View Full Version : Salzburg Festival
Unless I've missed it somewhere on the boards, I'm surprised nobody mentioned the 90 minute documentary on BBC4 last night about the history of the Salzburg Festival. I didn't know it was on - luckily I just switched on in time. There is a second part next Friday, too. This first programme had some fascinating clips I'd never seen before of Karajan, Bohm, Knappertsbusch etc and accounts of the Nazi years. Has it been broadcast before?
Unless I've missed it somewhere on the boards, I'm surprised nobody mentioned the 90 minute documentary on BBC4 last night about the history of the Salzburg Festival. I didn't know it was on - luckily I just switched on in time. There is a second part next Friday, too. This first programme had some fascinating clips I'd never seen before of Karajan, Bohm, Knappertsbusch etc and accounts of the Nazi years. Has it been broadcast before?
Great reminder Micky, thanks! One for the iPlayer downloader, to get it on the hard-drive and the iPod :ok:
Bon weekend! :biggrin:
I did a little heads-up a few days ago, just the bare details but can't find it now. A wonderful chance to see some of the greats conducting, singing and talking. I just wish I'd videod it. Don't have an ipod.
Richard Tarleton
19-02-11, 07:54
Some amazing footage and interviews. I see next week's programme will concentrate on HvK's legacy.
I agree it was fascinating, including the clips of old productions of operas. The repertoire seemed a little repetitive and/or conservative, but I guess that's inevitable. I did however find it somewhat episodic, with limited effort to integrate into some kind of coherent narrative about the issues the programme implictly raised.
I posted on Performance on the 16th, 28 'views' no comments. Let's hope the 'views' all watched it.
I am just watching and enjoying this on iPlayer. Forgive my ignorance but can anyone tell me the work conducted by Abbado approx. 8 minutes into the programme, please?
(what a lovely down-to-earth lady Ann Murray is)
Not sure when it was, but there was certainly a clip of Abbado conducting Bartok's The Miraculous Mandarin. I suspect ot was the suite, but hope it was the full work.
Uncle Monty
19-02-11, 09:19
I did a little heads-up a few days ago, just the bare details but can't find it now. A wonderful chance to see some of the greats conducting, singing and talking. I just wish I'd videod it. Don't have an ipod.
Well, if you're familiar with the i-player, you can watch the whole thing at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00ymlj0/The_Salzburg_Festival_Part_One/ to your heart's content!
I thought it had some really fascinating footage, especially the earliest festivals with Max Reinhardt's production of Jedermann. I would have loved to have seen more film of his production of Goethe's Faust in the 1930s. Reinhardt would be worth an entire programme on his own.
And good to see an interview with Furtwängler's widow, and some film of him conducting (how DID players follow his beat?!) The Don Giovanni footage from 1954 was I think taken from Paul Czinner's film, still available on DVD.
It left me wondering whether there was more extensive film archive in Austria that could be made publicly available, as so much of what was presented left you wanting more.
Yes, extraordinary just how many of those productions were captured on film - there must surely be loads more somewhere. I particularly liked some of the stories, especially the lady whose father buried all the family jewels in the pile of manure, safe from the Russians!
Perhaps this lengthy Tony Palmer film is a repeat (?) but the first part was shown on BBC4 last night and was full of fascinating archive film of composers, conductors, singers and musicians performing and being interviewed, from the earliest days to just post WW2. Part 2 is next week and if you haven't like me, seen it before, don't miss it.
Eine Alpensinfonie
19-02-11, 11:01
I recorded this and watched it later yesterday evening. It was fascinating, with interesting contributions from relatives of great conductors. I never realised Karlheinz Bohm was son of the conductor. (Sniggering not allowed.)
Hang on, people.
There's an identical thread started by MickyD on this very topic.
http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?1362-Salzburg-Festival
Can we agree to a rationalisation of threads and agree to post all pertinent comments on the MickyD thread please? :smiley:
I did a little heads-up on
Performance on 16th Feb and got no response at all. I did just put bare details but though no-one was interested.
If it is repeated on TV please let me know as I would like to Video it. Didn't bother last night but saw it and it was very interesting.
Eine Alpensinfonie
19-02-11, 11:53
There's a parallel thread casusing confusion
Hang on, people. There's an identical thread started by MickyD on this very topic.
http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...zburg-Festival
Can we agree to a rationalisation of threads and agree to post all pertinent comments on the MickyD thread please?
