With its opening sunrise and vaulting “Swan Hymn”, Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony is one of the defining masterpieces of Finnish music, and it’s been at the centre of Sakari Oramo’s repertoire since the start of his conducting career. This concert finds him on tour in 2000 as music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra – an ensemble with a long Sibelius tradition of its own – and striking sparks off his young compatriot Olli Mustonen in Prokofiev’s dazzling Piano Concerto No. 3. Oramo opens with the haunting Lintukoto by the late Einojuhani Rautavaara: one of the undisputed masters of Finnish music in the generation since Sibelius.
Boulez conducts Schoenberg, Stravinsky & De Falla – Triple Bill
In the second half of his long and extraordinary career Pierre Boulez emerged as one of the most compelling exponents of 20th-century music – never more penetrating than when directing the virtuoso players of his own Ensemble Intercontemporain. In this inspired triple-bill from the Theater an der Wien, recorded shortly before the master’s 80th birthday, soprano Anja Silja performs a fully-staged version of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire – paired by Boulez with near-contemporary masterworks by Stravinsky and De Falla. Viennese modernism meets the world of the Ballets Russes, in the hands of a conductor who approached all music through the lens of his own dazzling creativity.
Argerich plays Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G
Right from her first acclaimed Deutsche Grammophon recording of the work with Claudio Abbado and the Berliner Philharmoniker, Ravel’s brilliant jazz-inspired Piano Concerto in G has been a staple of Martha Argerich’s repertoire: a work whose scintillating rhythms, sparkling passage-work and melodic inspiration seem tailor made to the legendary Argentinian pianist’s remarkable gifts. And that fact is clear to see and hear in this thrilling performance filmed in the Alte Oper in Frankfurt in September 1990, in which Argerich is joined by the Orchestre National de France and conductor Charles Dutoit.
Norrington conducts Haydn: “Paris” Symphonies Nos. 82 & 86
Joseph Haydn never visited Paris, but when he received a commission from an influential concert society in the French capital, his imagination caught fire. The result – his six “Paris” symphonies – might be the first masterpieces of the symphonic repertoire to achieve global popularity, and even today, their mixture of novelty, inspiration and sheer creative verve is little short of irresistible. In this performance from the Mozarteum, Salzburg, period-performance pioneer Sir Roger Norrington is in his element – bringing his characteristic blend of scholarly expertise and irrepressible exuberance to the magnificent Symphony No. 86 and the brilliant No. 82 – nicknamed “The Bear”.
Vaclav Neumann conducts Mahler & Dvorak
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.
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
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”.