Orchestral Music – Page 78 – C Major Entertainment

Prokofiev, Peter und der Wolf (Symphonic Fairy Tale for Children)

Loriot, alias Vicco von Bülow, is one of Germany’s most popular and beloved humorists. He delights in unmasking the foibles of everyday life in many animated shorts, cartoons and stories. With the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin conducted by Marcello Viotti, Loriot gives a as memorable performance as an avuncular narrator. Moreover, Loriot has slightly revised the original text to make it even more appealing to children of today.

Liszt, A Faust Symphony

Liszt had discovered Goethe’s Faust in a French translation just before the premiere of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, and it was Berlioz who drew his attention to it. Though he initially contemplated writing an opera on this topic, he ultimately decided on a symphonic work which he called “A Faust Symphony in Three Character Pictures” which evoke Faust, Marguerite and Mephistopheles. His goal was to create psychological portraits that capture the character from within and, through recurring motifs and melodies, show that the three figures are interconnected. The work was premiered in Weimar on 5 September 1857 under the direction of the composer. In this performance, Leonard Bernstein conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra and tenor Kenneth Riegel at Boston’s Symphony Hall.

Mahler, Symphony No.8 in E flat major “Symphony of a Thousand”

Leonard Bernstein conducted the work at the Salzburg Festival in 1975 and shortly thereafter in Vienna’s Konzerthaus, where it was recorded. The stage of the Konzerthaus was enlarged to make room for the unusually large orchestra, the two choruses, the children’s choir and the soloists. 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)

Bruckner, Symphony No.7 in E major

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. Solti’s remarkable partnership with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra began in 1954, when he first led the orchestra at the Ravinia Festival. After returning to conduct the ensemble several times during the following years, 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. “In Chicago he has whipped, cajoled, hammered, burnished and conjured an orchestral sound that manages to be two entirely opposite things at once. On the one hand, there is that seductive, mellow roar from the winds and brass; on the other, a meticulously controlled string tone whereby more than 60 players take on the crispness and clarity of a chamber ensemble.” (Newsweek, Oct. 19, 1987) Solti died in September 1997, just before his 85th birthday. Anton Bruckner began working on his Seventh Symphony in 1881 and completed it on 5 September 1883. The first performance was led by Arthur Nikish in Leipzig on 30 December 1884 and was a success that helped establish the composer as a major composer. The work has since become Bruckner’s most popular symphony. This recording features the Chicago Symphony under Sir Georg Solti.

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.

Mahler, Symphony No.3 in D minor

This production with Christa Ludwig, alto, the “Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor”, the Vienna Boys’ Choir and the Vienna Philharmonic was recorded at Vienna’s “Musikvereinssaal” in 1972. 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, roducing 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)