Bruckner originally wrote the Fourth Symphony in 1874, but revised it thoroughly in 1880 before its premiere in Vienna in 1881, which was a resounding success. Although he continued to revise it in later years,the version most often played today is the first revised version of 1880. This is also the version featured on this recording of a concert held at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, which was greeted with storms of applause. Leading the Münchner Philharmoniker in this concert is ist principal conductor Christian Thielemann, a maestro internationally known and admired above all as a specialist of Romantic music.
Bruckner, Symphony No.7
“Grandiose, unaffected, expansive, majestic, immovable…” – Christian Thielemann’s description of Anton Bruckner’s music vividly captures its essence and uniqueness. And he himself captures the soul of the great romantic composer in his interpretation of Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony with the Munich Philharmonic. Recorded live at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden on 14 November 2006, the concert also features three orchestral preludes from the opera “Palestrina” by another late-romantic composer, Hans Pfitzner (A05512085 / Length: 25′)
Documentary: Bruckner, Symphony No.8 in C minor, WAB 108
Six great composers, six landmark symphonies, a top orchestra and its star conductor Kent Nagano – these are the components of an extraordinary classical-music television event. Shot in High Definition, it takes a bold and innovative approach to the recording of classical music. Boom and tracking shots, quick cuts, remote-controlled cameras – stylistic means previously used chiefly for pop music recordings give the programs an up-to-the-minute look and feel. A team of more than 30 specialists makes sure that viewers enjoy a truly cinematic experience. The programs also go new ways by featuring entertaining, historically founded animated sequences illustrating episodes from the lives of the composers. Backstage interviews with the musicians and excerpts from their rehearsals let us share in the spirit of their music-making. Conductor Kent Nagano also relates what is of special importance to him in each work, and offers fascinating insights on the origin and context of the work in question. Documentaries: Bruckner, Symphony No. 8 – Mozart, Symphony No.41 ‘Jupiter’ – Beethoven, Symphony No.3 ‘Eroica’ – Strauss, Alpensymphonie (An Alpine Symphony) – Schumann, Symphony No.3 – Brahms, Symphony No.4
Kent Nagano Conducts Classical Masterpieces – Documentaries
Six great composers, six landmark symphonies, a top orchestra and its star conductor – these are the components of an extraordinary classical-music television event. Shot in High Definition, it takes a bold and innovative approach to the recording of classical music. Boom and tracking shots, quick cuts, remote-controlled cameras – stylistic means previously used chiefly for pop music recordings give the programs an up-to-the-minute look and feel. A team of more than 30 specialists makes sure that viewers enjoy a truly cinematic experience. The programs also go new ways by featuring entertaining, historically founded animated sequences illustrating episodes from the lives of the composers. Backstage interviews with the musicians and excerpts from their rehearsals let us share in the spirit of their music-making. Conductor Kent Nagano also relates what is of special importance to him in each work, and offers fascinating insights on the origin and context of the work in question. Documentaries: Bruckner, Symphony No. 8 – Mozart, Symphony No.41 ‘Jupiter’ – Beethoven, Symphony No.3 ‘Eroica’ – Strauss, Alpensymphonie (An Alpine Symphony) – Schumann, Symphony No.3 – Brahms, Symphony No.4
Bruckner, Symphony No.8 in C minor (Kent Nagano Conducts Classical Masterpieces)
Six great composers, six landmark symphonies, a top orchestra and its star conductor Kent Nagano – these are the components of an extraordinary classical-music television event. Shot in High Definition, it takes a bold and innovative approach to the recording of classical music. Boom and tracking shots, quick cuts, remote-controlled cameras – stylistic means previously used chiefly for pop music recordings give the programs an up-to-the-minute look and feel. A team of more than 30 specialists makes sure that viewers enjoy a truly cinematic experience.
Kent Nagano Conducts Classical Masterpieces
Six great composers, six landmark symphonies, a top orchestra and its star conductor – these are the components of an extraordinary classical-music television event. Shot in High Definition, it takes a bold and innovativeo approach to the recording of classical music. Boom and tracking shots, quick cuts, remote-controlled cameras – stylistic means previously used chiefly for pop music recordings give the programs an up-to-the-minute look and feel. A team of more than 30 specialists makes sure that viewers enjoy a truly cinematic experience.
Bruckner, Symphony No.6 in A major
Sir Georg Solti (1912-1997), one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, was a testament to the elegance and impeccable tastefulness of Central European music-making. Born in Budapest in 1912, he studied with Béla Bartók, Ernö von Dohnányi, Zoltán Kodály and Leo Weiner. In 1937, Toscanini chose him to be his assistant at the Salzburg Festival. After the war, Solti was appointed Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera. Further stations in his career were the Frankfurt Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the London Philharmonic. His remarkable partnership with the Chicago Symphony began in 1954; he was named Music Director in 1969 and held this post for a phenomenal 22 years. He is credited with greatly extending and enhancing the orchestra’s worldwide reputation. Solti died in September 1997, just before his 85th birthday. Although this is the only one of his symphonies that Bruckner never revised, the Sixth still managed to be mangled by well-wishing friends and conductors who felt they knew what Bruckner had really wanted to express… Not until the mid 20th century was the work published in its original version. The composer himself never heard a complete performance of his Sixth, which did not take place until 11 February 1899, more than two years after the composer’s death. It was conducted by Gustav Mahler, albeit in a radically cut and reorchestrated version.
Bruckner, Te Deum
Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) completed his Te Deum in 1883. It is perhaps his most “modern” work, with its ostinato technique, sharply delineated sound groups and primeval rhythmic power pointing ahead to the 20th century. In this 1978 production with the Vienna Philharmonic and chorus of the Wiener Singverein under Herbert von Karajan (1908-1989), the work unfolds its full majesty particularly thanks to the great soloists Anna Tomowa- Sintow, Agnes Baltsa, David Rendall and José van Dam. And, of course, to Herbert von Karajan, one of Bruckner’s most congenial interpreters. Karajan embodied classical music in the general consciousness as an epoch- making conductor, media star, opera producer, festival director and festival founder. But in spite of his Promethean and widely varied activities, he remained a superb conductor, with a grasp of the standard orchestral and operatic repertory from Mozart to Schoenberg that was unsurpassed among his peers.
Bruckner, Symphony No. 8 in c minor
Christian Thielemann’s Bruckner “is so mighty, and with such a depth of sound … that one would have to be hard-hearted not to be touched by this heartfelt music” wrote the Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel after this concert featuring Anton Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony performed by the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden. The recording of this symphony shall start a cycle of Bruckner’s complete symphonies with the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden under their principal conductor Christian Thielemann that is to be produced over the course of several years – a living monument of musical architecture.
Bruckner, Symphony No.9 in D minor
When Leonard Bernstein died in 1990 at the age of 72, music lovers the world over mourned the loss of one of the 20th century’s artistic giants. In addition to his role as conductor, composer, educator and performing artist, Bernstein was one of the early pioneers in bringing the arts to television. As such, he became one of the most internationally recognized musical personalities in the world. He was a man who not only needed music in order to live, but who saw in artistic communication the means to touch the mind, the heart and the spirit all at once. His need to generate this communication dictated his life from the day he discovered music to the day he died. Recorded in March 1990, this performance is Leonard Bernstein’s last concert with the Vienna Philharmonic, an orchestra he deeply loved.