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Exactly 80 years before the Opening Concert of the 2019 Lucerne Festival, Sergei Rachmaninoff himself appeared for the first time on August 11, 1939 at the "International Music Festival Weeks". The roaring success of the performance stands in direct contrast to the need for retreat, seclusion and concentration that the star pianist sought as a composer. Marking three stages in his career, the concerto, étude, vocalise and symphony presented in 2019 take the listener to these places of retreat. And yet, they call to mind phenomena of public perception that still influence the way they are received today. In their diversity, these works invite us to appreciate the versatility of this extraordinary artist, to question, break through and expand patterns of perception.

 

REVIEW:

 

The pianist is musically involved, and so is Chailly. However unexpectedly, they form a superb partnership, and the entire reading is suffused with unabashed Romanticism. Matsuev shows himself perfectly willing to play delicate passages with the appropriate lyricism. The opening theme is unusually gentle, in fact. The impression of effortless virtuosity is especially vivid in the finale, where the pianist is magisterial. I would call this a Gilels-like performance in its authority and breadth rather than an electrifying Horowitz-like one. But it’s thrilling nonetheless.

 

– Fanfare

Riccardo Chailly pays tribute to Maurice Ravel with a program of waltzes and wild reveries of ecstasy and elegance. He ushers us into Ravel's musical worlds filled with ever-changing colors, scents, and flavors: the pulsating three-quarter time of waltzes that reflect just how much the Great War transformed European culture, the ancient love story of Daphnis and Chlo�, and the relentless rhythms of Bol�ro. Magnifique! Riccardo Chailly, who was born in 1953 in Milan, studied at the Conservatories of Perugia, Rome, and Milan and at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana, beginning his career as an assistant to Claudio Abbado at La Scala in Milan. Chailly was appointed Music Director of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1980, and in 1988 he moved to the same position with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, which he helmed for sixteen years. From 2005 to 2016, Riccardo Chailly served as head of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra; starting in 2015, he became Music Director of La Scala in Milan, and since the summer of 2016 he has held the position of Music Director of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra.

Mieczyslaw Weinberg's Trumpet Concerto op. 94 was composed in his most productive creative phase and premiered in Moscow on 6 January 1968. Shostakovich once described it as a "symphony for trumpet and orchestra" - no wonder, since it showcases the whole variety of Weinberg's compositions: from the bitingly humorous first and sumptuously colorfully orchestrated second movement to the wonderfully collage-like finale, fabulously interpreted by Hakan Hardenberger to celebrate the composer's 100th anniversary. After the Sixth and Fifth Symphonies, Andris Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig add Tchaikovsky's Fourth to their cycle featuring the symphonic works of this outstanding composer.

Georgia: A multi-ethnic state in the Caucasus, hovering between the past and the future. Up upon a hill, the Paliashvili Music School for gifted children looks out over Tbilisi. The plaster is crumbling, hardly any instrument can be tuned, and many teachers are so old they could be the pupils' great-grandparents. While they seek that spark of inspiration, the Headmaster fights for a new building and the students pursue their calling in life. WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THIS LOVE is a film about a place lost in time and threatening disappearance - a film about growing up and aging, about great dreams and the art of improvisation. "A deeply human film - full of warmth and tenderness." (Deutscher Kamerapreis)

Anton Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony was the last the Austrian composer completed. + Many of his contemporaries regarded the symphony as “the pinnacle of 19th c. music”. + Even today, this monumental work fascinates listeners with its virtuoso orchestral technique, immensity of sound and its inexhaustible richness of detail. + “Clarity was one thing that made this performance a marvel. + The flexibility of Barenboim’s tempi meant that Bruckner’s charm – an often overlooked aspect of his genius – shone through, especially in the genial Trio.” (The Telegraph)

For the first time ever, a Chinese symphony orchestra is performing at Lucerne Festival. If yet more evidence that classical music has long since become a global language were needed, it would be this appearance by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra under music director Long Yu. These musicians from Asia have planned a program of three Russian composers. Aaron Avshalomov, who was born in 1894, served as a professor at the Shanghai Conservatory, where he taught from 1919 on; he was one of the founders of China's Western musical tradition. His tone poem Hutongs of Peking captures the sounds and voices that once echoed through the narrow alleys of the Chinese capital. Tchaikovsky's immortal Violin Concerto will be performed by one of the leading virtuosos of our time, Maxim Vengerov. And the orchestra will demonstrate the degree to which a composer under Stalin had to wrestle with his own identity with Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony. Here the composer reacts to the political demand to be popular and monumental - which leads to an absurdly overstated "jubilant" conclusion.

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Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet” has inspired generations of artists to adaptations like scarcely any other work. In his colorful, passionate music, the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev brilliantly captured the clash of love and hatred, and the proximity of tenderness and violence. Inspired by Prokofiev’s vivid music and the timeless quality of Shakespeare’s tragedy, choreographer Christian Spuck and the Ballet Zurich narrate the most famous love story in world literature using strong images that are full of enthralling theatricality and touching emotion. Michail Jurowski, a true Prokofiev expert, is at the rostrum of the Philharmonia Zurich.

