Bon-bons from Vienna
Post categories: Radio 3, The Genius of Mozart
|17:48 UK Time, Monday, 3 January 2011
HK Gruber and broadcaster Daniele Zimper in the ORF Studios in Vienna with Petroc
I’m back home in London after the excitement of starting 2011 in Vienna.
Walking back from the ORF radio studio on Saturday afternoon, I couldn’t help but mull over the sheer omnipresence of music and musicians in the city. In the 10-minute stroll back to our hotel I passed the former apartments of Wolf and Szymanowski, and the church where Mahler married his beloved Alma. As I mentioned on air, Beethoven and Schubert are buried in the Central Cemetery, and the legacy of the Strauss family can be found in a dozen different theatres, casinos and houses.
But it’s Mozart’s name that dominates above all others. Unhealthily, in the view of HK Gruber, who reckons its been hijacked in the name of commercialism. And when it comes to performance, he says, we treat Mozart with kid-gloves. He cites Simon Rattle ’s advice as being the best – approach Mozart as if it’s Stravinsky. Gruber – conductor, composer, chansonnier and legendary son of Vienna - was commissioned to write a piece for the Mozart celebrations in 2006, and demurred at first. In the end he created a work with the title ‘Hidden Agenda’. Treat Mozart with a bit less respect – that’s the message he wants to get across. He’s even more concerned now period performance has become mainstream. ‘Those vegetarians,’ he groans, his damning title for any musician who leans towards the authentic. Vibrato, no vibrato, who cares – play it with love, he says, just as Mozart would have done. Gruber joined us in the studio after staying up until 5am to work on his new opera – and was in combative mood. Listen again by following this link to the Cafe Mozart programme in the BBC iPlayer. I love his dismissal of Salzburg, as being nothing more than a provincial market town outside festival time. There speaks a true child of the Vienna Woods.
But he’s surely got a point about the commercialism. ‘Mozart Store’ seems to be a generic title for the shops that sell tourist trinkets and assorted gewgaws across Vienna; Mozart coffee, chocolate bars and liqueurs fill plenty of shelves in duty free at Vienna Airport.
There’s a long established Café Mozart just across the road from the Albertina, one of Vienna’s great art museums. Although it’s currently boasting a substantial Picasso exhibition (from Tate Liverpool), it was the State Apartments that I really wanted to see in my two hours off. The gilded window frames and ornate plasterwork does not distract from the eclectic selection of pictures on show; Rubens drawings alongside explicit nudes by Egon Schiele, and in another room, nine tiny masterpieces by Albrecht Dürer, including the vivid turquoise and blood red of his painting of a severed bird's wing from 1512.
I found myself wondering if Mozart ever performed for rich patrons in one of these rooms? Strange to think that back in the 1780s, the (now 500-year-old) Durers would already have been considered ancient art.
Then I wandered up a grand marble staircase, and Mozart was with me. The Albertina has a retrospective of the work of South African artist William Kentridge on at the moment. He’s long been obsessed with The Magic Flute, in particular the power and evil potential of Sarastro. His fascination led to a commission for a staging of the opera at La Monnaie in Brussels six years ago. Now one of the maquettes that he originally used to test lighting effects, has been turned into an artwork; a miniature theatre that provides a backdrop for a series of his signature projections, Mozart adding a rich score.
At the airport yesterday afternoon, I crossed fingers HK Gruber wasn’t watching, and sold out to commercialism with the purchase of a packet of Mozart tea. But that was nothing on my producer and travelling companion Elizabeth Arno. I last saw her struggling home from Heathrow clutching about 200 Mozartkugeln. Elizabeth is getting married next month, and is planning to put a little bowl of the rich marzipan sweets from Salzburg on each table. Whether Mozart’s music will play any part in the ceremonies, I have yet to ascertain.
- Listen to Petroc's Cafe Mozart programme on the BBC iPlayer
- Find details of Radio 3's The Genius of Mozart season
Comment number 1.
At 18:49 3rd Jan 2011, wilf wrote:good blog...two hours off??? In Vienna? I like Mozartkugeln butit's gotta be the right kind though...there are many imposters...
Complain about this comment (Comment number 1)
Comment number 2.
At 08:52 4th Jan 2011, Lord Byron wrote:Nice posting, gives one a feeling of being there, and travelling back.
Have been dipping into the Mozart feast on 3, here and there, absolutely loved the live music on breakfast on 3 this morning.
Sat up in bed with coffee and live music, what a way to start the day :)
Not so sure on those programs on Sunday about the real mozart, from what I can gather, from books, is that he spent most of his time writing music that nobody heard, despite everyone quoting his famous letter about pupils in the morning, he did not teach very much.
Still, we shall never know, as not the entire life is contained in letters, still, nice to hear a bit of Mozart now and then.
Glad to see you like art, you know, the National Gallery in London do ( or used to when I was there, hope they still do ) music in the galleries sometimes, usually late opening Thursdays.
I remember hearing that Strauss used to walk through London parks and the national gallery as his morning routine when staying at the Savoy, something I like to do myself, apart from the Savoy bit.
Nice blog
Good stuff blogs, much better to hear informed opinions than rantings on the message board.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 2)
Comment number 3.
At 13:42 7th Jan 2011, Charles Westendarp wrote:I wanted to agree with Wilf about the Mozart Fest in general,(but the Highlights blog was closed for comments) and also add that it would be nice to SEE (if it was ever mentioned on air, I missed it) who it is who reads the snippets of letters etc in the person of Wolfgang and his father on Breakfast (and no doubt elsewhere during the season). Can't it be added to the programme details?
Complain about this comment (Comment number 3)