Daniel Harding conducts the Münchner Philharmoniker

From the Musikverein in Vienna, Renaud Capuçon is joined by the Münchner Philharmoniker and conductor Daniel Harding the first Austrian performance of his compatriot Thierry Escaich’s new Violin Concerto No. 2. A work of great drive and rhythmic vitality, it is coupled here with Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 “Romantic” whose opening – with its horn theme intoned against shimmering strings – sets the scene for one of the composer’s most popular works, and a familar calling card for Harding, a conductor celebrated in this repertoire. PROGRAM: Escaich – Concerto for violin and orchestra (commissioned work and world premiere); Bruckner – Symphony No. 4 in E flat major

BBC Proms 2016 – Gergiev, Abduraimov and Munich Philharmonic Orchestra

Valery Gergiev and his Munich Philharmonic Orchestra open with Ravel’s hypnotic Boléro and close with a suite from Richard Strauss’s waltz-filled opera Der Rosenkavalier. In between, Galina Ustvolskaya’s Symphony No. 3 pleads for redemption on raw brass and winds. Composed in 1983 it is based on the texts of the 11th-century German monk and musician Hermanus Contractus and includes solo recitatives performed by Alexei Petrenko. Young Uzbek pianist Behzod Abduraimov is the soloist in Rachmaninov’s soaring Piano Concerto No. 3. “Abduraimov ist phenomenal!“ (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). “He should be on any must-hear list.” (The New York Times).

Tugan Sokhiev conducts Das Lied von der Erde

Mahler composed his “Lied von der Erde” in a phase of loneliness, but still: the seven Chinese poems that he set into very personal symphonic songs also spread a message of consolation. The Münchner Philharmoniker, one of the world’s leading Mahler orchestras, Tugan Sokhiev, Ekaterina Gubanova and Andreas Schager deliver a gripping performance.

Tugan Sokhiev conducts Mahler 4

The Münchner Philharmoniker under Tugan Sokhiev and with Christiane Karg’s delicately intimate and clear soprano voice lead the audience through a rousing Mahler Fourth, drawing an arc from radiant blue skies to cracks in the firmament and from the hope of heavenly life to the end of everything earthly.