Strauss: Heldenleben im Wiener Musikverein

About the Event

What brilliant late Romantic orchestral work should the new chief conductor put on the program for his first subscription concert, if not Richard Strauss's “A Hero's Life”? Fabien Gabel is the right man at the podium, both for the Tonkünstler and for this very special blend of self‐confidence, ironic wink, and, last but not least, sensually dazzling, rousing narrative power – qualities that the Tonkünstler also demonstrate in the brilliant works that precede it, which allow us to hear once again a great soloist and the music of two well‐established contemporary composers. HK Gruber's trumpet concerto “Aerial” is celebrated around the world with Håkan Hardenberger, and Bernd Richard Deutsch's “Con moto” provides a musical motto for the new era: things are progressing brilliantly here!

Wiener Musikverein

The Wiener Musikverein is one of the world's great concert halls. The home of the Vienna Philarmonic Orchestra and the centre of Viennese musical life, the building was opened in 1870 as a part of an ambitious plan to create an elegant cultural boulevard along the Ringstrasse. Designed in the Neo‐Classical style to resemble an Ancient Greek temple, the Great Hall of the Musikverein is deemed to be one of the best music halls in the world thanks to its impeccable acoustics.
In 2004 four new halls were added to the building. The Austrian architect Wilhelm Holzbauer recognised the aesthetic importance of the existing building and sought out ways to echo the style in a modern language of form. Each of the four New Halls focuses on a different material — glass, metal, stone, and wood.