Theresia a Dobbiaco

By theresia - August 22, 2015

Uno sguardo al concerto nell'Auditorium Mahler del Centro Culturale Grand Hotel di Dobbiaco
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[row padding_top=”” padding_bottom=”” bg=”” bg_light=”true” appear=”false”] [column size=”1-2″ appear=”false”]Eccovi qualche foto del concerto di Dobbiaco: molte altre ne arriveranno, accanto a foto di backstage dello stage che l’orchestra ha fatto in questa settimana presso il Centro Culturale Grand Hotel. [/column] [column size=”1-2″ appear=”false”]Here there are some pictures of Dobbiaco concert: many others are arriving in the next days, both of the concert and of the rehearsal in the Kulturzentrum Grand Hotel.

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The summer of Theresia: what are they going to play?

By theresia - August 15, 2015

Insights on the music that TYBO will perform in Bozen and Toblach
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The program that Theresia will perform in Toblach and Bozen is entirely devoted to two of the most important composers of the late eighteenth century: Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Luigi Boccherini. Musical storiography and also performers have often considered them as less important composers. But the truth is that, despite a certain isolation, both of them had a great influence, each one in his own way, on composers of the following generation. The concise G major Symphony Wq80 that Theresia will perform first was composed by Bach in Zittau in 1758. It is a very successful example of Bach’s symphonic style: we found masterfully melted structural elements (the three movements are linked and are supposed to be performed seamlessly) and narrative elements, that are enlighted by the “enpfindsam” nature of the musical style.

E flat major Concert Wq47 is the last instrumental composition by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: he composed it when he was 74, in the last year of his life (1788). This concert is undoubtfully the most famous composition written for both harpsichord and fortepiano, two instruments that, in the modern thought, appear to be like competitors and chronologically distant: but as a matter of fact, they coexisted in concert halls till the beginning of XIX century. Mozart himself performed his concerts with harpsichord in the mid-eighties while, in the same years, performing with fortepiano or harpsichord was immaterial. Bach’s musical writing demonstrates this claim, because language is the same for both: fortepiano and harpsichord converse with each other using the same texture and the same frames, without departing from a thread that focuses on the musical meaning, and deliberately leaving aside the dualism between harpsichord and fortepiano.

Boccherini’s late symphonic production is well represented by concise D major Ouverture (1790), one of the most celebrated works for orchestra, and by enchanting D major Symphony nr. 27 G520, written for Prussian King Wilhelm II in 1789. This very composition is a work of great interest with both structural and narrative elements modern and experimental, mostly in the last movement (Presto). The symphonic idea is here very close to an advanced concept, like the contemporary Viennese symphonic style of Mozart and Haydn.

On the way to Dobbiaco

By theresia - July 15, 2015

Dobbiaco was the favourite residency of Gustav Mahler, who spent here the summer from 1908 to 1910: it is here that he composed the Ninth and Tenth Symphonies (the latter one left unfinished), and the famous Song of the Earth (“Das Lied von der Erde”), the execution of which his author sadly never managed to listen.
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Theresia has a new residence: the town of Dobbiaco (Toblach) will host the orchestra for a six-days stage in August. It’s maybe one of the most perfect places in which stay to play music.

A view of Dobbiaco/Toblach

Do you know why? Dobbiaco was the favourite residency of Gustav Mahler, who spent here the summer from 1908 to 1910: it is here that he composed the Ninth and Tenth Symphonies (the latter one left unfinished), and the famous Song of the Earth (“Das Lied von der Erde”), the execution of which his author sadly never managed to listen.
It was the spring of 1908 when Gustav Mahler rented an apartment where he went to stay for three summers, and where in 1911 his widowed wife continued to live. It is a large and spacious residence, with ten rooms and a beautiful closed veranda. The house is one of the antique residences of Dobbiaco-Toblach which date back to the times of Emperor Maximilian and in the grand living room one sees on the ceiling the coat of arms of the Lords of Leis. “Dobbiaco is Extraordinary” Mahler used to say “it Tempers your Body and Soul”. Given Mahler’s deep connections with Dobbiaco, entering the room where the famous composer stayed with his wife Alma is today a very touching experience.

Maso Trenken, where Mahler sayed with his wife Alma

Mahler’s famous “composition house“, a small wooden hut

From the second half of the 19th century onwards, tourist development started in Dobbiaco, with the consequent construction of new homes and infrastructures, and also the tracing of a railway line connecting Vienna with South Tyrol.

On November 20, 1871, the railroad through the Pustertal Valley from Lienz to Franzensfeste went into service. In the first years after the opening of the railroad, the business expectations of the Hapsburg imperial Südbahngesellschaft were not fulfilled, and because of that the future market was based upon tourism. Consequently, the building of a hotel was taken into consideration as an innovative point of attraction on the basis of a location favorable to tourism and of the grandiose scenery in Toblach. Construction began on the so-called “Südbahnhotel” (“Southern Railway Hotel”, later the Grand Hotel) on August 25, 1877. The construction plans came from Wilhelm Ritter from Flattich, director of the railway’s own Department of Structural Engineering. Construction costs had to be strictly limited during a phase of economic recession; thus the architect had to fall back on his models for railway stations.

A postcard from the early twentieth century with the railway and the Grand Hotel Toblach

The hotel went into service with the summer season of 1878. With a capacity of 80 beds, it was in no way a Grand Hotel but rather a functional structure with few prestigious elements. The new leaseholders, Ignaz and Elise Überbacher, represented a special stroke of luck for the Südbahngesellschaft, since especially Elise knew how to deal with guests and staff well.

Prominent figures of the time also visited Toblach in those years, and this was naturally of great importance as it conveyed to the establishment that special aura of nobility. In autumn, 1887, the heir to the German throne, Prince Friedrich, came to Toblach. Further nobility followed later, such as King Albert of Saxony, the Austrian Crown Princess Archduchess Stephanie, and King Milan of Serbia, and consequently it soon became clear that the Hotel Toblach, as it was known, had transformed itself into the Grand Hotel.

Today the Grand Hotel Toblach is no more a hotel: the building hosts a Youth Hostel and the Cultural Centre, with the concert hall “Gustav Mahler”.

The “Gustav Mahler” concert hall

This is where Theresia Youth Baroque Orchestra will reharsal under the direction of Chiara Banchini and will perform on 21th August. Save the date and join us! You can buy tickets here.