RCO Opening Night is the festive opening of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra’s new season in the company of loyal audience members and new friends. The fourth RCO Opening Night in the history of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is led by Thomas Hengelbrock. Pianist Evgeny Kissin, without a doubt one of the biggest piano players of our time – some say a living legend – is returning to the Concertgebouw Orchestra for the first time since 1994. He is playing the solo in Liszt’s First Piano Concerto. This concert, suffused with the spirit of Romanticism, opens with Berlioz’s concert overture Le Carnaval Romain with its beautiful English horn solo. Mendelssohn’s passionate ‘Italian’ symphony is flanked by works from beloved Italian operas, with several more musical surprises to follow.
New Year’s Eve Concert 1978
Karajan had been appointed music director for life of the Berlin Philharmonic in 1955, and soon the orchestra mastered the entire palette of Karajan’s subtly defined phrasings, moods and orchestral colors. At home in the majesty of Bruckner or the raw power of Beethoven, the orchestra was also able to “let go” and enjoy a rollicking time with Suppé or a Lisztian Hungarian Rhapsody, as the present recording superbly illustrates. For the 1978 New Year’s Eve concert with the Berlin Philharmonic, Karajan put together a program of exclusively popular classical works, pieces that would guarantee a bubbly good time. Following Verdi’s Overture to “La forza del destino” are the two major works of the program, Bizet’s Arlésienne Suite No. 2 and Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. The Hungarian March, or “Rákóczy March,” from Berlioz’s “La damnation de Faust” never fails to rouse listeners with its dazzling instrumentation. The program closes with the Intermezzo from Mascagni’s “L’amico Fritz” and the ever-popular Overture to “Leichte Kavallerie” by Franz von Suppé.
MSO: Hector Berlioz ” L’Enfance du Christ”
The 150th anniversary of Hector Berlioz’s death in 1869 will be commemorated in 2019. An ancient story with a modern parallel, Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ tells the story of the Holy Family fleeing their homeland and relying on the kindness of strangers as they journey across the desert to safety. Tender, intimate and intensely evocative, this oratorio is a stark musical contrast to the wild pagan dervishes, choruses of the damned and huge orchestral forces more commonly associated with Hector Berlioz. In almost cinematic style, Berlioz paints the human elements of the story in a series of visual tableaux: an uneasy night in Rome, the world-weariness of Herod, the blind fanaticism of the soothsayers, the joys and griefs of Jesus’ parents, the shepherds’ kindness and the bustling welcome of the Ishmaelite household. Prepare to be moved to tears, Berlioz would be proud! Why it’s a must-see: “This piece is very unusual for Berlioz as most of it is quite intimate. This work has wonderful writing for the chorus, it’s very varied and the narrator (sung by Andrew Staples) is so colourful. The final chorus is to die for!” (Sir Andrew Davis).
Leonard Bernstein in Salzau 1989 – Part II: Love Scene (Berlioz, Excerpts from “Romeo and Juliet” – Rehearsal and Concert)
Bernstein always knew how important it was to pass one’s knowledge on to younger generations. As a young man in Tanglewood in 1940, he made an unforgettable experience: a summer spent in an atmosphere of relaxed creativity with a charismatic teacher (Serge Koussevitzky) and a great orchestra (the Boston Symphony). Later, when he returned to Tanglewood as a teacher, he gave his best to the students of the Berkshire Music Center. And it is his experiences there which stimulated him to create something similar in Europe. The venue was the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. In 1987 120 young musicians from all over the world were invited to Salzau Palace to form the Festival Orchestra, which rehearsed and performed under the direction of Leonard Bernstein. At the same time, Bernstein worked with young conductors in master classes. From 1987 to 1989, Bernstein devoted himself with astonishing energy to his work with the festival students. And each summer, Unitel was there to document this for posterity. In 1989, his final summer in Salzau, Bernstein chose Berlioz’s vocal symphony Roméo et Juliette. Written in 1839, it illustrates a series of episodes from Shakespeare’s play and involves chorus, soloists and a large orchestra. Seeking new ways of capturing on film the unique combination of creative exchange and festival atmosphere, Unitel director Horant Hohlfeld turned to a new technique of underlaying the final concert with scenes from the rehearsals.
