MUSIC IN VIENNA

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20639, 30 January 1937, Page 14

MUSIC IN VIENNA

NEW COMPOSITIONS PRESENTED "EXPRESSION TO THE UNUSUAL” Alban Berg's posthumous Violin Concerto was played for the first time in Vienna by Louis Krasner and the Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Otto Klemperer. It was an important musical event. Here we have a work stamped with all the characteristics of a masterpiece: a wealth of ideas, lovely and original melodies, skilfully constructed movements, magnificent orchestration and a form that is built up on the grand scale. All this, however, was merely a means to an end—the composer’s desire to give expression to the unusual. And this he does with a persuasive force that carries the listener away. Who cares to know whether it be tonal or atonal when the simplest and the most complicated sounds merge into the whole in an equally convincing manner; or whether the chords be polyphonic dissonances or simple triads, as in that now famous passage which occurs after the climax in the

second movement when an old choral is introduced in Bachian harmonies. The audience listened spellbound to this work. Louis Krasner, who can claim the merit of having persuaded Berg to write the concerto, gave a superb performance. His shaping of the melodic

lines and those of the form as a whole showed his deep understanding. The enormous technical difficulties were overcome with ease, and he played the concerto as naturally, simply and with as much certainty as if it were a familiar classical piece. Though the music contains much that is new and strange, the accompaniment was beautifully played by the Philharmonic Orchestra. Special thanks are due to Klemperer, on whose initiative the performance of the work toot place. A radically modern work on a Philharmonic programme is a rare thing. Klemperer had inserted the new masterpiece between two old ones: Schumann’s “Manfred” Overture and Brahm's First Symphony. The programme was therefore well balanced, not only with regard to the artistic effect, but also from the point of view of the listener. All these works were brilliantly interpreted by Klemperer. The next Philharmonic concert was conducted by De Sabata. He belongs to the virtuoso type of conductor. This was manifest even in his programme, which began with Strauss’s “Thus Spake Zarathustra” and ended with the “Tristan” Prelude and Liebestod. Between these two were Dukas’s “L’Apprenti-Sorcier,” a small symphony of Mozart and a pleasing

“Noveletta” by Martucci. De Sabata is a man of temperament who knows how to capture his public. In his interpretations the primary aim is that of effect. That is why he was most successful in the piece by Dukas. And then came Toscanini. The programme of the first concert included Cherubini’s Symphony in D major; Brahm’s "Liebeslieder Vaises”; Ravel’s “Daphnis and Chloe”; three pieces from Goldmark’s “Landliche Hochzeit” and a “Tango” by Sonzogno. The second programme was made up of Beethoven’s “Coriolan” Overture; Brahm’s First Symphony; Busoni’s "Harlekins Reigen,” and Shostakovich’s First Symphony—an amazingly talented work with a wealth of ideas which was written when the composer was 17.

To listen to Toscanini is always a new artistic experience (writes the Vienna correspondent of "The Christian Science Monitor”). We should also congratulate ourselves that in Vienna we are able to place at his disposal so brilliant a musical instrument as our Philharmonic Orchestra. The rendering of the Overture, which was taken at a furious tempo, and the Brahms symphony belong to the greatest things one has ever heard, even from a Toscanini. After the symphony it was not merely applause, but a clamorous enthusiasm with which the public greeted the conductor.