Voice of taxi driver: Where to?

Passenger: Carnegie Hall, please. [music]

Usher: Here are your tickets. Enjoy the show.

Usher: Your tickets, please. Follow me.

[music]

Jeff Spurgeon: In New York City, there are lots of ways to get to Carnegie Hall. You can take a subway, ride in a taxi, or walk down 57th Street. You've just found another way to get to America's most famous home for classical music. Welcome to Carnegie Hall Live, the broadcast series that gives you a front row seat to concerts by some of the greatest artists in the world, and you hear the performances exactly as they happen. You are part of the audience sharing the experience of music making at Carnegie Hall. Backstage at Carnegie Hall, I'm Jeff Spurgeon alongside John Schaefer.

John Schaefer: Jeff and I are, as you can probably tell, not alone. Backstage here at Carnegie Hall, we are surrounded on all sides by members of the Vienna Philharmonic, one of the world's great orchestras, in town to perform with one of the most celebrated conductors of this generation, Riccardo Muti.

For tonight's program, the Vienna Phil has brought a program of beloved classics by Stravinsky and Schubert's and a work that might be new to you. It's certainly new to Carnegie Hall, even though the piece itself is about a century and a half old. We're going to hear the first ever performance at Carnegie of Alfredo Catalani's Contemplazione or Contemplations. Riccardo Muti has made it his business to highlight the works of lesser-known Italian composers throughout his career. That's what we'll hear first.

Jeff Spurgeon: Right now you're hearing some musicians of the Vienna Philharmonic backstage. They actually are all here. Sometimes the orchestras go out right away and are already on stage, but not tonight. The doors will open in just a moment as we tell you about the rest of this program, which will include tonight Igor Stravinsky's Divertimento from the ballet, The Fairy's Kiss, as well as the great symphony of Franz Schubert, the 9th, known as The Great, a great program of music highlighting the power and intense sound of one of the world's greatest orchestras.

John Schaefer: Now, Stravinsky and Schubert, they're known quantities, but a little bit about Alfredo Catalani, not as well known. That may just be down to the fact that he died young at the age of 39. He was born in the Tuscany region of Italy in the mid 19th century, brought up in a musical family. His father, his grandfather were both musicians. Catalani was greatly influenced by the operas of Richard Wagner. He wrote six of his own, including his most well-known piece, the opera, La Wally. Mahler was a fan of Catalani, and the conductor Arturo Toscanini admired him so much that he named his daughter Wally after the Catalani opera.

Jeff Spurgeon: Catalani's most familiar work from La Wally is an aria, Ebben? Ne andrò lontana. Ah, then I shall go far away. It's been asked of me many times. The aria is often performed in vocal recitals and has been featured in the soundtrack of a number of popular films, including Diva in the early 1980s and the Tom Hanks film Philadelphia from the 1990s. Here's a little bit of that aria now from soprano Renata Tebaldi.

MUSIC - Renata Tebaldi: Ebben? Ne andrò lontana

John Schaefer: That's a little bit of the aria, Ebben? Ne andrò lontana from the opera La Wally by the Italian composer Alfredo Catalani. I'm sure I'm not the only person who was introduced to that song through the film Diva and the late American soprano Wilhelmenia Fernandez, memorably performing that on screen. We heard Renata Tebaldi performing it with the Monte-Carlo National Opera Orchestra and conductor Fausto Cleva. That's Catalani's most famous piece.

In a few minutes though, we'll hear the Carnegie Hall debut of his work Contemplazione. First time that this 150-year-old piece will be played in this August Hall. Riccardo Muti, a longtime champion of Italian composers, has actually released a 7 CD set of only Italian composers.

Jeff Spurgeon: Muti himself being from Naples, regular conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic. He's held a number of other significant positions with great orchestras around the world. Chief conductor of the London Philharmonic for 10 years, starting in 1972, with the Philadelphia Orchestra for 12 years in 1980, and also Chicago Symphony from 2010 to 2023. Now in Chicago, Riccardo Muti is music director emeritus for life. You're hearing the audience at Carnegie Hall welcoming the Vienna Philharmonic who are finally beginning to file on stage.

John Schaefer: We'll get a little peace and quiet back here for a change.

