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.
Great Arias
This on-going series of ten-minute programmes introduces some of opera’s finest
moments, performed and presented by some of the greatest singers of our day, Dame Joan
Sutherland, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Eva Marton, Marilyn Home, Anne Sofie von Otter, Roberto Alagna,
Philip Langridge, René Kollo and Yuri Marusin among them. Their performances are drawn from
recent live recordings of acclaimed productions of key works in the operatic repertoire and
include such high-spots as Vissi d’arte from Puccini’s Tosca, the Mad Scene from Donizetti’s
Lucia di Lammermoor, Elektra’s murderous confrontation with her mother in Strauss’s Elektra, and
Leonora’s D’amor sull’ali rosee from the final act of Puccini’s Tosca.
Pärt: St. John Passion
Arvo Pärt’s St. John Passion stands foremost among the large number of works which can be assigned to the liturgical period of the Passion, for he takes up the narrative tradition of the Christian liturgy yet dramatises the Passion story to reveal historical and even timeless aspects as well. What most clearly distinguishes his works from other liturgical compositions is the silence, the many pauses. The missing notes are in some ways more important than those which have been composed. ‘Silence is always more perfect than music. One must just learn to hear this.’ (Arvo Pärt). With introduction.
Resounding through Durham Cathedral, Arvo Pärt’s St. John Passion is performed by the world-renowned Hilliard Ensemble, the Western Wind Choir and numerous soloists (including John Potter as Pilate and Michael George as Christ) under the overall direction of Paul Hillier.
Das Lied von der Erde
Recorded live from the Philharmonie in Munich, Sir Colin Davis conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra for this performance of Mahler’s great song symphony.
Sinfonia Concertante in E flat K364
From the Munich Philharmonie comes a live recording of Sir Colin Davis conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante in E flat K364, featuring the internationally-acclaimed soloists Yuri Bashmet (viola) and Vladimir Spivakov (violin). An introduction to the concert performance is available, which shows Sir Colin Davis working with the soloists and the orchestra, documenting the painstaking preparation that goes into achieving the conductor’s musical vision.
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.”
Missa Glagolitica
In this recording, Janácek’s great choral work, the Glagolitic Mass, is performed by the Czech Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra, conducted by Václav Neumann, with Jan Hora on the organ. The soloists are Gabriela Benackova (soprano), Drahomira Drobkova (contralto), Josef Kundlak (tenor) and Sergej Kopcak (bass).
Gabriela Benackova (soprano), Drahomira Drobkova (contralto), Josef Kundlak (tenor) and Sergej Kopcak (bass).
Don Juan
A Child of Our Time
Sir Colin Davis conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Chorus and Orchestra in a performance of Sir Michael Tippett’s oratorio. Written during the years before the Second World War, when Tippett’s political and social beliefs gained momentum, it is a compassionate outcry against injustice and persecution, and is enhanced by the use of Negro spirituals.
Marches and Polkas
The internationally-acclaimed Czech maestro Václav Neumann (1920-95) conducts the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert of marches and polkas by Julius Fucik. This live recording comes from the Smetana Hall in Prague.