Wiener Symphoniker, Fedosejev, Stein, Swarowsky - 100 Jahre Wiener Symphoniker (Box-Set) (2000)

The hopeless overload of the Vienna Philharmonic at the turn of the 20th century was the reason for a number of financially powerful patrons to give the city of Vienna another highly qualified orchestra. At the same time, a social thought played an important role in this: low admission prices should also allow the average citizen to attend symphony concerts. The Wiener Symphoniker quickly became an important part of the Viennese cultural landscape and in the course of the following years and decades were entrusted with numerous premieres, including Franz Schmidt's Book with Seven Seals, Schoenberg's Gurrelieder and Bruckner's Ninth Symphony. The symphonists were also involved in the famous "Watsch'n Concert" of 1913, when a wild brawl followed the performance of orchestral works by Schoenberg and his students.

On his 100th birthday. On its fiftieth birthday, the orchestra could look back on a fulfilled history: conductors such as Karl Böhm, Herbert von Karajan and Wolfgang Sawallisch shaped its tonal appearance through their work.

After the Second World War, Hans Swarowsky (1899-1975), who was born in Budapest, became the chief conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, and his development work had a decisive influence on the quality of the orchestra. His recording of Gustav Mahler's Fifth Symphony, recorded by the ORF in 1971, which is included in the present CD box, is an impressive proof of this conductor's leadership quality: he succeeds in an exciting, stirring interpretation of the extremely difficult work, in the first half of which the entire familiar sound world of the Fin de Siècle seems to collapse into itself. The fourth movement, the famous "Adagietto", sounds atmospherically dense and beautiful in sound. Undoubtedly, despite all the intensity of the performance, the limitations of the orchestra at that time are also evident in this monumental piece: inaccuracies in the interaction and minor intonation weaknesses occasionally tarnish the picture.

This seems to have changed fundamentally as a result: chief conductor Vladimir Fedoseyev has the musicians perfectly under control, as the gripping and stringent live recording of Bruckner's Fourth Symphony, the "Romantic", proves. With Schubert's great C Major Symphony, conducted by Horst Stein, an important symphonic work in Austrian music history completes this anniversary edition. --Michael Wersin