Jeff Spurgeon: Things will calm down finally and we'll be able to do some contemplating of this work by Alfredo Catalani, this Contemplazione, described as an aria for orchestra. It's a full orchestra that is involved in this piece, but it is, as we've noted, not as familiar. This is something that Riccardo Muti likes to do, is to showcase some of those composers' works, lesser known composers of his homeland.

Now out on stage, the Vienna Philharmonic, all standing tales enjoy the welcome of this Carnegie Hall audience. They take their seats, the stage doors close and we are awaiting the arrival of our concertmaster this evening and of Maestro Riccardo Muti.

John Schaefer: They talk about the Vienna sound and the Vienna Philharmonic. You might think it's the same symphony orchestra, the same instruments as every other country, but there is a Vienna sound. Part of that, Jeff, are the wind instruments, which are often-- Without getting too lost in the weeds, they are technically made differently from the clarinets, the oboes. They have a certain woody, plangent quality that is very much Viennese.

Jeff Spurgeon: That is part of the Viennese tradition. A lot of the rest of it comes from the tradition of the players themselves and the slow apprenticeship that members of this orchestra first undergo in the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. Then, as they progress, they move up to the Vienna Philharmonic, a concertmaster for this evening, Rainer Honeck, who is the younger brother of Pittsburgh music director Manfred Honeck. The orchestra is tuning out on stage, and Maestro Muti is just waiting for the stage door to open, which, oddly enough, we are too.

John Schaefer: We should say, talking about the Vienna Philharmonic and their unusual structure, that this is an organization that was founded and to this day still is, democratic.

Jeff Spurgeon: That's right.

John Schaefer: Without a-- Good evening, Maestro.

Riccardo Muti: [unintelligible 00:08:27] but you're still here.

John Schaefer: We are still here. We never left since the last time you were here. [crosstalk]

Riccardo Muti: [inaudible 00:08:33] music comes alive.

Jeff Spurgeon: That's right. We're hoping that happens soon. All right. Maestro Muti, obviously quite relaxed, chatting backstage with everybody, including the broadcasters.

[applause]

Now the stage door has opened and you hear the crowds welcome, once again the Vienna Philharmonic on their feet. A handshake from Maestro Muti to the concert master and assistant, and a full house at Carnegie Hall tonight to hear the Vienna Philharmonic and the Carnegie Hall debut of Alfredo Catalani's Contemplazione, from Carnegie Hall Live.

MUSIC - Alfredo Catalani: Contemplazione

[applause]

John Schaefer: Vienna Philharmonic live at Carnegie Hall, and conductor Riccardo Muti unveiling a work that had to wait nearly a century and a half for its Carnegie Hall debut. The composer Alfredo Catalani and his work Contemplazione, Contemplations. Catalani, one of a number of relatively unsung Italian composers that Riccardo Muti has championed over the years.

Jeff Spurgeon: Take as much time, Maestro, as you need. Maestro Muti just came backstage and said, "Do you need a minute?" The answer is we don't need as much time as--

Riccardo Muti: [inaudible 00:20:42] Gustav Mahler.

Jeff Spurgeon: Yes. Gustav Mahler.

Riccardo Muti: [unintelligible 00:20:45]

Jeff Spurgeon: Yes, that's right.

Riccardo Muti: He conducted the Vienna State Opera, the operas of Catalani, especially La Wally, that he considered the best opera of that time.

Jeff Spurgeon: That he had put his hands to, yes.

John Schaefer: Certainly Catalani's most famous piece.

Riccardo Muti: Unfortunately he died very young at the age of 39, because he was a post-Wagnerian. Puccini comes from Verdi, Catalani comes from Wagner, the infinite melody. If he had lived longer, the history of the opera would be more different. [crosstalk]

Jeff Spurgeon: Much different.

John Schaefer: There's something very operatic about that piece.

Riccardo Muti: Certo.

Jeff Spurgeon: Are you doing anything--

Riccardo Muti: It is operatic.  Cantare.

John Schaefer: Cantare. Singing.

Riccardo Muti: As Toscanini used to say always, canta.

Jeff Spurgeon: All right. Now the stage door opens again. We would have told you about the next piece, but we had to chat with Riccardo Muti. We are about to hear Stravinsky's music and Tchaikovsky's together. This is going to be the Divertimento created by Stravinsky from his score called The Fairy's Kiss, a 1928 ballet. We're going to hear that suite played now by the Vienna Philharmonic and conductor Riccardo Muti from Carnegie Hall Live.

