Four documentaries about the some of the greatest conductors of all time, Herbert von Karajan, Sir Georg Solti, Leonard Bernstein and Carlos Kleiber Available on Blu-ray for the first time. BD 1 Carlos Kleiber – I am lost to the World; BD 2 Sir Georg Solti – Journey of a lifetime + Solti conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; BD 3 Leonard Bernstein – Larger Than Life (prizewinning Documentary); BD 4 Herbert von Karajan – Maestro for the Screen + Karajan conducts Berliner Philharmoniker
Sir Georg Solti – The Making of a Maestro
Sir Georg Solti (1912-27) was one of the twentieth century’s greatest conductors.
This definitive profile, made during the last year of his life, captures the amazing energy and
passion for music of this remarkable man. Filmed with Solti in Budapest, Bavaria, Chicago and
London, and with a wealth of archive footage, it charts his exceptional musical journey. Solti is
seen in rehearsal and performance, and also working with singers Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Bryn
Terfel.
La damnation de Faust
This live recording was made at the Royal Albert Hall during one of London’s famous Promenade Concert seasons. Sir Georg Solti conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in a magnificent performance of Berlioz’s concert cantata. This feast of Berlioz launched Solti’s farewell tour with the orchestra he had directed for twenty years and was described by The Times as “the unsurpassable culmination of two decades of music-making…one that summarised all that has been most admirable about Solti’s long reign in Chicago.
Sir Georg Solti
At the age of seventy-five, fifty years after he was forced to leave Hungary because of its anti-semitic regime, maestro Solti (1912-97) went back to conduct his country’s State Symphony Orchestra for the very first time. This film records his emotional return to his homeland. It centres on a searching interview about his early life, accompanies him to landmarks of his youth, such as the Franz Liszt Music Academy where he studied, and shows rehearsals for the triumphant concert he gave.
A Concert of Music by Ludwig van Beethoven
The highlight of the celebrations in March 1987 during the fifth anniversary of the opening of the London Barbican Centre was the concert of the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir George Solti. The special event was held to celebrate the creation of a cultural centre and a residential complex which with ist numerous theatres, cinemas and galleries is the largest of ist kind in Europe and whose new large concert hall has now become the home of the “LSO”. Solti””s programme concept for the evening was to offer variety with a unified theme, an appropriate concept for the place. Solti said “I have selected this Beethoven programme to represent three very different moods – the heavyweight Coriolan overture, the light, Mozart-like first piano concert, and finally the wonderful glorification of dance represented by the seventh symphony.”
Romeo and Juliet Suite
Sir Georg Solti conducts the Bayerischer Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra in a performance of extracts from Prokofiev’s music for the ballet Romeo and Juliet, recorded live from the Herkulessaal, Munich.
New Year’s Eve Concert 1980
For his New Year’s Eve Concert 1980, Sir Georg Solti returned to Munich’s Herkulessaal, where he led the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in another colorful potpourri of entertaining pieces. The concert opens with Richard Strauss’ scintillating tone poem “Don Juan,” the first work to manifest Strauss’ mature individual style. The episodic work is based on Nikolaus Lenau’s romantic version of the Don Juan legend. Its triumphant premiere in Weimar in 1889 established Strauss as one of the leading German composers of his time. “The Moldavia,” part of Bedrich Smetana’s vast symphonic cycle “My Fatherland,” was composed in 1884 and has been synonymous with Czech music ever since. Despite the work’s highly descriptive programmatic episodes, it is the sweeping and melancholy “Moldavia” theme that captivates all listeners. In his “Two Episodes from Lenau’s ‘Faust’,” Franz Liszt, like Strauss above, also turned to Lenau for the first of his four “Mephisto Waltzes” (the episode is actually called “The Dance in the Village Inn”). It is a work which reaches heights of frenzy and sensuality. “Les Préludes” is one of Liszt’s most famous symphonic poems. The title was drawn from a poem by Alphonse de Lamartine. It was first performed in Weimar in 1854, seven years before the first “Mephisto Waltz.” The concert closes with Franz von Suppé’s Overture to the drama “Poet and Peasant” (1846). Suppé, one of the first Viennese operetta composers, also wrote many overtures, songs, etc. for Viennese comedies in his day. This is one of his most lastingly popular pieces.
New Year’s Eve Concert 1979
Gaiety and temperament are the keynotes of this New Year’s Eve program with the London Philharmonic Orchestra recorded live in Munich’s Herkulessaal on New Year’s Eve 1979. It begins with “Gaieté Parisienne,” an arrangement of Jacques Offenbach’s most popular operetta melodies. This is followed by a generous helping of central European esprit in the Slavonically inspired dances of Léo Delibes’ “Coppélia” ballet, and in the Viennese lightness of Franz von Suppé’s “Pique Dame” Overture, a delicious little work by the founding father of the Viennese operetta. Amilcare Ponchielli’s “Dance of the Hours” has delighted “promenade” concertgoers for years now – perhaps because it reminds us of his two great pupils Puccini and Mascagni? The luscious lyricism of the waltzes from Richard Strauss’s “Rosenkavalier” is dispelled by the solemn majesty of Sir Edward Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance March No. 4.” From Victorian England we travel to Czarist St. Petersburg, to the magical world of Peter I. Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite.” And since all good things must come to an end, the Land of Sweets disappears under a vigorous sprinkling of fiery paprika in Johannes Brahms’s “Hungarian Dance No. 5,” which closes the program on a spicy note.
Sir Georg Solti – In the midst of battle
“The last of the great international orchestral and operatic maestri” (The Times), Sir Georg Solti 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 asked by the American military government to conduct a performance of Beethoven’s Fidelio in Munich. This led to his appointment as Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera. In 1952 he became Artistic and Music Director at the Frankfurt Opera, where he remained for ten years. The next station in his career was the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where he was Music Director from 1961 to 1971 and was named Music Director Laureate in 1992. He served as Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra from 1979 to 1984. 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. Solti died in September 1997 shortly before his 85th birthday. Unitel is proud to offer a number of Strauss masterpieces recorded under the maestro’s baton. Topping the list is an Otto Schenk production of “Arabella” with the Vienna Philharmonic, starring Gundula Janowitz, Edita Gruberova, Bernd Weikl and René Kollo. Lucia Popp gives an absorbing account of the “Four Last Songs” in a concert with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra which also features “Tod und Verklärung” and “Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks”. Solti has recorded many works for Unitel, including music by his compatriots Bartók (“Duke Bluebeard’s Castle”), Kodály, Liszt, and Weiner; by Beethoven, Berlioz, Brahms, Bruckner (Symphonies Nos. 6 and 7), Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, Schubert (Symphonies Nos. 6 and 8), Shostakovich (Symphony No. 1), Verdi (“Falstaff”) and Wagner. Also available is a fascinating portrait of the artist, “Sir Georg Solti, Conductor – A Portrait”, with the participation of Isaac Stern, Hildegard Behrens, Wolfgang Wagner, the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Sir Georg Solti practises with the Wiener Philharmoniker
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.