As a "host", I've tried to merge the two, but it's beyond my "powers". But it would be better to post here, as this thread was started first.
My apologies for confusing things, I somehow missed the earlier thread.
Brassbandmaestro
20-02-11, 08:52
I must catch this on iplayer!
Bert Coules
20-02-11, 09:09
Absolutely fascinating, and I'm looking forward to part two. But what a pity that - as with the same director's recent documentary about the Wagner family - so much of the archive material was in the wrong aspect ratio, stretched horizontally to fill a 16:9 screen. So unneccessary, and so surprising from a film-maker of Tony Palmer's stature.
Eine Alpensinfonie
20-02-11, 09:14
But what a pity that - as with the same director's recent documentary about the Wagner family - so much of the archive material was in the wrong aspect ratio, stretched horizontally to fill a 16:9 screen. So unneccessary, and so surprising from a film-maker of Tony Palmer's stature.I really don't know why they do this. It happens a lot and suggests a degree of incompetence somewhere along the line. Do they think people don't notice? Having said that, many people do watch 4:3 radio programmes in stretched 16:9 :doh:
Bert Coules
20-02-11, 09:31
Having said that, many people do watch 4:3 radio programmes in stretched 16:9 :doh:Er... I don't think so! But of course I know what you mean: it is fascinating that some people simply can't seem to see the distortion.
Stunsworth
20-02-11, 17:07
I really don't know why they do this. It happens a lot and suggests a degree of incompetence somewhere along the line. Do they think people don't notice? Having said that, many people do watch 4:3 radio programmes in stretched 16:9 :doh:
World at War was recently remastered and cropped to 16:9. I imagine there are lots of talking heads missing part of their heads.
Bert Coules
20-02-11, 17:34
That's regrettable, but I think it's preferable to stretching material to fit the wider screen: at least the people with missing tops-of-heads aren't distorted horizontally. But I don't understand why, in a specialist programme of historical interest such as this, archive footage wasn't transmitted correctly, with blank strips at each side of the image.
I was rather shocked by seeing Furtwangler in colour.
Furtwangler is always in black & white and in mono, surely> :yikes: :smiley:
Mrs Furtwangler was very interesting, both in what she said and how she said it, but I'm not sure that I'd have felt comfortable popping round to the Furtwanglers' unannounced on a Sunday morning, hoping for a sherry and some gossip :laugh:
Stunsworth
20-02-11, 18:00
But I don't understand why, in a specialist programme of historical interest such as this, archive footage wasn't transmitted correctly, with blank strips at each side of the image.
Neither do I, but I suspect it's because many people with widescreen TVs expect to see 16:9 programs.
It was also released on Blu-Ray, which I would have thought was unnecessary given the origins of much of the material - I'm assuming that the interviews done for the series were shot on 16mm.
Bert Coules
20-02-11, 18:48
Neither do I, but I suspect it's because many people with widescreen TVs expect to see 16:9 programs.I'd have hoped that an audience sophisticated enough to want to watch the programme in the first place would also have been rather more understanding about how it was presented.
The archive material which took me slightly aback was the sequence with Knappertsbusch: the stills I've seen of him presented a healthy-looking, almost rotund figure: in that footage he looked like Boris Karloff in The Mummy.
I was rather shocked by seeing Furtwangler in colour.
So was I! I watched this on the i-player this afternoon having stupidly forgot Friday night's broadcast. As far as I know there are no stereo recordings from Furtwangler. It was almost as much of a shock to see a highly animated Karl Bohm. The only two occasions I saw him were at the very end of his life when he conducted sitting down.
I'd have hoped that an audience sophisticated enough to want to watch the programme in the first place would also have been rather more understanding about how it was presented.
The archive material which took me slightly aback was the sequence with Knappertsbusch: the stills I've seen of him presented a healthy-looking, almost rotund figure: in that footage he looked like Boris Karloff in The Mummy.
You obviously haven't seen the DVD of a 1963 Vienna Walkure Act 1 where the Boris Karloff resemblance is uncanny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYH2-TqAIdc&feature=fvst
Daring Tripod
22-02-11, 09:28
What really makes me think (as I sometimes do), was when I heard all those well known remarks churned out about why many of these artists performed for the Nazis during the war etc. The case of Karajan is quite clear. He was a dedicated Nazi who supported them before Hitler ever set a foot in Austria, but as for the others. But then I stop to think “what would I (or you) have done”? To resist would have meant certain punishment or death. How many of us would have stood up to that sort of pressure?