MUSIC - Igor Stravinsky: Divertimento from Le baiser de la fée

[applause]

Jeff Spurgeon: From Carnegie Hall Live, you've heard the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Riccardo Muti, performing Igor Stravinsky's Divertimento from The Fairy's Kiss, a work that is excerpted from Stravinsky's ballet, Le baiser de la fée La Base, The Fairy's Kiss, a 1928 ballet which then Stravinsky made a suite from, revised it a couple of times.

That's the work we've heard tonight. Backstage at Carnegie Hall, I'm Jeff Spurgeon alongside John Schaefer. There's so much in this. You can listen to it, John, for the amazing, always ear catching orchestration Stravinsky. There's Tchaikovsky through this work as well, and a great big fairy tale story from Hans Christian Andersen.

John Schaefer: One of a number of works in which Stravinsky draws on earlier music, Riccardo Muti back out center stage picking out different members of the Vienna Philharmonic who had important solo roles to play in that orchestral suite drawn from the original ballet score.

If you think of something like Pulcinella, where Stravinsky drew on the music of what he thought was Giovanni Pergolesi, turned out most of it was not, but it was pre existing music. Even in Rite of Spring, that opening bassoon line is drawn from a Lithuanian folk song. He was constantly drawing on earlier music.

In this case, if you're thinking, "Wow, that was awfully lyrical for Stravinsky," there's a reason for that. He was actually incorporating some of the piano works and some of the songs, lesser-known songs by Tchaikovsky. Standing ovations for some of the members of the Vienna Phil.

Jeff Spurgeon: It looks like he's going to ask-- No, he's still singling out particular members of the orchestra. We did notice one of the violinists who was recognized, young second violinist in the Vienna Philharmonic, who is a New Yorker, Lucas Takeshi Stratmann, making an appearance tonight. We understand his parents are in the audience here at Carnegie Hall.

They must be bursting with pride. Their son was one of the small ensemble of string players who was featured in the midst of that Stravinsky world. Now the entire Vienna Philharmonic on its feet as we come to the end of the first half of this concert, which began with a work never before performed in Carnegie Hall, Contemplazione, an orchestral work by the Italian composer Alfredo Catalani, getting its first performance tonight.

John Schaefer: Then, of course this Divertimento from Stravinsky's ballet, The Fairy's Kiss. We are at intermission here at Carnegie Hall. The second half consists of one work, and it's a big one, Franz Schubert's Symphony Number 9, The Great C major to distinguish it from the Symphony Number 6 now, known as the little C major. That's coming up.

Jeff Spurgeon: This is Classical New York, WQXR 105.9 FM and HD; Newark 90.3 FM; WQXW Ossining and WNYC FM HD 2, New York. Backstage at Carnegie Hall, I'm Jeff Spurgeon. John Schaefer is here. We are about to be joined by one of the members of the Vienna Philharmonic, the chairman and one of the first violinists of the orchestra, Daniel Froschauer. Good evening, sir.

Daniel Froschauer: Good evening.

Jeff Spurgeon: Thanks for being with us. We saw you right there, right behind the concertmaster in the front row, enjoying this performance tonight. Here you are once again back in New York for a series of concerts. We're pleased to have you. What does the orchestra look forward to when you come to these concerts at Carnegie.

Daniel Froschauer: Carnegie Hall is unique. You walk on stage to do your very best. It's an incredible place, it's an incredible audience. The New Yorkers, the Americans who come, people who come to our performances. I think the times are really-- We need more music, and being on stage and being in a concert situation, that's my life. It's a beautiful thing.

John Schaefer: Jeff mentioned that you are both one of the first violinists, but also the chairman of the orchestra. Maybe talk a little bit about how the orchestra is set up.

Daniel Froschauer: We are self-governing. At the Vienna State Opera, we are employed as the Vienna Philharmonic, we're self-employed, but we recruit out of the personnel of the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. As a Vienna Philharmonic, we just govern everything. In the State Opera, I have a boss, I could say. I have the opera director, we have a setup, structure. For it to be at a Philharmonic, we govern ourselves. I, for myself, feel like I have 147 bosses.

