It took 68 years for [Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt] Mahagonny to come to the Salzburg Festival, but it arrived in style. In Peter Zadek’s bold 1998 production the denizens of Brecht and Weill’s sin city crowd the vast stage of the Grosses Festspielhaus, and conductor Dennis Russell Davies brings an uncompromising zest and grit to the playing of the Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien. But Weill was always adamant that Mahagonny is an “epic opera”, and Salzburg never stints on that score. Catherine Malfitano and Jerry Hadley head a cast that stars Dame Gywyneth Jones as Widow Begbick: performances exactly as outsized, and as gripping, as Weill demanded.
Curlew River
A desolate landscape, a grieving mother and a ferryman who has seen the truth. When Benjamin Britten transported an ancient Japanese Noh play to the reedbeds and rivers of his native East Anglia, the local became universal. Part opera, part ritual, part haunting meditation on love and loss, Curlew River is a music drama like no other and in 1998, artist from both Japanese and western traditions came together at Aix-en-Provence to create it anew. Directed by Yoshi Oïda with a superb international cast, the result was simultaneously timeless and urgent. This live recording captures the moment with unforgettable immediacy and power.
Tristan & Isolde
There can be no half-measures with Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde: every performance demands supreme commitment, and that’s what it receives in this 1998 production from the Bavarian State Opera. No city has a longer Tristan pedigree than Munich, but Peter Konwitschny’s inventive updated staging is liberated rather than inhibited by that tradition. It’s a bold setting for a truly magnificent cast, and Gramophone described Waltraud Meier’s Isolde as “riveting”. Jon Frederic West, Kurt Moll and Marjana Lipvosek match her for intensity. With Zubin Mehta conducting and the Bavarian State Orchestra on radiant form, this is some of the finest Wagner singing – and playing – of its era.
Segerstam conducts Rautavaara: On the Last Frontier
“Music needs personality” said the conductor Leif Segerstam, speaking of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s choral “fantasy” On the Last Frontier. “It needs something between the lines”. And the imitable, irrepressible personalities of both of these much-missed artists are plain to see and hear in this 1998 concert from Helsinki’s Finlandia Hall. Rautavaara took his inspiration from a novel by Edgar Allan Poe, but Poe’s narrative of Antarctic exploration soon takes on a spiritual, almost other-worldly quality, in music of rapturous beauty and visionary power. Segerstam’s personal empathy with the composer gives this world premiere performance an unforgettable sense of occasion.
Enoch zu Guttenberg conducts Bach’s B Minor Mass
Any performance of Bach’s monumental Mass in B minor is a special occasion, and so it proves with this 1998 performance filmed in the magnificent setting of the Wieskirche, the pilgrimage church of Steingaden Abbey near Schongau in Bavaria, a dazzling example of the exuberance of the late German baroque. Enoch zu Guttenberg brings a lifetime of love and engagement with Bach with him to conduct the and the Neubeuern Choral Society and the Orchester der Klangverwaltung with a special combination of authority and passion, which extends to the outstanding line-up of soloists. The result is truly a peformance to treasure.
Olaf Bär – Portrait, Part 1
Hermann Prey: Stages in a Career – The Last Interview.
Mozartwoche 1998
Prometheus – Poem of Fire
According to the ancient Greek legend, Prometheus brought fire and culture to mankind, thus saving the world from being destroyed by Zeus. Through the ages, this story has inspired countless artists, poets and musicians to some of their grandest creations.
Christopher Swann’s film is based on a 1993 televised concert from Berlin’s Philharmonic Hall.
The program features music by Beethoven, Liszt, Skriabin and Nono based on the legend of Prometheus. The four compositions could not be more diverse in style and conception, representing highly different approaches: from the Prometheus as bringer of plague and destruction to the punished Prometheus chained to a rock.
In this film, Christopher Swann stresses a visual approach to this variety of ideas, using a number of modern film techniques to underscore and illustrate the musical presentation.
Performances by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Claudio Abbado are first-rate, although it is the presence of Argerich that will make this DVD an obligatory purchase.
Leonard Bernstein: Reaching for the Note – In honor of Leonard Bernstein’s 80th birthday.
When Leonard Bernstein died in 1990 at the age of 72, music lovers the world over mourned the loss of one of the 20th century’s artistic giants. In addition to his role as conductor, composer, educator and performing artist, Bernstein was one of the early pioneers in bringing the arts to television. As such, he became one of the most internationally recognized musical personalities in the world. Yet in spite of the existence of vast quantities of visual material, the two-hour film “The Infinite Variety of Leonard Bernstein” is the first full-scale biographical film portrait of the musician. The spine of the film is Bernstein’s own narrative. Supplementing this are recollections from friends, family, artistic collaborators and others who provide a historically critical perspective on his work and career. An equally important element is the integration of Bernstein’s compositions throughout the film. Through his television specials as an educator, as well as through the orchestral works he conducted for television, the film also provides a rich, varied and insightful reflection on Bernstein’s music-making.