“The last of the great international orchestral and operatic maestri” (The Times), Sir Georg Solti is a living testament to the elegance and impeccable tastefulness of Central European music-making. 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. His recordings of Mendelssohn’s works with the Chicago Symphony date from the late 1970s and represent a mellower, more lyrically accented phase in the partnership between Solti and his orchestra.
Beethoven, Symphony No.6 in F major, op.68 “Pastorale”
Nature was often Beethoven’s companion during his long solitary walks in the countryside near Vienna. His communion with nature brought forth the “Pastoral” Symphony, composed between in 1807/1808. Its first performance took place in Vienna on 22 December 1808. Each of the “Pastoral”‘s five movements (it is Beethoven’s only five-movement symphony) bears a descriptive title, suggesting a scene from country life. In the second movement, woodwinds imitate bird calls: flute (nightingale), oboe (quail) and clarinet (cuckoo). Beethoven’s joy is expressed throughout the work: “How glad I am to be able to roam in woods and thickets, among the trees, flowers and rocks”, he said. “No one can love the country as I do… my bad hearing does not trouble me here.” This recording is part of Bernstein’s complete cycle of Beethoven symphonies recorded with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra live in Vienna. The series won the Ace Award, the U.S. Cable TV Association’s top award for outstanding quality and entertainment value. Bernstein’s impassioned renderings of Beethoven move audiences in a unique way. “Beethoven has always meant universality to me, ever since my early adolescence, when I first heard that unforgettable cry of ‘Brüder!’. From that moment on, every… symphony came to mean heart- to-heart communication, travelling satellite-fashion via the cosmos itself. I offer [this cycle] to all music-loving ears as a testament of faith and of my most profound reactions to this greatest of all composers.” (Leonard Bernstein, 1980)
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
August Everding staged Mozart’s Singspiel “Die Entführung aus dem Serail” (The Abduction from the Seraglio) in Munich’s National Theater as a sunny comic opera but, as the director says, one with the “depth” required by Mozart. The buffo characters, for instance, take on compellingly human traits. The stage consists of a bright, orientally suggestive architecture, whose elements are constantly sliding or revolving. The set designer Max Bignens speaks of a “choreographic” setting: “For Mozart’s music, we wanted nothing heavy and, above all, no major scene changes.” Karl Böhm, who conducted his first “Entführung” in 1924, plunges into the depths of the music and uncovers its magic and brilliance, its eros and spirituality. At the center of the performance is Edita Gruberova, whose coloraturas are dazzling and always precise. As Osmin, Martti Talvela is a supple, shifty swaggerer. Thomas Holtzmann speaks the Bassa Selim as a nervous, passionate potentate. Francisco Araiza sings Belmonte with glowing lyricism. Norbert Orth is a spirited Pedrillo and Reri Grist a Blondchen with a natural charm and musical sensitivity.
Tristan und Isolde
This production of Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” was premiered at the 1981 Bayreuth Festival and recorded in its third year on the Bayreuth stage, in 1983. With the celebrated Wagner tenor René Kollo as Tristan and the American-born soprano Johanna Meier as Isolde, supported by Matti Salminen (King Marke), Hermann Becht (Kurwenal) and Hanna Schwarz (Brangäne), the production was an uncontested feast of vocal mastery. This was underscored by the “wondrous gold of the score” that “flowed from the orchestra pit in a luminous symphonic flow.” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) Responsible for the inspired and transparent musical direction is Daniel Barenboim, whose sensitive treatment of the orchestra provides the ideal counterpoint to the interpreters on the stage. In his interpretation of “Tristan und Isolde” – his one and only production for the Bayreuth Festival – the late Jean-Pierre Ponnelle refused to follow the fashionable trend of seeking to update a work at all costs. His interest lay chiefly in the psychological treatment of the action, whereby the sublimated love of Tristan and Isolde becomes a nocturne of emotional and psychological depth. His alteration of the end, in which the events of the third act are depicted as a dream sequence experienced by the dying Tristan, provoked considerable criticism in the first year, but was rendered more clearly understandable by Ponnelle in the following years. Ponnelle adapted his production for its audiovisual recording, ensuring that all the magical effects visible in the theater are as stunning and evocative on the screen.
