Also available on Blu-ray

Giacomo Puccini’s three act opera Turandot is set in China and tells the story of Prince Calaf who falls in love with the Princess Turandot. To obtain permission to marry her, a suitor has to solve three riddles, but any wrong answer results in death. Rebeka Lokar is a “commanding Turandot” (Bachtrack) and Jorge de León as the Princess’ suitor a “true giant” (Corriere della Sera) with his perfect rendition of “Nessun dorma”. Grammy Award nominee Gianandrea Noseda impressively conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Regio “as modern as you have rarely experienced it. Chapeau!” (Operalounge) Stage director Stefano Poda dedicates himself to bring Puccini’s Ancient Chinese setting to life. To achieve an aesthetic and conceptual unity, his work also encompasses set and costume design as well as lighting and choreography. “Extraordinary Turandot” (La Repubblica), “unanimous applause at the end!” (La Stampa). “The icy Turandot inflames the Teatro Regio!” (Corriere della Sera)

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REVIEW:

Noseda will be missed at Turin, as this punchy and incisive performance reveals. Overall, speeds are brisk but there is plenty of atmospheric detail. Grimaldi’s Liù is really the true heroine here, given the production’s skewed emphasis. Still, it’s a pity that the Slovenian soprano Rebeka Lokar gets so little input into Turandot, as she attacks those murderous high notes in juicy and vibrant voice.

– Gramophone

Also available on Blu-ray

RICHARD STRAUSS – At the End of the Rainbow

A documentary by Eric Schulz

This documentary shows a new perspective on the personality and oeuvre of Richard Strauss, who saw himself as the last great composer at the end of an era, “at the end of the rainbow.” This carefully researched production presents spectacular hitherto unreleased pictures of Richard Strauss. Among others: a live recording of the premiere of the “Olympic Anthem” at the Berlin Olympic stadium in 1936. The very first performance of this piece ever to be heard, performed by the Berlin Philharmonic and a choir of 1000 singers conducted by Richard Strauss himself. These spectacular rare pictures are embedded in interviews with relatives, famous musicians and Strauss experts, such as Christian Strauss, Stefan Mickisch, and Brigitte Fassbaender. Director Eric Schulz is an acclaimed documentary film maker whos first two films, Carlos Kleiber Traces to Nowhere and Herbert von Karajan - The Second Life both attracted worldwide attention and were rewarded with various prizes, including the ECHO Klassik and the Gramophone Award.

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Audio Language: German
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Chinese
Booklet notes: English, German, French
Running time: 97 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

Rossini's masterpiece Il barbiere di Siviglia is a fast-paced, thrilling opera featuring a lot of popular arias. Staged by Herbert Fritsch as a colourful, turbulent, diversely choreographed piece it is extraordinary musical theater:"A feast for the ears against a colourful backdrop." (DLF Kultur)"With largely sensational musical performances" (Kurier). Juan Diego Floréz"fulfils all expectations of a Rossini singer in a class of his own" (BR Klassik),"witty and vocally profound is Ildar Abdrazakov as Basilio" (Der Standard) while Vasilisa Berzhanskaya"is convincing in her house debut as Rosina." (DLF Kultur)

The performance of Il turco in Italia at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro is presented as a totally renewed production. With references to films of the iconic film director Federico Fellini “Davide Livermore brought it all together adding the perfect physical comic schtick that matched up perfectly with the musical pace of Rossini’s masterpiece - it was spectacular” (Opera Today). “Obviously the brilliant outcome of the performance is also due to Speranza Scapucci’s conducting, well prepared and highly talented, …” (Il Resto del Carlino Pesaro). The cast featuring Erwin Schrott, “who manages the most intricate colloratura effortlessly with his agile, beautiful bass- baritone...” (General-Anzeiger) and Olga Peretyatko being “the ideal cast” (Das Opernglas) made it a marvellous performance.

