Der Pittenden der Vienna Philharmonic

The BBQ Pit
1

(I apologize to all native German speakers for my phony German, but “I pit the Vienna Philharmonic” is cliche, so you have to Germanize it a little.)

Although I’ve only been watching it for two years now, I realize the annual Strauss concert held in Vienna aired on PBS has two traditions: a performance of The Blue Danube in which the orchestra conductor says a few words, and a peformance of the Radetsky March (unsure of spelling) in which the audience claps along.

The director of the Philharmonic comments about the recent events that happened in Asia, and comments that the Philharmonic has donated 115,000 euros (you can comment on the amount if you wish, but that’s not the subject of this pit).

He then comments that they will not be playing the Radetsky March, but it will return next year.

What? I understand they’re trying to make a statement with their paying repects to the folks who died, but removing a well-known tradition? This I don’t understand. Is there a law against being entertained after an international tragedy? They stopped for a moment of silence in Times Square, but they didn’t stop the festivities.

The concert still went on despite the tragedy. Why remove a great tradition? Don’t they have “the show must go on” over in Austria?

2

I had a hunch that the Radetzky March might have had some symbolism that made it inappropriate. The reviews call it “more celebratory than martial” – but that doesn’t seem like a reason. It was written to commemorate two victories of Joseph, Graf Radetzky von Radetzky, an Austrian general who put down revolts in Austrian-held Italy – but has long since lost its imperalistic patina and is simply a standard symphonic piece.

(I also found that one Joseph Roth wrote a novel named The Radetzky March, which may have been made into a movie with a nude scene, since a movie database mentioned it and warned of nudity. Something doesn’t sound right there!)

3

Did he actually connect the cancellation to the tragedy- you seem unclear. Could they not have cancelled for some other reason (a key musician’s sickness perhaps?)?

4

Maybe they’re afraid all that clapping will cause another earthquake, this time in the Great Danube Valley Fault.

5

Yes. We must all put on sackcloth and ashes and fast for 40 days and 40 nights, for surely the end is nigh.

6

From what I can tell, it was done deliberately as a mark of respect for the tsunami victims.

Verdammen sie. Ich liebe jene Stückmusik.

7

Well, it would really have been insensitive if instead of clapping along to the Radetsky March, everyone had done the wave.

Sorry about that.

8

You should be, that was a really crappy thing to say. That’s the sort of thing you expect of those dumbasses on fark, not here.

9

I thought it was kind of funny. But then again, everyone’s sense of humor is different.

I’m still confused as to why years ago, a tongue-in-cheek thread I started jokingly comparing the “all your base…” meme to a recent accidential bombing on a military base (poking fun at conspiracy theories) was locked (I was referred to as a “prick” by one poster), whereas a later thread with a phoney “all your base…”/9-11 conspiracy theory lived long and prospered. Such is the mysteries of the universe.

10

If I wanted to get defensive here, I’d mention the large donations I’ve made in the last few days to three separate disaster relief funds.

Instead, I’ll just apologize for not living up to your standards for Pit black humor. :dubious: