Salute to Vienna. Tamara Ivaniš, soprano; Thomas Weinhappel, baritone. Budapest Dance Ensemble. Strauss Symphony of Canada, Imre Kollár, conductor. Presented by Attila Glatz Concert Productions and Roy Thomson Hall. Roy Thomson Hall, Jan. 1, 2024.
Few of us have the occasion or the resources to attend the New Year’s Concert in Vienna. Annual television broadcasts, adorned with narration and palatial scenery, have kept the mystique of the event alive around the world.
Those who prefer live experiences are serviced in various North American locales by the Salute to Vienna concerts organized by the Hungarian-born entrepreneur Attila Glatz. The iteration presented Monday afternoon in Roy Thomson Hall gave every indication of sending the dressy near-capacity crowd home happy.
The “Salute” is not an exact duplicate of the primarily symphonic original in the Musikverein. There is an extended stage in front of the orchestra on which 10 lavishly attired dancers (identified as members of the Budapest Dance Ensemble and “champion ballroom dancers”) perform ballets, ballroom sequences and skits, often with a famous waltz treated as a soundtrack.
Wine, Women and Song, the Emperor Waltz and even The Blue Danube got this treatment, the first with “tipsy” gents interacting with exasperated partners, the latter two as more abstract ballets. Elegant as it was, the choreography did not enhance the musical essence of these masterpieces and dictated a more regular 1-2-3 beat than would otherwise be necessary.
All the same, the Hungarian conductor Imre Kollár led the locally sourced Strauss Symphony of Canada with zest and affection as required. Like many tall figures on the podium, he could make a little motion go a long way. He also had a sense of comic timing — a good thing, since he was tasked with introducing the selections with a microphone and telling jokes in the Victor Borge manner. Many were the amusing false starts.
At one point there came a phone call from Johann Strauss Jr. The good news? Kollár has been named chief conductor of the Strauss orchestra in heaven. The bad news? The first rehearsal is tomorrow. Ha!
Another major element of the Salute formula is vocal music. Six items featured the Salzburg-based Croatian soprano Tamara Ivaniš or the Viennese baritone Thomas Weinhappel (or both) in hits by Strauss, Franz Lehár and Emmerich Kálmán — the only composers represented in the printed part of the program. These singers successfully married light operetta style and ample operatic tone, although the strength of their voices had to be inferred, amplification being heavy. Perhaps the balance was equitable in the upper levels. I was on the floor, poking a finger in my left ear to make amends for the nearby loudspeaker.
The afternoon ended with the mandatory sequence of “encores,” including The Blue Danube, Auld Lang Syne and the Radetzky March, all requiring audience participation. Earlier we had heard two unfamiliar but likeable polkas by Strauss: Éljen a Magyar! Op. 332 and Vergnügungszug Op. 281. The latter, “Pleasure Train,” required Kollár to blow occasionally on a whistle.
This was not a problem. As he explained, before he was a conductor, he was a conductor. Ha!
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