Leonard Bernstein in Salzau 1989 – Part I: Romeo Alone (Berlioz, Excerpts from “Romeo and Juliet” – Rehearsal and Concert)
Bernstein always knew how important it was to pass one’s knowledge on to younger generations. As a young man in Tanglewood in 1940, he made an unforgettable experience: a summer spent in an atmosphere of relaxed creativity with a charismatic teacher (Serge Koussevitzky) and a great orchestra (the Boston Symphony). Later, when he returned to Tanglewood as a teacher, he gave his best to the students of the Berkshire Music Center. And it is his experiences there which stimulated him to create something similar in Europe. The venue was the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. In 1987 120 young musicians from all over the world were invited to Salzau Palace to form the Festival Orchestra, which rehearsed and performed under the direction of Leonard Bernstein. At the same time, Bernstein worked with young conductors in master classes. From 1987 to 1989, Bernstein devoted himself with astonishing energy to his work with the festival students. And each summer, Unitel was there to document this for posterity. In 1989, his final summer in Salzau, Bernstein chose Berlioz’s vocal symphony Roméo et Juliette. Written in 1839, it illustrates a series of episodes from Shakespeare’s play and involves chorus, soloists and a large orchestra. Seeking new ways of capturing on film the unique combination of creative exchange and festival atmosphere, Unitel director Horant Hohlfeld turned to a new technique of underlaying the final concert with scenes from the rehearsals.
Berlioz, Te Deum
Berlioz may have originally wished for a thousand performers, but he would no doubt have been satisfied with this superb performance given by the combined Chorus of the Orchestre de Paris and the Maîtrise de la Sainte- Chapelle accompanied by the Orchestre de Paris. Recorded in May 1981, this performance in Paris’s celebrated Notre-Dame Cathedral was conducted by Daniel Barenboim and featured the tenor David Rendall. In the words of the Paris daily France-Soir, Rendall’s singing was characterized as being “a sound of total purity, profound, moving; power and suppleness; he is a perfect musician.” One of the great conductors of our time, Daniel Barenboim was music director of the Orchestre de Paris from 1975 to 1989.
Berlioz, Symphonie fantastique, op.14
In November 1976, one year after his triumphal performance of the Berlioz Requiem in September 1975 (also recorded by Unitel), a bearded Leonard Bernstein returned to Paris to conduct the Orchestre National de France. In two highly publicized concerts given at Paris’ Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, he conducted Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique” and “Harold in Italy”, in addition to two works by Darius Milhaud, Bloch’s “Schelomo Rhapsody” and Schumann’s Cello Concerto, the latter two featuring the celebrated cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. The concerts were unanimously hailed in the press, both for the dynamism and brio of a conductor at the peak of his artistic powers, and for the unmistakable signs of rejuvenation of the Orchestre National de France.
Berlioz, Harold in Italy, op.16
In November 1976, one year after his triumphal performance of the Berlioz Requiem, a bearded Leonard Bernstein returned to Paris to conduct the Orchestre National de France. In two highly publicized concerts given at Paris’ Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, he conducted Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique” and “Harold in Italy”, in addition to two works by Darius Milhaud, Bloch’s “Schelomo Rhapsody” and Schumann’s Cello Concerto, the latter two featuring the celebrated cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. The concerts were unanimously hailed in the press, both for the dynamism and brio of a conductor at the peak of his artistic powers, and for the unmistakable signs of rejuvenation of the Orchestre National de France.
Berlioz, Excerpts from “Romeo and Juliet”
“The last of the great international orchestral and operatic maestri” (The Times), Sir Georg Solti is a living testament to the elegance and impeccable tastefulness of Central European music-making. Solti’s remarkable partnership with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra began in 1954, when he first led the orchestra at the Ravinia Festival. After returning to conduct the ensemble several times during the following years, 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. This recording with the Chicago Symphony dates from the late 1970s and represents a mellower, more lyrically accented phase in the partnership between Solti and his orchestra.