Beethoven, String Quartet No.16 in F major, op. 135 (Transcription for String Orchestra)
A light and transparent work, Beethoven’s opus 135 is particularly well suited to a performance with a full string orchestra. Bernstein’s interpretation can be seen as an homage to his revered mentor Dimitri Mitropoulos, who was the first to conduct a string orchestra version of Beethoven string quartet (op. 131). Composed in 1826, about half a year before Beethoven’s death, opus 135 is the last work Beethoven completed. Following the profundity of the preceding Quartet op. 131, the buoyancy and humor of this piece are surprising. The work seems to long for the ideals of Classicism, which were now irretrievably lost, and aims for an accessibility which is often missing in Beethoven’s late works. Leonard Bernstein said that only the strings of the Vienna Philharmonic could carry off the orchestral rendition of this work with bravura, since each player is a true soloist. The public performance of opus 135 was acclaimed by the press. “Since Leonard Bernstein is the number one conductor today, the only one who can let the Vienna Philharmonic play the way they would love to sound all the time, he and the orchestra wanted to play a difficult Beethoven Quartet in a monster setting. They succeeded, and it was ¿ an exciting work, unlike anything one ever hears.”
Beethoven, Piano Concerto No.5 in E flat major, op. 73 “Emperor”
It was to have been the culmination of Leonard Bernstein’s Beethoven cycle: the recording of all five piano concertos with a leading pianist of the younger generation. What it became is an example of enlightened music- making, the document of an incredible empathy between conductor, soloist and orchestra – an empathy so strong that it overrode even the maestro’s death. In Krystian Zimerman, Bernstein had found a congenial partner. But the full extent of Zimerman’s congeniality emerged only after the maestro’s death on 14 October 1990. Concertos Nos. 3, 4 and 5 had been recorded. A decision had to be taken with regard to concertos Nos. 1 and 2: either a new conductor had to be found or, following the practice of the 18th and early 19th centuries, the orchestra would be entrusted to the soloist. The latter alternative was chosen – a decision applauded throughout the music world. Born in Zabrze, Poland, on 7 December 1956, Krystian Zimerman won the first prize in the Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 1975. After expanding his repertoire and studying in London in 1980, he made a name for himself in numerous concerts and recordings as one of the most talented pianists of his generation.
Leonard Bernstein in Salzau 1989 – Part I: Romeo Alone (Berlioz, Excerpts from “Romeo and Juliet” – Rehearsal and Concert)
Bernstein always knew how important it was to pass one’s knowledge on to younger generations. As a young man in Tanglewood in 1940, he made an unforgettable experience: a summer spent in an atmosphere of relaxed creativity with a charismatic teacher (Serge Koussevitzky) and a great orchestra (the Boston Symphony). Later, when he returned to Tanglewood as a teacher, he gave his best to the students of the Berkshire Music Center. And it is his experiences there which stimulated him to create something similar in Europe. The venue was the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. In 1987 120 young musicians from all over the world were invited to Salzau Palace to form the Festival Orchestra, which rehearsed and performed under the direction of Leonard Bernstein. At the same time, Bernstein worked with young conductors in master classes. From 1987 to 1989, Bernstein devoted himself with astonishing energy to his work with the festival students. And each summer, Unitel was there to document this for posterity. In 1989, his final summer in Salzau, Bernstein chose Berlioz’s vocal symphony Roméo et Juliette. Written in 1839, it illustrates a series of episodes from Shakespeare’s play and involves chorus, soloists and a large orchestra. Seeking new ways of capturing on film the unique combination of creative exchange and festival atmosphere, Unitel director Horant Hohlfeld turned to a new technique of underlaying the final concert with scenes from the rehearsals.
Debussy, Images (Rondo, Gigue, Ibéria)
“I truly admire this orchestra and hope it becomes better known abroad,” confided Leonard Bernstein in 1989 to the audience in Rome’s Auditorio Pio before his concert of works by Claude Debussy (1862-1918) with the prestigious “Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia.” In the words of Rome’s “Il Giornale,” Bernstein served up a “Debussy that is neither ethereal nor shapeless, but uncommonly vital, caught in the full light of noon.” The concert begins with “Images,” Debussy’s last orchestral work and one of his most colorful scores. It consists of three separate pieces: the rather doleful “Gigues,” the “Rondes de printemps,” which incorporates a French nursery tune, and “Ibéria,” a vibrant homage to Spain, complete with tambourines and castanets.