Mozart, Symphony No.41 in C major, K. 551 “Jupiter”
Mozart’s last symphony is a solemn and formal work which looks back to the past more than its two fellow works K. 504 and 550. It contains strong reminiscences of Baroque forms like the fugue and the concerto grosso (e.g. in the opposition of clear-cut themes and the interplay of solo and tutti groups). Particularly the last movement is one of the most impressive in symphonic literature because of its unique blend of melodic flow and “scholarly” fugal treatment. Although not truly a fugue, the movement incorporates some exciting imitative work. The theme was well known and often used in the 18th century. Mozart himself used it in two of his masses and in the Symphony K. 319. The “Jupiter” Symphony, a truly Olympian work, must be viewed together with the two preceding symphonies as Mozart’s final word in a genre he raised to heights never before attained. Nikolaus Harnoncourt (born in 1929) is one of the most profound and intriguing conductors of our time. Considered one of the world’s leading specialists of Baroque music, he has long since turned his attention to Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and even to Jacques Offenbach and Johann Strauss. He spent many years as a cellist with the Wiener Symphoniker before founding the “Concentus Musicus Wien” with his wife Alice in 1953. It soon became one of the world’s most respected ensembles specializing in the performance of early music on original instruments. In the 1970s, Harnoncourt joined forces with Jean-Pierre Ponnelle to stage a series of Monteverdi operas at the Zurich Opera House. This universally acclaimed cycle contributed to a renaissance of Monteverdi’s music and set standards for early Baroque performance practice. Harnoncourt later began to turn his attention more and more to the music of Mozart, whom he considers “the most romantic of all composers”. His concept of Mozart’s music ran counter to the prevailing 20th-century views, however. He sees Mozart’s music as “dramatic, dynamic, often directly and highly emotional.” The Vienna Philharmonic, known for its suave and gracious Mozartian interpretations, initially rebelled against Harnoncourt’s unconventional approach. Yet the compellingness of his vision soon came to be accepted and shared by all members of the orchestra. In this recording, Harnoncourt conducts the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
Brahms, Piano Concerto No.1 in D minor, op.15
Between 1981 and 1984, Leonard Bernstein recorded nearly all of Brahms’s orchestral works with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra to honor the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth in 1983. Today, the cycle is considered as a landmark in the interpretation of Brahms’ music. For Bernstein, Brahms was “a true Romantic, containing his passions in classical garb”, but also a “North-German classicist swept away to Vienna, and fired by Danubian, Carpathian and gypsy passions”. Bearing this dualism in mind, Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic have underscored both the classicism and romanticism, the dramatic intensity and the sober restraint of Brahms’s music. The venue was Vienna’s Musikvereinssaal, where two of Brahms’s symphonies were premiered and where Brahms himself conducted. The soloist in Brahms’s concerto is the Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman, who launched his meteoric career when he won the Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 1975. An important influence in his youth was his friendship with Arthur Rubinstein, and other landmarks in his career arose through his work with conductors such as Bernstein, Giulini and Karajan.
Brahms, Symphony No.2 in D major, op.73
Commanding the podium with his slender figure, theatrical shock of hair and penetrating blue eyes, Herbert von Karajan projected the hieratic image of the conductor as officiant of some quasi-mystic rite. And anyone who ever saw him conduct live or on his many audiovisual recordings will agree that in his performances, music did indeed become a religion and Karajan its high-priest. Karajan (1908-1989) embodied classical music in the general consciousness as an epoch-making conductor, media star, opera producer, festival director and festival founder. But in spite of his Promethean and widely varied activities, he remained a superb conductor, with a grasp of the standard orchestral and operatic repertory from Mozart to Schoenberg that was unsurpassed among his peers. The Symphony No. 2 was recorded live at the Berlin Philharmonie in 1973.
La Bohème
This production of ‘La Bohème’ scored a trio of ‘firsts’: it was the first opera film to be produced by Unitel, the first music film conducted by Herbert von Karajan, and the first major film production by Franco Zeffirelli (Romeo and Juliet, Jesus of Nazareth). Produced in 1965, it was based on Zeffirelli’s acclaimed 1963 La Scala production and features Mirella Freni and Gianni Raimondi as the starcrossed lovers. Karajan conducts the chorus and orchestra of Milan’s La Scala. The production is still considered today one of the finest treatments of opera on film and a classic of opera performance in the 20th century..
Mozart, Symphony No.33 in B flat major, K. 319
To watch Carlos Kleiber conduct is to be reminded that the basic channel of communication between conductor and players is above all the body. This emerges with mesmerizing vividness in this concert, recorded live in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz on 21 October 1996.
Beethoven, Coriolan Overture, op.62
To watch Carlos Kleiber conduct is to be reminded that the basic channel of communication between conductor and players is above all the body. This emerges with mesmerizing vividness in this concert, recorded live in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz on 21 October 1996.