One of the best known and most beloved in music literature, Beethoven’s Fifth was written between 1804 and 1807. The first performance took place on 22 December 1808 in Vienna with Beethoven conducting. One of the most famous phrases in symphonic music opens the work and dominates the first movement, which then gives way to a set of variations on one long, extended theme in the second movement. The four-note introduction reemerges in the third movement, a Scherzo, with the double bass taking on a major role. The fourth movement is a magnificent explosion of music, almost a triumphant march. 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 lustige Witwe
The idea of a festival on the Neusiedler Lake in Mörbisch (in Austria’s province of Burgenland) was born in the summer of 1955; two years later, after a stage had been erected in the Mörbish Cove, Johann Strauss’s “Gypsy Baron” opened the first season of the “Seefestspiele”. The festival’s repertory is dominated by the works of the “Golden” and “Silver” Viennese operetta, from Johann Strauss to Ralph Benatzky and Robert Stolz. Lehár’s most famous operetta, “The Merry Widow”, was given its world premiere on 30 December 1905 in Vienna’s Theater an der Wien. It has been translated into 25 languages and played over 250,000 times around the world. It has been played everywhere, including – according to a 1910 newspaper report – on the Zambesi in the heart of colonial Africa. When it came out in New York and Chicago in 1907, it set off a veritable “Merry Widow” craze, spawning cigarettes, cocktails, hats etc.
Fidelio
Beethoven’s “Fidelio” is an opera about freedom, and the contrast between the darkness of imprisonment – which is taken as unjust political imprisonment – and the light of justice and liberty is both heard in the music and seen on the stage. It is this ethical force in addition to the purely musical strength and beauty of Beethoven’s score that gives “Fidelio” its unique appeal among the great operas. This production by Gustav Rudolf Sellner was recorded at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 1969 and stars Gwyneth Jones and James King in the leading roles. It was conducted by the great Karl Böhm in one of his rare appearances at the Deutsche Oper. “The kaleidoscope of passions is set in motion by Karl Böhm – a poised, powerful gait in which every tempo finds its perfect measure. Musically, the performance is glorious. With mighty build-ups, the film lunges towards the finale: the explosions of joy in a happiness that is hard won and in which all participate: Beethoven, the opera, television, the listeners and the viewers.” (Die Welt)
Schubert, Symphony No.7 in C major, D. 944
In the throes of his mortal illness, Franz Schubert (1797-1828) heroically succeeded in putting to paper his splendid last symphony, whose “divine lengths” are truly unique. Composed in 1825/26, Schubert’s largest symphonic work was first discovered after his death by Robert Schumann and first performed one year later, in 1839, by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in the Leipzig Gewandhaus. In marked contrast to the equally beloved “Unfinished” Symphony, Schubert devises a labyrinth of harmonies in a piece full of artless directness and joyful dance-like rhythms. Echoes of the visionary secrets of Romanticism surface from the depths of the work, only to be washed away by the inexorable current of the melodies. Never did Schubert write with such a lavish and impetuous hand than in his Ninth Symphony: “…it bears the eternal seed of youth within it.” (Robert Schumann) Unitel recorded this performance at the Musikvereinssaal in Vienna during a public concert given there in spring 1973. Karl Böhm led the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
Mozart, Symphony No.38 in D major, K. 504 “Prague”
Filmed mainly in Vienna’s splendid “Musikvereinssaal,” the Mozart symphonies conducted by Karl Böhm are all interpreted by one of the world’s foremost orchestras, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, whose principal conductors have included Wilhelm Furtwängler, Bruno Walter, Herbert von Karajan, Claudio Abbado and, of course, Karl Böhm. “Thanks to Bruno Walter’s exemplary performances, particularly of Mozart’s works, I grabbed on to Mozart and fell in love with him so much that I had only one wish: to conduct Mozart, Mozart, Mozart.” (Karl Böhm) A symphony for connoisseurs, K. 504 reflects the taste and discernment of the audience it was intended for: the musical public of Prague. Since his “Marriage of Figaro” was the hit of the town in late 1786, Mozart decided to travel to Prague; in his luggage was the D major symphony, premiered on 19 January 1787. Written between “Figaro” and “The Magic Flute,” it shares unmistakable affinities with these two works and even quotes a theme from “Figaro” in the finale. And it is also a work in which Mozart could be completely himself. He thus indulged in a draatic slow introduction, and in some austere contrapuntal writing in the first movement. Since the wind players in the Bohemian capital were rightly praised for their excellence, Mozart also rewarded them with some truly beautiful pages. Karl Böhm was universally acclaimed for his Mozart interpretations. Though Wagner was one of Böhm’s first loves, his friendship with Richard Strauss led to a deep knowledge and appreciation of Mozart. In his autobiography, Böhm wrote that “Richard Strauss revealed to me the ultimate secrets of this, in my opinion, greatest of all musical geniuses, Mozart.” Böhm’s discovery of these secrets transformed his Mozart interpretations into unforgettable events.
