RCO: Gatti conducts Bruch & Mahler

Chief conductor Daniele Gatti and star violinist Janine Jansen unite in Max Bruch’s First Violin Concerto, a warm-blooded work which fits Jansen like a glove. Listening to the concerto, with its sweetly flowing melodies and blazing solo passages, one would never know that it took Bruch four years of frustration to write. Almost immediately after it was premiered, it was considered one of the most popular violin concertos in the repertoire. Daniele Gatti and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra are pursuing their Mahler series with the First Symphony. At the premiere in 1889, the audience was ill-prepared for Mahler’s bold orchestration, but the symphony gradually gained in popularity. The Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by the composer himself, gave the Dutch premiere in 1903. Mahler was absolutely delighted, exclaiming, ‘The musical culture in this country is stupendous! The way the people can just listen!’ PROGRAM: Bruch: Violin Concerto; Mahler: Symphony No. 1

New Year’s Eve Concert 2016 from Dresden

The festive gala concerts at the Semperoper Dresden count among the most splendid classical music events and constitute a highlight programme of German television. Once again, Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden grant big entertainment presenting a “romantic feast” (Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten) for which no expense has been spared. It contains cheerful melodies outside the standard symphonic repertoire, among them violin-miniatures by Fritz Kreisler, Tchaikovsky’s fantasy overture Romeo and Juliet and the overture of Rossinis’s Guillaume Tell. The concert’s centrepiece is Max Bruch’s radiant Violin Concerto No. 1, played by soloist Nikolaj Znaider “with high virtuosity, but in a delicate and sensitive manner, with endless soul and emotion.”

West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in Salzburg – One day with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra – Concert 2

The idea of uniting young musicians from Israel, Palestine and various Arab countries into a musical ensemble still seems incredible today. Yet such an orchestra has been flourishing since 1999, when Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. The project, says Barenboim, brings together these young people “not so that they forget or hide their differences, but so that they can understand them.” He adds that “making music together gives us the best opportunity to learn to live with one another.” The concerts presented here were recorded at the 2007 Salzburg Festival, during the orchestras residency. The ensemble “proved its status as a first-class orchestra that has no need to shy from comparisons with the philharmonic ‘top dogs’ from Vienna or Berlin” (Munich’s Abendzeitung). Among the highlights of the concerts are Mozart’s “Sinfonia concertante” K. 297b, which gives four young soloists a chance to dazzle, and Igor Stravinsky’s “L’histoire du soldat,” an airy piece with a demanding percussion part. Songs and chamber music, including Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet, showcase the individual talents of the young players. The major orchestral concert comprises a Beethoven overture, an intricate and multi-layered piece by Schoenberg, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, the “Pathétique,” in which Barenboim pulls out all the stops and coaxes rarely heard instrumental lines and accents from the depth of his ensemble. On three afternoons, Daniel Barenboim led a musical workshop called “The School of Listening.” In the first part, Barenboim explores the phenomenon of sound and the importance of the human ear. The second part features the fiery 24-year-old conductor Robin Ticciati in a rehearsal of Beethoven’s third Leonore Overture punctuated by the Maestro’s insightful comments and heated discussions with the young conductor. In the third part the great composer and conductor Pierre Boulez rehearses Béla Bartók’s rarely played “Four Orchestral Pieces,” answering questions from the audience and the musicians. Throughout, Barenboim’s enthusiasm, humor and directness make this three-part series an exceptionally informative and entertaining event. The orchestra’s residency at the 2007 Salzburg Festival will be rounded off with the documentary “Music Is Never The Same,” available in May 2008.

RCO: Mäkelä conducts Mahler 5

The chief conductor designate Klaus Mäkelä is once again following in the footsteps of Gustav Mahler. Since Mahler led the orchestra in his Fifth Symphony in 1906, they performed it 130 times. The kaleidoscopic symphony evokes emotional extremes. ‘Each movement has its friends and foes,’ Mahler once said. Yet the Adagietto, the symphony’s very lifeblood, seems to have only friends. According to Willem Mengelberg, the orchestra’s then chief conductor who maintained close contact with the composer, this movement was a pure declaration of love to Mahler’s wife Alma. The young violinist Daniel Lozakovich joins the Concertgebouw Orchestra for the first collaboration together. He shines in Max Bruch’s legendary First Violin Concerto. PROGRAM Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1; Mahler: Symphony No. 5