Cornelius Meister's Sibelius at the Vienna Musikverein doesn't quite take flight

By Caitlin Smith, 05 March 2013

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Reviewed at Musikverein: Großer Saal, Vienna on 1 March 2013

Grieg, Peer Gynt Suite no. 2, Op.55

Pärt, Credo

Sibelius, Symphony no. 5 in E flat major, Op.82

Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien

Johannes Prinz, Choirmaster / chorus director

ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra

Cornelius Meister, Conductor

Fish, frocks and farce: a Prokofiev romp in Vienna

Chanda VanderHart, 28th March

Damiano Michieletto directs a slick and frequently hilarious staging of Prokofiev's comic opera Betrothal in a Monastery.

***11

The Best of All Possible Satires: Candide sparkles in Vienna

Chanda VanderHart, 19th January

Lydia Steier's new production of Candide is a kaleidoscopic celebration of Leonard Bernstein's varied musical idioms.

*****

Deconstructed within an inch of its life: a new Lulu in Vienna

Chanda VanderHart, 31st May

Marlene Monteiro Freitas directs her first opera, in which Lulu, if not buried alive, is certainly left completely unrecognizable.

**111

Weinberg’s Dostoevsky drama crushes at MusikTheater an der Wien

Chanda VanderHart, 30th April

Vasily Barkhatov directs a new production of Mieczysław Weinberg's rarely staged, massive and unwieldy opera at the MuseumsQuartier.

****1

Hilarious Périchole sends up Austrian political scandals

Chanda VanderHart, 25th January

“Lima darf nicht Österreich werden!” Offenbach's operetta is set in Lima, but really it’s Vienna in director Nikolaus Habjan uproarious production.

****1

Vienna meets London: Grosvenor and the Vienna Radio Symphony

David Karlin, 13th August

Hannah Eisendle's Heliosis proves the highlight of Prom 36, with Benjamin Grosvenor giving a performance of quality in Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto.

***11

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Caitlin Smith

Caitlin Smith is a Canadian composer living in Vienna. She studied jazz music and composition in Toronto and New York. She writes fully-composed music, as well as working with improvisers. She writes about contemporary music for I Care If You Listen. Her website is here.