Maestro Celibidache (1912-96) was one of the most uncompromising figures in the music world, demanding three times as much rehearsal time as other conductors and with an ardent dislike of making recordings because he feared they misrepresented his musical intentions. This concert from the Herkulessaal in Munich captures one of the rare occasions on which he consented to a recording being made. He conducts the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.
Solti conducts Bruckner: Symphony No. 2
It’s almost a cliché to describe Bruckner’s symphonies as “cathedrals in sound”, and especially when the symphony in question is the Second: perhaps Bruckner’s most personal homage to the Viennese classical tradition. But there’s an unmistakable synergy between visuals and music in this live performance from the magnificent Romanesque cathedral at Speyer in Bavaria, with Sir Georg Solti conducting the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra in a setting steeped in the south German Catholic tradition that Bruckner loved so much. Solti brought an irrepressible energy to everything he conducted, and this is no exception. The result is a near-perfect meeting of music and architecture.
RCO: Haitink conducts Mozart & Bruckner
Conductor laureate Bernard Haitink conducts Bruckner and Mozart. For the first time in almost 35 years he will be leading the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Bruckner’s Sixth Symphony. The composer himself considered this die keckste (the boldest) of all his symphonies. More than his other ones this symphony emphasises the rhythm and dynamics instead of the monumental construction. At the premiere conducted by Gustav Mahler, three years after Bruckner’s death, the Sixth left its audience in a state of confusion, and is still not performed often today. This must be some kind of mistake as it is a brilliant symphony full of insights into the human existence – earning it the nickname The Philosopher – and offers much to enjoy. Pianist Mitsuko Uchida, back since seven years, performs Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23. In this work the woodwinds play a significant role and Mozart allows several melodies from the operas he was working on in the same time period to seep in. PROGRAM: Bruckner: Symphony No 6; Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 23
Nelsons conducts Bruckner 3
Nelsons lives up to his deep adoration of Richard Wagner, his favourite composer, in this concert, where he is conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker, with the Prelude to the First Act and the “Karfreitagszauber” from the Third Act of Wagner’s Parsifal. The second part of the concert is dedicated to another great composer: Anton Bruckner and his 3rd symphony. “With Nelsons conducting, everything diverged into beauty.” (Der Tagesspiegel) “Nelsons worked his magic. Every repetition is a new reason for amazement, from the intimate Trio to the triumphant Final.“ (Berliner Morgenpost) PROGRAM: Wagner: Parsifal Prelude to Act I ; Good Friday Spell from Act III; Bruckner No. 3
Thielemann conducts Bruckner No. 6 & Beethoven
Bruckner’s music has played a central role in Thielemann’s relationship with the Staatskapelle; he launched each new concert season with a Bruckner symphony – now the Sixth, this recording of which completes Thielemann’s cycle of the mature Bruckner symphonies. For the Sächsische Zeitung this performance marked “another Bruckner triumph for Dresden” by revealing “the greatness of the work with a rarely heard transparency and clarity. It could hardly have been better!” Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 featured one of today’s outstanding keyboard virtuosos, the Soviet-born Israeli-American pianist Yefim Bronfman, in a performance marking the start of his residency as the Staatskapelle’s “Capell-Virtuos”. In the words of the Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten: “He has music ‘in his fingertips’ (…) ‘High School’ of piano playing.”
Thielemann conducts Bruckner No. 9
Bruckner’s Ninth – presented in the unfinished version in three movements – calls for no fewer than four “Wagner tubas” at the beginning and end of the Adagio, an instrument which Richard Wagner had specially made for his Ring of the Nibelung. As an avowed fan of Wagner, Bruckner included them in several of his works. Thielemann now lets them sound at full volume. The press verdict: “a musical and spiritual event”.
Thielemann conducts Bruckner No. 4
Conductor Christian Thielemann lives up to his name yet again as a “Bruckner specialist” (Klassik Akzente). The Fourth Symphony is given in the presumed original version recovered by Robert Haas. This version differs considerably from the first, effectively published score, which Bruckner had only accepted as a stopgap so that the work could easily be performed. Thielemann brings out the tone painting very vividly in Baden-Baden: “These are tone paintings of the finest quality”, wrote one reviewer enthusiastically.
Wolf, Songs for Soprano and Orchestra & Bruckner, Symphony No. 7
When conductor Christian Thielemann, master interpreter of the romantic repertoire, and Renée Fleming, late-romantic specialist par excellence, weave their talents into the orchestral tapestry unfolded by the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, one of the oldest and most revered orchestras in the world, they create, as put by the Süddeutsche Zeitung, “romantic music as magic for the ears”. For this special concert, the first concert of Christian Thielemann as the principal conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden, they chose the orchestral songs by the Austrian composer HUGO WOLF and ANTON BRUCKNER’s Symphony No. 7.
Bruckner, Symphony No.8 in C minor (Edition Robert Haas)
The performance of all six of Anton Bruckner’s mature symphonies on six nearly consecutive evenings is an accomplishment that can truly be called “superhuman” (Der Tagesspiegel). Daniel Barenboim – conductor, pianist, all-round musical genius – set himself this task in June 2010 with the Staatskapelle Berlin at the Berlin Philharmonie. What Barenboim and his orchestra – he has been its principal conductor since 1992 – achieve in this marathon is a new view of the Bruckner opus that opts for grandeur and the mighty theatrical gesture. Bruckner’s symphonies as “operas without words” (Der Tagesspiegel).
Bruckner, Symphony No.5 in B flat major
The performance of all six of Anton Bruckner’s mature symphonies on six nearly consecutive evenings is an accomplishment that can truly be called “superhuman” (Der Tagesspiegel). Daniel Barenboim – conductor, pianist, all round musical genius – set himself this task in June 2010 with the Staatskapelle Berlin at the Berlin Philharmonie. What Barenboim and his orchestra – he has been its principal conductor since 1992 – achieve in this marathon is a new view of the Bruckner opus that opts for grandeur and the mighty theatrical gesture. Bruckner’s symphonies as “operas without words” (Der Tagesspiegel).