Well, it’s now been two whole days the since the last perfect note resonated from the strings and winds of the Vienna Philharmonic on stage at Hill Auditorium on the campus of University of Michigan. However, I am still absolutely reeling from their performance. It was by far the most amazing playing I have ever heard at a live concert ever!!

I’ve been fortunate to catch a few big name soloists and some major U.S. orchestras in my time, and I certainly have several very excellent recordings, but none of them compared to the concert on Thursday night. I’ll give as much of a review as a person of my proletariat status may be allowed.

But first, some background and storytelling… At the begining of the season, we received our usual University Musical Society catalog with all the scheduled performances and we had looked at the Philharmonic’s visit, but kind of forgot about it. A few weeks back, an email of upcoming UMS events forwarded by my boss reminded me that the Wiener Philharmoniker was going to be was going to be in Ann Arbor, MI as one of their stops on a North American tour. I quickly hopped over to the Hill Auditorium website to see if tickets were still available. Unfortunately, only very up front and outside aisle tickets were remaining. And of course, since they were way up front, they were still rather pricey despite nearly sitting off-stage.

All the same, I decided to run the idea past Megan to see what she thought. She quickly replied to my email and was all for it. Cool! So, I started going through the site to purchase tickets. Literally as I was about to click the “Purchase Tickets” button, my Gmail notifier popped up with another message from Megan that said “WAIT!!!!” She saw the ticket prices. Drat! After going to the off-broadway Lion King in January, she wasn’t real crazy (in fact, far from it) about spending that much dough on another evening “out”. While I couldn’t blame her (after all, I’m the cheap one!), still, I was rather bummed since I technically already did have the green light. Now the light had turned red without even giving me a yellow to sneak through the intersection. Drat!
Then, I made a generally fatal male error in a situation like this… I started thinking…

We were talking about THE Vienna Philharmonic here!! This was not the Greater Lansing Symphony Orchestra, or Detroit, or even Chicago. The Vienna Philharmonic is easily in the top three orchestra’s in the world. (Personally, I would definitely place Berlin in that triumverate, and some would say the Cleveland Orchestra is currently top in the U.S.) When else would we have a chance like this to have them so close to our front door?!? Additionally, I figured, it would be a whole lot cheaper to see the Philharmonic in Ann Arbor, MI (a mere 40-50 miles down the road) than it would be to fly all the way over to Austria and seem them in their home venue, the Musikverein.

I do have it on my wishlist of musical wants to see a Vienna New’s Day Concert some year, but that’s certainly not going to be anytime soon. So, having completely justified any cost short of two overseas airline tickets, a couple nights hotel stay AND concert tickets, I decided to go ahead and get the tickets. Carpe Diem!

Now, I had to make this a special event in order to soften the blow of the charge on our credit card for the pricey tickets. Fortunately, that happens to be one of my specialities! I started off with an email to Megan’s boss Emily to make sure Megan would be able to leave work a little early that night so we could go out to eat beforehand. That was my cover. I opted to take us to the most excellent Common Grill in Chelsea, MI, conveniently just outside Ann Arbor.

Had it not been on the evening of the Vienna concert, I’m sure it would have been a much more memorable dining experience, but I’ve already forgotten almost everything from the evening besides the amazing music. Although, I do recall having some very tasty bread, a delicious baked brie with apple chutney appetizer and a very fantastic tuna salad. By “tuna salad” I mean a bunch of fresh greens with a large, succulent tuna steak sitting on top of it. Yummy! Megan had some sort of mushroom and pasta dish that was also very good. We definitely have to head back to the Common Grill sometime, even just to have an excellent meal with great service and call it a night.

After we left the restaurant, Megan was still thinking we were just taking a lengthy drive for a nice dinner. That was, of course, until I merged onto eastbound I-94, heading even further away from Lansing. The jig was nearly up.

I tried to buy some time saying it’s about the same distance home either way, but then I missed the correct exit to downtown Ann Arbor. Eventually, we were in the heart of downtown (they have hills!) and she knew something was up. I didn’t ever actually reveal anything, but she figured it out. I was receiving questions such as, “What did you do, Blake??” “Did you spend a lot of money??”, etc. Brushing off such trivial queries (nothing much mattered at this point other than getting to the concert), we finally found the parking ramp, and ended up having to hustle to the auditorium since the wrong exit on I-94 threw us off by about 10 minutes. Finally, we made it inside!

We were last in Hill Auditorium for a Brass Band Band of Battle Creek concert about 4 years ago. Since then, they completely remodeled the interior of the hall. It looks amazing. All of the original color of the decorative trim has been totally restored; a sharp update from the plain off-white it was painted in before. Comfy new seats and a much needed replacement of the climate control system that to get rid of the roaring air conditioning that was in there before.

