Hailed by the press as “the definitive video production” of Tchaikovsky’s music, this exceptional concert series, recorded live from the Alte Oper Frankfurt, features the leading Russian conductor Vladimir Fedoseyev and the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra. Fedoseyev’s perceptive reading of the works of his fellow countryman, the masterly playing of the orchestra and guest soloists combine to produce performances which are revelatory in their execution and understanding of Tchaikovsky’s music and the Russian heritage.
Strauss, Don Juan, op.20
“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 was made at the New Year’s Concert of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra held at Munich’s Herkulessaal on 31 December 1980.
Te Deum
Following his comeback performance at the Vienna State Opera in 1988, this gala concert from the Alte Oper Frankfurt given on September 12, 1992, was one in a series of highly acclaimed performances that marked José Carreras’ return to the concert platform after his battle against leukaemia in 1987/88. Providing the high musical and artistic level of this evening, alongside Carreras are the Vienna Philharmonic – celebrating ist 150th anniversary –, the Vienna State Opera Chorus, the Prague Philharmonic Choir and the Tölzer Boys Choir, all under the baton of conductor Claudio Abbado.
Symphony No.9
For a long time Beethoven was unsure whether he ought to write a choral symphony or not, before deciding to use Schiller’s ‘Ode to Joy’ for the last movement of his 9th symphony. He could not know that this work would be his last symphony, and that ‘nine’ would always be regarded as a ‘fateful number’ for the symphonic works of others. This work received ist first performance in Vienna in 1824, under his own direction (Beethoven was already almost completely deaf by then!).
In 1991 Kurt Masur conducted the choir and orchestra of the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, whose direction he took over in 1970. The events of 1989 have left Masur and the Gewandhaus orchestra forever linked in people’s memories. The quartet of soloists in this performance consisted of Venceslava Hruba-Freiberger, Doris Soffel, James Wagner and Gwynne Howell.
Excerpts from Eugene Onegin Op.24
Hailed by the press as “the definitive video production” of Tchaikovsky’s music, this exceptional concert series, recorded live from the Alte Oper Frankfurt, features the leading Russian conductor Vladimir Fedoseyev and the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra. Fedoseyev’s perceptive reading of the works of his fellow countryman, the masterly playing of the orchestra and guest soloists combine to produce performances which are revelatory in their execution and understanding of Tchaikovsky’s music and the Russian heritage.
Movie Music Man: Lalo Schifrin
The pianist, conductor and composer Lalo Schifrin is perhaps best-known for the award-winning film and television scores he has penned, such as Mission Impossible, Cool Hand Luke, Bullit and The Fox. This documentary includes clips from these screen classics and features extensive extracts from a concert Schifrin gave in Cannes, with the Lyon National Orchestra and guests, including Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Brown and Grady Tate (The Dizzy Gillespie Trio) and soprano Julia Migenes.
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.
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.
Cello Concerto in B minor Op. 104
The music of the quintessentially Czech composer Dvorák is, above all, enjoyable and is a perennial favourite in the Romantic repertoire. This series of concerts is performed by the Prague Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the Prague Philharmonic Choir, with three leading Czech conductors on the podium: Petr Altrichter, Jirí Belohlávek and Libor Pesek. Guest soloists include soprano Lucia Popp, alto Eva Randová, tenor Josef Protschka, bass Peter Mikulás, pianist Igor Ardasev, violinist Ivan Zenaty and cellist Mischa Maisky. VOLUME VI includes the world’s famous Requiem.
Te Deum Op.103
The music of the quintessentially Czech composer Dvorák is, above all, enjoyable and is a perennial favourite in the Romantic repertoire. This series of concerts is performed by the Prague Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the Prague Philharmonic Choir, with three leading Czech conductors on the podium: Petr Altrichter, Jirí Belohlávek and Libor Pesek. Guest soloists include soprano Lucia Popp, alto Eva Randová, tenor Josef Protschka, bass Peter Mikulás, pianist Igor Ardasev, violinist Ivan Zenaty and cellist Mischa Maisky. VOLUME VI includes the world’s famous Requiem.