With a protracted custom of worldwide touring, the legendary Vienna Philharmonic’s distinctive sound has unfold far past Austria.
On March 5-7, the esteemed orchestra returns to Cal Performances’ Zellerbach Corridor for 3 concert events led by visitor conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin that includes works by Mozart, Mahler, Schubert, Dvorak, Beethoven and Strauss.
Daniel Froschauer, first violinist and director of the Vienna Philharmonic, fondly recollects the orchestra’s final go to to Zellerbach in 2023, its third residency there since 2011: “The Berkeley audience was very enthusiastic and very educated, open and warmhearted.”
Since 1933, the Vienna Philharmonic has chosen a brand new visitor conductor every season: Herbert von Karajan, Karl Böhm, Leonard Bernstein, Daniel Barenboim and Franz Welser-Möst are among the many luminaries who took on the position.
Froschauer, who comes from a musical household—his father, Helmuth Froschauer, was the conductor and choir director of the Vienna State Opera—says, “The system of guest conductors promotes a wide spectrum of artistic encounters with the most prominent conductors of each generation.”
The Vienna Philharmonic seems in live performance in Berkeley’s Zellerbach Corridor on March 5-7, 2025 offered by Cal Performances. (Anne Zeuner/Cal Performances through Bay Metropolis Information)
Noting the orchestra’s “close and fruitful artistic partnership” with Nézet-Séguin (music director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York and principal conductor of outstanding teams together with the Philadelphia Orchestra), Froschauer says he exemplifies genres that “make up the language of the Vienna Philharmonic” and fulfills a purpose to work extra with a youthful technology of conductors.
Nézet-Séguin will conduct diverse packages, together with, on March 5, Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 in C main, Ok. 551, “Jupiter,” and Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in D main on March 5. On March 6, the live performance options Schubert’s Symphony No. 4 in C minor, D. 417, “Tragic,” and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, “From the New World.” On March 7, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37, with pianist Yefim Bronfman is paired with Strauss’ autobiographical tone poem “Ein Heldenleben” (“A Hero’s Life”)” Op. 40. On March 7, Cal Performances will have a good time its 2025 Gala.
Froschauer, a former member of the Vienna Boys Choir who cites the good Austrian violinist Fritz Kreisler as crucial affect on his profession, says, “We wanted to present a Viennese program with a focus on Vienna/Czechia and Germany, which is to say, our roots and key repertoire.”
He provides, “It is said that our Viennese sound is unique; it has a specific way in articulation and sound of specific instruments like the horns, oboe and timpani,” Froschauer says. “It is a tradition that goes back to Beethoven and has been given from one generation to the next.”
Vienna Philharmonic musicians are nicely developed earlier than they grow to be one of many orchestra’s 148 members, whose tenures final till necessary retirement at 65. The method for choosing replacements for retiring gamers begins on the Vienna State Opera Orchestra, thought-about a proving floor.
“Each musician who has worked for three years at the Vienna State Opera can audition for a new position in the private association Vienna Philharmonic,” Froschauer says. “The perfect or typical skill is, on one hand, the work at the Opera House with singers, and then the work in the orchestral/symphonic field. The sound of the Opera Orchestra is very important and crucial for the sound of the Vienna Philharmonic.”
The Vienna Philharmonic, the primary orchestra on this planet to go on tour throughout the pandemic, all the time has been an envoy, not only for Vienna and Austria, however for peace on this planet.
Froschauer says, “The message is clear: music is a universal language without borders. We play to give hope, peace and joy to the world. We are happy that we can tour now with Yannick, who is our next New Year’s concert conductor, as this concert always tries to send those precious human values to the world.”
Cal Performances presents the Vienna Philharmonic at 7:30 p.m. March 5-6 and seven p.m. March 7 in Zellerbach Corridor, close to Bancroft Manner and Dana Avenue on the College of California, Berkeley campus. Tickets are $75 to $275 at (510) 842-9988 or calpeformances.org.