Jeff Spurgeon: How nice for you. How pleasurable. [crosstalk]

Daniel Froschauer: It's so sweet.

Jeff Spurgeon: Riccardo Muti conducted the New Year's Day concert this year. Each year it's a different conductor, some are returning maestros. How are they chosen? Does the orchestra choose it?

Daniel Froschauer: Actually that's part of my responsibility, the president, and of course I will talk to our Geschäftsführer, the person who's leading the business aspect of the apples and everything. We talk about it. Actually the choice of Riccardo Muti is a very natural one. He conducted in 2021, the New Year's concert. There was no audience. This was one of the most difficult performing situations we've ever been, 55 million watching a concert and there's no audience. I was very much fighting for the fact that we could have some kind of audience, but it was impossible. It was just impossible at that moment. We thought it would be nice to celebrate our relationship--

Riccardo Muti, last year alone he conducted our 200th anniversary of the Beethoven 9th Symphony. A week later he conducted us at the Waldbühne in Berlin. A couple days later, the opening concert for Havana Festival in the Salzburg. He conducted a Bruckner 8 symphony, a piece we premiered. It was his first performance. Bruckner 8, he never conducted before. Then the New Year's concert Day concert, now we are at Carnegie Hall. It's really a great relationship we're having.

Jeff Spurgeon: His passion for Italian music is evident in so much of what his he does. Does he make the Vienna Philharmonic a little more Italian? What does he bring to the orchestra, to ask of you?

Daniel Froschauer: That's a very, very good question. I sometimes discuss this with him, actually at the press conference for the New Year's concert, because somebody asked him what makes him special? I think he comes from the opera. Coming from opera, he has this incredible singing quality. It doesn't matter what repertoire, even we play a Russian piece, he makes us sing more than other conductors in this repertoire. It comes from the opera, definitely.

John Schaefer: He walked past us saying, "Cantare, cantare, singing, singing," after the Catalani piece.

Daniel Froschauer: There you have it.

John Schaefer: Last season he came by while we were broadcasting and gave us a lesson in how to say his last name. Muti, he said, like a cow, Muti. Do you see that playful side of him when you're working with him?

Daniel Froschauer: Absolutely. The orchestra has such a beautiful relationship with him. He now says we are all his grandchildren, which from the age could be true in some cases, I could be his son, not his grandchild. He really has become-- I don't know.

When I go and pick him up before we do a project like this, pick him up at the airport, it's kind of a relative coming to us and comes to rehearsal. He is very strict with the orchestra, especially in the first several rehearsals. Very strict. He insists on the sound he wants to hear. He insists on this quality, this quality. He won't take half things. He's just a perfectionist.

Then it pays off after a while, then it gets relaxed and we have the first several concerts. He was very happy about our approach to the Catalani because at first he was afraid we wouldn't take the piece serious, but none of us did not take it serious because it's a beautiful piece. It has this endless melody which he says came from Wagner.

Jeff Spurgeon: He told us that backstage.

John Schaefer: He told us that too. He won't stand still for an interview, but he won't stop talking when he walks past the microphone.

Daniel Froschauer: Absolutely. With that in mind and the way he conducts, and you could see after the Catalani, he had happiness, he carried a happiness. The Stravinsky, actually, we have this one piece is interesting, our history. We have never played this piece with another conductor.

He's the only conductor conducting this piece. We've played it about 30 times with him since 1994. We played it on the Asia tour in '21, the Corona tour, we played that piece. That just shows the virtuoso part of him. It's really amazing.

Jeff Spurgeon: That's a wonderful tribute. I know you need to rest before you go to work in the Schubert. I want to ask you one question about something fairly new at the Vienna Philharmonic. That's the Orchestral Academy. It's only been in existence six or seven years now. That's a new enterprise to encourage young people and develop them. How does it work, this Vienna Orchestral Academy?

Daniel Froschauer: Look, we really felt like we needed to have a project that was worldwide and would extend to all the countries in the world. It's a project involving-- It's not students. It's people who are just at the brink of becoming professional. They're excellent players. The auditions for the academy are excellent, really, truly. They come and we mold them. We have six or seven members already in the orchestra who were in the academy. One of them is a New Yorker. Actually--

Jeff Spurgeon: Lucas. We mentioned him.

