Note:
This article was prompted by a discussion on National Public Radio (NPR) during the last week of February, 2014. Four experts grappled with the Vienna Philharmonic’s ethos. Some believed it had not changed and others believed it was changing. Every visit to the United States by the orchstra precipitates discussions such as this. NPR’s panel was unable to arrive at any conclusions. I heard nothing new about the old things and all the new things had been old for many years. I wondered, who produced this show and why?
The city of Vienna and its orchestra are almost synonymous. New Year’s Eve, the Strauss family, and the Wiener Philharmoniker personify Viennese sophistication, opulence and gemuchlikeit.
Both have been under siege, the city in 1683 by the Ottoman Empire and the orchestra in 1945 by Allied war crimes investigators. The siege of Vienna lasted two months. The orchestra has endured almost 70 years of periodic assaults,each launched by the tocsin of misogyny and Nazism.
The most recent attacks began early in 2014 after it was announced the orchestra would headline Carnegie Hall’s festival, Vienna the City of Dreams. [1.] The Philharmonic’s reputation as an all white, all male orchestra and its past association with Nazism, provided ample fodder for its critics.
The Philharmoniker is governed by its members. Before and during World War II, the director of the orchestra was a trumpet player and rabid Nazi Party member. There are many who continue to condemn the orchestra for a decision it made under his aegis almost 90 years ago, the expulsion of its Jewish players.
Today, criticisms of the orchestra seem peevish and are often specious. They ring false on modern ears. When the orchestra first engaged Leonard Bernstein, it was mocked for being a political move intended to show the West it had nothing against Jews. The hiring of its first female player, was labled tokenism. The orchestra’s critics admit some issues are being addressed, but complain about the slow pace of change. Today there are about 10 women in the orchestra including an assistant concertmaster.
At one time I was emboldened by knowing an all male, all white, all Austrian trained orchestra was alive and well in the world, carrying on a rich cultural history that included a great music tradition. In matching shirts, ties, vests, jackets and pants, they were cool, Some spice for the world’s symphonic mix I thought. I assumed Vienna had the orchestra it wanted and needed.
The PC continue to fulminate against the Vienna Philharmonic. Barking and snapping at its heels, they demand it become like other orchestras. But will these critics ever level their political correctness on the Israel Philharmonic? Now that is a story I hope never to read. The last thing our over homogenized world needs is for its cultural traditions to merge.[2.]
[1. http://www.carnegiehall.org/vienna/
[2.] I have edited somewhat the article below which was reprinted in Douglas McLennan’s ArtsJournal‘s of 14 April. R.E.
Reuters, Sat Apr 12, 2014 ) – The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra will return to a French family a valuable painting that was looted by the Nazis and given to the orchestra as a gift in 1940 by a Viennese secret police official.
The heirs of the painting’s late owner, Marcel Koch, will receive “Port-en-Bessin” by neo-Impressionist Paul Signac at a ceremony this year, the orchestra said on Saturday, announcing the latest step to address its past association with Nazism.
About half the Philharmonic’s musicians were Nazi party members by 1942, four years after Hitler’s annexation of Austria. Thirteen musicians with Jewish origins or relations were driven out of the orchestra and five died in concentration camps.
The orchestra is known for its New Year’s Concert, an annual gala of Strauss waltzes broadcast to millions around the world. The New Year’s Concert was invented as a Nazi propaganda instrument.
“The deeper one digs into the Vienna Philharmonic’s past, the more ‘corpses’ emerge from the orchestra pit,” he (Green Party member Harald Walser) said.
See also the Birgit Nielsen Prize for 2014, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/opera/10754804/Vienna-Philharmonic-worthy-winner-of-the-Birgit-Nilsson-Prize.html
Robin Engelman 
the ART of DRAWING
Chesapeake Bay Oyster Schooner
In the 7th grade I was given a book filled with drawings by a medical artist. The mostly black and white drawings were of human body parts from big toe to brain, sliced to show every layer from epidermis through bone. Surgical procedures such as appendectomies, were drawn in step by step views from the initial incision to the final suturing. These drawings, a surgeon told me, were more clear and readable then photographs. I was fascinated and began to carefully copy the drawings page by page – all with the intention of becoming a medical artist.
When I entered high school I showed my copies to the art teacher who seemed impressed. Whether it was my skill or perseverance that caught her attention, she didn’t say and I didn’t ask. She did however, recommend I do some original work. I began sketching Chesapeake Bay schooners. Their lines fascinated me and I drew dozens of these beautiful boats, all pretty much the same, sails full blown, all heading in the same direction through formula waves. My teacher prodded ne to try somethig else and for inspiration, suggested I look at books of drawings by master artists.
When I first saw Ingres’ pencil sketches, I knew the game was up. Ingres had spent time in Italy and to make money he sketched tourists in situe, creating post card like mementos of their travels. I looked at other Ingres drawings and thought of him whipping them off. I wondered how many he could do on a good day. I tried copying Ingres work and my attempts to achieve his elegant, sure lines were frustrated.
The artist/percussionist Michael Craden (1941-82) told me to look at artist’s drawings to discover something about their working methods: the lines Michelangelo drew to create his neck and those peculiar eyes, the lack of reworking in the Ingres, Rubens precise rendering of the young woman’s face and the casual treatment of her collar and hair, the child’s innocent gaze, touch and his halo, as well as the horizon lines through the Madonna in the Raphael, the Bruegel bold lines, particularly in the artist’s cuff presage van Gogh and Durer’s hare, a watercolour no less!
Today I am an inveterate seeker of art. My idea of a great holiday is a trip to the Mall in Washington, DC with its 20 or so Smithsonian buildings, all free to the public. Megabus takes time, but its the least expensive way to go. The trip via NYC and Philly takes 13 hours, but at night. Round trip from Toronto is about $40.00 per person and includes Wi-Fi. The money my wife and I save by bussing and the for gratis Smithsonian, goes towards a decent hotel and, most important, frequent visits to Hank’s Oyster House.
Below is a random selection of a few of my favourite drawings. Collectively they continue to sooth my soul and I remain in awe of their artist’s abilities.
Ingres, Frau Ritter and daughters, 1805, graphite.
Raphael, Madonna with Pomegranate, 1502, crayon.
Pieter Bruegel, the elder,1520-69, pen drawing.
Albrecht Durer, Young hare, 1502, Watercolor
Chesapeake Bay Schooners in a bottle
Posted by robinengelman on March 12, 2014 in Articles, Commentaries & Critiques, History
Tags: Art, Bruegel, drawing, Durer, Ingres, Michelangelo, Raphael, Rubens