Sunday Classics preview: A taste of Old Vienna

Plus: Watch for another big contest giveaway Sunday!

Can we visit Old Vienna without Richard Tauber? On our Gypsy Baron night, the incomparable tenor sings Barinkay's Act I entrance couplet, "Als flotter Geist."

[English translation based on Gery Bramall's for Teldec. The choral cues indicate where the chorus would join in if there were one.]

A bright spark, though orphaned early in life,
I roamed all over the world.
I was the factotum
of a big circus.
I ruled the whole animal kingdom
from whale to golden pheasant.
The rattlesnake petted me,
the rhinoceros stroked my cheek,
the lion crawled on the ground before me,
the tiger fed from my hand.
I was on the best of terms with the hyena,
I showed my teeth to the crocodile.
The elephant used his trunk
to dress my salad in the bowl.

Yes, all of that, on my honor,
I can do that and still more.
If it can be done somehow,
it's not hard, it's not hard.
[CHORUS joins in as BARINKAY repeats.]

Then I traveled with rare specimens,
as an acrobat and medicine man,
and at the end I was assistant
to a sorcerer!
I called ghosts by the dozen
into my black magic circle.
I was an ardent fire-eater,
and swallowed knives to aid my digestion.
A high-wire artist like the Japanese,
an incomparable quick-change artist.
I can perform splendid card tricks
and am even better as a card-sharp.
I am a magician of importance,
and all without training. Indeed!

Yes, dancer and juggler,
prestidigitator.
If it can be done somehow,
it's not hard, it's not hard.
[CHORUS joins in as BARINKAY repeats.]

by Ken

In the days after Daniel Barenboim's invigorating debut appearance conducting the Vienna New Year's Concert in 2009, including the noteworthy New Year's wish "We hope 2009 will be a year of peace in the world, and of human justice in the Middle East," we took note of the event in a Sunday Classics post on the Strausses of Vienna, "There are good reasons why great conductors bring their 'A' game when they play the music of Johann Strauss II and his family."

My immediate impression, even from watching the concert casually, was that it had been unsually auspicious New Year's Concert in both programming and execution. And that impression was confirmed when the CD version came out. One nice programming point -- not revolutionary, exactly, but felicitous nevertheless -- was the cluster of from and related to Johann II's second-best-loved operetta, The Gypsy Baron," and in tonight's Viennese preview we're going to hear all three pieces in question: the Overture, of course (a fairly standard concert piece), the "Entrance March" from Act III, and the Treasure Waltz created out of Gypsy Baron material.

Naturally along with Daniel B's performances we're going to hear some interesting (I hope!) complements and alternatives.

J. STRAUSS II: Der Zigeunerbaron (The Gypsy Baron): Overture

Vienna Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. Decca, recorded 1959

Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, cond. Teldec, recorded live, April 1994

Vienna Philharmonic, Daniel Barenboim, cond. Decca, recorded live at the 2009 Vienna New Year's Concert


J. STRAUSS II: Der Zigeunerbaron (The Gypsy Baron):

Act III, Entrance March

orchestra only
Vienna Philharmonic, Daniel Barenboim, cond. Decca, recorded live at the 2009 Vienna New Year's Concert

Vienna Philharmonic, Mariss Jansons, cond. DG, recorded live at the 2006 Vienna New Year's Concert

with chorus: "Hurrah, die Schlacht mitgemacht hab'n wir" ("Hurrah, we've fought the battle")
Arnold Schoenberg Chorus, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, cond. Teldec, recorded live, April 1994


J. STRAUSS II: Treasure Waltz, Op. 418

Vienna Philharmonic, Daniel Barenboim, cond. Decca, recorded live at the 2009 Vienna New Year's Concert

Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner, cond. RCA, recorded Apr. 25-26, 1960

(arr. Webern -- yes, that Webern!)
Alban Berg Quartet; Alfred Mitterhofer, harmonium; Heinz Medjimorec, piano. EMI, recorded June 1992


A BONUS PREVIEW OF TOMORROW NIGHT'S PREVIEW

I already did these audio files, which wound up being surplus from tomorrow night's preview. It seems a shame to waste them, so why don't we use them as a preview of tomorrow night's preview?

J. STRAUSS II: Die Fledermaus (The Bat)

Overture

Act I trio, "So muss allein ich bleiben"
("So I must remain alone")

Gerda Scheyrer (s), Rosalinde; Wilma Lipp (s), Adele; Karl Terkal (t), Eisenstein; Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Ackermann, cond. EMI, recorded June 1959


AND THEN ON SUNDAY . . .

We're going to hear a whole bunch of overtures, including a set of the most wonderful performances ever recorded.


AS FOR THAT BIG CONTEST GIVEAWAY . . .

As it happens I have an extra copy of the precious CD we're going to be featuring, and I'm prepared to give it away. But my attempts at contests have been such a uniform bust that all I can think of is to offer this precious CD to someone who does something to earn it. For starters, maybe somebody could guess just what we're going to be hearing Sunday?


SUNDAY CLASSICS POSTS

The current list is here.

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As chaos engulfs Gaza, we hear Daniel Barenboim's wish: "We hope 2009 will be a year of peace in the world, and of human justice in the Middle East"

by Ken

When Howie called awhile ago I was working on tomorrow's classical music piece, which is about Johann Strauss and his famous musical family, taking off from Thursday's Vienna New Year's Concert, the first conducted by the distinguished music director of the Berlin State Opera (and former music director of the Chicago Symphony), Daniel Barenboim.

I had already sent Howie the planned opening video clip, of Barenboim leading the Vienna Philharmonic -- and the Musikverein audience, of course -- in the invariable final encore, Johann Strauss I's Radetzky March, which he loved, and I had already mentioned the maestro's much-quoted New Year's wish: "We hope 2009 will be a year of peace, and of human justice in the Middle East." I mentioned that the conductor had been quoted earlier in the week, from Vienna, referring to the "terrible events" in Gaza and expressing the vehement belief that the situation can't be resolved militarily. He was quoted as saying, "There are still ... far too many people who are still convinced that they can resolve this conflict militarily. That can't be done. That absolutely can't be done."

I avoided writing about the nightmare in Gaza while Howie was away, because I just didn't want to deal with the automatic defensive response you get from the people who will defend the Israeli government no matter how outrageously it behaves. In this case they refuse to acknowledge, let alone grasp the significance of, the Israeli blockade that was steadily and deliberately starving Gaza.

Barenboim himself is a subject of controversy in Israel, where he grew up. He has been outspoken in his commitment to justice for all parties in the MIddle East, and with the late Edward Said founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, an Israeli and Arab youth orchestra. Last year he created a sensation when he accepted a Palestinian passport.

Howie, realizing that I tend to be incommunicado on Saturday, asked if I knew that the long-hypothesized Israeli ground offensive in Gaza had finally begun today. I didn't, but I wasn't surprised. It's been talked about all week. We can assume that the Israeli government has been given an "all clear" by the Bush regime. No doubt the strategic thinking includes a calculation of how "successful" our famous "surge" was in Iraq, though all knowledgeable observers agree that actual military force had little to do with whatever stability has been achieved there. (Just how much stability has been achieved we probably won't know until we leave.)

Meanwhile, it's a measure of how badly out of control the situation has become that Barenboim's New Year's wish for "human justice in the Middle East," which surely should arouse a minimum of controversy, is automatically assumed to be "anti-Israel."

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