Theatres and Churches

Donald Macleod takes a tour of Vienna’s Churches and Theatres in the company of Franz Schubert.

Of all Europe’s major cities, perhaps Vienna is the one with the reputation as the most comfortable, the most sophisticated, and the most musical. In fact, has any other city been home to so many great composers as Vienna? Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, and Salieri all spent their best years working there. Yet none of those starry names was born in the city, none were true Viennese. Over the course of this week, Donald Macleod explores Vienna through the lens of arguably the greatest home grown composer the city has ever produced – Franz Schubert – a man whose short life spanned a crucial period in Austrian history, a time of crisis and much change. In his company we’ll explore Vienna’s churches and theatres, its parks, coffee houses and taverns, and also glimpse the darker side of the city too – the excesses of Europe’s aristocracy and the all seeing eyes of Vienna’s secret police.

In Friday’s programme, Donald takes a tour of Vienna’s Churches in the company of Franz Schubert. We’ll discover the spires and domes which would have characterised the city skyline in Schubert’s time, and explore the music making which happened within their walls. Donald also delves into another side to the city’s music making, examining Schubert’s attempts throughout his life to break into the world of the Viennese theatre, and explores what the music he wrote for the stage might tell us about the composer’s own opinion of the city of Vienna.

Ave Maria, D839, Op 52, No 6
Barbara Bonney, soprano
Geoffrey Parsons, piano

Mass No 6 in E Flat Major, D950 (Credo)
Vienna Staatsopernchor
Vienna Philharmonic
Claudio Abbado, conductor

Rosemunde incidental music, D797 (Nos 7-9)
Ileana Cotrubas, soprano
MDR Leipzig Radio Chorus
Staatskapelle Dresden
Willi Boskovsky, conductor

Alfonso and Estrella, D732 (Act I, Aria “Sei mir gegrusst, o Sonne!”)
Christian Gerhaher, baritone (King Froila)
Berlin Philharmonic
Nikolaus Harnoncourt, conductor

An die Musik
Elly Ameling, soprano
Dalton Baldwin, piano

Produced by Sam Phillips for BBC Audio Wales & West

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