Vienna Philharmonic Named Europe's Finest Orchestra

The Vienna Philharmonic received first place, followed by the Concertgebouw Orkest Amsterdam and the Berlin Philharmonic in a survey to name the 10 best orchestras in Europe.

Nearly concurrent with the memorable Philharmonic debut in Australia and the announcement of the partnership with Phonak, another piece of good news arrived from France. The reputable monthly periodical "Le Monde de la Musique", along with six other leading European trade publications, two radio stations and a daily newspaper, made a survey to ascertain the 10 best orchestras in Europe using a point system for evaluation and placing them in their respective order. The results, published in the October issue were very pleasing from our perspective. The Vienna Philharmonic received first place with 86 points, followed by the Concertgebouw Orkest Amsterdam with 85 and the Berlin Philharmonic with 79!

The editors-in-chief of the professional journals "Crescendo" (Belgium), "Fono Formu" (Germany), "Gramophone" (Great Britian), "Le Monde de la Musique" (France), "Musica" (Italy), "Pizzicato" (Luxemburg) and "Scherzo" (Spain), as well as the Mitteldeutschen Rundfunk and the Radio Musicale (France) in addition to the culture editor of the daily newspaper "La Tribune de Genève" voted for 25 orchestras from 11 different countries. Germany was the dominant participant, being represented by 11 different ensembles, before France and England with three each, which were followed by Finland, Norway, Russia, Switzerland, Czech Republic, and Hungary, in addition to Austria and the Netherlands. This predominance was reflected in the top ten choices which included not only the Berlin Philharmonic, but also the Staatskapelle Dresden (5th place), the Symphony Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio (6th) and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig (7th). It is interesting to note that only Vienna, Amsterdam and Berlin received first place votes, and that in addition to the first three orchestras, only the London Symphony was named by all of the jurors and that our orchestra as well as the Concertgebouw was named eight times for the first three places.

In his charming summary entitled "Les champions d'Europe de la musique", which included interviews with our two french members, harpist Xavier de Maistre and first violinist Isabelle Caillieret-Baillot, who for the past two years has been a member of the State Opera Orchestra, Olivier Bellamy described the results as "nouvelle qui rend heureuse" and saw in the results a vote against globalization and standardization. He did recall one less successful concert of ours in the Theatre des Champs-Elysée of a Brahms Symphony, but "Vienne avec Kleiber, il n'y avait rien de plus beau au monde. Et Vienna avec Muti, avec Abbado, avec Gergiev, avec Jansons, c'est incomparable!"

There is no doubt that the results of this poll, which was announced by the ORF in its main news broadcasts and was reported in practically all Austrian newspapers, was a pleasing occurrence for us, as it expresses the sum opinion of musical experts, one which we find is confirmed by audiences attending our concerts throughout the world. On the other hand, the deeper significance of this result lies in the responsibility which each member of the Vienna Philharmonic carries, as formulated by one of the founders of the orchestra, the music writer Dr. August Schmidt: "in the small room in the editor's office in the Grünangergasse the plan of Maestro Nicolai, Dr. Becher and myself was hatched, to give Philharmonic concerts in Vienna, which should use the finest players to perform the greatest works in the best possible interpretation."1

""¦ das Beste auf die beste Weise": There are no upper limits to art, and therein lies the capacity of the arts to communicate a sense of the infinite to our limited senses. This is only possible through continued hard work, and the kind of enthusiasm which was characteristic of Otto Nicolai. With great ability and glowing enthusiasm he opened in this city hitherto unimagined dimensions of orchestral performance, and was thus able to proclaim in 1844: "The most significant achievement in my three years in Vienna was the initiation of the Philharmonic concerts."2 Would this unlucky genius, who was unable to experience the great success of his masterpiece "The Merry Wives of Windsor", because of his death two months after the premiere at the age of 39, and never achieved his goal of a permanent position in Vienna, be satisfied with us and himself today?2

--Clemens Hellsberg

1 AWMZ, Nr. 76/77, 26./29. 6. 1847, S. 305 ff.
2 Otto Nicolais Tagebücher, hg. von Wilhelm Altmann (Regensburg 1937), S. 222.