The hypocrisy of the whole business is that Hitler attended a performance of a Wagner Opera conducted by Mahler and said he enjoyed it! Also, that Mendelssohn was never allowed to be played during the Nazi times when he was a born Christian!
I know that this subject has come up again and again on the old R3 site but this film devoted quite a portion of its footage to the subject which brought it all back to my mind again. I am sure there may be more to come in ‘The Karajan years’ on Friday?
You obviously haven't seen the DVD of a 1963 Vienna Walkure Act 1 where the Boris Karloff resemblance is uncanny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYH2-TqAIdc&feature=fvst
It's a shame, but understandable, that so much of the camerawork fixes on the orchestra rather than on Kna. His cues are often given just with his eyes or a shrug of the shoulders but the orchestral results are magnificent.
Kna was famously reluctant to rehearse, as I think was mentioned in the film. I think there was a story of a horn player who was shocked to find that Kna didn't plan to rehearse the 'solo' section in the slow movement of Tchaikovsky symphony no 5. 'But I've never played it, Maestro' he quailed. 'Really?' said Kna 'Oh you'll love it!' and off he went to the races! :biggrin:
I am sorry that there was no film of the famous Frau Strauss, who was reputedly a scary lady, according to Sir Henry Wood and others. His account [somewhere] of a shopping trip in london with the Strausses is hilarious. I think Beecham too had some stories of her outspokenness.
Part 2 tonight on BBC4
It was excellent - the portrait of Karajan was unflinching, complex, just aabout even-handed, and the treatment of the politics behind the festival carefully and admirably handled. Touch less music and more chat, but fascinating, honest, and smouldering. all the 'big names' were on, speaking very bluntly. VERY fine Arts TV.
Really worth LA-ing.
Bert Coules
25-02-11, 23:32
That was an interesting glimpse of Solti at the end: a curious Magic Flute performance which seemed to have Papageno in costume in the pit and something else entirely going on on the stage above. Was it from a gala of some sort, I wonder? Overall I thought this second installment slightly less interesting than the first, maybe because the historical clips were simply more fascinating than the more recent ones. Some nice contradictory reminiscences of Karajan, though, as well as the usual snobbery regarding both avant garde productions and the audiences they attract ("One can even find oneself sitting next to someone in blue jeans!").
Part 2 tonight on BBC4
It was excellent - the portrait of Karajan was unflinching, complex, just aabout even-handed, and the treatment of the politics behind the festival carefully and admirably handled. Touch less music and more chat, but fascinating, honest, and smouldering. all the 'big names' were on, speaking very bluntly. VERY fine Arts TV.
Really worth LA-ing.
Frustatingly, I missed both programmes so it's off to the i-player second week in a row. I do hope they get an early repeat.
Bert
Erm...........I think that was the amazing Princess inveighing against a production of Don Giovanni with the Don wearing jeans?
On stage behind Solti - the cartwheeling witch on broomstick? Papagena in yet an other disguise?
Bert Coules
26-02-11, 00:12
DracoM, there were, I think, two mentions of "blue jeans": one was certainly relating to that Don Giovanni and came, if I remember correctly, from a rather matronly singer; the other was about the dreadful possibility of encountering said garment in the auditorium: that was the Princess Thingammy, I believe.
Yes, that could have been Papagena. Interesting production, if so.
I was sorry to see so little evidence of the great Salzburg Wagner tradition, though that brief glimpse of a very trad-looking Siegfried trying to cleave his anvil convincingly was fun.
Well, if you're familiar with the i-player, you can watch the whole thing at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00ymlj0/The_Salzburg_Festival_Part_One/ to your heart's content!
Not according to the link provided, apparently. Part 2 is available. This seems odd, as they were both on TV this week - maybe a glitch in the iPlayer today. Perhaps I should have recorded these after all.
Unfortunately I forgot this was on, and only started watching from about 8pm, just as the programme got to the end of the Karajan era. ( I was watching "Come Dine with Me" instead- my guilty TV pleasure! :winkeye:).
The last hour was fascinating and I wish I'd seen the whole thing. The tradition/ innovation debate was interesting. I certainly believe that opera productions need to move on, but what was with the clip we saw of a motorcycle driving around the stage and drowning out the music? When that was first mooted during the production process, surely somebody should have taken the director outside for a reality check?
