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Matthias

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Posts posted by Matthias

  1. 2 hours ago, BB-8 said:

    If anyone gets geoblocked, I clipped the more relevant parts in a previous post. 😉

    On 20/01/2023 at 8:12 PM, Matthias said:

    Unfortunately only a tiny snippet again on Austrian news... I guess we'll have to wait until the VPO decides to release it in some fashion.

     

  2. 2 hours ago, King Mark said:

    Really, I have a feeling he'll never perform this piece outside of it's intended purpose (Vienna Ball), and the Vienna philharmonic have no reason to play it outside of their annual ball. That's why I'm  not too optimistic about an official release.

    Don't forget that the VPO is a proud (vain) orchestra and they'd probably like to show off the fanfare they commissioned from a famous composer at some point.

    Also, there are many VPO chamber ensembles, including brass ones, who record CDs as well. So that's another possibility for a release. 

    13 hours ago, Pawel P. said:

    I think that aside from the possibility that Williams recorded it last March, there's a good chance the Vienna Philharmonic will play this Fanfare at their annual Summer Night Concert at Schönbrunn Palace. The next one will be on June 8. It's broadcast around the world, as is New Year's Concert at Musikverein, and released very quickly in CD, DVD and Blu-ray formats.

     

    https://www.sommernachtskonzert.at/index_en.html

     

    Vienna Philharmonic played Williams at Summer Night Concert a few times in previous years.

     

     

    Three years ago they performed the suite from Dr. Zhivago by Maurice Jarre.

     

     

    They featured the Strauss fanfare in the 2015 edition of the Summer Night concert, so this is indeed a possibility. 

  3. 4 hours ago, King Mark said:

    This is the epitome of why it's stressful to be a John Williams fan

     

    Here we have a regal sounding celebratory fanfare that could possibly be one of his best, yet we have  no idea if a recording will ever be released

    I wouldn't worry too much about this one - I'm sure the VPO will record it at some point, the question is when. 

     

    2 hours ago, BB-8 said:

    Netrebko's entrance received a John Williams soundtrack.

     

    How ironic.

    Thank the Lord for attention-seeking Opera Divas, we wouldn't have much of the fanfare without it! 

    I once sat in front of her at a VPO concert and was slightly irritated by her flamboyantly recording an IG video right before it started. When I checked her IG account later, it turned out she had even recorded during the concert itself. 😅

  4. 35 minutes ago, King Mark said:

    Someone must have recorded the whole thing. These clips look like they accidentally have some music while filming something else

    Yeah, I'm pretty sure this friend of Anna Netrebko recorded most / all of it (with the purpose of filming Netrebko's entrance) :

    https://instagram.com/eskildsennatalia?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

     

    Anybody wanna ask nicely? 😉

     

    Edit: Scratch that, it must've been someone else in the Netrebko entourage. 

  5. What we can see in the video on the far left of the formation is that JW included a Wagner Tuba and an Althorn (tenor horn) in the score, a nice touch. 

     

    Otherwise it probably follows the already lavish instrumentation of the Richard Strauss fanfare. 

    2 timpani

    2 (normal) tubas

    6 trumpets

    6 trombones 

    6 horns + Wagner tuba + Althorn (8 horns in the RS piece) 

     

    Edit: It's a bit difficult to tell exactly which instruments they are, since there's a lot in that horn family that look similar. One's definitely smaller than the other, though. 

  6. 1 hour ago, JonathanAsh said:

    I see your (or her) point on volume vs. refinement, but I do think there were lots of moments of wonderfully musical, ‘refined’ playing: The horn solo (Saturday’s flub notwithstanding) in Leia’s theme, the gorgeous soaring strings in E.T. or the passionate way the celli and horns sang Fawkes’ theme together… Definitely not just the flute. 

     

    That part of the review confused me as well. I have no idea what this kind of journalism does for anyone. Is she trying to make fun of the plebs who don‘t have good taste in music? Or is she just sincerely surprised at how joyfully the audience applauded? 

    The solos were great for the most part and principal flutist Karl-Heinz Schütz was gleefully attacking every phrase, not just the solo parts. I guess I was trying to say that the second half had a lot of heroic, full tilt brass and maybe playing with the dynamics and the balance would've brought out more orchestral details in some pieces. E.T. was probably my personal highlight - just beautiful playing all around! 

    Anyway, it was a fantastic concert! 

     

    The concert critics are just taken aback by the frequency of the standing ovations. Don't make too much of it, they just live in a different bubble than us. 

    Consider on the flip side that some JWFanners have accused the Saturday audience of lacking enthusiasm, because there wasn't a standing ovation every time. I'm pretty sure that the program was structured in such a way that there wasn't supposed to be long applause inside of the Harry Potter, Indiana Jones and Star Wars blocks, which is why JW after some pieces didn't really turn around to acknowledge the audience on Saturday. 

     

    1 hour ago, Marian Schedenig said:

    Young(ish)er players overall. Which some here will again complain about as a supposed snub towards Williams; others even before the concert saw it as a reason to expect a better rehearsed performance.

    Steude as concertmaster was a definite upgrade, otherwise it was also pretty much as good as it gets (though the lineup for the first concert was also good). Schütz, Schorn, Dervaux, Lenaerts, they are all great. I didn't see the horn section well from where I was sitting... was it Janezic messing up the horn solo? If so, we can't complain there either, because he's the best. 

  7. Review in Wiener Zeitung:

    https://www.wienerzeitung.at/nachrichten/kultur/klassik/2140736-Alle-lieben-John-Williams.html

    Another classical music critic somewhat alienated by the standing ovations. 😅 I do slightly agree with the point that a little bit more refinement and a little less volume would've been beneficial. But that's complaining on a very high level. 

     

    1 hour ago, JonathanAsh said:

    The recording engineer I spoke to also only said ‘Schallplatte’. I’m from Germany, where that word really only refers to a vinyl record. @Matthias, if you say in Austrian German it’s a general way of referring to CDs etc., all the better! 

    It can mean both, depending on the context. It's a little odd that both used the same term, though. Makes me second-guess a little bit.

    After all, DG has to find a way of releasing this without bastardizing its other products. So maybe an initial vinyl-only release with a later general release isn't impossible. 

  8. 55 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

    Of course, always do. Bad luck for those who were on the podium already when I came in (i.e. at least most of the winds, like yesterday).

    Thank God you were there because it can be pretty confusing. 😅 There was a point on Saturday where almost the entire orchestra was seated and practicing. Then the string players left and entered again a few minutes later, which seems pretty weird if you don't know that this is the time you're supposed to clap before a VPO concert. And of course it works completely differently in other countries. Wien ist anders...

     

    I choose to see the positive in that typically snobbish Standard review (why is Stefan Ender so obsessed with gods anyway?) - seems like he enjoyed the violin concerto. 

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