Riccardo Chailly pays tribute to Maurice Ravel with a program of waltzes and wild reveries of ecstasy and elegance. He ushers us into Ravel's musical worlds filled with ever-changing colors, scents, and flavors: the pulsating three-quarter time of waltzes that reflect just how much the Great War transformed European culture, the ancient love story of Daphnis and Chlo�, and the relentless rhythms of Bol�ro. Magnifique! Riccardo Chailly, who was born in 1953 in Milan, studied at the Conservatories of Perugia, Rome, and Milan and at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana, beginning his career as an assistant to Claudio Abbado at La Scala in Milan. Chailly was appointed Music Director of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1980, and in 1988 he moved to the same position with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, which he helmed for sixteen years. From 2005 to 2016, Riccardo Chailly served as head of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra; starting in 2015, he became Music Director of La Scala in Milan, and since the summer of 2016 he has held the position of Music Director of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra.

Tango - Caf� de los Maestros & friends. Recorded live at "El Palacio" in Buenos Aires - In the golden age of the 1920s and 1930s, the fabled ballroom "El Palacio" in Buenos Aires was home to the day's legendary tango dancers and musicians, and even today it remains a meeting place for stars of the Argentine tango scene. The great Rodolfo Mederos, the incomparable Juan Carlos Godoy, as well as Astor Piazzolla's musical partners Teresa Parodi and Fernando Su�rez Paz all here take part in this electrifying "Fiesta del Tango", while on the dance floor celebrated couples present consummate tango performances. This uncommon experience in an authentic atmosphere tells many stories of the tango - stories of longing, passion, and melancholy.

Filmed in North and South Korea, "Inbetween", a film by Maria Stodtmeier, explores whether music can overcome the boundaries of a divided country. There is one figure representing the two Koreas, a figure whose life in itself forms a bridge between both worlds: Korean composer Isang Yun is one of the very few people acknowledged on both sides. The film traces the course of a life that has been interpreted in different ways, examining the worlds of North and South Korean music, taking the viewer on an exciting journey through two political systems that Isang Yun spent his life trying to reconcile. Since the establishment of ACCENTUS Music, Maria Stodtmeier has been involved in the enterprise as author, director and producer. Ms. Stodtmeier was co-director with Paul Smaczny on the documentary "El Sistema" (Grand Prix Golden Prague. "A composer cannot view the world in which he lives with indifference... Where there is pain, where there is injustice, I want to have my say through my music." - Isang Yun, 1983

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THE NOBEL PRIZE CONCERT 2010
Ludwig van Beethoven: Leonore Overture No. 3 in C major, Op. 72b
Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35
Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 82

Joshua Bell, violin
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
Sakari Oramo, conductor

Bonus:
- Interviews featuring Joshua Bell, Sakari Oramo, and Mario Vargas Llosa, the 2010 Nobel Laureate in Literature.

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 91 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

A sonic innovator or an expert on chance? This documentary by Oscar-winning director Allan Miller and Emmy-winner Paul Smaczny pays tribute to the most fascinating American avant-garde composer. Shot in America, Germany and Japan, 'Journeys in Sound ' premieres rare archival footage and features associates of John Cage and contemporary artists.

In his ‘Symphonie fantastique’, Hector Berlioz describes “Various situations in the life of an artist” in the work’s five movements, and by that he means not least himself. This brilliantly orchestrated score radically expanded the vocabulary of symphonic music, bringing these scenes to life in the most impressive way possible. Under the direction of General Music Director Fabio Luisi, the first record of the new Philharmonia Records label presents a live recording of this symphonic milestone from the Philharmonia Zürich out of the Opernhaus Zürich.

The New York Philharmonic - America's preeminent symphony orchestra gave 'A Concert for New York' to mark the tenth anniversary of the events of 9/11. What work could be better suited to the occasion than Mahler's 'Resurrection' Symphony with it's 'evocation of every aspect of life' and 'it's profound sense of hope', as the Philharmonic's Music Director Alan Gilbert put it? This concert became an unforgettable event, a 'consistently impressive' performance with 'gripping playing', 'magnificent' soloists and an 'excellent' chorus (New York Times).

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

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To mark the bicentenary of Chopin’s birth, two leading Russian pianists tackle the great Romantic composer’s two piano concertos: Evgeny Kissin plays the F minor Concerto op. 21, a key work in Chopin’s output, while Nikolai Demidenko performs the E minor Concerto op. 11, a virtuoso display vehicle of the first rank. They are accompanied by the Warsaw Philharmonic under the direction of Antoni Wit. Enthusiastically acclaimed by the audience at Warsaw’s Philharmonic Hall on 27 February 2010, this memorable concert has been captured in first-class sound and picture quality.

Recorded live at the Filharmonia Narodowa, Warsaw, 26-27 February 2010.

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 97 mins
No. of Discs: 1