Saturday, February 28, 1998
The New York Times
Page B9
By the time-honored standards and traditions of this orchestra, it
almost qualifies as a revolution.
"A new age has begun for the Vienna Philharmonic," Wolfgang
Schuster, a percussionist in this self-governed aggregation and its press
information officer, said. A new and younger management team has taken
over from the pair long known in international orchestra circles simply as
the Professors: Werner Resel, still a cellist in the group and its former
president, and Walter Blovsky, a violist and the former general manager.
Others might call it an evolution,
[inset - photo of Clemens Hellsberg]
Clemens Hellsvberg, the new presi-
dent of the Vienna Philharmonic
even a glacial one. In any case, the symbol of change, in the public mind,
is not so much Clemens Hellsberg, the new president, a violinist, or Peter
Pecha, the new general manager, a violist, as it is Anna Lelkes, a harpist.
In a conversation Thursday, the date Feb. 27 came repeatedly to the lips of
Hellsberg and Schuster, obviously permanently engraved in their
memories, for it was just a year ago that the orchestra hired Ms. Lelkes,
the first female member in its 156-year history. The move was a response to
protests from government officials at home and public outcry abroad,
specifically in the United States on the eve of the orchestra's last visit
here.
On one level, the gesture was almost meaningless, since Ms.
Lelkes had in fact performed with the orchestra for 26 years as an extra. On
another, it was momentous, shaking Austria's premier cultural institutions
to its foundations.
Yet although Ms. Lelkes is listed in the program for the orchestra's three
concerts conducted by Riccardo Muti this weekend at Carnegie Hall, she is
conspicuous by her absence. Barring possible encores, the only program
using harp is the one Saturday evening, with Mahler's Fourth Symphony, and
by the orchestra's arcane internal workings, Schuster explained, the choice
on this occasion happened to fall to the other harpist, Harald Kautzky,
with no contention involved.
"She is not shy," Schuster said of Ms. Lelkes. "If she were unhappy, you
would have heard about it."
The orchestra has not yet hired any other women, but at least
it has been trying, Hellsberg said. Five positions have come open in the las=
t
year. For the first two, in tuba and trumpet, no women applied.
The next opening was for a principal violist. Of the 22 applicants, 4 were
women. Of the 14 players invited to audition, one was a women, the first
ever to be so courted. She did not audition, and a man was selected.
Generally, Hellsberg said, only two-thirds of those invited, male and
female, actually appear for auditions. The reasons, he added, may
include insufficient time to prepare or a full appreciation of the hard
work involved in the job for relatively low pay.
The players, hired by the Austrian state into the orchestra of the Vienna
State Opera, run the Philharmonic as an independent enterprise, and some
candidates evidently learn
[to page B18]
Continued from First Arts Page
belatedly how extensive the combined orchestral
and operatic duties are. Hellsberg and Schuster called the pay low --
laughably so, to judge from their titters -- in relation to that at other
major European opera houses and orchestras, let alone by American
standards, though they were unable or unwilling to specify a typical annual
income.
The next job opening came in the second violins. "We tried to invite more
women than men," Schuster said. Of the 25 women who applied (against 47
men), 9 were invited to appear (along with 16 men), and 3 actually
auditioned (with 11 men): again, the first women ever to do so. No
one, male or female, was chosen for the position.
A principal cello opening drew 6 women applicants (38 men). Four women (20
men) were invited to audition, and 2 (13 men) did so. A man was chosen.
Even before women entered the picture, the orchestra carried
out all auditions before the final round (usually the third or fourth)
blind, with the candidates concealed by a curtain. The spokesmen explained
why the curtain is removed for the final round, citing the case of a
concertmaster who had to leave the orchestra prematurely despite
his beautiful playing because he carried his bow arm too low. This is no
small matter in the Vienna Philharmonic; since the orchestra has
no permanent maestro, the concertmasters take an unusually active hand in
coordinating the ensemble through gesture and body language, which must be
visible throughout the ranks.
Certainly, these players were not about to pretend that they could
distinguish male from female playing behind a curtain. But neither
were they willing to concede anything to affirmative action beyond the
professed attempt to spread their preliminary net wider.
Clearly, whatever the fairness of the audition process, progress will be
slow, although other top-flight orchestras around the
world seem to have found no lack of qualified female candidates, and many
have made significant strides toward equality.
Quality of orchestral musicianship is the principal criterion, the
spokesman said, although this orchestra carries the additional burden of
maintaining its fabled tradition and its unique sound. It is not true, as
some have suggested, that the orchestra draws only from students of its
members, and Hellsberg bristled at the notion that any xenophobia might be
at work in the exclusion of non-Viennese or non-Austrians.
What the spokesmen freely admitted is that no one will be
hired who is not steeped in the Wiener Klangstil, the Viennese sound style.
Rather than trying to maintain the style as a private preserve, however,
the orchestra has been trying to make it available to outsiders through the
International Orchestra Institute Attergau for Wiener Klangstil, a
summer program in the Austrian Alps founded in 1994 by Schuster.
In many cases, as with the old-fashioned narrow-bore horns,
the particular instruments used by the orchestra largely determine the
style. But with the strings, the sound is cultivated entirely by the players=
.
"In general, the Philharmonic imagination of the ideal
orchestral sound and artistic interpretation of music can be described as a
particular combination of components of the Viennese Classic and German
Romantic style," Schuster and Gregor Widholm, of the Institute for Wiener
Klangstil at the Vienna Hochschuele fuer Musik, write in a booklet.
"The famous sound of the Philharmonic violins is caused
exclusively by the artistic personality and performing tradition of the
players," they add. "Recent research work shows that differences in timbre
can be measured, but the reasons why are not investigated up to now."
And just what do the Viennese, and this orchestra in particular, do
[inset]
Younger managers
now and more
women eventually
rhythmically to the second beat of a waltz meter to achieve that inimitable
lilt? The spokesmen collapsed in laughter and incoherence.
"We shouldn't analyze it,' Hellsberg said. "It's like a centipede. If it
stops to think about what it is doing with each step, it will stumble and
fall."
=46or all the constant appeal to tradition, the Vienna Philharmonic is a
surprisingly young orchestra these days. Players must retire at 65. No one
over 35 is hired, since a 30-year period of service is required for a full
pension. Schuster, 56, estimated that only about 5 of the 128 players are
older than he.
The resignation of Werner Resel, the oldest member of the orchestra at 63,
from the presidency, and the election of Hellsberg, 45, represent a
wholesale changing of the guard. Although Resel's action came little more
than a month after the hiring of Ms. Lelkes, any link between the two
events is denied.
"Prof. Resel wanted a change of generations," Hellsberg said.
And what DID result from the Lelkes fracas? "We have learned in the last
year that we all have to be more involved in the administration, that it's
important to work together in a democratic, organized community," Hellsberg
said. "It sounds very simple, and it's an experience thousands of years
old. But it seems our people still have to learn it."
________________________________________________
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens
can change the world; indeed it's the only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead (1901-1=
978)
Monique Buzzart=E9 - buzzarte@dorsai.org
VPO Watch web site: http://www.dorsai.org/~buzzarte/zapvpo.html
________________________________________________