The Bernstein Centennial Celebration at Tanglewood spotlights Bernstein’s wide-ranging talents as a composer, his many gifts as a great interpreter and champion of other composers, and his role as an inspirer of a new generation of musicians and music lovers across the country and around the globe. The gala concert features a kaleidoscopic array of artists and ensembles from the worlds of classical music, film, and Broadway. The entire first half of the program is dedicated to selections from such brilliant Bernstein works as Candide, West Side Story, Mass, and Serenade. Music from the classical canon very dear to Bernstein’s heart-selections includes from Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn, the finale of Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony and music by Aaron Copland, plus a new work by John Williams.
Mahler Symphonies Nos. 1-10
The hr-Sinfonieorchester has for decades been numbered among the world’s leading Mahler orchestras. Between 2008 and 2013 it gave its most recent Mahler cycle as part of the Rheingau Music Festival under its then principal conductor Paavo Järvi. The recordings were made in the unique space of the Basilica of Eberbach Monastery, in the magnificent ambiance of the Friedrich von Thiersch Hall at the Wiesbaden Kurhaus and in the outstanding acoustics of the Great Hall of the Alte Oper in Frankfurt. In all of these venues Mahler’s symphonies left a particularly fascinating impression.
Mahler Symphonies Nos. 9 & 10
Gustav Mahler spent 1909 and 1910 working on his final two symphonies. The Ninth has gone down in history as the culmination of his symphonic output and a prophetic anticipation of musical modernism. But owing to his declining health, he had to stop work on the Tenth after a few months and was unable to resume it before his death. Only the first movement,
included here, was orchestrated to a point where it can be performed without non-authorial additions. – The Mahler cycle by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Järvi is appearing complete on DVD and Blu-ray on the C Major label and has already been internationally acclaimed as one of the most important Mahler projects of the new millennium.
“If I knew Mahler only from his music, I would say that he has a huge heart and a deep connection with the soul and humanity.” – PAAVO JÄRVI
Mahler Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6
Symphonies Nos. 5 + 6 will continue the release of the complete Mahler cycle with Paavo Järvi and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, which since the 80s became a “powerful Mahler orchestra” (Frankfurter Rundschau)
Bonus: Introductions to Symphonies Nos. 5 + 6 with Paavo Järvi
Mahler Symphonies Nos. 7 & 8
In many ways Mahler’s Seventh and Eighth Symphonies are the most unusual works that the late Romantic composer ever wrote. The Seventh was the last in a series of middle-period pieces that were purely instrumental in character. Two movements headed “Nachtmusik“ (night music) and the remarkable writing for a guitar and a mandolin help to create a sequence
of darkly Romantic visions. And even within Mahler’s markedly eclectic output, the Eighth Symphony enjoys the status of an exotic outsider thanks not only to ist two-movement form combining an early medieval hymn and the final scene from Goethe’s Faust but also to the vast forces for which it is scored, earning it the title of “Symphony of a Thousand”.
“If I knew Mahler only from his music, I would say that he has a huge heart and a deep connection with the soul and humanity.” – PAAVO JÄRVI
Mahler Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4 Paavo Järvi and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (HRSinfonie Orchester)
? Symphonies Nos. 3 + 4 will continue the release of the complete Mahler cycle with Paavo Järvi and the
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, which since the 80s became a “powerful Mahler orchestra”
(Frankfurter Rundschau)
? Outstanding soloists: Waltraud Meier (Symphony No. 3), who sung at Bayreuth Festival, MET, Covent
Garden, La Scala etc. with conductors as Muti, ‚Abbado, Thielemann, Mehta etc.
Genia Kühmeier (Symphony No. 4), who sung at MET, Covent Garden, La Scala, Salzburg Festival, Vienna
State Opera, Los Angeles, San Francisco etc.
? Bonus: Introductions to Symphonies Nos 3 + 4 with Paavo Järvi
Mahler Symphony No. 3
? “… excellent prepared orchestra …“ “… Waltraud Meier, a worldwide celebrated singer …“ FAZ
? “… this is simply terrific.“ Frankfurter Rundschau
Mahler Symphony No. 4
? “Genia Kühmeier sang with a trancendental immaculacy tone.“ FAZ
? “Great orchestra, oustanding conductor.“ Bild Zeitung
Mahler Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2
El Sistema at Salzburg Festival
Rarely has an orchestra enchanted and thrilled ist audience as did the National Children’s Orchestra of Venezuela at the Salzburg Festival! This astonishing group was founded in 2010 by José Antonio Abreu as part of El Sistema, and Sir Simon Rattle conducted ist first-ever concert in Caracas. At the Salzburg Festival, it was Rattle on the podium again, conducting the children’s orchestra at its international debut.
A choir for hard-of-hearing and deaf youths? Sounds like a contradiction in terms, but the one-of-a-kind White Hands Choir of Venezuela proves the opposite, and this 60-mins film documents the choir’s first tour abroad following an invitation from the Salzburg Festival. The programme features Latin-American folk songs and Piazzolla arrangements as well as choral works by Mozart and Rutter.
Salzburg Festival Opening Concert 2011
Dorothea Roeschmann, Anna Larsson, Johan Botha – and rising star Anna Prohaska: master conductor Pierre Boulez the “grand seigneur de subtle minimalism and exquisitely beguiling sounds” (Der Standard), assembled a cast of tremendous distinction for this prestigious concert, conceived as a tribute to Gustav Mahler. After two works by Mahler´s pupil Alban Berg, featuring Roeschmann and Prohaska, the main event of the concert is Gustav Mahler´s large-scale cantata “Das klagende Lied” – a “great spectral opera for the mind´s eye (Wiener Zeitung)
Music is the language of the heart and soul – A portrait of Mariss Jansons, Mahler Symphony No. 2 Ressurection
Mariss Jansons is one of the most influential conductors of our age. In 2012 the charismatic Latvian musician conducted his second New Year Concert in Vienna, an honour that very few conductors have enjoyed. For the present documentary portrait, the film maker Robert Neumüller observed Jansons at work in Amsterdam, Riga, St Petersburg, Vienna and Salzburg. The film shows Jansons working with his various orchestras, including rehearsals for the 2012 New Year Concert, and also explores his private life, resulting
in a number of fascinating insights into Jansons’ artistic development and philosophy. By way of a bonus, this release features a complete performance of Mahler’s Second Symphony with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Mariss Jansons.