Sir Georg Solti was one of the greatest recording artists who ever lived – not only his still unequalled record of 31 Grammys® attests to that: the present documentary illluminates the life and work of Sir Georg Solti on the 100th anniversary of his birth. We follow the Hungarian-Jewish conductor’s career: as Toscanini’s assistant at the Salzburg Festival, as music director in Munich and Frankfurt after the war, achieving worldwide fame with his legendary Vienna Philharmonic recording of Wagner’s Ring cycle. It was as the long-serving music director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra that Solti became an international star of classical music, one
whose musical ardour and perfectionism remain unsurpassed to this day.
Two very different Russian symphonies, each with a powerful story to tell. Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique” Symphony was his final masterpiece, an impassioned outpouring of melody and sorrow whose very name means “full of emotion”. Shostakovich’s Ninth might seem like its polar opposite: crisp, playful and bristling with pitch-black humour. But in Stalin’s Russia, those were dangerous qualities. Few conductors felt the tug of history like Sir Georg Solti, and few drove more directly for a piece’s heart. This recording with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, captured live at Munich’s Philharmonie am Gasteig, finds both conductor and orchestra at their uncompromising best.
Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony begins with a burst of pure sunlight. Shostakovich’s Tenth opens under altogether darker skies. But both composers are burning to communicate, and for Sir Georg Solti – a conductor who never compromised on energy, integrity or pure, heartfelt commitment to the music he performed – that was enough. In this live recording from the Philharmonie am Gasteig in Munich he conducts one of his favourite orchestras: the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, renowned (then as now) for the lustre of its sound and its profound, instinctive understanding of the symphonic tradition. This is great music making at its most spontaneous – and masterful.
The Chinese pianist Yuja Wang made her first appearance with the RCO in September 2010 in a performance of Sergey Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto. Then 2003, Yuja Wang ‘commanded full attention with her cross-border pianism and the magic of her imagination. Wang left the audience dumbfounded, scored a triumph and stole every heart,’ wrote the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad. She now returns with another Russian piano concerto in her fingers. Shostakovich wrote his First Piano Concerto at what was still a carefree time in his life, and this can clearly be heard in the piece. Particularly distinctive are the Haydn and Beethoven quotations. It is no accident that the concerto is preceded on this programme by Rossini’s equally cheerful overture to La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie). The overture forms a sharp contrast to Prokofiev’s monumental Symphony No. 5, which he wrote during the Second World War and which, according to the composer, expresses the ‘greatness of the human spirit’. But Prokofiev would hardly be Prokofiev if a touch of irony didn’t follow the heartbreaking Allegro.
Andris Nelsons continues his Shostakovich series with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with the Fourth Symphony. This complex symphony of gigantic proportions was written during the period when Dmitry Shostakovich had been relegated from the status of a national hero to that of a potential enemy of the state by Stalin. When rehearsals for the Fourth proved disastrous, Shostakovich decided to withdraw the work. Even today, though, the Fourth Symphony is performed relatively rarely, perhaps because of the great challenge it poses to both conductor and orchestra. Before the interval, the RCO’s very own principal violinist Liviu Prunaru and its principal cellist Gregor Horsch excelled in Brahms’s Double Concerto, his final orchestral work.
Within the 2014/2015 season, Andris Nelsons is leading the RCO in three programmes, all featuring symphonies by Dmitry Shostakovich. The Fifth Symphony was presented as a public penance in 1937, when the composer had been rebuked by the Communist regime for producing music that failed to reflect Soviet ideals. Juxtaposed with Shostakovich’s dramatic symphony is the Oboe Concerto by Richard Strauss, who was born 150 years ago. This melodic work is dominated by nostalgia for a world that was lost forever, Strauss having written it towards the end of his life shortly after the Second World War. With the Nocturne by Marius Flothuis, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is commemorating not only a composer – Flothuis also served as the orchestra’s artistic director for many years.
In the first concert of their tournee through the musical metropolises of South-America starting in Buenos Aires, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under the baton of their musical director Mariss Jansons were celebrated by the audience for their interpretation of the 5th symphony by Shostakovich. In the sold out Teatro Colón, one of the biggest and most beautiful opera houses in the world, they “succeeded in delivering a moving, profound interpretation at the highest musical level” (SZ).
Mariss Jansons is one of the leading conductors of his generation and a close friend of the Berliner Philharmoniker. For this special concert he brings works by Bartók, Shostakovich and Ravel to the rostrum and together with the Berliner Philharmoniker he succeeds in “rocking the Berlin Philharmonie” (Süddeutsche Zeitung). For Shostakovich’s 2nd Violin Concerto Jansons and the Berliner Philharmoniker are joined by the German violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann. PROGRAM Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta; Ravel: “Daphnis et Chloé”; Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 2
Two outstanding artists, pianist Helene Grimaud and the cellist Sol Gabetta, performing a highly acclaimed recital in Berlin’s Philharmonic Hall. On the programme cello sonatas by DEBUSSY (D minor), BRAHMS (No. 1 op. 38) and SHOSTAKOVICH: op. 40., and furthermore SCHUMANN’s Fantasiestücke op. 73. “Both bestselling artists it’s very easy to see why they’ve joined together. There are four extremely different composers featured, each one calling for a completely different musical approach. What is particularly brilliant is that these two capture the essence of each composer and their world. Lyrical and light Debussy, heartwrenching Shostakovich, dark and brooding Brahms and the strangely whimsical Schumann. I look forward to hearing how this musical partnership matures over the coming years”.(Readings, Australia)
Program: Dmitri Shostakovich: Festive Overture / Gaetano Donizetti: “Prendi, per me sei libero” from L’elisir d’amore / Carl Maria von Weber: Concertino for Clarinet and Orchestra in E flat major / Alexander Glazunov: Chant du ménestrel for Cello and Orchestra / Johann Sebastian Bach: Cello Suite No. 1 in G major – Sarabande: Irving Berlin Puttin’ on the Ritz / Giacomo Puccini “O mio babbino caro” from Gianni Schicchi / Igor Stravinsky: Three pieces for Clarinet solo / Jules Massenet: Elégie / Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Overture to The Nutcracker
