{"id":41066,"date":"2017-01-03T08:45:58","date_gmt":"2017-01-03T13:45:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=41066"},"modified":"2017-01-03T08:47:26","modified_gmt":"2017-01-03T13:47:26","slug":"scrutiny-salute-to-vienna-rings-in-2017-with-musical-bon-bons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/01\/03\/scrutiny-salute-to-vienna-rings-in-2017-with-musical-bon-bons\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Salute To Vienna Rings In 2017 With Musical Bon Bons"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Salute
Salute to Vienna at Roy Thomson Hall, January 1, 2017. (Photo: Joseph So)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Salute to Vienna: The Strauss Symphony of Canada, Matthias Fletzberger (conductor) with soloists Polina Pasztircs\u00e1k, Andreas Schager,\u00a0Alexander Kaimbacher, and members from the\u00a0Kiev City Ballet at Roy Thomson Hall. Jan. 1.<\/h3>\n

To my fellow Torontonians, I have a question:<\/p>\n

What did you do for entertainment on New Year\u2019s Day?\u00a0 Maybe you joined our beloved Mayor John Tory for a family skate?\u00a0 Or were you in Queen\u2019s Park for the traditional New Year\u2019s Levee hosted by Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell?\u00a0 Or perhaps you\u2019re the hale and hearty type and went for a Polar Bear Swim?<\/p>\n

None of those for me!\u00a0 My<\/em> New Year tradition is to attend Salute to Vienna<\/em> at Roy Thomson Hall, an afternoon of Arias, Ballets, and Banter, sure to delight anyone with a musical sweet tooth. This annual concert is now in its 22nd<\/span> year, and judging by the sold-out crowd, it\u2019s the hottest ticket on New Year\u2019s Day. This year I decided to show up a whole hour early, parked myself across from the entrance in a comfortable chair right behind the media desk, for some serious people-watching. I couldn’t help noticing what a superannuated audience it was!\u00a0 That said, many elderly patrons came with young children \u2014 perhaps grand or great-grandkids? And judging by the turn-outs of their feet, some were likely budding ballerinas?<\/p>\n

While I don\u2019t have any statistics to back it up, I\u2019ve always found classical music matinee audiences have the highest percentage of physically challenged seniors. This New Year\u2019s Concert was no exception \u2014 I counted several dozen walkers and wheelchairs, not to mention endless canes. Lest I be accused of ageism, I admit I\u2019m joining that demographic soon enough! \u00a0I have nothing but admiration for the mobility-challenged seniors who still have the desire and will power to attend, despite their physical issues. To them, I say \u2018Bravo!\u2019<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Now to the concert itself.\u00a0 Year in, year out, this show doesn\u2019t vary all that much \u2014 a felicitous mix of operettas, classical ballet, ballroom dancing, ubiquitous waltzes, all enhanced by a maestro chosen for the gift of the gab as well as being an expert in this light and frothy repertoire. It\u2019s all very pleasant, easily digestible fare, perfect for those still recovering from all the New Year\u2019s Eve revelries. This year the conductor was Matthias Fletzberger from Vienna. Speaking to the audience between numbers, his personable manner as much as his conducting prowess made the two-hour concert seemed short. He led the \u201cStrauss Symphony of Canada,\u201d in reality a pick-up orchestra with quite a few members of last evening\u2019s \u201cOpera Canada Orchestra,\u201d<\/a> including the Concertmaster Marie Berard, who\u2019s moonlighting from the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra. But like last evening, these musicians were highly experienced, and their playing throughout was never less than enjoyable.<\/p>\n

The two vocalists on this occasion, Hungarian soprano Polina Pasztircs\u00e1k and Austrian tenor Alexander Kaimbacher, were outstanding vocally, not to mention they were very easy on the eyes. Pasztircs\u00e1k has a beautifully clear lyric soprano, and Kaimbacher an equally mellifluous lyric tenor. The two voices blended beautifully in the duets, especially in \u201cLippen schweigen\u201d from Merry Widow<\/em>. It also helped that they made a very attractive and dramatically believable Hanna and Danilo. Typically these shows have a heavy dose of dancing. This time around, it was three pairs of dancers from the Kiev City Ballet and two pairs of Hungarian championship ballroom dancers. All youthful, slim \u2014 as if made from the same cookie cutter \u2014 and fleet of foot, the dancers were suitably sparkling in pieces by Franz Lehar and Johann Strauss.<\/p>\n

A pleasant surprise was the cameo appearance of German tenor Andreas Schager, currently in rehearsal as Siegfried in G<\/em>\u00f6tterdammerung<\/em> at the COC. Incidentally, Herr Schager was the tenor in Bravissimo!<\/em> back in 2014, singing arias from Boheme<\/em> and Turandot<\/em>.\u00a0 This time around, he sang an operetta aria loaded with high notes, quite astounding coming from a Wagnerian tenor who has Siegfried and Tristan in his active repertoire! \u00a0The downside of his cameo appearance was the omission of the originally scheduled Csardas from Die Fledermaus<\/em> to be sung by Ms. Pasztircs\u00e1k. Given the program was quite short to begin with \u2014 two hours ten minutes including an intermission \u2014 it really wasn\u2019t necessary to make the cut. Also unfortunate was the amplification of the singers, a practice that is almost unknown in European opera houses.<\/p>\n

As in previous years, no Salute To Vienna<\/em> would be complete without the Blue Danube Waltz, which was played as an encore. It was followed by the obligatory Auld Lang Syne, and the beloved Radetzky March. That combination certainly whipped the audience into a frenzy. When Maestro Fletzberger came back out to speak to the audience, everyone thought there was another encore coming. Well, no such luck! He was there to announce that tickets to next<\/em> year’s show would go on sale immediately afterward \u2014 talk about enterprising! No matter, judging by the smiles on the faces of the audience leaving the theatre, and the long lineup at the box office booking next year\u2019s show, they went home happy.<\/p>\n

For more REVIEWS, click HERE<\/a><\/span>.<\/h3>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Want more updates on Toronto-centric classical music news and review\u00a0before anyone else finds out? F<\/em>ollow us on\u00a0<\/em>Facebook<\/a><\/span>\u00a0or Twitter<\/a><\/span> for all the latest.<\/em><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Salute To Vienna a felicitous mix of operettas, classical ballet, ballroom dancing, ubiquitous waltzes, all enhanced by a maestro chosen for the gift of the gab as well as being an expert in this light and frothy repertoire, says Joseph So.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":41069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6439,76,19,52,60],"tags":[7230,7229,5204],"yst_prominent_words":[7224,7227,6715,7084,7228,7226,7192,7194,7193,6843,6674,7191,7214,6612,7220,7221,6683,7215,7217,7216],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/01\/STV-head.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-aGm","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41066"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41066"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41078,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41066\/revisions\/41078"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41066"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=41066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}