As the highlight of the MPHIL 360° festival, Valery Gergiev performs all seven symphonies by Sergei Prokofiev with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and the Mariinsky Orchestra in the Philharmonie Munich. In this “grandiose exhibition of the composer’s oeuvre” (BR Klassik), Gergiev delivers a stunning rendition of Prokofiev’s symphonic cycle 1-7, from the first symphony, which Prokofiev himself named the “Classical”, as ist style is very close to that of Joseph Haydn, to the much-loved Symphony No. 5 and the composer’s beautiful last symphony with its lyrical qualities. The Russian star conductor leads his musicians with minimal movements through Prokofiev’s phantasmagoria of sound. He excels in bringing the little details of the compositions to life – it is nothing short of an “intoxication which Gergiev so irresistibly generates!” (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
The Complete Mozart Violin Concertos
On the occasion of the MPHIL 360° festival, Valery Gergiev brings together at the Philharmonie im Gasteig the Münchner Philharmoniker, the Mariinski Orchestra and five highly promising young violin talents: Vilde Frang, Sergej Dogadin, Alexander Conunova, Yu-Chien Tseng and Daniel Lozakovich. Together they perform all five of Mozart’s violin concertos. An impressive encounter of excellent musicians, who “show off in questions of virtuosity” (Süddeutsche Zeitung). Once again, “Musicmaniac” Gergiev’s motto is “‘Think Big!’ Success proves him right” (Münchner Merkur).
The Odeonsplatz Concert: Münchner Philharmoniker and Valery Gergiev
A balmy summer night, musical highlights and the picturesque scenery of Munich’s Feldherrnhalle – The Odeonsplatz Concert grants experiences of classical music on its highest level in a unique atmosphere. The Münchner Philharmoniker open their open air concert with Bach’s Air from Suite No. 3 and Tchaikovsky’s ballet-suite Swan Lake. Chief Conductor Valery Gergiev conducts this piece with “dance-like elegance and a slightly melancholic levity, tackling the frontiers of the feasible in the rapid movements” (Süddeutsche Zeitung). The programme goes on with Richard Strauss’s Suite from Rosenkavalier, “euphonious, fresh, sensual, with plenty of power exactly when it is needed” (TZ), and with Maurice Ravel’s Boléro.
Mehta and Midori perform Brahms and Hindemith
To celebrate her 30th stage jubilee acclaimed Japanese violinist Midori chose a very special partner, conductor Zubin Mehta, who also conducted her concert debut with the New York Philharmonic in 1983 when she was eleven years old. In this concert with the Münchner Philharmoniker she performs a milestone of violin literature: BRAHMS’ Violin Concerto in D major. The concert is accompanied by Brahms’ Tragic Overture and Hindemith’s symphony “Mathis der Maler”. HINDEMITH, once the “bad boy” of the German music scene (New York Musical Courier) composed the symphony – using melodies from his opera of the same name – in commission for Wilhelm Furtwängler and the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1934. Its first performance was a huge success but also caused a hate campaign that made Hindemith emigrate from Germany.
Lorin Maazel and Alice Sara Ott: Fauré, Ravel, Stravinsky
Music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries is on the program of this concert given by the Münchner Philharmoniker under its principal conductor Lorin Maazel and with pianist Alice Sara Ott. The young German-Japanese soloist dazzles in the main work of the program, Maurice RAVEL’s Piano Concerto in G major, a sparkling work in the spirit of Mozart and Saint-Saëns. Also on the program is Gabriel FAURÉ’s “Pelléas et Mélisande”, a poetic orchestral suite. Closing the concert is Igor STRAVINSKY’s exuberant “Pétrouchka” for solo piano and orchestra, and, as an encore, RAVEL’s vibrant “La Valse”. —– Program: Gabriel FAURÈ: Pelléas et Mélisande, Op. 80; Maurice RAVEL: Piano Concerto in G major; Igor STRAVINSKY: Petrushka – Burlesque in four scenes (Original Version of 1911), Maurice RAVEL,La Valse
Making of “Der Rosenkavalier”
Bruckner, Symphony No.4 in E flat major
Bruckner originally wrote the Fourth Symphony in 1874, but revised it thoroughly in 1880 before its premiere in Vienna in 1881, which was a resounding success. Although he continued to revise it in later years,the version most often played today is the first revised version of 1880. This is also the version featured on this recording of a concert held at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, which was greeted with storms of applause. Leading the Münchner Philharmoniker in this concert is ist principal conductor Christian Thielemann, a maestro internationally known and admired above all as a specialist of Romantic music.
Documentation about “Norma”
Pfitzner, Three Preludes to “Palestrina”
“Grandiose, unaffected, expansive, majestic, immovable…” – Christian Thielemann’s description of Anton Bruckner’s music vividly captures its essence and uniqueness. And he himself captures the soul of the great romantic composer in his interpretation of Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony with the Munich Philharmonic. Recorded live at the Festspielhaus Baden- Baden on 14 November 2006, the concert also features three orchestral preludes from the opera “Palestrina” by another late-romantic composer, Hans Pfitzner. The preludes from Pfitzner’s “Palestrina”, the composer’s most well-known work, evoke the events about to transpire in the acts that follow them. While the subtle, refined nuances of the first prelude suggests the creative crisis of the opera’s hero, the Renaissance composer Palestrina, the second reflects the turbulent atmosphere of the Council of Trent and the third the inner peace found at long last by Palestrina beneath the cupola of St. Peter’s. Completed in September 1883, several months after the death of Richard Wagner, Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 in E major is a stunning homage to the composer of the “Ring”. A passionate admirer of Wagner, Bruckner claimed that he had the master’s death in mind while writing the Adagio of this symphony. With its particularly soaring and melodious themes, the Seventh is Bruckner’s most popular and accessible symphony. It would be difficult to find a better team to interpret Bruckner’s music today than Christian Thielemann and the Munich Philharmonic. Thielemann, the General Music Director of the Munich ensemble, is a universally recognized Bruckner and Wagner expert, who inaugurated his tenure at the head of the Philharmonic by conducting Bruckner’s Fifth. The Munich orchestra has a long-standing tradition of performing Bruckner’s music and boasts a particular attachment to the Seventh: it was the second orchestra to play the work, and the success it obtained with it in 1885 helped establish Bruckner as a major contemporary composer. Thielemann also led the Munich Philharmonic and the Regensburg Boys’ Choir in the first concert given in honor of Pope Benedict XVI in Vatican City in October 2005, which was also recorded by Unitel/Classica.
Bruckner, Symphony No.7
“Grandiose, unaffected, expansive, majestic, immovable…” – Christian Thielemann’s description of Anton Bruckner’s music vividly captures its essence and uniqueness. And he himself captures the soul of the great romantic composer in his interpretation of Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony with the Munich Philharmonic. Recorded live at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden on 14 November 2006, the concert also features three orchestral preludes from the opera “Palestrina” by another late-romantic composer, Hans Pfitzner (A05512085 / Length: 25′)