When Joseph Haydn came to London in 1791, he was surprised to find that anyone who could afford a ticket could come to his concert. In Vienna at the time, the symphony was played in the Grand Ballroom of the nobleman's mansion and could only be attended by invitation.
In London, except for those whose tickets for shows that don't want to attract attention are only allowed "ladies to ladies, gentlemen to gentlemen", everything else is open to everyone. Haydn appreciated this, creating a new work for every concert in London and directing it on the keyboard. He once said: "I have lived with many emperors and noble gentlemen, and have received countless praises from them: but I do not want to be close to people like that, I prefer to be with people of the same class." ”
Music history has largely ignored the audience, although they have played an equally important role in the development of music as composers and performers. London's vibrancy in this regard was attributed to George Friedrich Handel, who approached the unbelievers or the Jewish middle class with a series of Old Testament-based oratorios when he was no longer favored by the nobility.
In Vienna, Beethoven broke down those barriers. He set the premiere of the Ninth Symphony on a Friday in May 1824, when the ruling class had gone to the countryside to fill the theater for true music lovers. The human brotherhood preached in his symphony provoked a palpable response among the audience. The only empty space in the audience hall that night was the Royal Box.
Vienna has not yet developed the habit of that kind of concert. Founded in 1812, the Society of Friends of Music was then a branch of the Noble Women's Charity Promotion Society, which was restricted in every way. Some of this evolution took place in 1842, when the musicians of the Court Opera Formed Their Own Philharmonic Orchestra, which allowed them to earn a little extra income and more appreciation for their skills when they were not buried in the opera house's orchestra. That same year, New York also had a philharmonic orchestra of freelancers. Neither orchestra was able to make a splash. The Vienna Philharmonic orchestra gave only 11 concerts in five years, and the one in New York was unable to afford another performance for a full decade after performing One of Beethoven's Ninth Symphonies.
The turning point in Vienna took place after the Revolution of 1848, when the walls were demolished and the circular boulevard built on top of it was flanked by magnificent art halls – the Burgtheater, the Academy of Fine Arts, the Opera House, the Concert Hall, the University and the Imperial Conservatory. The carefree middle class now has a place to spend the evenings and send their children to further education.
In the era when Gustav Mahler dominated the local opera house, audiences also joined the process of musical development, reacting strongly to the production of certain plays and using newspapers to call for change. At this point, there was no distinction between superior and inferior. A postcard at the time depicted Johannes Brahms and John Strauss playing cards, which they did often do on Wednesdays. The symphonic composer's signature on the picture is four bars of The Blue Danube, accompanied by the words "Unfortunately not by Johannes Brahms". Until the First World War, Vienna was a musical melting pot for all.
After 1918, the city became less creatively important. Arnold Schoenberg brought his Second Viennese School to Berlin, where modernism was all the rage. Erich Wolfgang Congord moved to Hollywood. The Third Reich stifled diversity and experimental art. Today, Vienna lives on the depleting capital left over from the distant past. Its operas are routine. The Vienna Philharmonic orchestra indulges in waltzes every year.
What about the audience? That's no longer important. During Vienna's golden years, the debates in the cheap ticket areas of opera houses and concert halls were often as heated as those of the fans, often raising their fists in greeting each other. Time passed, ticket prices rose, and those who disturbed the order were kicked out. Vienna's audience is now packed with hordes of tourists. Vienna was well marketed in Japan, China and South Korea, and it paid the price of losing the participation of locals.
It is not surprising that photos of the Vienna Opera show that two-thirds of their seats were empty during the COVID-19 pandemic. Without travel agency bookings, Vienna's audience drain was as brutally exposed as a bald man's head in the wind. The Viennese seem to have lost the habit of patronizing places that no longer belong to them, where they also have no say.
Affected by the epidemic, for the first time in the history of the 2021 Vienna New Year's Concert, there was no live audience
The COVID-19 pandemic has provided an opportunity for institutions to rethink the purpose of their existence and reconnect with the grassroots. At a time when long-distance travel was disrupted, American orchestras found soloists from the United States, and Germany was making wise choices. New York and Berlin can rely on the abundance of young talents who live nearby and arrive by bus to replace the absent masters. Vienna, on the other hand, did not have such a hinterland.
But of their many troubles, the musician is the least important. What should have been done now was to connect with a younger, more diverse, and different audience; to reprogram the show to be less rigid and more adaptable to changing needs; to reposition an opera house for its raison d'être rather than just claiming that it was part of tradition.
As far as I know, vienna has not yet taken on new thinking, and long-neglected audiences remain overlooked. After COVID-19, Berlin will flourish, London will reinvent itself, and New York will rebound. And of all the major musical towns, Vienna will eventually face dusk alone because it snoozes in the merit book.