Also available on Blu-ray

Rossini’s second masterpiece La Cenerentola premiered at the Teatro Valle in Rome on the 25th of January 1817, less than a year after the first performance of his The Barber of Seville and it´s pure, perfect Rossini. In this production, a set-up made to celebrate 200 years Rossini in Rome, Emma Dante´s “rousing Cinderella” (Corriere della Sera) “succeeds in impressing her own contemporary vision on a classic masterpiece, in perfect symbiosis with the spirit of Rossini.” (Opera Now) “Alejo Pérez deserves the credit for an excellent ensemble and a dazzling rhythmic rendering of the Rossinian score.” (La Nazione – Il Resto del Carlino – Il Giorno)

Rossini’s La donna del lago, premièred in 1819 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, is a masterpiece based on the poem The Lady of the Lake by Sir Walter Scott, which is full of passion and romantic frisson. “With characteristic boldness, Michieletto reformulates this glittering music into something otherworldly” (Financial Times) and the performance is “musically brilliant.” (Die Presse.com) “Marko Mimica and Varduhi Abrahamyan produce strong performances as Douglas and Malcom respectively. Flórez is laser like and fresh as ever and thrilling brutish …“ (Financial Times) while the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes: “Michele Mariotti and his outstanding orchestra were the stars of the evening.“

Rossini's penultimate opera, premiered in 1828 at the Op�ra National de Paris, is a musical comedy about a love triangle set during the Crusades. At the Op�ra Comique it's plot is transported to the time of the works' creation with France's military expeditions to Algeria. It is staged by a first-rate creative team: Stage director Denis Podalyd�s and costume designer Christian Lacroix provide stunning visuals, whilst conductor Louis Langr�e leads the Orchestre des Champs-�lys�es, the Ch�ur Les �l�ments and a stellar cast of soloists in this delightful fool's game. Mezzo-soprano Ga�lle Arquez shines with her "superlative technique" (Le Monde) and Julie Fuchs's Ad�le performance elicits "more than just admiration, namely enthusiasm in the etymological sense of the word: inspired by the divine" (Le Monde). "A masterpiece!" (T�l�rama), "Pure pleasure!" (Les �chos). Le Comte Ory at the Op�ra Comique is "a true musical and theatrical celebration where everything sparkles!" (Bachtrack)

When Rossini’s opera Le Siège de Corinthe was premiered in 1826 in Paris it became a huge success all over Europe. The Rossini Opera Festival presents the opera in a new production from Carlus Padrissa of the Barcelona collective La Fura dels Baus, “which here has one of its most interesting shows” (connessiallopera.it). Artisticly “Roberto Abbado holds the ranks excellently and supports a well-cohesive and balanced cast” (L’ape musicale) “where bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni growled fearsomely as Sultan Mahomet, tenor Sergey Romanovsky as Néoclès matched a warm tone with pinging top notes, and tenor John Irvin was self-assured as Cléomène, but soprano Nino Machaidze as Pamyra thrilled most of all, as she purred effortlessly through pyrotechnic coloratura” (Financial Times).

Also available on Blu-ray

For the first time the opera “Mosè” by Gioachino Rossini is on stage inside a Cathedral in a semi-scenic performance at the Duomo di Milano. The Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano, in the wake of a centuries-old tradition of dialogue with the contemporary, chooses the most advanced technology to open up to the world and the public with an immediacy never achieved until now, including lights and colors effects that characterize the scenes of the show, with an evocative video mapping technique.

No. of Discs: 1
Run time: 102 minutes
Disc Format: DVD 9
Picture: NTSC, 16:9
Audio: PCM Stereo, PCM 5.1
Bonus Material: A documentary revealing the secrets of Milan Cathedral
Subtitles Bonus: Italian, English
Region Code: 0 (worldwide)

This release presents a rarely performed masterpiece: Gioachino Rossini's Mos� in Egitto at the Bregenz Festival staged by Lotte de Beer, who retrieves this hidden gem of opera literature for a spectacular staging. de Beer, one of the most sought-after stage directors of her generation (International Opera Newcomer Award 2015) teams up with the Dutch theatre collective Hotel Modern to tell the story of the Biblical Exodus. Their unique production concept for Mos� in Egitto revolves around the ingenuity of Hotel Modern. The theatre group conjures up it's own reality by using live animations to portray the mass scenes and the parallel narratives of the people and the slaves. Miniature cameras, thousands of puppets, models of villages and cities and a spectacular aquarium installation present the biblical tale of plagues and the parting of the Red Sea on the Bregenz stage - "a stroke of genius" (Der Standard).

Also available on Blu-ray

To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the premiere of the Rossini rarity, the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro staged Ricciardo e Zoraide with an all-star cast. Juan Diego Flórez makes his debut as the crusader Ricciardo, giving a “masterclass in bel canto” (Bachtrack), his high notes are “... still thrilling with their laser-like precision” (Financial Times). The South African soprano Pretty Yende – “radiant and richly expressive” (Financial Times) as Zoraide – proves that she is “a virtuosa in Rossini singing” (Neue Musikzeitung). On the 150th anniversary of the composer’s death and 200 years after its premiere, Ricciardo e Zoraide rings out with an artistic quality that is second to none, thanks to the skills of an “absolute Champions League ensemble” (Online Merker). Due to the “attentive conducting of Giacomo Sagrapanti, practically nothing stands in the way of enjoying the beauty of this rarely performed score to the fullest” (Online Merker). The result is an incredible orchestral performance.

Also available on Blu-ray

The idea of uniting young musicians from Israel, Palestine and various Arab countries still seems incredible today. Yet the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra has been flourishing since 1999, when it was founded by Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said. In 2007 the ensemble took a highly acclaimed residency at the Salzburg Festival. The major orchestral concert comprises a Beethoven overture, an intricate and multilayered piece by Schoenberg, and Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, the Pathétique, in which Barenboim pulls out all the stops and coaxes rarely heard instrumental lines and accents from his musicians.

Recorded live from the Salzburg Festival, 2007

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Booklet notes: English, German, French
Running time: 125 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

Pierre Boulez conducts the Vienna Philharmonic with pianist Daniel Barenboim in works by Ravel, Bartok, and Stravinsky.

The opening concert of the Salzburg Festival, for many regarded as the world's most renowned music festival, is by tradition a high-profile event and the 2011 gala presented here was one of the best in memory. Pierre Boulez, the "grand seigneur of subtle minimalism and exquisitely beguiling sounds" (Der Standard), assembled a cast of tremendous distinction to join the Vienna Philharmonic for this prestigious concert, conceived as a tribute to Gustav Mahler: Dorothea Roschmann, Anna Larsson, Johan Botha and rising star Anna Prohaska. After two works by Mahler's pupil Alban Berg, featuring Roschmann and Prohaska, the main event of the concert if Mahler's large-scale cantata Das klagende Lied - a "great spectral opera for the mind's eye" (Vienna Zeitung).

The concerts that occur each year at the Salzburg Festival are undoubtedly some of the finest performances in the world. Established in 1920, the Festival is held each summer in the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In addition to the various concerts that are performed each year, operas and plays are presented as well. This unique and extensive release features six concerts from the Salzburg Festival that were recorded between 2007 and 2013. The fine orchestras featured include the Wiener Philharmoniker, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, and the National Children’s Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela under the batons of Pierre Boulez, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Daniel Barenboim, and Sir Simon Rattle.

In one of the most unusual opening concerts of recent decades, Nikolaus Harnoncourt launched the 2009 Salzburg Festival with an exploration of the dance element in Austrian music. Dances by Schubert and Josef Strauss provided an introduction to the magnificent "Dance of Death" that emerged from the octogenarian maestro´s hands in Schubert´s C major Symphony ("Great"). The perfect orchestra for these authentically Viennese and yet universally valid works was, of course, the Vienna Philharmonic. "An interpretation of incomparable richness" (Münchner Merkusr).

Recorded live at the Salzburg Festival, 2009.

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Booklet notes: English, German, French
Running time: 95 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

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SALZBURG FESTIVAL 2009 OPENING CONCERT • Nikolaus Harnoncourt, cond; Vienna PO • MAJOR 702708 (DVD: 95:00) Live: Salzburg 7/26/2009


SCHUBERT/WEBERN 6 German Dances. JOS. STRAUSS Frauenherz Polka . Delirien Waltz . Pêle Mêle Polka. SCHUBERT Symphony No. 9


I need to begin with a confession. I frequently find myself out of sympathy with the music-making of Nikolaus Harnoncourt. I recognize that he is very highly regarded not only by critics and music lovers throughout the world, but by many of the great musicians of our time. It is probably fair to say that the problem is me, not Harnoncourt, and I would imagine that those who respond to his approach will find this a compelling DVD. Certainly the Vienna Philharmonic, an orchestra that can impose its will on lesser conductors, gives Harnoncourt what he wants—and the performances are, for the most part, deeply committed and well played, exciting on their own terms. It is those terms with which I have a problem.


I would guess that even some of Harnoncourt’s admirers might have trouble with the grey, charmless reading of the Schubert German Dances. Even in Webern’s arrangements these works need to sing, and certainly need to dance, and they do little of that here. The string tone is hard-edged, and the lack of grace is alarming. For some reason, perhaps it was its reaction to the performance, the audience doesn’t applaud after these (whereas it does clap between the Josef Strauss pieces).


It is clear from Harnoncourt’s conducting, from his severe facial expression, and from Harald Reiter’s notes that accompany this DVD, that the conductor had something completely different in mind than the usual charm and smiles that we associate with the music of any of the Strauss family. “To Josef Strauss’s works Harnoncourt brought a military precision and a sobriety that at times seemed almost disturbing.” That is what the program notes tell us, and indeed that is what we hear. The notes talk about attentive playing, and for the most part that is true, though there are one or two moments of insecurity at tempo changes in the Delirien Waltz. But for the most part, the VPO is right there with Harnoncourt, digging in and giving us sober, fierce Josef Strauss. If you believe that will appeal to you, you will never hear it done better.


It becomes clear with the detached notes of the opening horn solo that the Schubert Ninth will be in a similar vein. Once again, let me quote the accompanying notes: “It was a dance of death that Harnoncourt, using the simplest of means and on the basis of a detailed study of the score, conjured up from behind the musical glories of Schubert’s Ninth. In passages where we have been used to hearing a plaintive horn, he suggested the trumpet fanfares of war.” (By the way, I listened and reacted before I read the notes, so they did not influence, but rather they confirmed.) If you believe that you would like this kind of take on the Schubert Ninth, the chances are that you will find much to like here. The performance is dynamic, played with an edge-of-the-seat intensity that cannot be denied, and is certainly all of a piece. There are a few moments when the string tone seems a bit wiry to me, as if Harnoncourt was minimizing vibrato, but there are some other moments of uncommon grace, particularly in the second movement. Harnoncourt does take all the repeats, as one would expect from him. And I must note that the strong diminuendo he takes at the end seems starkly at odds with his view of the piece.


The direction for the cameras, by Michael Beyer, is standard orchestra concert direction—but less fussy and jerky than most. Beyer doesn’t feel the need to jump from shot to shot every two seconds, and his camerawork seems musically sensitive. The sound quality, heard in the PCM 2.0 format, is extremely clear and full, and very well balanced. The high-definition filming is crystal clear.


It is difficult to criticize a conductor for achieving at a high level precisely what he set out to achieve. Far better a performance with a real force of personality like this than a score-bound read-through. This is energized, spontaneous, communicative music-making. I probably will not return to it, because it is simply not the way I hear this symphony in my mind’s ear (and I enjoy a wide range of performances of it, from Furtwängler to Szell). I hear in this work a beauty and songfulness that Harnoncourt seems to deny. But there is no doubt that it left a strong impression, and I suspect it will have many admirers.


FANFARE: Henry Fogel

These four Salzburg Festival Opening Concerts are now available in a hardcover slipcase for a very attractive price! Top casts with Pierre Boulez, Daniel Barenboim, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Wiener Philharmoniker, Dorothea Roschmann, Elina Garanca, Klaus Florian Vogt, Rene Pape, Anna Prohaska, Anna Larsson and Johan Botha.

