The internationally acclaimed baritone Hermann Prey was born in Berlin in 1929. He made his breakthrough in 1956 as Figaro in the Vienna State Opera’s production of Rossini’s “Barber of Seville”. He has since performed at all of the world’s great opera houses and festivals. Hermann Prey has always loved lieder, especially the works of Franz Schubert. This inspired him to found the Schubertiade, a festival in Hohenems, Austria, entirely devoted to this composer’s works. He also established the New York Schubertiade in 1988.
Debussy, The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian
Sir Georg Solti, Conductor – A Portrait
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. The fascinating portrait of the artist, Sir Georg Solti, Conductor – A Portrait, was produced 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.
Leonard Bernstein conducts “West Side Story” – The Making of a Recording
“West Side Story” is perhaps Leonard Bernstein’s most popular work and contains songs that have achieved enormous popularity throughout the world. The film version won no less than ten Academy Awards. In 1984, 27 years after the premiere, Bernstein finally conducted the work for the first time, with singers of his choice. “The Making of West Side Story” won the Prix Italia and the British Academy’s Robert Flaherty Award in 1985.
Documentary on the Filming of “Elektra” – “Do I hear the music? It pours out of me.”
The “Elektra” documentary is the last testimony to a life of artistic fulfillment, an homage to the conductor Karl Böhm. The streets and squares of Vienna unfold before our eyes as the automobile bringing Karl Böhm to the recording studio drives through the city with which Karl Böhm had the most intimate musical relationship. And when he steps up to the conductor’s desk in the Sophiensaal, we are about to witness his last great performance. We see him conversing with the singers and the orchestra, rehearsing, criticizing, encouraging, and reminiscing: “Strauss once told me¿” At the end of the production, after Elektra’s dance, he sits back silently in his chair – exhausted but happy. On 14 August 1981, shortly after the shooting of the film, Karl Böhm died, aged almost 86. His death marked the end of an era. This documentary provides fascinating insights into the work of the director Götz Friedrich. And it also illustrates the dramatic power of musical tragedy, for example in the masterful depiction of Clytemnestra by Astrid Varnay, herself once a fabulous Elektra, and in the outstanding interpretations of top singers such as Leonie Rysanek, Catarina Ligendza, Hans Beirer, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Josef Greindl, Kurt Böhme and others.
Beethoven, Missa solemnis in D major, op.123
This work is part of the complete cycle of Beethoven symphonic and choral works featuring the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam conducted by Leonard Bernstein. In this recording with the Dutch orchestra, Bernstein also conducts the soloists Edda Moser, Hanna Schwarz, René Kollo and Kurt Moll, along with the Chorus of Radio Hilversum.
Brahms, Ein deutsches Requiem, op.45 (live)
The performance of Brahms’ German Requiem with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna’s “Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde” and the soloists Gundula Janowitz and José van Dam conducted by Herbert von Karajan was recorded live at the Salzburg Easter Festival in March 1978. Maestro Karajan focused on the gentle, comforting aspect of the work, presenting it as a Requiem for the living.
Bruckner, Symphony No.8 in C minor (1887 Version)
For his recording of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony, Herbert von Karajan chose the version of 1887, one of the earliest of several revisions. The performance with the Vienna Philharmonic was recorded live in the spring of 1979 at the monastery church of St. Florian near Linz, where Bruckner spent many years as a student and teacher in his youth.
Mahler, Symphony No.7 in E minor
Leonard Bernstein was the first conductor ever to record all of Mahler’s symphonies not only on disk, but also on video. The Mahler cycle was the first project in the more than 20-year-long association between Leonard Bernstein and Unitel. The leading Mahler interpreter of our time, Bernstein recorded all of Mahler’s symphonies between 1971 and 1985, chiefly with the Vienna Philharmonic, producing a unique musical document and triggering a major reappreciation of Mahler’s works. ‘All Mahler symphonies, all Mahler works for that matter, deal in extremes, extremes of dynamic, of tempo, of emotional meaning. When it is bare, it’s extremely bare, when it is thick and rich, it’s thicker and richer than anything in ‘Götterdämmerung’, and when it is suffering it suffers to a point that no music has ever suffered before.’ (Leonard Bernstein)
Mahler, Symphony No.6 in A minor
Long considered as a particularly demanding and difficult work, the 6th Symphony was begun in 1903, completed the following year and premiered in Essen on 27 May 1906. Superficially, it is the most conventional in that it follows the traditional four-movement form and ends in the key in which it begins. Although this key, A minor, is a tragic one in Mahler’s oeuvre, the work itself is not a song of despair, but a dense and forceful testimony of furious inner battles whose outcome remains unclear until the very end. Leonard Bernstein was the first conductor ever to record all of Mahler’s symphonies not only on disk, but also on video. The Mahler cycle was the first project in the more than 20-year-long association between Leonard Bernstein and Unitel. The leading Mahler interpreter of our time, Bernstein recorded all of Mahler’s symphonies between 1971 and 1985, chiefly with the Vienna Philharmonic, producing a unique musical document and triggering a major re-appreciation of Mahler’s works.