It began with a scandal, became the object of heated discussions, turned into a sensational success and finally blossomed into a legendary, standard setting production: Pierre Boulez’ and Patrice Chéreau’s epoch-making “Ring” cycle in Bayreuth, the “Centennial Ring”. When the production was premiered in 1976, there were brawls in the venerable Festspielhaus, with the audience divided into one mob roaring in favor and one screaming against. The main reason for the protests was Chéreau, who set the work in the time in which it was written and focused on the all-too-human passions that motivate gods and men alike. The grimy industrial era with its robber barons and suffering masses supplied the ideological underpinnings of Chéreau’s concept. Musical conservatives felt betrayed and cheapened by this association. The tide began to turn in 1977. Certain features were altered and the production began to have a more homogeneous feel. Finally, in 1980, its last year, the Ring concluded with a 90-minute ovation and 110 curtain calls. By the time Philips released the complete recording of this production in 1992, its legendary status had already begun to take shape: “Patrice Chéreau and Pierre Boulez not only wrote a major new chapter in Wagner interpretation with their Ring, but also carried out a revolution that affected all of musical theater. Since then, no production of the Ring has been able to come near to the concept put forward by Chéreau and Boulez.” (FonoForum) Unitel’s production, the first complete recording on film of Wagner’s Ring, marked the beginning of Unitel’s exclusive association with the Bayreuth Festival.
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.
Siegfried
It began with a scandal, became the object of heated discussions, turned into a sensational success and finally blossomed into a legendary, standard setting production: Pierre Boulez’ and Patrice Chéreau’s epoch-making “Ring” cycle in Bayreuth, the “Centennial Ring”. When the production was premiered in 1976, there were brawls in the venerable Festspielhaus, with the audience divided into one mob roaring in favor and one screaming against. The main reason for the protests was Chéreau, who set the work in the time in which it was written and focused on the all-too-human passions that motivate gods and men alike. The grimy industrial era with its robber barons and suffering masses supplied the ideological underpinnings of Chéreau’s concept. Musical conservatives felt betrayed and cheapened by this association. The tide began to turn in 1977. Certain features were altered and the production began to have a more homogeneous feel. Finally, in 1980, its last year, the Ring concluded with a 90-minute ovation and 110 curtain calls. By the time Philips released the complete recording of this production in 1992, its legendary status had already begun to take shape: “Patrice Chéreau and Pierre Boulez not only wrote a major new chapter in Wagner interpretation with their Ring, but also carried out a revolution that affected all of musical theater. Since then, no production of the Ring has been able to come near to the concept put forward by Chéreau and Boulez.” (FonoForum) Unitel’s production, the first complete recording on film of Wagner’s Ring, marked the beginning of Unitel’s exclusive association with the Bayreuth Festival.
Strauss, Don Juan, op.20
“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. This recording was made at the New Year’s Concert of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra held at Munich’s Herkulessaal on 31 December 1980.
Die Walküre
It began with a scandal, became the object of heated discussions, turned into a sensational success and finally blossomed into a legendary, standard setting production: Pierre Boulez’ and Patrice Chéreau’s epoch-making “Ring” cycle in Bayreuth, the “Centennial Ring”. When the production was premiered in 1976, there were brawls in the venerable Festspielhaus, with the audience divided into one mob roaring in favor and one screaming against. The main reason for the protests was Chéreau, who set the work in the time in which it was written and focused on the all-too-human passions that motivate gods and men alike. The grimy industrial era with its robber barons and suffering masses supplied the ideological underpinnings of Chéreau’s concept. Musical conservatives felt betrayed and cheapened by this association. The tide began to turn in 1977. Certain features were altered and the production began to have a more homogeneous feel. Finally, in 1980, its last year, the Ring concluded with a 90-minute ovation and 110 curtain calls. By the time Philips released the complete recording of this production in 1992, its legendary status had already begun to take shape: “Patrice Chéreau and Pierre Boulez not only wrote a major new chapter in Wagner interpretation with their Ring, but also carried out a revolution that affected all of musical theater. Since then, no production of the Ring has been able to come near to the concept put forward by Chéreau and Boulez.” (FonoForum) Unitel’s production, the first complete recording on film of Wagner’s Ring, marked the beginning of Unitel’s exclusive association with the Bayreuth Festival.
Das Rheingold
World of the gods – world of the earthly elements: Herbert von Karajan has succeeded in forcefully underscoring the contrast between the world of the gods and the earthly realm. The ‘Rhinegold’ already bears within it a foreboding of the ‘Götterdämmerung’. In the Prelude, man – the hero – does not yet appear; what checks the power of the gods are the earthly elements: fire, water and earth. Wotan only appears to be victorious when he enters Valhalla with his fellow gods. The actual victor is Loge. Based on a production from the Salzburg Easter Festival, Georges Wakhevitch has produced stage settings and transformations that support Karajan’s concept with every possible means. The depths of the Rhine are dynamic and full of natural motion, but the inside of the earth – Nibelheim – with its corridors and vaults which lead to Alberich’s realm, also has something organically proliferating about it. With his singers – foremost among them Peter Schreier – Karajan has an ensemble that fully conforms to his intentions. Thomas Stewart is a nobly singing Wotan. Next to him is the grandiose Brigitte Fassbaender als Fricka, a profoundly embittered figure.
Sinfonietta
This studio recording featuring the Nederlands Dans Theater captures a scintillating performance of Kylián’s ballet inspired by the music of his Czech compatriot, Janácek. It is danced against a backdrop of the Bohemian countryside, created by Walter Nobbe, and expresses his emotional attachment to his homeland. He chose the piece because it stands as an ode to freedom, beauty and the joy of living, and the result is a ballet full of energetic exuberance, combined with some moving lyric passages.
Itzhak Perlman plays Beethoven Violin Concerto
This concert, performed by Itzhak Perlman, with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini, was recorded in 1980.
New Year’s Eve Concert 1980
For his New Year’s Eve Concert 1980, Sir Georg Solti returned to Munich’s Herkulessaal, where he led the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in another colorful potpourri of entertaining pieces. The concert opens with Richard Strauss’ scintillating tone poem “Don Juan,” the first work to manifest Strauss’ mature individual style. The episodic work is based on Nikolaus Lenau’s romantic version of the Don Juan legend. Its triumphant premiere in Weimar in 1889 established Strauss as one of the leading German composers of his time. “The Moldavia,” part of Bedrich Smetana’s vast symphonic cycle “My Fatherland,” was composed in 1884 and has been synonymous with Czech music ever since. Despite the work’s highly descriptive programmatic episodes, it is the sweeping and melancholy “Moldavia” theme that captivates all listeners. In his “Two Episodes from Lenau’s ‘Faust’,” Franz Liszt, like Strauss above, also turned to Lenau for the first of his four “Mephisto Waltzes” (the episode is actually called “The Dance in the Village Inn”). It is a work which reaches heights of frenzy and sensuality. “Les Préludes” is one of Liszt’s most famous symphonic poems. The title was drawn from a poem by Alphonse de Lamartine. It was first performed in Weimar in 1854, seven years before the first “Mephisto Waltz.” The concert closes with Franz von Suppé’s Overture to the drama “Poet and Peasant” (1846). Suppé, one of the first Viennese operetta composers, also wrote many overtures, songs, etc. for Viennese comedies in his day. This is one of his most lastingly popular pieces.