Daniel Froschauer: He went to Juilliard like I did. There's another Juilliard student on the tour, that’s Hannah Cho. For me, it's great to have the Juilliard kids in Vienna today, to bring a little bit to New York to Vienna, which is good for us.

John Schaefer: Daniel, thank you so much for spending some of your limited intermission time with us. You have a big journey to take on the second half of the program. Daniel Froschauer is the chairman, first violinist of the Vienna Philharmonic. Apparently some occasional chauffering duties are involved in that position as well.

Jeff Spurgeon: Somebody's got to pick the conductor up at the airport. That's how it works.

John Schaefer: We are at intermission here at Carnegie Hall. Having heard just a couple of minutes ago Stravinsky's tribute to Tchaikovsky, we're now going to hear a special performance of Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy recorded this past Sunday summer as part of the World Orchestra Week here at Carnegie Hall. It was a week-long festival of youth orchestras from around the world, places like China, Afghanistan, Venezuela, and across Europe and Africa as well.

Jeff Spurgeon: There were also two American orchestras involved in that festival, the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America, a Carnegie Hall project, and its younger sibling NYO2 for players of ages 14 to 16. That's the ensemble we're going to hear now, NYO2, conducted by Teddy Abrams, music director of the Louisville Orchestra in Kentucky. Here they are with a little bit of Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture from NYO2 and Teddy Abrams. MUSIC - Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture

Jeff Spurgeon: There's the sound of Tchaikovsky's famous Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, and a performance by another group of musicians who, like Riccardo Muti, have to be picked up at the airport, but not because they're great maestros, but because they aren't old enough to drive. That was the NYO2, 14 to 16-year-old musicians from around the United States in a performance from this past summer, the summer of 2024 at the World Orchestra World Festival at Carnegie Hall in a performance conducted there by Teddy Abrams. We are at intermission at a concert by the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Riccardo Muti here at Carnegie Hall.

The final work, the second half of this program, the Symphony Number 9 of Franz Schubert, the symphony appropriately named Great. Schubert wrote it in 1828, the year before he died. Had trouble getting the work performed. It was actually Robert Schumann who found the work after Schubert's death and became its champion. He called it the first romantic symphony, and as Schumann said, something beyond sorrow and joy in this work as these emotions have been portrayed 100 times in music, but it lies concealed in the symphony. We are transported to a region where we can never remember to have been before.

John Schaefer: Schumann actually found this manuscript by mistake, by happenstance. It was in Schubert's brother's collection of papers. The name Great Symphony, in the early mid-19th century, people didn't think this work was so great, but it was grand, it was big. The nickname was to distinguish it from the earlier Symphony Number 6, also in the key of C major, which then became known as the Little C Major Symphony. We'll hear the Great C Major Symphony, Symphony Number 9. In this symphony, you will hear Schubert's love for melody. Our own Jeff Spurgeon here will help us to understand how this composer of great German art songs, or lieder, turned out to also be a wonderful symphonic composer.

Jeff Spurgeon: Franz Schubert's Ninth Symphony was a bit ahead of its time. It was much longer than typical symphonies in the first quarter of the 19th century, and it was so difficult that lots of orchestras wouldn't or couldn't play it. Neither its length nor its technical demands are a big challenge for audiences and players today, but it is useful to remember that the Ninth is full of Schubert's greatest gift, melody. Schubert wrote more than 600 songs, an amazing accomplishment for any lifetime, but even more amazing because Schubert's life was so short. He wrote these hundreds of songs over a period of only about 15 years, and they are some of the greatest works of poetry set to music ever.

We're going to take a long trip with Schubert in the Ninth in just a few minutes, but in case you're not familiar with short form Schubert, here are a few moments from his leader, his art songs that show those amazing melodic gifts, and the way he used innovative piano accompaniment to illustrate mood and atmosphere. This is a song about a young girl, Gretchen. She's in an agony of romantic infatuation, sitting, working at the spinning wheel which you hear turning before the brooding melody appears.

MUSIC - Schubert: Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel

Jeff Spurgeon: Schubert wrote this song, Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel, when he was just 17. The poem is by the great German writer Goethe. Schubert created songs from something like 70 Goethe poems and even sent some of the music to Goethe himself, who returned the package unopened. Goethe was a big celebrity then. Got lots of fan mail. Schubert wasn't very famous at all.

