A Sound Tradition. Christoph Wagner-Trenkwitz
Along with its relatively infrequent independent Philharmonic concerts and its daily opera duties, our orchestra continued to appear in numerous other presentations, mostly in the Kärntnertor-Theater. Thus Hector Berlioz directed the Philharmonic on December 16, 1845, for the first and last time, and his verdict was that “they might perhaps be equaled by other orchestras, but exceeded by none.” When the composer Felicien David gave a guest performance of his internationally celebrated orchestral work The Desert in the Kärntnertor-Theater (it was only moderately successful in Vienna), our orchestra had to make do with a compliment that also contained a touch of critique: this “body” was “capable of doing anything”…”if only it wants to.” We are reminded of a statement by Wilhelm Furtwängler, quoted by Board Chair Otto Strasser, which he made a century later after a concert in London, “that we were the best orchestra of the world—when we wanted to be.”
In the 1840’s, Franz Liszt and Robert Schumann were among the concert conductors while Friedrich von Flotow, Conradin Kreutzer and Giacomo Meyerbeer personally directed their own operas at the KärntnertorTheater—this close contact with the “great men” of their professions became the rule for the musicians of the Vienna orchestra from the first moment on.
Crisis and Farewell
For the eighth Philharmonic concert (March 30, 1845), Beethoven’s Eighth was on the program—but someone other than Nicolai was at the podium. In February 1845, the conductor had become seriously ill, but the “ungrateful orchestra personnel,” whose relationship with its strict chief conductor had not been without its frictions, refused to call off the concert. A musician from their own ranks was entrusted with the leadership: Georg Hellmesberger, a “guarantee of solid mediocrity” (Hellsberg). Once again it is noteworthy how history nearly repeats itself: When Gustav Mahler fell ill in 1901, the concert for March 1901 was given over to Joseph Hellmesberger, the grandson of Nicolai’s orchestral director. Offended, Mahler resigned from conducting the concerts a little later. And for Nicolai, too, being “booted out” in 1845 was one of the reasons for his abandoning his “child.” This came, of course, after some wrangling, and in full recognition that he had been the “leader of the best that Vienna can offer.” Though the orchestra may have treated its founder unjustly, it honors his memory and name to this day with the annual Nicolai Concerts as well as the Nicolai Medal awarded for meritorious service to the Vienna Philharmonic.
On March 7, 1847, he conducted his eleventh and last Philharmonic concert with Mozart’s “Great” Symphony in G minor, a Meyerbeer overture, and Beethoven’s Second Symphony. Shortly thereafter, Nicolai bade farewell to the Kärntnertor-Theater with the “divine Don Juan, with which I accepted this position six years ago.”
After Nicolai
In the opera there were also moments of glory, such as for instance the world premiere of Flotow’s Martha on November 25, 1847, and the premiere of Meyerbeer’s The Prophet under the composer’s direction (after the closing of the Kärntnertor-Theater in the revolutionary years 1848/49), but the development of the Philharmonic Orchestra came more or less to a standstill in the “eleven lean years” (Hellsberg) following Nicolai’s departure.
Nonetheless, the musicians of the orchestra continued to work as the “Gesellschaftsorchester der Musikfreunde” (Orchestra of the Society of the Friends of Music) under the direction of Joseph Hellmesberger, the distinguished violinist son of Georg, but had reached a “low point in their history” and were financially “almost exclusively dependent on the opera” (Hellsberg). This situation was partly due to the very arbitrary actions of the opera director Julius Cornet (appointed in 1853), who had little regard for the orchestra and overworked them, taking unfair advantage of the lack of a fixed rehearsal schedule.
One clash with Cornet deserves mention: first violinist Wilhelm Pauli was found on stage one day by the rabid director (who expressly forbade the musicians to set foot on stage during intermissions) and received this bawling out: “Get yourself back into the pit this instant!” Being addressed this way, Pauli answered him with the famous Götz quotation (from Goethe’s Götz von Berlichingen, in English, literally: “K.M.A.! ”), whereupon Cornet, in a fury, rushed up to the stage manager, Just, and screamed: “Did you hear what this insolent person said to me?”—“Yes.”—“And what would you do?”—“Me, I wouldn’t,” said Just placidly.
In 1853, with the engagement of the opera conductor Carl Eckert, a phase of consolidation on the Philharmonic side of things also began. The violinist Henri Vieuxtemps and pianist Clara Schumann appeared as soloists, Liszt conducted the orchestra, and on March 25, 1855, the musicians first came into contact with a creation of Richard Wagner: the Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin. The Vienna premiere of the complete opera did not occur until August 1858 in the Kärntnertor-Theater.
The Philharmonic concert on March 1, 1857, under Eckert put a work by Schubert (Symphony in C major, D. 944) for the first time on the program of our orchestra. But what could have become a rebirth did not have any positive outcomes. Weaknesses of organization, publicity, and especially the “insufficient identification of the musicians with their project led to the temporary decline of the Philharmonic idea,” (Hellsberg); only ten concerts had taken place in the decade after Nicolai’s departure.
The “Rebirth”
It was nonetheless Eckert, who had been director of the opera since 1858, who would initiate the “rebirth” of the Philharmonic. On January 14, 1860, the Kärntnertor-Theater presented The Merry Wives of Windsor from the pen of the late founder of the Philharmonic (dead now some 11 years), and the next day the public was invited “at Noonday” to “the First Philharmonic Subscription Concert, presented by the Members of the Orchestra of the Imperial and Royal Court Opera Theater under the direction of Mr. Carl Eckert.” The critic Eduard Hanslick was jubilant: “From the first note to the last, one spirit and one hand.” Now that its time-tested quality was restored, the orchestra’s new organization was a radical innovation which would well befit it going forward. Up to that point, the “Philharmonic” had indeed been marketed and sold as separate individual performances: the system of subscriptions (with only four concerts initially) gained the confidence of the public that crowded into the confined Kärntnertor-Theater to see “their” orchestra play on the stage set of that evening’s presentation. Soon the subscription concerts were increased to eight, and to nine starting with 1864. This number was maintained for almost a century: not until 1961 was it increased to ten per year.
Concertmaster Joseph Hellmesberger, Senior, and conductors Carl Eckert and Otto Dessoff
Eckert resigned his post for health reasons in 1860, and Matteo Salvi succeeded him as opera director. At a general business meeting, the Philharmonic members elected the twenty-five-year-old Saxon opera conductor Otto Dessoff to be its principal conductor, and there he stayed for a blissful decade and a half. “Dessoff laid the foundation for a house where later, perhaps more brilliant conductors came and went,” write Herta and Kurt Blaukopf. “One cannot belong to the world of fashion without a subscription to the Philharmonic in one’s pocket,” enthused the newspaper Der Wanderer in 1864.
The 1860 introduction of subscription concerts was regarded until the 20th century as the founding moment of the Vienna Philharmonic. It was not until 1942 that it was decided to celebrate that year as the centennial of the orchestra’s foundation by Otto Nicolai. But 1860 also marked the “creation” of a building that remains the home for our orchestra until the present day: the announcement of an architectural competition for the new Court Opera Theater that was opened nine years later.
Richard