Intermezzo

Can Zubin Mehta organise a piss up in a brewery?

© Markus Götzfried

Perhaps we shall never know. 

Conducting a concert in a beer hall on the other hand.........

The maestro led the Munich Philharmonic at the Hofbräuhaus on Monday as they rehearsed for a special concert next Sunday morning. On the menu will be beer, sausages - and traditional Bavarian marching-band music. The ultimate aim is to produce a charity CD to benefit the orchestra's academy for young musicians. Maintaining the educational tone of the enterprise, the invited guests at the rehearsal were local conductors - nearly 150 of them.

Prom 74: the world's most expensive polka band

Prom 74: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra / Mehta - Royal Albert Hall, 11 September 2009

There's no doubt that the Vienna Philharmonic are one of the world's greatest orchestras, but that's no guarantee of a spectacular performance every time. Their reputation rests on their celebrated musical skills, which are of course beyond question. The problem, according to Vienna State Opera boss Ioan Holender, is their less widely-discussed venality and sheer bloody-mindedness, landing them with a workload incompatible with consistently high standards. Add a conductor roster that mixes the genuine greats with the mere box office draws, and it becomes clearer why they don't always deliver the goods.

Their last Proms appearances, a couple of years ago with Daniel Barenboim, were a highlight (perhaps the highlight) of the season.  This performance didn't come close. The swooning elegance of the opener, Webern's early Passacaglia, promised a vintage night. But Zubin Mehta, conducting without a score, couldn't capture an ounce of the wit in Richard Strauss's Don Quixote, and Brahms's Fourth was fleet but perfunctory. Sure, the playing was refined to a fault, exquisitely balanced, the strings polished to an unmistakable and luxurious sheen, but it had the personality and immediacy of a pre-recorded announcement.

Only the encores, Hellmesberger and Strauss polkas, showed the orchestra at something close to their sparkling best. Hair was down, autopilot was off, and for a few minutes you could think you were listening to the best orchestra in the world.