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Wiener Konzertverein [Konzert-Verein]

Vienna Concert Union

Documents associated with this entity:

Organization founded in 1900 to give concerts in Vienna.

The Concert Union was founded in 1900, and used the large hall of the Musikverein Building as its "home" until 1913, when the Vienna Concert House (Wiener Konzerthaus) was built, and the Union moved its base there and became the Vienna Concert House Society (Wiener Konzerthaus Gesellschaft).

In the very early years, the Concert Union gave three categories of concerts: (A) Symphony Concerts, (B) Popular (volkstümlich) Symphony Concerts, and (C) Popular (populär) Orchestra Concerts ‒ these last at 5 p.m. on Sundays (in the large hall) and Thursdays (in the Volksgarten). Those in category A were divided into three subcategories: (1) Regular Symphony Concerts (the two main subscription series, on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings); (2) Irregular Symphony Concerts ("statutory member concerts"), both of which sets of concerts took place in the large hall of the Musikverein Building at 7.30 p.m., and (3) Out-of-Town (auswärtig) Symphony Concerts, given in locations such as Linz, Graz, Prague, Laibach (Ljubljana), and Trieste.

The Concert Union had its own orchestra (Wiener Konzertvereinsorchester), conducted from 1904 by Ferdinand Löwe, later by Leopold Reichwein, which in 1921 changed its name to the Vienna Symphony Orchestra (VSO) (Wiener Sinfonie Orchester, from 1933 Wiener Symphoniker). The orchestra's repertory was less conservative than that of the Vienna Philharmonic.

The Concert Union and Schenker

Schenker regularly attended Concert Union concerts, and reported them in his diary, beginning the entry with the standard abbreviation "K.-V." and providing a brief critique of the performance and works. Schenker also belonged to a circle of friends many of whom were active in the Concert Union; men such as Karl August Artaria, Paul Hammerschlag, Richard Heuberger, Robert Hirschfeld, and Ferdinand Löwe, with whom he attended concerts and met in coffee-houses for animated discussions.

Source

  • Grove Music Online (Vienna §5 (iii)‒(iv) (Leon Botstein)
  • Musikbuch aus Oesterreich 1906, ed. Richard Heuberger (Vienna and Leipzig: k.-k. Hofbuchdruckerei, 1905), pp. 68‒69, 94‒95

Contributor:

  • Ian Bent

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Correspondence

  • Sbb B II 4424 Handwritten letter from Schenker to Busoni, dated October 8, 1903

    The orchestral parts of Schoenberg's orchestration of Schenker's Syrische Tänze have been dispatched to Busoni: Schenker comments on their degree of clarity and correctness, and offers advice on performance. He will be attending rehearsals in Berlin. Weinberger have asked that the existing title be retained. -- Schenker reports on prospective performances of his works. He also reports on good chances of receiving a theory professorship at the Vienna Conservatory, and doesn't want Jewishness associated with his compositions lest this should impair those chances.

  • OJ 5/35, [5] Handwritten draft letter from Schenker to Ernst Rudorff, dated October 10, 1909

    Schenker, on receipt of the score of a Rudorff choral work, praises its textural clarity and melodic articulation, comparing them favorably to the writing of the current generation. — He reports the success of his own recent theory works, and inroads made into the Vienna Academy for Music and Performance Art.

  • WSLB-Hds 95655 Handwritten letter from Schenker to Seligmann, dated August 5, 1916

    Schenker explains why he is reluctant to produce a critical edition with commentary for Beethoven’s Op. 106: he would wear himself out working on it unless he could be freed from some of his teaching obligations, and also the autograph manuscript and other sources are missing. He also defends his sharp tongue in discussions of the secondary literature in his “paradigmatic” works ("Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony" and the critical editions of the late Beethoven piano sonatas).

Diaries