I-player isn't an option, as my computer has some sound problems at the
moment, so I'll hope for a repeat - and next time I'll be sure to leave the bickering dinner guests until later!
Keraulophone
26-02-11, 09:08
Had held off for years, but recently sold out to Murdoch and capitulated to BSkyB - but what riches I am discovering on Sky Arts 2. [Test cricket (not this pseudo-cricket nonsense aka the World Cup) is another joy.] But last night my digibox was having a nervous breakdown attempting to decide which programmes I had unreasonably asked it to record simultaneously. It was moving to hear the witness of wartime members of the Berlin PO in The Reichsorchester, while the hard disk captured Salzburg Pt 2 over on BBC 4. Then Boulez giving himself an 80th b'day pressie of Mahler 2 with the Berlin State O, followed later by the Lindsays playing Haydn and the Takacs with Bartok 6. The day began with Argerich and Chailly on Schumann, and progressed via The Pirates of Penzance to the BPO's 2009 Europa Konzert from Naples, to the highly annoying The Full Monteverdi - this one being the only dud of the day.
Hope this doesn't read like an ad for subscription TV while we enjoy the wonderful BBC 4 included in the license fee, but even if one continues with freesat after the one year contract, many £s may have been saved on DVDs and the hardware. One of the most enjoyable examples so far has been the BPO/Barenboim Europa Konzert from the Sheldonian in Brahms 1 and Elgar CC - wonderful performances in an intimate setting, but strangely the overture wasn't included, though it's on the DVD (£30 on BD from the Big River).
Next week Rosenkavalier from the Met (de Waart), Salome (no details in RT), Abbado's Brandenburgs, a history of the RPO and Ashkenazy's Chopin Preludes.
This also serves to remind us what Auntie is not providing for our daily bread these days.
The iPlayer Downloader for Mac seems to be working again, so I am glad to have both halves of this programme on the hard drive and the iPod for permanent reference, and looking forward to watching both. If anyone misses it, and wants an mp-4 copy to download, I could probably upload one and PM a link.
I notice that these films were made in 2006. Where have they been all this time?
Being dismembered by lawyers??? Just a guess!
The iPlayer Downloader for Mac seems to be working again, so I am glad to have both halves of this programme on the hard drive and the iPod for permanent reference, and looking forward to watching both. If anyone misses it, and wants an mp-4 copy to download, I could probably upload one and PM a link.
You may be right about the iPlayer downloader program (Mac) working again, but it still seems to be the case that the first part of the Salzburg programme is not available. I've not checked the schedules enough to see whether it'll come round again - have a repeat, but for now it looks out of reach.
I'd hazard a guess that you've been bombarded with requests for "assistance".
Bws.
I don't know whether I blinked and missed it but there didn't seem to be an explanation of why Karajan and the festival fell out, or, in the words of I think a councillor, Karajan "ruined" the festival. Was it that he was a perfectionist, or backward-looking in terms of production, or somehow glamourised the festival so that only the rich-list types attended (or could afford to)?
For those that missed the program ,it is available on dvd from Amazon for £7.48.
the first part of the Salzburg programme is not available
don't all programmes disappear from iPlayer after a week?
For those that missed the program ,it is available on dvd from Amazon for £7.48.Only from an Amazon affiliate, and there's postage to pay as well - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B000EZ7VIU/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new
I think I'll wait until it's cheaper elsewhere, or appears in one of the local charity shops.
You may be right about the iPlayer downloader program (Mac) working again, but it still seems to be the case that the first part of the Salzburg programme is not available. I've not checked the schedules enough to see whether it'll come round again - have a repeat, but for now it looks out of reach.
I'd hazard a guess that you've been bombarded with requests for "assistance".
Bws.
Not yet Dave. And I 'captured' part one last Saturday... :biggrin:
Only from an Amazon affiliate, and there's postage to pay as well - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B000EZ7VIU/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new
I think I'll wait until it's cheaper elsewhere, or appears in one of the local charity shops.
Well, 8.74 including delivery, for this fascinating documentary, which runs for over three hours, seems a positive bargain to me. I think you'll be very lucky to find it cheaper, and even luckier to chance upon it in a charity shop. :erm:
I've ordered mine already!:ok:
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