There’s always something inspiring about a veteran conductor working with young musicians – a special energy that flows between youth and experience, to the enrichment of all. In 1990, as tyrannies crumbled across Central Europe the great Czech maestro Vacláv Neumann joined forces with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester and the distinguished British baritone Thomas Allen for a programme of Mahler (his Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen) and Dvorák (his final symphony). The result – captured live at the Alte Oper Frankfurt – has a quite extraordinary sense of occasion, as Neumann imparts a lifetime’s emotion and experience to his audibly inspired young players.
Svetlanov conducts Prokofiev
Yevgeny Svetlanov conducts the State Symphony Orchestra of USSR in this remarkable all-Prokofiev programme, filmed at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt in 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed. They begin with the composer’s Symphony No. 1, “Classical”, in a performance that brings out all the pointed wit of Prokofiev’s brilliant pastiche of Viennese classicism. Violinist Vadim Repin then takes to the stage as soloist in the fiercely virtuosic Violin Concerto No.1, composed in the same year, 1917 – a year that, despite major political turbulence in Russia, saw Prokofiev produce several enduring masterpieces.
Masur conducts Strauss
It’s hard to overstate the esteem in which Kurt Masur and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra were held in Europe in the 1990s. As well as playing a pivotal role in the return of democracy and the reunification of Germany, they performed the German symphonic repertoire with unrivalled splendour and authority. This concert captures them on tour Frankfurt in 1992, in a programme of Richard Strauss at his most exuberant (Till Eulenspiegel) and his darkest (Metamorphosen). The Leipzig orchestra’s historic relationship with Strauss had never seemed more vital, and it gives a special emotional charge to Júlia Várady’s luminous performance of the Vier Letzte Lieder.
Enoch zu Guttenberg conducts Bach’s B Minor Mass
Any performance of Bach’s monumental Mass in B minor is a special occasion, and so it proves with this 1998 performance filmed in the magnificent setting of the Wieskirche, the pilgrimage church of Steingaden Abbey near Schongau in Bavaria, a dazzling example of the exuberance of the late German baroque. Enoch zu Guttenberg brings a lifetime of love and engagement with Bach with him to conduct the and the Neubeuern Choral Society and the Orchester der Klangverwaltung with a special combination of authority and passion, which extends to the outstanding line-up of soloists. The result is truly a peformance to treasure.
Helene Grimaud and Christoph Eschenbach at the Proms
There’s always a unique atmosphere at the BBC Proms: the summer music festival at which the world’s greatest artists perform before an audience of 5,000 in London’s colossal Royal Albert Hall. Some might say that it was Hélène Grimaud’s misfortune to make her debut there on the tragic date of 11 September 2001, but that only makes her achievement the more powerful – a fiercely intelligent, often dazzling performance of Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto. Eschenbach’s account of Symphonie Fantastique with this great French orchestra has the same life-affirming energy: delivered to a rapt crowd in an atmosphere of unmistakably heightened emotion
Helene Grimaud & Members of Orchestre de Paris play Schumann
Pianist Hélène Grimaud has been called “a renaissance woman”, and her painterly, passionate sensibility makes everything she plays glow with colour. She’s never more fully herself than when playing chamber music, and this beautifully filmed concert from 2001 captures that collaborative spirit in the round. Grimaud joins colleagues from the Orchestre de Paris at Paris’s Cité de la Musique to perform Schumann’s Piano Quintet and two gloriously poetic sets of miniatures. Together, they’re near-ideal interpreters of Schumann: a pianist-composer whose own imagination was never more potent than when (as here) the piano is merely first among equals in a world of high-Romantic emotion.
Julia Fischer plays Martinu Violin Concerto
This concert was a quite special occasion for Julia Fischer, who was presented with the Martinu Medal of the Bohuslav Martinu Foundation following the concert in the Rudolfinum in Prague. Julia Fischer had just thrilled her audience with her interpretation of Martinu’s Violin Concerto. “Technically everything was perfect with the utmost fullness of sound. Thanks to her rich and full sound, which she deployed with great taste and imagination, Fischer displayed exceptional talent for the Czech and Slav repertoire. It was a serious matinee, at which Fischer brought out virtuoso ornamentation seldom to be heard in this context.” Such was the admiring press comment. Fischer’s solo performance was the centrepiece of a concert that also featured works by Dvorák (Concert Overture) and Beethoven (Symphony No. 6), which wonderfully portray the world of nature.
Martinu Symphony Cycle: Martinu 1 & Mahler 1
From the time-honoured and acoustically superb Prague Rudolfinum, this concert of the Czech Philharmonic under its music director Jirí Belohlávek marks the beginning of the first-ever filmed, complete cycle of all six symphonies by Bohuslav Martinu. Belohlávek and the Czech Philharmonic have a reputation to interpret his works like no other. ClassicsToday declared their Martinu cycle to “live up to the highest expectations […] With an orchestra that knows the music this well, Belohlávek can focus on details of rhythm and texture that create a powerful feeling of symphonic continuity without stinting on the work’s evocative colors.” Following Martinu’s First Symphony is Mahler’s First Symphony. With an equally deep Mahler tradition, the orchestra gave proof of why the New York Times called them “a jewel in Prague’s cultural life”.
Thielemann and Znajder in Prague
One of the world’s oldest orchestras, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, and their distinguished Chief Conductor Christian Thielemann are joined by star-violinist Nikolaj Znaider in a concert at the Czech capital’s legendary Rudolfinum concert hall. “The first thing one became aware of in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto was the rhythmic heat of Thielemann’s conducting. The second was the sheer sumptuousness of the Dresden orchestra’s sound” (The Telegraph), while Znaider proved to be an “impeccable soloist”. In the Reger, Thielemann offered a “wonderfully buoyant, lucid performance”. As for the Strauss: “The Dresden Staatskapelle is the Strauss orchestra par excellence and it still plays that music with a unique understanding” (The Guardian).
Martinu Symphony Cycle: Martinu 4, Strauss Horn Concerto No 2
At the acoustically superb concert venue of the Rudolfinum Prague, the Czech Philharmonic performs Bohuslav Martinu’s Symphony No. 4 as part of the first-ever filmed complete cycle of all six symphonies by the Czech composer. It is at the same time one of the last recordings with the Czech Philharmonic’s long-term musical director Jirí Belohlávek, who died in May 2017. Martinu’s Fourth Symphony – “the ultimate perfection” (Harmonie Magazine) – is complemented by Janácek’s late work Sinfonietta and Strauss’s Horn Concerto No. 2, performed by renowned French horn soloist Radek Baborák. Following the footsteps of his mentor Belohlávek, Jakub Hruša will continue the Martinu cycle in 2018.