After a full week of discussing philosophy in Pittsburgh, it was time for something else. For all the clever and friendly colleagues, Pittsburgh may be called the American Wuppertal. A hilly, but relatively unappealing profile, a river which is somehow hidden from the citizens, a glorious past in the days of industrialization (some impressive structures can still be found), and a slow and steady decline afterwards. As visible in industrial ruins and empty spaces here and there.
You may object that the comparison is unfair: Pittsburgh has not only one, but two rivers which join forces in the middle of the city. Correct. Unfortunately, American hedge all sort of water building four-lane highways right next to the water, so that no citizen can inadvertently fall into the river when strolling along the riverbanks. A noble idea. However, for those who are able to swim, it seriously compromises quality of life. So I might prefer Wuppertal after all.
A bit more substantial is the objection that Pittsburgh has two first-rate universities (University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University) whereas the most famous achievement of the Bergische Universität Wuppertal is to host the first German winner of “Who wants to be a millionaire?”, Professor Eckhard Freise.
Finally, both cities score unexpectedly high in the culture domain. Wuppertal has Pina Bausch and her dance company. Pittsburgh has one of the best symphony orchestras of the United States and a splendid concert venue, the Heinz Hall, whose interior mirrors seems to mirror the Golden Age of the steel barons. See below. However, the building originally served as a cinema, and was only renovated in 1967-1971, whereupon it became as a concert hall.
On my last night in Pittsburgh, I headed downtown for a concert, only to discover that I had mixed up the starting time (8pm and 7.30pm). So I was actually ten minutes late! I thanked God for not sticking to my habit of arriving two minutes before the beginning, bought a ticket and was just in time for the Ravel Piano Concerto which was the major treat in the first half of the concert.
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) was conducted by the young James Gaffigan, by whom I was very much impressed some five years ago, when he conducted the Gürzenich Orchestra in its home venue Cologne. Fortunately, Gaffigan was again in form, the soloist Gabriela Montero matched sensibility with technical mastery, and the night became a great success. After the intermission, they played an orchestral arrangement of the Good Friday Spell from Wagner's “Parsifal”, where the full, warm sound of the PSO was a perfect match for Wagner's tenderly flowing meditations.
Finally, I even reduced some of my prejudices about Felix Mendelssohn after listening to his Fifth Symphony in d minor (“Reformation”). I used to think of Mendelssohn as a somewhat light-weighted composer, whose Allegro con brio and Presto were flamboyant, sweeping and thrilling, but whose other writings were often affectionate vanities. Well, I shall keep my mouth shut from now on. This d minor symphony must not be scared of comparison with Schumann or Brahms, neither in terms of musical expression nor in terms of stringency. Thanks to the PSO for sharing this fantastic piece with me!
Another thing that I noted was that the average age of the audience was much younger than in Germany or the Netherlands. Also in the university community, there seems to be a much larger interest in such concerts than in Europe. Is it just to the fact that the US are less of an ageing society than most European countries? Or does it reveal some substantial differences in terms of attitude toward high culture?
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