Also available on Blu-ray

Fierrabras of 1823 is the last of Franz Schubert's stage works. Rarely performed to this day, this heroic-romantic opera has now been staged for the first time ever at the Salzburg Festival by famous director Peter Stein. The strong cast includes the "marvellously expressive miracle Dorothea Röschmann" (Die Zeit) and "Michael Schade, who exudes his exceptional tenor in Fierrabras's heroic arias" (Der neue Merker). Under the energetic baton of lngo Metzmacher, the Vienna Philharmonic unfold "the melos, the poetry, the sweetness and the dramatic force of Schubert's highly refined and atmospheric sound worlds" (Kleine Zeitung) in highly romantic fashion. Bonus: The Making of Fierrabras.

Franz Schubert
FIERRABRAS

König Karl - Georg Zeppenfeld
Emma - Julia Kleiter
Roland - Markus Werba
Eginhard - Benjamin Bernheim
Boland - Peter Kálmán
Fierrabras - Michael Schade
Florinda - Dorothea Röschmann
Maragond - Marie-Claude Chappuis

Vienna State Opera Chorus
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Ingo Metzmacher, conductor

Peter Stein, stage director
Ferdinand Wögerbauer, stage designer
Annamaria Heinreich, costume designer
Joachim Barth, lighting designer

Recorded live during the Salzburg Festival, 2014

Bonus:
- The Making of Fierrabras

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format:PCM Stereo / DTS 5.0
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: German, English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese Booklet notes: English, German, French
Running time: 164 mins (opera) + 10 mins (bonus)
No. of DVDs: 2 (DVD 9)

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REVIEW:

Peter Stein's Salzburg Festival production sets Fierrabras more or less in its historical period. All four main roles are convincingly taken, with the palm going to Julia Kleiter's Emma, alluringly voiced and phrased, and soaring without shrillness into the stratosphere.

– Gramophone

Schumann at Pier2 is not a usual concert film; it shows the 4 Symphonies of Schumann from a new perspective. Stars of the film are the conductor Paavo Jarvi and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and it's filmed at Pier2 a former dockyard in the harbor of Bremen.

Schumann at Pier2 is not a usual concert film; it shows the 4 Symphonies of Schumann from a new perspective. Stars of the film are the conductor Paavo Jarvi and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and it's filmed at Pier2 a former dockyard in the harbor of Bremen.

Star conductor Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden present a brand new recording of all four symphonies of Robert Schumann, who lived in Dresden from 1844 to 1850 and wrote his second symphony there. His symphonies are considered masterpieces amongst German romantic symphonic works. This cycle, which was recorded live at the Suntory Hall in Tokyo, receiving great critical acclaim, is a new milestone in Schumann interpretation. "The Staatskapelle's sumptuous playing is hard to fault..." (The Guardian) A bonus on this release is "Discovering Schumann," which features Christian Thielemann talking about Schumann�s Symphonies and his interpretations.

Also available on Blu-ray

A remarkable concert, splendidly captured on DVD.

This concert, given in the splendid modern concert hall of the Culture and Congress Center, was recorded live at the 2011 Lucerne Festival. I’ve previously seen several DVDs of Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and I can give this present DVD no higher praise than to say that the music making preserved here is of the same exalted standard that I’ve experienced from Abbado.
 
The programme is a little odd and the rather superficial note by Barbara Eckle is of little help beyond suggesting vaguely that Nelsons wished to contrast the extrovert pieces by Wagner and Strauss with the “sublimation of emotion” - whatever that may mean - in the Shostakovich. However, let’s not waste time trying to discern a shape behind the programming. The Wagner is done very well. It’s evident from his facial expressions that Nelsons delights in the Rienzi’s Prayer theme, which he takes pretty broadly - though the sumptuous, aristocratic playing of the Concertgebouw’s string choir justifies that indulgence. There’s not a lot one can do with the tub-thumping, Weber-esque allegro music except to play it for all it’s worth and Nelsons does just that. He leads a vivid, red-blooded account of the Dance of the Seven Veils, helped by some colourful and suitably seductive paying by the orchestra: the principal flute and oboe players offer particularly delightful contributions. Again, it’s evident that the conductor is relishing the music and the response of the Concertgebouw’s players.
 
