alpensinfonie calls for a gargantuan orchestra of more than 150 instrumentalists, including a wind machine and a thunder machine for the work’s climactic storm. Throughout this work, which traces the ascent and descent of the hikers, the Vienna Philharmonic gave a wonderfully fluent performance, highlighting each vivid detail yet bringing it all together as a whole. As the climbers enter a wooded region, we hear 12 horns. Later, when they enter a high meadow where cattle herds graze in summer, we hear a cowbell and a yodeling motif in the bassoons and clarinets. When the climbers finally reach the summit, there is an overwhelming climax that is one of the most thrilling moments in the orchestral repertoire. Strauss even evokes the awe and humility the climbers experience at the immense grandeur before their eyes, and he does so with a frail, stammering oboe solo. 

When they begin their descent from the summit, distant rumbles of thunder announce an approaching storm. Now a wind machine evokes the growing winds as the storm nears. What ensues has been called the greatest storm scene in the symphonic literature. Wind and thunder machines peal out, and an organ adds to the storm’s din. But the storm’s onset is brief, and gradually it subsides, and now the sun returns. Eventually, as the descent continues, the sun sets. But in a lovely coda, the organ leads the elegiac “Ausklang” (“After Tones”) as the climbers reflect on the emotions they have experienced on this momentous mountain trek. 

What an enormous treat it was to hear the Vienna Philharmonic perform this Alpine Symphony that I had previously never heard live. This was an experience I’ll never forget!