Wiener Symphoniker – Manfred Honeck, conductor; Igor Levit, piano. May 17, 2018.

Grosser Musikvereinssaal, Vienna.  Balkon-Mitte (Seat 4-10, 58 euros).

Program

Concerto for piano and orchestra No. 5 in E major, op. 73 by Beethoven.

Symphony No. 5, op. 47 by Shostokovich.

 
Program

 While wandering around Vienna after our visit to the State Opera, we came upon this poster and recognized Musikverein and Honeck.  At first I was confused as I thought the Vienna Philharmonic season was already over by now, then we realized that it was the Vienna Symphony that would be playing.  That didn’t deter us, and we bought tickets to this concert.  Beethoven’s Emperor, played in Musikverein, what could possibly go wrong.

And nothing did. Overall, we were very happy to be able to make it to this concert.  It was quite well attended, and people seemed to dress much more casually than they do for operas (in any of the three cities we have visited.)

 Waiting for the concert to begin.

In case one wonders why in the ceiling paintings there are these women holding severed heads, they are muses of drama holding masks.

The Emperor concerto is always a crowd pleaser if it is competently played, and tonight was no exception.  While our seats were in the third row of the balcony, the view was surprisingly restricted given people sitting directly in front of us, and each tier of seats was raised only slightly from the tier in front.  Every now and then we could catch a glimpse of the young (31-year old) Levit working away at the piano.  He overpedalled a bit for our taste, but his playing was generally fluid and took the audience on a nice journey through Beethoven’s different moods.

Igor Levit after performing Beethoven's Emperor Concerto; Honeck acknowledging the orchestra members.

For encore he played a simple piece (Bach two-part invention?) probable to showcase his chamber music techniques.  Beyond appreciating the contrpuntal lines I couldn’t tell how well it was played.

I must have heard the Shostakovich a few times before as it sounded quite familiar.  Honeck brought out great contrast in the orchestra, and the orchestra seemed to respond well to his direction.  He was able to garner a huge dynamic range from the ensemble, except during the quiet moments the creaking caused by the seats in the house was annoying; even I felt embarrassed.

A much larger orchestra was used for the Shostakovich.  There were quite a few audience seats in the left-rear section of the orchestra.

The horns sounded tentative in the Beethoven piece, but here they were steady and robust.  Both the concertmaster and the flute had some solo lines, and they both discharged them confidently.

The applause was thunderous, and Honeck must have come out to acknowledge the audience four or five times.

This concert was not in our original plans for the trip, but we were happy to encounter this “bonus event.”