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| Vienna Philharmonic's conservatism has exposed it to unsettling truths | Vienna Philharmonic's conservatism has exposed it to unsettling truths |
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| The Vienna Philharmonic has been a byword for conservatism with both a small and a big C for much of its 171-year history. But until the revelations about the extent of nazism at the heart of the institution, many music-lovers have been able to excuse the eccentricity of the Vienna Phil's traditions as the grit in the oyster that produces the orchestra's lustrous, pearlescent sound. | The Vienna Philharmonic has been a byword for conservatism with both a small and a big C for much of its 171-year history. But until the revelations about the extent of nazism at the heart of the institution, many music-lovers have been able to excuse the eccentricity of the Vienna Phil's traditions as the grit in the oyster that produces the orchestra's lustrous, pearlescent sound. |
| That's because the Vienna orchestra is that rarest of things in classical music today: a group you can identify from the very first chord. Even the instruments they play – especially those reedy (if you're being kind), or goat-like (if you're not) oboes – are different to those anywhere else, and the secrets of how to play them are often handed down from father to son. | That's because the Vienna orchestra is that rarest of things in classical music today: a group you can identify from the very first chord. Even the instruments they play – especially those reedy (if you're being kind), or goat-like (if you're not) oboes – are different to those anywhere else, and the secrets of how to play them are often handed down from father to son. |
| The orchestra jealously protects its individuality, as if it was one of the most precious resources in musical culture. And for many devotees of the Neujahrskonzert, or for anyone who heard them at the Proms with Bernard Haitink last year, that's exactly what it is. | The orchestra jealously protects its individuality, as if it was one of the most precious resources in musical culture. And for many devotees of the Neujahrskonzert, or for anyone who heard them at the Proms with Bernard Haitink last year, that's exactly what it is. |
| The orchestra has so far weathered the criticism most often raised against it: the fact that there are hardly any women in its ranks. While the rest of Europe's orchestras – including Vienna's main rival for the title of "world's greatest" over the decades, the Berlin Philharmonic – have accepted the necessity of a level playing field, Vienna has remained stubbornly an (almost) men-only club. It was not until 1997 that a woman, the harpist Anne Lelkes, was allowed to become a full member; today, there are six female members – a pathetic, unjustifiable statistic. The orchestra's record on ethnic diversity is even worse. But that ludicrous institutional sexism – and even the orchestra's sometimes shabby treatment of composers such as Anton Bruckner and above all Gustav Mahler, who was in charge of the Vienna Staatsoper (from whose players the Vienna Phil are drawn), but resigned thanks to cultural antisemitism in 1907 – pales into insignificance next to the grim history revealed about the orchestra's relationship with the Nazis. | |
| The most chilling single detail is the gift of a replica of the orchestra's ring of honour to the man in charge of the Hitler Youth, Baldur von Schirach. That apparently happened in 1966, after von Schirach's release from Spandau prison. | The most chilling single detail is the gift of a replica of the orchestra's ring of honour to the man in charge of the Hitler Youth, Baldur von Schirach. That apparently happened in 1966, after von Schirach's release from Spandau prison. |
| That year, Leonard Bernstein made his debut conducting the orchestra. Had Lenny known that its then director, the principal trumpet (and ex-SS member) Helmut Wobisch, had presented, or planned to present, a leading Nazi with this ring, he would surely have thought twice about having anything to do with Vienna or its orchestra. | That year, Leonard Bernstein made his debut conducting the orchestra. Had Lenny known that its then director, the principal trumpet (and ex-SS member) Helmut Wobisch, had presented, or planned to present, a leading Nazi with this ring, he would surely have thought twice about having anything to do with Vienna or its orchestra. |
| The fact that the Jewish Bernstein did more to rehabilitate the reputation of Mahler than any other conductor, and that his performances and recordings with the Vienna Philharmonic allowed the orchestra posthumously to right some of the wrongs it did to Gustav during his lifetime, is a disturbing historical irony. In the light of this week's revelations, there are more unsettling questions for the Vienna Phil to answer. That's because there is such a strong link between the orchestra's institutional conservatism and the sound it makes. Its resistance to change is an essential part of its musical charm, but it's also the reason it's taken until now for the orchestra to even attempt to own up to its past. Those evenings of easy Viennese charm in the Musikverein, the Philharmonic's gilded home, have curdled into something much more distasteful. | The fact that the Jewish Bernstein did more to rehabilitate the reputation of Mahler than any other conductor, and that his performances and recordings with the Vienna Philharmonic allowed the orchestra posthumously to right some of the wrongs it did to Gustav during his lifetime, is a disturbing historical irony. In the light of this week's revelations, there are more unsettling questions for the Vienna Phil to answer. That's because there is such a strong link between the orchestra's institutional conservatism and the sound it makes. Its resistance to change is an essential part of its musical charm, but it's also the reason it's taken until now for the orchestra to even attempt to own up to its past. Those evenings of easy Viennese charm in the Musikverein, the Philharmonic's gilded home, have curdled into something much more distasteful. |
| • This article was amended on 13 March 2013. The original said the harpist Anne Lelkes was the first woman to play with the Vienna Philharmonic. She was the first woman to become a full member, but not the first to play with the orchestra. |