MUSIC - Schubert: Erlkönig

Jeff Spurgeon: Another incredible Goethe setting is Erlkönig, a ghost story about a father riding desperately to get help for his sick child, the boy in his arms being beguiled by the Erlking who wants the boy to come with him into the next world. The singer tells the story in the father's voice, the boy's voice, the spooky Erlking, and the narrator.

MUSIC - Schubert: Erlkönig

Jeff Spurgeon: It's one of the creepiest songs ever written.

MUSIC - Schubert: Erlkönig

Jeff Spurgeon: The piano part is the galloping horse and all the fear and danger of the situation. It's also a workout for the accompanist, so if you ever perform it, make sure you wipe down your pianist afterward and give him a good brushing. If you put pianists away wet, they catch cold and get surly. One of Schubert's most famous melodies is a prayer to the Virgin Mary.

MUSIC - Schubert: Ave Maria

Jeff Spurgeon: Another soaring, gorgeous song. It wasn't written for church. It's actually a woman praying within a Walter Scott poem, but it's been adapted for religious services so often that people think that was Schubert's original idea. Schubert wrote two great song cycles on poems by Wilhelm Müller that take audiences on a concert-length journey. Die Schöne Müllerin, The Fair Maid of the Mill, is one of them. A young man in love begins with such optimism, wandering over the fields.

MUSIC - Schubert: Die Schöne Müllerin

Jeff Spurgeon: By the end of the story, his hopes of love are dashed. Another concert's worth of songs are the cycle Winterreise, Winter Journey. It's even darker. The guy starts out with a broken heart, and song by song, things don't get better, but the examinations of human emotion are so powerful. Winterreise is a great journey for the artists and the audience. Two more great Schubert melodies, his famous, Serenade, a love song,-

MUSIC - Schubert: Serenade

Jeff Spurgeon: -and this, An die Musik. a poem of thanks to music itself that more than one artist has offered as a personal creed.

MUSIC - Schubert: An die Musik

Jeff Spurgeon: We've just sampled a half dozen of Schubert's songs, less than than 1% of all those he wrote. The melodies rise up with such ease and they stay with you too. That's the definition of a good song.

MUSIC - Schubert: An die Musik

Jeff Spurgeon: Melody wasn't Franz Schubert's only gift, but it was his greatest one.

MUSIC - Schubert: An die Musik

John Schaefer: A little crash course on Schubert's art songs, his lieder, where the melody is right there in front of you, but in the grand ambitious scale of the Symphony Number 9, The Great C Major, you still will get a chance to hear those melodic gifts being put front and center.

[applause]

John Schaefer: We will hear the Symphony Number 9 by Schubert performed by the Vienna Philharmonic and conductor Riccardo Muti. You can hear the audience here at Carnegie Hall applauding as the members of the Vienna Philharmonic filter back out onto the main stage here. We mentioned earlier that Robert Schumann saved this work from obscurity, but it still had a rocky road.

Mendelssohn tried to introduce it to the London Philharmonic in 1842, but the members of the orchestra were not having it and Mendelssohn decided to withdraw the score. It was first performed here at Carnegie Hall in December of 1891 with the then New York Symphony Orchestra conducted by Walter Damrosch. The stage door is closed and we await the return of Riccardo Muti as the members of the Vienna Philharmonic brush up on their tuning because they are about to undertake a major musical journey in this Symphony Number 9 by Franz Schubert.

Jeff Spurgeon: We did have a couple of nice moments with the young second violinist who was mentioned at intermission, the New Yorker Lucas Takeshi Stratmann, one of two young New York musicians who are in the Vienna Philharmonic on this particular tour, the other being another second violinist named Hannah Soojin Cho. Both Juilliard students, and so we have a nice little reunion of some New Yorkers in Vienna and in New York. It's a nice combination for our audience here and we hope for you listening at home.

John Schaefer: As Daniel Froschauer, the chairman of the orchestra, told us early in intermission, he also came out of the Juilliard School.

Jeff Spurgeon: That's right.

John Schaefer: The local music scene well represented in this great orchestra/institution from the city of Vienna.