Smiles are absent from Nelsons’ face at the start of the symphony, and rightly so; this is music with a very serious, indeed grim countenance. Right from the outset of the massive first movement - which plays for 25:35 in this performance - Nelsons exerts the control that is vital in this spare, intense music. The long, glacial opening paragraphs, dominated by the strings, are sustained with supreme concentration. Gradually Nelsons and his players ratchet up the tension as the music moves inexorably towards the first climax. This is a gripping account of the movement; one’s attention is held and never slips. When it arrives the towering main climax, underpinned by menacing drum rolls, is shattering, as the composer intended. The extended baleful cor anglais threnody that follows - superbly played here - maintains the tension even though the decibel count has reduced to minimal levels; that’s a remarkable achievement by Shostakovich. Eventually the movement peters out in exhaustion. 

The motor rhythms in the second movement are splendidly executed. This is blatant, strutting music, surely depicting sardonically a war machine. The bite and vigour of the Concertgebouw’s playing under Nelsons’ committed direction realises the composer’s intentions to perfection. The brutal menace of the third movement is conveyed no less successfully and the trumpet-led galop in the middle of the movement is expertly done. When the colossal climax arrives one has the sense that the runaway music has run at full tilt into a forbidding rock face and then the momentum drains away and we are left to contemplate the bleak, forbidding wastes of the impassive passacaglia that follows. This is a movement that requires utmost control of dynamics and total concentration on the part of the conductor and all the players. That’s exactly what happens here. The music is almost imperceptible at times, so hushed is the playing. In fact, both individually and collectively, the RCO is superb in the way the players sustain the soft dynamics. There’s some tremendously sensitive playing by the principal horn and by the clarinettists. The performance is quite breathtaking as Nelsons and his players summon up a vision of a wasteland comparable to the one that can be experienced in the last movement of Vaughan Williams’ Sixth Symphony.
 
The finale finds Shostakovich in enigmatic mode. Surely, the Soviet authorities were expecting their leading symphonist to come up with a symphony whose conclusion celebrated the heroic Soviet military and their repulse of the Nazi invasion. Instead what they got was the desolate passacaglia followed by a movement which, while ostensibly lighter in tone at times is still very far from a victory celebration. The music begins in what might seem a relaxed vein after the rigours of the fourth movement but peer beneath the surface veneer and there’s little genuine optimism. To make matters worse - for those seeking optimism - eventually Shostakovich arrives at an anguished and extended reprise of the grinding climax from the first movement. What, then, is the listener to make of the sardonic passage for bass clarinet and solo violin that follows immediately afterwards? Talk about “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma”. It’s interesting to see the impish look on the face of Andris Nelsons as he launches into that bass clarinet/violin passage; I wonder what he makes of it? Whatever the meaning may or may not be, the passage is marvellously delivered by the two RCO players, which is entirely in keeping with the superb standard of solo playing on display throughout the whole performance. The symphony ends on a questioning, uncertain note and this strange, hushed music comes over most atmospherically here; thankfully the audience maintain their collective concentration and there’s a long silence after the music has died away before the well-merited ovation begins.
 
This is a gripping, magnetic account of one of Shostakovich’s finest symphonic utterances. From start to finish the RCO offers peerless playing that seems completely in tune with their conductor’s vision of the piece. As for Nelsons, this is another significant achievement in his recording career. Up to now I’ve only seen him conduct when sitting in the stalls - in other words, he’s had his back to me. Seeing him now from the front it’s fascinating to watch how he communicates with the orchestra through gestures and facial expressions. This concert offers further confirmation that Andris Nelsons is a major talent. The audiences in Birmingham should make the most of him for surely it will not be too long before one of the world’s leading orchestras snaps him up.
 
It only remains to say that the camera work is excellent, offering unobtrusive but very interesting and varied perspectives on the performers. The sound quality is very good and people who play DVDs through their hi-fi system will get even better results than I did, I’m sure. In short, the technical presentation is fully worthy of this remarkable concert.
 
-- John Quinn, MusicWeb International

A performance for the ages, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under the charismatic yet calculated baton of Andris Nelsons give everything they've got to Shostakovich's might 8th Symphony. 2011 winner of the prestigious ECHO Klassik Award, Andris Nelsons is one of the most sought-after young conductors on the international scene today. Over the next few seasons he will continue collaborations with Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Boston Symphony and the New York Philharmonic. Andris Nelsons is a regular guest at Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera New York.

