Editing Vienna Philharmonic (section)

== Sound, instruments, and playing style ==
The Vienna Philharmonic was already observed to have a characteristic sound by the turn of the last century. [[Bruno Walter]] told an interviewer on Austrian Radio in 1960 that hearing the Vienna Philharmonic for the first time in 1897 was for Walter (in Hurwitz's translation): "...a life-altering impression, because it was this sound of the orchestra that I have experienced ever since – I have the feeling: this is the way an orchestra should sound; the way it should play. I had never heard the beauty, this calmness of the sound, that sort of glissando, the manner of vibrato, the string sound, the blend of woodwinds with the strings, with the brass, the balance of the brass in combination with the percussion contributing together to the overall sonority of the orchestra. For me, this impression was definitive, and now I would like to anticipate a point and tell you this: this sound, 1897, is the same today.".<ref>David Hurwitz, "'So klingt Wien': Conductors, Orchestras, and Vibrato in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries," ''Music and Letters,'' February 2012, vol 93 issue 1, pp. 29-60. Hurwitz also offers Walter's German in transcription, including, "So soll ein Orchester klingen, so soll es spielen, das hatte ich noch niemals gehört, die Schönheit, diese Ruhe des Klanges, diese Art von Glissando, die Art von Vibrato, der Streicherklang, die Mischung von Holz mit Streichern, mit Blech, das Maß im Blech, das sich einfügte mit dem Schlagzeug zusammen in den Gesamtklang des Orchesters. Für mich war dieser Eindruck lebensentscheidend, und jetzt möchte ich etwas vorgreifen und Ihnen folgendes sagen: Dieser Klang, 1897, ist heute der gleiche."</ref>

The VPO's sound has been attributed in part to the VPO's instruments and in part to its playing styles.

'''Instruments''': At least a part of the characteristic sound of the Vienna Philharmonic has been attributed to the use of instruments that differ from those used by other major orchestras:<ref name="wienerphilharmoniker2" />
* The orchestra's [[standard tuning]] [[Pitch (music)|pitch]] is [[A (musical note)|A<sup>4</sup>]]=443&nbsp;[[Hertz|Hz]]; the tuning standard for A<sup>4</sup> is generally considered at a frequency of [[A440 (pitch standard)|440&nbsp;Hz]].
* The VPO uses the German-system ([[Öhler system]]) [[clarinet]]. By comparison, the [[Boehm system (clarinet)|Boehm-system clarinet]] is favored in non-German-speaking countries.
* Likewise, while the [[Wilhelm Heckel GmbH|Heckel]] [[bassoon]] is now the norm for most orchestras around the world, in the VPO the Heckel bassoon is played almost completely without [[vibrato]].
* The [[rotary valve|rotary-valve]] [[trumpet]] is used, but unlike most other Germanic orchestras the VPO prefers smaller bore rotary trumpets from makers such as Heckel and Lechner.
* Like its counterparts elsewhere in Austria, Germany and Russia, the VPO favors the F bass and B-flat contrabass rotary-valve [[tuba]], whereas the CC piston-valve tuba is preferred in most American and some British orchestras.
* The [[trombone]] has a somewhat smaller bore, but this is also true of the trombone used in many German orchestras.
* The [[timpani]] have the Schnellar System in which the kettle pushed up as opposed to the head being pulled down. Hans Schnellar was the timpanist in the early 20th century, and personally made these drums. They also use goat skin heads as opposed to calf skin or plastic heads, and manual tuning as opposed to pedal tuning.
* The [[double bass]] retains the traditional theater-placement in a row behind the brass. The VPO uses 4- as well as 5-string double basses. The bow is held in a variation of the [[Double bass#German bow|German bow grip]], in which the index and middle fingers are held above the stick so that only they (and not the thumb) apply pressure to the string.
* The [[Wiener oboe]] is, along with the Vienna horn (see below), perhaps the most distinctive member of the VPO instrumentarium. It has a special bore, reed and fingering-system and is very different from the otherwise internationally used Conservatoire (French) oboe.
* The [[Vienna horn]] in F uses a ''Pumpenventil''. Unlike the rotary valves used on most other orchestral horns, the Pumpenventil contributes to the liquid legato that is one of the trademarks of the Viennese school. The bore of the Vienna horn is also smaller than more modern horns—actually very close to that of the valveless [[natural horn]]. The Vienna horn has remained virtually unchanged since the mid-nineteenth century—as a result it is arguably well-suited to the Classical and Romantic repertoire at the core of the VPO's programming.

On the other hand, at least two instruments or instrument families are like those in other orchestras. According to the Vienna Philharmonic's website, "the flute is largely the same as the conventional Böhm flute, which is widely used all over the world. However, it did not replace the wooden flute in Vienna until the 1920s." Also, the Viennese string sound should not be attributed to unique attributes of the instruments, according to the VPO, which writes on its website, "There can be no doubt that the Viennese string instruments themselves, unlike the winds, are not of prime importance in producing the orchestra's unique sound. With a few exceptions, the quality of the instruments of the string section is not particularly outstanding.".<ref name="wienerphilharmoniker2">{{cite web |url=http://www.wienerphilharmoniker.at/index.php?set_language=en&cccpage=viennese_sound |title=Vienna Philharmonic &#124; Viennese Sound |publisher=Wienerphilharmoniker.at |access-date=29 April 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120109050629/http://www.wienerphilharmoniker.at/index.php?set_language=en&cccpage=viennese_sound |archivedate=9 January 2012  }}</ref> To be sure, the instruments are of high quality; Austria's central bank [[Oesterreichische Nationalbank]] currently loans four [[violin]]s made by [[Antonio Stradivari]] to the VPO.