Jeff Spurgeon: It's a proud thing. We're about to hear Riccardo Muti and the Vienna Philharmonic bring us this great Schubert Symphony Number 9 in a performance that will begin in just a moment as soon as the stage door opens and the maestro walks out.

[laughter]

Jeff Spurgeon: He's about eight away from me, and he just turned and went the other way.

[laughter]

Jeff Spurgeon: That's how it's working tonight at Carnegie Hall.

John Schaefer: No jitters.

Jeff Spurgeon: Yes. [laughs]

John Schaefer: No pre-concert jitters.

Jeff Spurgeon: For sure.

John Schaefer: -for Riccardo Muti.

Jeff Spurgeon: [laughs] A couple for us.

John Schaefer: [laughs]

Jeff Spurgeon: A couple for us, but he's quite relaxed. Now on stage with all of the Vienna Philharmonic on their feet and Maestro Muti takes the podium for the Schubert 9th from Carnegie Hall Live.

MUSIC - Schubert: Symphony Number 9 [applause]

Jeff Spurgeon: A performance of Franz Schubert's Symphony Number 9, The Great Symphony, from the Vienna Philharmonic, and conductor Riccardo Muti, brought to you on this broadcast from Carnegie Hall Live. The Great Ninth Symphony, a challenge for audiences and players at the time of its creation. Not so much anymore. Now appreciated for the pleasures of its rhythmic drive and the beauty of Schubert's use of melody and development of themes in this great work. Backstage at Carnegie Hall, I'm Jeff Spurgeon. John Schaefer is here as well.

John Schaefer: Again called The Great C Major Symphony to distinguish it from Schubert's earlier Symphony Number 6, also in the key of C, The Little C Major Symphony. These days we do recognize it as a truly great work. It's one of those pieces that had to take a long, circuitous journey to get to that part of the repertoire where we do consider it to be a truly great piece. Riccardo Muti back out at center stage picking out members of the Vienna Philharmonic. This ovation may last almost as long as the piece did. There are a lot of players who made major contributions to the performance you just heard.

Jeff Spurgeon: Trombonists now on their feet.

John Schaefer: Yes. Conductor calling out section by section, and sometimes even player by player, each met with a standing ovation from this sold-out Carnegie Hall audience.

Jeff Spurgeon: It is a wonderfully instructive thing, I think, John, to think about the challenge that this work brought to musicians at the time. For that has happened all through the course of history. The technique has gotten better, the skill of players has grown and grown, and works which, when they were first presented, seemed impossible are now just taken up by musicians as a matter of course.

John Schaefer: In the mid-19th century run, when Robert Schumann was trying to get this Schubert symphony performed, he found musicians rebelling against, well, these triplets, they're impossible to play in unison with a whole section of strings. A lot of string players simply felt there were too many repetitions. Actually, to this day, you very rarely hear a performance that takes every repeat.

This symphony can be pretty close to an hour if a conductor chooses to do that. Generally, you hear something like what we've heard from Riccardo Muti, and the Vienna Philharmonic now back at center stage applauding. Muti is applauding the musicians of the orchestra, and now bowing to the audience here at Carnegie Hall.

Jeff Spurgeon: Many of the audience on their feet, and now all the Vienna Philharmonic recognized once again by the entire audience here at Carnegie Hall. It was really wonderful to watch Muti. His movements are not great. He really conducts from a position of ease. There were times when he was leaning back against the brace that keeps the conductor from falling into the audience, just relaxing and letting the players do the work themselves.

John Schaefer: Yes, and especially during moments where a flute is soloing, for example, just kind of relaxing, hands at sides. No need to be showy or histrionic. He's got a well-oiled machine here in the Vienna Philharmonic.

Jeff Spurgeon: He knows how to drive it very, very well.

John Schaefer: He knows how to drive it, yes. That wraps up this broadcast of Carnegie Hall Live. Our thanks to Clive Gillinson and the staff at Carnegie Hall. WQXR's team includes engineers, George Wellington, Chase Culpon, Bill Siegmund, Neil Shaw, and Noriko Okabe. Our production team, Eileen Delahunty and Laura Boyman. Our project director is Christine Herskovits. I'm John Schaefer.

Jeff Spurgeon: I'm Jeff Spurgeon. Carnegie Hall Live is a co-production of Carnegie Hall and WQXR in New York.

[02:17:44] [END OF AUDIO]

 

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