The opening of the Salzburg Festival, for many regarded as the world's most
renowned music festival, is by tradition a high-profile event. In 2009,this
first concert given by the Wiener Philharmoniker was conducted by
Nikolaus Harnoncourt. The program is, in honor of the 80th birthday of the
great Austrian conductor (6 Dec. 2009), a purely Austrian. Though it may
seem unusual at first glance, under Harnoncourt's direction, the disparate
works fuse into a moving, slightly melancholy portrait of the Viennese
dance in the early 19th century. The concert opens with Anton Webern's
delicate orchestration of Schubert's "Six German Dances," which segue into
two polkas and a waltz by Josef Strauß, the younger - and bolder -
composer brother of "Walzerkönig" Johann Strauß Jr. With this alternation
of bittersweet and brassy dances, the stage is set for Harnoncourt's
staggering reading of Schubert's "Great" C major Symphony, in which the
dance of death - so Viennese yet so universal - seems to have served as the
composer's model. This concert adds a new milestone to UNITEL
CLASSICA's longtime partnership with the Salzburg Festival, as well as
with Harnoncourt and the Wiener Philharmoniker.
