Brahms, Symphony No.4 in E minor, op.98

Composed during the summer months of 1884 and 1885 in Mürzzuschlag, southwest of Vienna, the Fourth Symphony tended to disconcert the public at first and had to prove itself in the concert circuit before gaining recognition as a masterwork of epoch-making stature. What Brahms’s contemporaries regarded as difficult and bewildering were above all the extreme constructive density of the score, the unusual layout, especially of the third and fourth movements, a number of archaic elements pointing back to the formulae and techniques of “early music” (the passacaglia in the fourth movement) and the austere, elegiac mood that permeates the entire work. The premiere of the Fourth Symphony was given by the Meiningen Court Orchestra in Meiningen under Brahms’s direction on 25 October 1885. Leonard Bernstein’s interpretation with the Boston Symphony Orchestra was recorded at Tanglewood. For Bernstein, Brahms was “a true Romantic, containing his passions in classical garb”, but also a “North-German classicist swept away to Vienna, and fired by Danubian, Carpathian and gypsy passions”. Bearing this dualism in mind, Bernstein underscored both the classicism and romanticism, the dramatic intensity and the sober restraint of Brahms’s music.

Beethoven, Symphony No.4 in B flat major, op.60

When, in the mid 1960s, Herbert von Karajan decided to record on film all nine Beethoven symphonies with the Berlin Philharmonic, he began with the “Fifth” and asked the famous French movie director Henri-Georges Clouzot (Quai des Orfèvres) to direct. Recognizing in the music-loving director a kindred soul and master of the symbolic image, Karajan found an inspired partner. In another of Karajan’s first efforts, he asked six directors to “stage” one movement each of a Beethoven symphony. For a full week, the directors had the Berlin Philharmonic and Herbert von Karajan – all in full dress – at their disposal, with all the 35mm film, cameras, lighting and technical assistance they needed. Karajan’s most controversial production was Hugo Niebeling’s highly personal interpretation of the “Pastorale”, with its abstract shots of instruments, rapid rhythms, fade-ins and symbolically arranged colors.

Brahms, Symphony No.2 in D major, op.73

Brahms’s sunny Second Symphony is as warm and lyrical as his First had been stormy and dramatic. It quite possibly reflects the idyllic nature around Lake Wörth in Austria, where Brahms composed it in the summer of 1877. Brahms himself, however, called attention to the melancholy current that undermines the pastoral serenity (“You’ve never heard anything as world- weary as this”, he wrote to his friend Schubring). Despite the apparent simplicity of the symphonic writing, the work is strengthened and enriched by many thematic threads that run from one movement to another. It has been a special favorite among music lovers since its premiere in Vienna on 30 December 1877. The celebrated 19th-century music critic Eduard Hanslick wrote that it was for “all who long for good music, whether they understand its complexity or not”. Karl Böhm leads the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in a live recording made at the “Grosser Musikvereinssaal” in Vienna.

Strauss, Rehearsal of “Don Juan”, op.20

Karl Böhm was born in Graz, Austria, on 28 August 1894. He made his conducting debut in his hometown in 1917 before going on to Munich in 1921, where he was hired by Bruno Walter. He made his debut at the Vienna State Opera in 1933 and was appointed general manager of the Dresden State Opera the same year. This marked the beginning of an intensive and fruitful collaboration with Richard Strauss (Böhm conducted the world premieres of “Die schweigsame Frau” and “Daphne”). He died in Salzburg on 14 August 1981. One of the hallmarks of Böhm’s conducting was its perennially youthful vigor and directness, its lack of pathos and sentimentality. Dramatic climaxes and full sonorities grew out of almost imperceptible accents, out of the natural rhythm of the human breath. His gestures were minimalistic, his baton suggested movement more than it described it. Böhm set standards with his interpretations of the works of his long-time friend Richard Strauss. The unofficial curator of Strauss’ musical legacy, Böhm knew his friend’s music inside and out – and he knew just how Strauss wanted his works to sound. Here Böhm works with the Vienna Philharmonic, which premiered Strauss’s “Don Juan” in Vienna in 1892.

Schumann, Symphony No.2 in C major, op.61

Following the cycles of orchestral works by Mahler, Beethoven and Brahms, Unitel chose to honor Robert Schumann in 1984/85 with this cycle performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein. Schumann’s orchestral works are firmly established in the repertoire of the Vienna Philharmonic. The glowing, romantic sound of this orchestra and Leonard Bernstein’s expressive interpretation complement each other in an ideal way to produce a perfect rendering of Schumann’s symphonic oeuvre. Schumann’s four symphonies, his piano concerto, the violoncello concerto and the Manfred Overture have been filmed and recorded in the “Golden Hall” of the Vienna Musikverein, held to rank acoustically among the world’s best halls. The soloists are Justus Frantz, piano, and the cellist Misha Maisky.

Shostakovich, Symphony No.9 in E flat major, op.70 with an introductory essay by Leonard Bernstein

Recorded live at the Musikverein in Vienna in 1985, this concert features not only Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony performed by the Vienna Philharmonic, but also an introductory essay by Leonard Bernstein. With respect to Shostakovich’s position as one of the few composers after Beethoven to reach a “ninth” symphony, Bernstein says: “The mystique of the number nine exerted itself in an odd way, so typical of Shostakovich: he didn’t avoid writing one out of either humility or superstition; he simply wrote the least predictable and most surprising Ninth there is – short, hilarious, circusy – an all-out fiesta, gleefully proclaiming ‘Hurray: the war is over!’ In short, Shostakovich thumbed his nose at the great tradition of Ninths – although he was perfectly capable of writing colossal symphonies, as we know from the 7th and 8th that had preceded them. But he was a great nose-thumber; it has even been suggested that he was thumbing it at Stalin himself.”

Beethoven, Symphony No.2 in D major, op.36

Rafael Kubelik (1914-1996) was the son of the well-known Bohemian violinist Jan Kubelik. He studied music in Prague and made his conducting debut at 20 at the head of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Later he became the principal conductor of this famous orchestra and founded the “Prague Spring” Festival. After the Communist takeover of the government, Kubelik emigrated to the West and returned to his native land only after the end of the Communist regime. From 1950 to 1953 he headed the Chicago Symphony, from 1955 to 1958 he was music director of the Covent Garden Opera in London. A period of great artistic successes began in 1961, when he was appointed principal conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Many recordings document Kubelik’s mastery and sense of artistry, his enjoyment of music and his temperament. His connection with the Munich orchestra lasted 18 years; in between, he also briefly served as music director of New York’s Metropolitan Opera. Kubelik retired from the concert staged in 1985. But on the occasion of the first Prague Spring Festival after the fall of Communism in 1990, he returned to the podium of the Czech Philharmonic after more than 40 years in exile and conducted Smetana’s “My Fatherland” cycle. His profound bonds with his native land and its composers were always clearly visible. Rafael Kubelik was a full-blooded musician. Every performance of his radiated a feeling of spontaneity, impulsiveness and joy. Kubelik died in Lucerne in August 1996 at the age of 82 after a long illness. First performed in Vienna in 1803 with Beethoven conducting, the Second Symphony exhibits a daring departure from the traditional form. In a classical symphony, the third movement was always a minuet; Beethoven replaces it with a Scherzo, a quick-paced musical form in three-quarter time. While working on this symphony, Beethoven was undergoing an enormous personal crisis: the growing deafness that was to cause him inordinate anguish.