Thomas Ades © Marco Borggreve
Wiener Philharmoniker / Adès
Wednesday
30
March
2022
19:30 – ca. 21:30
Großer Saal
Presented by
Wiener Konzerthausgesellschaft
Discovering Undreamed-of Worlds
Thomas Adès, on the podium of the Vienna Philharmonic, combines the multifaceted developments of 20th century music with one of his own most successful works, the »Totentanz«.
To this he combines »Three Orchestral Pieces« by Alban Berg. They offer extremely vivid music, as does Maurice Ravel's »La Valse«. When Ravel completed this symphonic poem in 1920, it had a completely different name: It was called »Vienna«. Because it was supposed to be about »Vienna and its waltzes«. This is how Sergei Diaghilev, the founder and director of the Ballets Russes, had wanted this commissioned work, as ballet music. It was only after the First World War that the title was changed to the neutral »La Valse«, because Vienna and Austria were now tainted with traumatic memories for the French.
Thematically, Adès' 40-minute »Totentanz« follows on from the second piece in Berg's Opus 6, which is entitled »Reigen« in reference to Schnitzler's drama. The German text of Adès' Todesreigen goes back to Middle Low German rhyming verses and the corresponding pictures on canvas in the Marienkirche in Lübeck. Adès does not at all believe that he is asking too much of his audience. »People don't want to get what they expect anyway. They want to discover worlds they wouldn't have guessed they wanted to experience.«
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