This morning my wife and I attended a rehearsal at the Philharmonie here.
The Munich Phiharmonic was going to take a last run-through of the program,
namely Schubert's 5 and Bruckner's 4, under the baton of Guenter Wand.
Before Wand came on, the Intendant of the Philharmonic came onstage
and voiced condolences to those affected by the events in the United
States--"not only because our orchestra is directed by an American."
Then he asked the audience to rise and observe a minute of silence.

That over with, Wand was helped to the podium-- well into his eighties,
he's so frail that even his back is hunched.  But once on the podium
he gazed up at the orchestra from his stoop and told them that everyone
realized the Schubert they were going to play did not fit the current mood.
But play him they would and so he had to ask them, he said, to play
"lightly, with facility and, above all, with elegance." Then, without
further ado, his baton smoothly ticked into the downbeat.

Wand's a notoriously demanding, even implacable, rehearser but this morning
he went through the program without interruptions.  Both presentations were
susperb.  The orchestra has been rejuvenated since Celibidache's time and
thus now has a subtly changed sound.  Today it sounded more like the old
Celi band than it has in years.  The explanation? For this program the
orchestra had attracted musicians from the old days.  I suspect, though
I don't know this for a fact, that the old-timers used their bureaucratic
seniority (they're all civil servants) to sit in on what may well have
been a final chance to play one last time under Germany' s most senoir
and most respected Kapellmeister.  The audience semed to share this spirit.
When Wand slashed off the last note of the Bruckner's furious finale the
applause woauld not cease--normally there is no applause at rehearsals--
until the old conductor bowed out and was escorted off stage.

Denis Fodor