The VPO's instruments and their characteristic tone-colors have been the subject of extensive scientific studies by [[Gregor Widholm]] and others at the Institute of Music Acoustics (''Wiener Klangstil'' – Viennese Tone Style) at the [[University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://iwk.mdw.ac.at/?page_id=16&sprache=2 |title=Viennese Music Tradition - Institute of Music Acoustics (Wiener Klangstil) |publisher=Iwk.mdw.ac.at |access-date=5 October 2013}}</ref> The Vienna Philharmonic's website generalizes about its woodwind and brass instruments in terms of overtones: "With the exception of the flute and, to some extent, the bassoon, the typical differences in tone of Viennese instruments can be described as follows: They are richer in overtones, i.e., the sound tone is brighter."<ref name="wienerphilharmoniker2" />

''' Playing style:''' The orchestra in 2004 began offering a summer institute, the International Orchestra Institute Attergau for Wiener Klangstil,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ioia.at/entstehung_e.html |title=International Orchestra Institute Attergau - The Beginning / Aims and Duties |publisher=Ioia.at |date=29 March 1999 |access-date=5 October 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131006212544/http://www.ioia.at/entstehung_e.html |archivedate=6 October 2013  }}</ref> to instruct other musicians in the Viennese playing style.<ref name=Legends>James R. Oestrich, [https://www.nytimes.com/1998/02/28/arts/even-legends-adjust-to-time-and-trend-even-the-vienna.html "Even Legends Adjust To Time and Trend, Even the Vienna Philharmonic"], ''The New York Times'', 28 February 1998</ref>

The 1960 Walter interview indicates that the strings' vibrato (as of 1960) was audibly like that of 1897, and also quotes music critic Richard Specht in 1919 writing of "something inimitable in the vibrato and the passionate virtuosity of the violins" of the Vienna Philharmonic.<ref>David Hurwitz, "'So klingt Wien': Conductors, Orchestras, and Vibrato in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries," ''Music and Letters,'' February 2012, vol 93 issue 1, pp. 29-60</ref>

As for other instruments, using early recordings, the musicologist Robert Philip has documented some changes in how VPO players used [[vibrato]] during the mid-20th century, although he also notes differences between the VPO and other orchestras of the era. As was typical of the era, the pre-1945 flutes show "very little vibrato" in recordings "until after World War II... even in the long solo in Mahler's ''Das Lied von der Erde'' the flautist [under [[Bruno Walter]] in 1936]... plays almost without vibrato" except on "a few long notes [with] a delicate medium-speed vibrato"; but "by the late 1940s the flautists... had adopted a gentle medium-speed vibrato".<ref>Robert Philip, ''Early Recordings and Musical Style: Changing Tastes in Instrumental Performance, 1900–1950,'' Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp. 116–18</ref> The oboes before the 1940s show "little or no vibrato," but by the late 1940s "the principal oboist had adopted a very delicate fast vibrato ... but he uses it very sparingly."<ref>Philip, ''Early Recordings'', pp. 125–26</ref> (The [[cor anglais]] is, he notes, even in the late 1940s still played "without any vibrato"). The bassoonists "show virtually no bassoon vibrato up to the 1950s".<ref>Philip, ''Early Recordings'', p. 137</ref>

The Vienna Philharmonic website states that today, with the flute, "as with all [wind]<ref>Obvious illogical typo "wind and brass instruments" should of course be "woodwind and brass instruments" as in the subheading or simply "wind instruments" as in the [https://web.archive.org/web/20120111203230/http://www.wienerphilharmoniker.at/index.php?cccpage=viennese_sound&set_language=de German original]</ref> instruments in the Viennese classics, vibrato is used very sparingly."<ref name="wienerphilharmoniker2" />

Philips notes that by 1931 the Vienna Philharmonic strings were reported to use uniform bowing, which was still unusual in Britain.<ref>Philip, ''Early Recordings'', p. 180</ref> As for [[portamento]] – sliding audibly from one note to another, a prominent effect among pre-war string players – the VPO strings' sliding in the early 1930s "sounds more deliberately expressive, and less a matter of routine, than that of British orchestras. This is partly because of the firmer dynamic shaping of the melodic line, partly because of the warmer and fuller string tone."<ref>Philip, ''Early Recordings'', p. 191</ref> Further, he hears "strong evidence of a free approach to portamento" – that is, of "different players shifting at different points" within the same phrase (which, he shows, was standard internationally in pre-war orchestral playing). He notices a reduced use of portamento in recordings from 1931 to 1936, but in 1936 also notes that the VPO strings still make "conspicuous" use of portamento in Mozart, where British orchestras by this time were using less of it in Classical-era composers. Finally, he hears a "trend towards greater subtlety in the use of portamento" post-war, with "only discreet portamento" in a recording under [[Herbert von Karajan]] in 1949.<ref>Philip, ''Early Recordings'', pp. 192–93</ref>  One useful indication of approaches to vibrato and portamento is the body of recordings left by concertmaster Arnold Rose and his quartet.  While not identical in approach to the earlier German playing of Joseph Joachim, they are notably free from the vibrato that became routine in mid 20th-century, and of an older style both in rhythm and use of slides.  (E.g., Beethoven Op 131 and the 5th Brahms Hungarian Dance.)