Beethoven, Symphony No.8 in F major, op.93
When the Eighth Symphony was first performed in 1814, it was not accorded the same tumultuous reception as the Seventh. Beethoven was not pleased because he considered it the superior of the two. This is a short and concise work, replete with gaiety and little musical jokes. The second movement, in fact, is a witty imitation of the ticking of the newly invented metronome. For the third movement, Beethoven returns to the classical minuet of the 18th century. 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. 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)
Beethoven, Symphony No.2 in D major, op.36
When, in the mid 1960s, Herbert von Karajan decided to record on film all nine Beethoven symphonies with the Berlin Philharmonic, he began with the “Fifth” and asked the famous French movie director Henri-Georges Clouzot (Quai des Orfèvres) to direct. Recognizing in the music-loving director a kindred soul and master of the symbolic image, Karajan found an inspired partner. In another of Karajan’s first efforts, he asked six directors to “stage” one movement each of a Beethoven symphony. For a full week, the directors had the Berlin Philharmonic and Herbert von Karajan – all in full dress – at their disposal, with all the 35mm film, cameras, lighting and technical assistance they needed. Karajan’s most controversial production was Hugo Niebeling’s highly personal interpretation of the “Pastorale”, with its abstract shots of instruments, rapid rhythms, fade-ins and symbolically arranged colors.
Tannhäuser
“Thunderous applause, elation”, wrote the prestigious Germany daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and Rome’s La Repubblica noted the “triumphal success and storm of applause” that greeted Giuseppe Sinopoli and the ensemble at Tannhäuser’s 1989 Bayreuth Festival premiere. Directed by Wolfgang Wagner, Richard Wagner’s grandson, this Tannhäuser production was one of the high points of the Bayreuth Festival during the latter part of the 1980s. The abstract starkness of Wolfgang Wagner’s production is underscored by the crystalline clarity and vigor of Giuseppe Sinopoli’s conducting, which particularly highlights the progressive aspects of the score. This Tannhäuser production gathers together some of the great Wagner singers of our time such as Cheryl Studer (Elizabeth), Wolfgang Brendel (Wolfram), Richard Versalle (Tannhäuser) and Hans Sotin (Landgrave).
Hommage à Séville
Così fan Tutte
Karl Böhm knew that the quality of his opera productions depended heavily on the choice of the right singers for each role. “When I set my mind on doing a certain opera with a certain cast, and it doesn’t work, then I become furious and throw a fit,” he once said. In this “Così” production, Böhm has gathered some of the greatest Mozart specialists of the 20th century: Gundula Janowitz, a warm, lyric soprano whose Munich “Pamina” under Knappertsbusch was one of the high points of her early career, before she went on to sing at all major opera houses as well as the Bayreuth and Salzburg Festivals; Christa Ludwig, who began singing under Karl Böhm at the Vienna State Opera in 1955, and who was later hailed as the best Mozart and Strauss mezzo-soprano of her generation; Luigi Alva, the Peruvian tenor whose light and elegant voice has made him one of the most sought-after lyrical tenors for Rossini and Mozart roles; Hermann Prey, whose rich baritone has captivated not only the opera public the world over but also lovers of the German Lied; Walter Berry, who has sung practically the entire repertoire of great Mozart bass-baritone roles at the Salzburg Festival, the Met, Covent Garden and the Vienna State Opera.