La Clemenza di Tito was commissioned to celebrate the coronation of the Emperor Leopold II as King of Bohemia in 1791, and was written in eighteen days. Nicholas Hytner’s elegant new staging, performed in the original Italian language, was premiered during the Mozart Bicentenary season at Glyndebourne on 28th June, 1991. An impressive cast is led by Philip Langridge (Tito), Ashley Putnam (Vitellia) and Diana Montague (Sesto). New recitatives, to replace those written by Mozart’s pupil Süssmayr, were commissioned from composer Stephen Oliver for this production. Andrew Davis conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Pique Dame (The Queen of Spades)
From the Glyndebourne Festival Opera 1992: Producer Graham Vick, designer Richard Hudson, conductor Sir Andrew Davis, the London Philharmonic and the full cast of singers won unanimous critical acclaim for their revelatory interpretation of this mesmeric and psychologically harrowing work. Hudson’s eighteenth-century costumes are sumptuously realistic, while his set is abstract and modern. The cast features three top Russian singers – Sergei Leiferkus, Dimitri Kharitonov and Yuri Marusin. Nancy Gustafson, Felicity Palmer and Louise Winter also won high praise for their performances in this “marvellous and brilliant piece of modern music-theatre” (Financial Times). (Sung in Russian)
A Concert of Music by Ludwig van Beethoven
The highlight of the celebrations in March 1987 during the fifth anniversary of the opening of the London Barbican Centre was the concert of the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir George Solti. The special event was held to celebrate the creation of a cultural centre and a residential complex which with ist numerous theatres, cinemas and galleries is the largest of ist kind in Europe and whose new large concert hall has now become the home of the “LSO”. Solti””s programme concept for the evening was to offer variety with a unified theme, an appropriate concept for the place. Solti said “I have selected this Beethoven programme to represent three very different moods – the heavyweight Coriolan overture, the light, Mozart-like first piano concert, and finally the wonderful glorification of dance represented by the seventh symphony.”
In Rehearsal: Christoph von Dohnanyi
Featuring some of today’s leading conductors in rehearsal, this series gives a unique
insight into the process of creating great music. The conductors’ very different styles and
methods; the dialogue between an orchestra and an inspired interpreter; the intensity of the
preparations for a concert performance; and the struggle towards perfection are captured in these
revealing audio-visual records. Most episodes include a full run-through of the work rehearsed.
All include interviews with the conductor who is seen at work. Pierre Boulez rehearses the Vienna
Philharmonic Orchestra for a performance of Alban Berg’s Three Pieces for Orchestra Op. 6 and his
own composition Notations I-IV . Directed by Felix Breisach 57’ R7117 Christoph von Dohnányi
rehearses Haydn’s Symphony No. 88 in G with the Philharmonia. Directed by Barrie Gavin 59’ R7116
Sir John Eliot Gardiner works with the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists on J. S.
Bach’s Cantata No. 63. The soloists are Ann Monoyios (soprano), Sara Mingardo (alto), Rufus
Müller (tenor), and Stephan Loges (bass). Directed by Manfred Waffender 59’ R0759 Valéry Gergiev
works with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra on Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite Op. 20. Directed by
Rob van den Berg 59′ R7113 Mariss Jansons prepares Bartók’s Miraculous Mandarin Suite with the
Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. Directed by Morten Thomte 55′ R0756 Zubin Mehta rehearses the Israel
Philharmonic Orchestra for a performance of Richard Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche
Op. 28. Directed by Peter Berggren 55′ R7112 Esa-Pekka Salonen rehearses and performs Debussy’s
impressionistic orchestral piece, La Mer, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Directed
by Peter Berggren 56′ R7115
The Firebird
American choreographer Glen Tetley says of his ballet, set to music by Stravinsky, “I see the Firebird as a symbol of our innermost dreams and longings for freedom and true love, and as a mythological figure representing the struggle between captivity and freedom, between good and evil.” This studio recording was made by the highly-acclaimed dance director Thomas Grimm and features the Danish ballerina Mette Honningen in the title role. A complementary documentary progamme – The Firebird in Rehearsal – is also available.
The Makropulos Case
Based on a play by Karel Capek, The Makropulos Case focuses on the issue of longevity – the pros and cons of living for 337 years, as happens to the mysterious Emilia Marty, the sexually irresistible prima donna who’s seen it all and done it all. Part grotesque human comedy, part profound personal tragedy, Janácek’s opera examines the eternal mystery of human existence with uniquely life-enhancing vision. “Anja Silja’s Emilia Marty in Makropulos at Glyndebourne is a nonpareil triumph… This is a near-perfect production by Nikolaus Lehnhoff” Wall Street Journal
New Year’s Eve Concert 1979
Gaiety and temperament are the keynotes of this New Year’s Eve program with the London Philharmonic Orchestra recorded live in Munich’s Herkulessaal on New Year’s Eve 1979. It begins with “Gaieté Parisienne,” an arrangement of Jacques Offenbach’s most popular operetta melodies. This is followed by a generous helping of central European esprit in the Slavonically inspired dances of Léo Delibes’ “Coppélia” ballet, and in the Viennese lightness of Franz von Suppé’s “Pique Dame” Overture, a delicious little work by the founding father of the Viennese operetta. Amilcare Ponchielli’s “Dance of the Hours” has delighted “promenade” concertgoers for years now – perhaps because it reminds us of his two great pupils Puccini and Mascagni? The luscious lyricism of the waltzes from Richard Strauss’s “Rosenkavalier” is dispelled by the solemn majesty of Sir Edward Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance March No. 4.” From Victorian England we travel to Czarist St. Petersburg, to the magical world of Peter I. Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite.” And since all good things must come to an end, the Land of Sweets disappears under a vigorous sprinkling of fiery paprika in Johannes Brahms’s “Hungarian Dance No. 5,” which closes the program on a spicy note.