Leonard Bernstein in Salzau 1989 – Part II: Love Scene (Berlioz, Excerpts from “Romeo and Juliet” – Rehearsal and Concert)
Bernstein always knew how important it was to pass one’s knowledge on to younger generations. As a young man in Tanglewood in 1940, he made an unforgettable experience: a summer spent in an atmosphere of relaxed creativity with a charismatic teacher (Serge Koussevitzky) and a great orchestra (the Boston Symphony). Later, when he returned to Tanglewood as a teacher, he gave his best to the students of the Berkshire Music Center. And it is his experiences there which stimulated him to create something similar in Europe. The venue was the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. In 1987 120 young musicians from all over the world were invited to Salzau Palace to form the Festival Orchestra, which rehearsed and performed under the direction of Leonard Bernstein. At the same time, Bernstein worked with young conductors in master classes. From 1987 to 1989, Bernstein devoted himself with astonishing energy to his work with the festival students. And each summer, Unitel was there to document this for posterity. In 1989, his final summer in Salzau, Bernstein chose Berlioz’s vocal symphony Roméo et Juliette. Written in 1839, it illustrates a series of episodes from Shakespeare’s play and involves chorus, soloists and a large orchestra. Seeking new ways of capturing on film the unique combination of creative exchange and festival atmosphere, Unitel director Horant Hohlfeld turned to a new technique of underlaying the final concert with scenes from the rehearsals.
A Village: Romeo and Juliet (Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe)
Based on the novella “The People of Seldwyla” by Gottfried Keller, this opera was written in 1901 and first performed in German at Berlin’s Komische Oper on 21 February 1907. Its first English-language production was given in London on 22 February 1910. Frederick Delius (1862-1934) obtained his first successes in Germany. He numbers among the late-Romantic composers in the line of Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler. The dramatic weightiness and heroic sweep of these composers is, however, missing in Delius’s music, which is more dream-like and limpid, as in the well-known “Walk to Paradise Garden”, an intermezzo from the opera “A Village Romeo and Juliet”. Delius’s most important opera, it radiates a fairy-tale atmosphere similar to that found in Pfitzner and Humperdinck.
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Guillaume Tell
Gioacchino Rossini ended his career as an opera composer at the early age of 37. “Guillaume Tell” (1829), his last stage work, was commissioned by the Paris Opéra. After this Rossini would only compose a few smaller vocal and instrumental pieces. Up to then, however, he had been the most important opera composer between Mozart and Verdi. Since the 1970s, the musical world has steadily been rediscovering Rossini’s oeuvre, much of which has long vegetated in the shadow of “Il barbiere di Siviglia” or “La rentola.” His musical dramas are now frequently encountered on leading operatic stages and at renowned festivals. This Milan production of “Guglielmo Tell” was an important milestone in the Rossini Renaissance. The aristocrat of conductors, the autocrat of the baton, Riccardo Muti cuts a noble figure at the head of any orchestra, and ennobles every ensemble through his charismatic personality and red-blooded musicality. In many respects, including his unwillingness to compromise over artistic matters, he is reminiscent of Arturo Toscanini, who was also a demanding ruler at the podium. His rise to international fame set in with his guest conductorships at the Salzburg Festival in 1971 and at the head of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1972. Muti became principal guest conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra a few years later, and was named its music director in 1980. Always a conductor of both the symphonic and operatic repertoire, Muti advanced to the post of music director of La Scala in Milan in 1986. The 1990s saw Muti consolidating his reputation at the head of this venerable institution, as well as in countless other high-caliber venues around the world. Today he is one of the undisputed giants among the leading conductors of the world.
Adriana Lecouvreur
Cilea’s four-act opera of jealousy and tangled love, first performed in Milan in 1902, is based on the true-life story of Adriana Lecouvreur, an 18th-Century actress at the Comédie Française, whose rival for the love of Maurizio, Count of Saxony, is the married Principessa di Bouillon. Mirella Freni sings the title part in this production, Gianandrea Gavazzeni conducts the Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala.