Today, The Grandma has been listening to a Vienna Philharmonic concert to commemorate its first concert on a day like today in 1842.
The Vienna Philharmonic VPO, in German Wiener Philharmoniker, is an orchestra that was founded in 1842 and is considered to be one of the finest in the world.
The Vienna Philharmonic is based at the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria.
Its members are selected from the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera. Selection involves a lengthy process, with each musician demonstrating their capability for a minimum of three years' performance for the opera and ballet. After this probationary period, the musician may request an application for a position in the orchestra from the Vienna Philharmonic's board.
Until the 1830s, orchestral performance in Vienna was done by ad hoc orchestras, consisting of professional and often amateur musicians brought together for specific performances. In 1833, Franz Lachner formed the forerunner of the Vienna Philharmonic, the Künstlerverein -an orchestra of professional musicians from the Vienna Court Opera (Wiener Hofoper, now the Vienna State Opera); it gave four concerts, each including a Beethoven symphony.
The Vienna Philharmonic itself arose nine years later, in 1842, hatched by a group who met regularly at the inn Zum Amor, including the poet Nikolaus Lenau, newspaper editor August Schmidt, critic Alfred Becker, violinist Karlz Holz, Count Laurecin, and composer Otto Nicolai who was also the principal conductor of a standing orchestra at a Viennese theater.
Mosco Carner wrote in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians that Nicolai was the least enthusiastic about the idea, and had to be persuaded by the others; he conducted the first [concert] on 28 March 1842.
The orchestra was fully independent, consisted of members of the Hofoper orchestra, and made all of its decisions by a democratic vote of its members; it had its day-to-day management handled by a democratically elected body, the administrative committee.
More information: Wiener Philharmoniker
Nicolai and the orchestra gave only 11 concerts in the ensuing five years, and when Nicolai left Vienna in 1847, the orchestra nearly folded.
Between 1854 and 1857, Karl Eckert -the first permanent conductor of the Vienna Court Opera (Wiener Hofoper)- led the (associated) Vienna Philharmonic in a few concerts.
In 1857, Eckert was made Director of the Hofoper -the first musician to have been given the post; in 1860, he conducted four subscription concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic. Since that time, writes Vienna Philharmonic violinist and president Clemens Hellsberg, the 'Philharmonic Concerts' have been staged without interruption.
Each New Year's Day since 1 January 1941, the VPO has sponsored the Vienna New Year's Concerts, dedicated to the music of the Strauss family composers, and particularly that of Johann Strauss II; the first such concert was given on 31 December 1939 by Clemens Krauss , and led subsequent concerts on New Year's Day from 1941 until 1945.
The postwar series of concerts was inaugurated in 1946 by Josef Krips. They were led by Krauss, then by concertmaster Willi Boskovsky from 1955 to 1979, and since 1980 have been led by a variety of leading conductors invited by the orchestra.
The Vienna Philharmonic operates under what it calls Democratic Self-Administration. Whereas many orchestras are run under a more corporate model with musicians as labor that works for the orchestra management, the ruling body of the Vienna Philharmonic organization is the full orchestra membership. Day-to-day decisions are delegated to the twelve elected members of the administrative committee.
More information: The Guardian
sounds that has ever existed.
Chick Corea
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