At last, we reached our seats. Something like fifth row and only two seats from the far outside aisle. We had never been in such a spot before. In Lansing, we got sweet seats for both Ravi Shankar and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, but when in cities with a demand for cultural events, we usually go economy style and get upper balcony. Sure you can’t see facial expressions, but for I’m okay with that for what is generally a deep discount from premiere seating. Since, cheaper was not an option this time, we had to shell out for these seats. Fortunately, the value of that purchase was about to increase dramatically… or maybe “artistically” is more fitting.

The orchestra started coming onto the stage, and the place erupted with applause. Again, this was not Lansing. People were very aware of what they were in store for. While we definitely did not have the best vantage point, we spotted only a single female; a vilonist. Apparently, she’s not even a full-fledged Vienna Philharmonic member; the program indicated she was called up from the Vienna State Opera. Political correctness hasn’t swayed the Philharmonic since its inception 160 years ago, so they apparently see no need now? While, I personally believe there are numerous women more than qualified to be in the orchestra, it is kind of “interesting” to see such a world-renowned group fly in the face of today’s standards and values for the sake of what I can only assume is primarily tradition and possibly some thin veil of “logistical concerns.” However, that’s definitely not something I’m here to debate.

Not to be outdown by the players, Maestro Ricardo Muti stepped out on stage with even greater zeal from the audience. Any really ochestra aficianodo knows Ricardo Muti. His long standing tenure at La Scala earned him great acclaim in the music realm. It only makes sense that a world-class orchestra would have a world-class conductor to lead them on this tour. While he’s no longer a spring chicken, Maestro Muti still has a full head of wavy, black hair. A clearly proud little Italian man, he strutted to the podium with a slight Napoleonic air about him. I could not even fathom someone looking more like a conductor.

And with that, the joy ride began. They started with Schubert’s ‘Overture to Rosamunde‘. While not an exhilarating piece by any means, you could tell it was Vienna on stage. Everyone who should be, was in absolute unison. As Megan put it, it was like they had just pushed play on the most perfect recording every made and simply moved their bows and fingers along with the sound. I had never witnessed such outstanding music-making by so many individuals.

The concert continued on with Mozart’s Symphony No. 35 followed by the intermission. (By the way, if you’re ever at Hill Auditorium and don’t want to pay $4.00 for a bottled water, you have to head back to the outside entrance to the lobby to find the drinking fountains… geesh!) Then, it was back to Schubert with his Symphony No. 4. The final programmed work of the evening was Richard Strauss’ ‘Death and Transfiguration’ (aka, Tod und Verklärung). WOW!!! While I’d been priming myself for a great recording, nothing could top this live performance. It was absolutely stunning to hear this while sitting so close to the stage.

Even at the pianississimo start of the piece, it was clear the orchestra members had been saving themselves for this moment. As the first passage representing the onlslaught of Death itself came upon us, the legendary beast that is the Vienna Philharmonic awakened. Like a squall on the ocean, a wall of sound erupted from the orchestra like none I’d ever experienced. Maestro Muti himself appeared to have grown out of his small stature to match the intensity of the composition. I was entirely overwhelmed. Now my bias is towards listening for the horn section, and that required absolutely no effort. I’ve not ever heard a horn section put out so much sound. That’s not to say the CSO, the American Horn Quartet or other renowned sections don’t, but I haven’t experienced it myself. This was truly amazing!

Often times, I close my eyes during performances just to soak in all the sounds with out distraction. During this piece, however, there were moments when I don’t recall closing my eyes, but still don’t remember seeing anything. It was like my had brain had been bombard by this awesome aural sensation and had to shutdown other functions to be able to deal with it. Now, I do realize that’s prolly somewhat far-fetched, but that’s honestly the feeling I had. If scientific research confirmed such a reaction was possible, I’d believe it without hesitation or doubt.

Needless to say, the audience erupted with boisterous applause and ‘Bravo!’s at the end of the piece. We were indeed transfigured (or at least raptured) by Vienna’s extraordinary performance! After several rounds of curtain calls by the maestro, there was of course, an encore. It was the overture to Vivaldi’s opera ‘La forza del destino‘ (The Force of Destiny). Again, it was played impeccably, but it seemed a bit trite considering the work we had all just consumed. But, hey, it was still fun to hear.

After even more applause, the players eventually began leaving the stage. The end was finally and truly here. We worked our way out of the auditorium and back to the car. We couldn’t even really say much to each other lest we ruin the sounds still in our heads. As we headed back to Lansing, we knew this would remain one of the top performances we are likely to ever witness, regardless of what comes after it. It was a truly amazing and memorable evening.