Vienna Philharmonic
Part of: Franz Welser-Möst and Fall of the Weimar Republic: Dancing on the Precipice
Performers
Vienna Philharmonic
Franz Welser-Möst, Conductor
Program
BRUCKNER Symphony No. 9
BERG Three Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 6
Event Duration
The printed program will last approximately 90 minutes with no intermission. Please note that there will be no late seating.This Concert in Context
Berg completed his Three Pieces for Orchestra in 1915 at a time when German feelings of elation and national pride associated with the onset of World War I had not yet given way to the despair and demoralization that characterized the later stages of the war. Dedicated to his teacher Arnold Schoenberg, Berg’s work was first performed in June 1923 while Germany was in the throes of economic crisis. Hyperinflation lent an almost carnivalesque quality to life in cities across the country and gave Germans an impression of a society turned upside down—one that rewarded debtors over savers, and prized outsiders with their stable foreign currencies over native Germans and their almost worthless Marks.
No cultural institution was safe from the ravages of war and the inflation that followed in its wake—not even Wagner’s Bayreuth Festival, which ceased performances altogether between 1914 and 1924. Although Wagner is most often remembered as Hitler’s favorite composer, a strong case could be made for Anton Bruckner, whose monumental, emotionally charged symphonies were themselves practically Wagnerian in scope. By the 1930s, Bruckner had attracted a devoted following among a certain segment of the listening audience, but nothing approaching the kind of widespread acclaim enjoyed by the German composers Wagner, Beethoven, and Brahms. As a critic attending a 1931 Bruckner festival in Weimar that featured the entire symphonic cycle remarked, “There was only a sparse attendance on the opening nights … [as] people were evidently afraid that such a gargantuan feast of unfamiliar music would be indigestible.” Bruckner, however, would be much performed once the Nazis took power; the Adagio from his Seventh Symphony would feature prominently following the announcement of Germany’s 1943 defeat at Stalingrad and again following the radio announcement of Hitler’s death in 1945.
—Brendan Fay, author of Classical Music in Weimar Germany