For a stage production of Goethe’s “Egmont” planned for spring 1810, the Vienna Burgtheater commissioned Beethoven to compose incidental music to Goethe’s tragedy. Although Beethoven was a great admirer of Goethe and was profoundly flattered by this commission, he did not complete the music by the time the play was given its premiere on 24 May 1810. Only at the third performance of the play on 15 June was Beethoven’s music heard for the first time. Like the “Leonore” overtures, the “Egmont” also foreshadows the events to come. In “Egmont,” they are encapsulated in the main theme of defiance of tyranny, which gives the music its explosive power. 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)
Bach, Weihnachtsoratorium (Christmas Oratorio) BWV 248
Brahms, Symphony No.2 in D major, op.73
Brahms’s sunny Second Symphony is as warm and lyrical as his First had been stormy and dramatic. It quite possibly reflects the idyllic nature around Lake Wörth in Austria, where Brahms composed it in the summer of 1877. Brahms himself, however, called attention to the melancholy current that undermines the pastoral serenity (“You’ve never heard anything as world- weary as this”, he wrote to his friend Schubring). Despite the apparent simplicity of the symphonic writing, the work is strengthened and enriched by many thematic threads that run from one movement to another. It has been a special favorite among music lovers since its premiere in Vienna on 30 December 1877. Leonard Bernstein’s interpretation with the Boston Symphony Orchestra was recorded at Tanglewood in 1972. 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 underscored both the classicism and romanticism, the dramatic intensity and the sober restraint of Brahms’s music.
Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV 1048
For Johann Sebastian Bach, February 15, 1981 was no doubt one of the darkest days of his afterlife: on this day he lost one of his greatest champions in the 20th century, Karl Richter. Over the course of his long career as conductor, organist and harpsichordist, Richter had become synonymous with Bach. He founded the Munich Bach Choir and the Munich Bach Orchestra. He helped trigger the Bach revival in the 1950s. He was the spirit behind the Ansbach Bach Festival. He turned his adopted city of Munich into a Bach center. And he recorded all the major choral and orchestral works of Bach, including more than 100 cantatas.
Tchaikovsky, Violin Concerto in D major, op.35
Along with Mendelssohn’s violin concerto, Tchaikovsky’s Opus 35 has become one of the most popular concertos in the world. But this was not always so. When it was first performed in Vienna on 4 December 1881, it was almost unanimously rejected by the press and said to “stink in the ear”. The first two movements are marked by a tender lyricism that wonderfully brings out the violin’s songful qualities. The third movement, an Allegro vivacissimo, launches into a fireworks of virtuoso display that concludes the work on a dazzling note. Recorded with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein at New York’s Avery Fisher Hall in 1975, this performance of Tchaikovsky’s beloved violin concerto marked the U.S. debut of the Israeli violinist Boris Belkin, who has since performed with all the leading orchestras of the world and under such eminent conductors as Maazel, Muti, Haitink and Mehta.
Parsifal
In the words of Opern Welt, Sinopoli “conjures up sounds of exquisite beauty and compelling poignancy.” Wolfgang Wagner’s production emphasizes the celebratory character of the libretto, which harmonizes superbly with Sinopoli’s insistence on the poetry and mystery of the music. A major role in the staging is played by the lighting, which is used to create stunning effects such as the diffuse play of light and shadow at the illumination of the Holy Grail. One of the production’s most striking moments occurs when the director has Kundry unveil the Grail instead of dying. She thus takes full part in the Grail ceremony, displaying a feminism which, in the Bayreuth context, is truly revolutionary.
Siegfried
In 1988, conductor Daniel Barenboim, stage director Harry Kupfer, set designer Hans Schavernoch and costume designer Reinhard Heinrich came to Bayreuth to realize their vision of Wagner’s Ring. They firmly turned away from the work’s time of origin and set their sights on a “critique of the history of mankind and of the entire evolution of culture, the destruction of which we are actively furthering” (Kupfer). While Wagner’s “critique of mankind’s desructive frenzy, its coldness and alienation” (Kupfer) was rooted in Germanic mythology, Kupfer’s team locates its Ring in a present that also embraces the past and the future. The place where present, past and future converge is the “road of history”, which sets the scene for struggles of power and love, and takes us straight into the depths of the human psyche. “Harry Kupfer has created a production of great coherency, hard, cutting, transparent, which will delight those who see in Wagner a contemporary and will displease those who consume Wagner like some consecrated artifact in a museum. The entire mythological apparatus is demolished bit by bit: what remains is what Wagner himself wanted: the ‘pure humanity’ of the myth. […] The entire ‘Ring’ unfolds like an intellectual adventure that provokes unforgettable emotions.” (La Repubblica)
Die Walküre
In 1988, conductor Daniel Barenboim, stage director Harry Kupfer, set designer Hans Schavernoch and costume designer Reinhard Heinrich came to Bayreuth to realize their vision of Wagner’s Ring. They firmly turned away from the work’s time of origin and set their sights on a “critique of the history of mankind and of the entire evolution of culture, the destruction of which we are actively furthering” (Kupfer). While Wagner’s “critique of mankind’s desructive frenzy, its coldness and alienation” (Kupfer) was rooted in Germanic mythology, Kupfer’s team locates its Ring in a present that also embraces the past and the future. The place where present, past and future converge is the “road of history”, which sets the scene for struggles of power and love, and takes us straight into the depths of the human psyche. “Harry Kupfer has created a production of great coherency, hard, cutting, transparent, which will delight those who see in Wagner a contemporary and will displease those who consume Wagner like some consecrated artifact in a museum. The entire mythological apparatus is demolished bit by bit: what remains is what Wagner himself wanted: the ‘pure humanity’ of the myth. […] The entire ‘Ring’ unfolds like an intellectual adventure that provokes unforgettable emotions.” (La Repubblica)
Bruckner, Symphony No.9 in D minor
Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 can be regarded as the composer’s musical testament. Bruckner (1824-1896) told a friend: “I dedicate my last work to the Lord of lords, to my dear God. I hope that He will grant me enough time to complete it.” His wish was not fulfilled; the composer was still working on the finale the day he died and the symphony remained a torso. Bruckner nevertheless considered the work as the crowning point of his oeuvre, and he is said to have woven his musical farewell to life in the symphony’s Adagio. One of Bruckner’s most congenial interpreters was Herbert von Karajan (1908-1989). Karajan 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.
Brahms, Symphony No.1 in C minor, op.68
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. For the concertos, Bernstein enlisted the services of some of the finest Brahms interpreters of the time: the violinist Gidon Kremer, the cellist Misha Maisky and the pianist Krystian Zimerman.