Director: Humphrey Burton

Recorded live at the Wiener Musikvereinssaal, 1986, 1987, 1988 and 1990.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Booklet notes: English, German, French
Running time: 166 mins
No. of DVDs: 2 (DVD 9 + DVD 5)

In the mid 1980s, Unitel began recording a complete cycle of Sibelius symphonies with Leonard Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic. Bernstein´s death in 1990 unfortuantely cut short this project after the release of Symphonies Nos. 1, 2, 5 and 7. Recorded live at Vienna´s Musikverein, these ecstatic performances were the object of stellar reviews. On this double-disc set, Bernstein´s unique and by now legendary interpretations of Sibelius are released for the first time on DVD.

Also available on Blu-ray

SOLTI – Journey of a Lifetime Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the birth of Sir Georg Solti A film by Georg Wübbolt

Featuring:
Valerie Solti
Valery Gergiev
Christoph von Dohnányi
Sir Peter Jonas
Clemens Hellsberg
Ewald Markl
and many more as interview partners as well as several musical excerpts conducted by Sir Georg Solti

Bonus:
Dmitry Shostakovich: Symphony No. 1 in F minor, Op. 10
Sergey Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1 in D major, Op. 25, “Classical”
Modest Mussorgsky: Khovanshchina: Prelude

Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Georg Solti, conductor

R E V I E W:

SOLTI: JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME • Georg Solti, cond; Chicago SO • C-MAJOR 711708 (DVD: 106: 00) A film by Georg Wübbolt

MUSSORGSKY Khovanshchina: Prelude. PROKOFIEV Symphony No. 1, “Classical.” SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 1. Live: Chicago 1977

What is Georg Solti’s place in the pantheon of podium titans? He gained celebrity when he led the first complete recording of Wagner’s Ring to be issued. He created a comparable sensation when he took over the Chicago Symphony and led that orchestra in concerts and recordings that dazzled with their brilliance, virtuosity, and tonal splendor. In the 1970s Harold C. Schonberg, the influential chief music critic of the New York Times , pronounced Solti and Karajan the two most significant conductors of the age, characterizing Solti’s sonority as “molten gold,” in contrast to the “silvery” Karajan sound. As is usual, extravagant acclaim soon led detractors to weigh in, and Solti’s recordings began to be criticized as crude, unyielding, over-driven, excessively muscular, and lacking in nuance and refinement. Although he holds the record for the number of Grammy awards, his many recordings of standard symphonic repertoire rarely turn up today on lists of preferred versions, and he did not make BBC Music magazine ’s list of the 20 greatest conductors, as selected by a poll of 100 currently active conductors. (Nor, astonishingly, did Otto Klemperer or Bruno Walter.)

The centennial of Solti’s birth in 2012 saw the release on DVD of two documentaries about his life and career. The other one, which I have not seen, was reviewed by Lynn René Bayley in Fanfare 36:3. It is nearly three times as long as the one under review here and apparently more thorough and detailed, with a lengthier supplement of complete performances. The C Major release combines a 52-minute documentary with 54 minutes of performances by the Chicago Symphony. Filmmaker Georg Wübbolt was also responsible for a documentary on Carlos Kleiber that I reviewed in 35:1. As in that earlier effort, he follows the standard technique of interspersing commentary by those who knew the conductor, worked with him, or followed his career, with clips from rehearsals and performances. Solti himself is much more of a participant in the commentary than was Kleiber, who stopped giving interviews early in his career. Wübbolt also follows his earlier practice of shifting rapidly from one commentator to the next, which generates a fast-paced narrative but also leaves loose ends and unanswered questions. As in his earlier documentary, there are issues one would like to have discussed in greater detail. It is also sometimes hard to keep track of the identities of the commentators and their connection to Solti, since they are often not again identified when they reappear. They include Solti’s widow, Valerie, Christoph von Dohnányi, who served as his assistant in Frankfurt, Valery Gergiev, and the critic Norman Lebrecht, along with musicians and officials of the Chicago Symphony, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Frankfurt and Munich opera houses, the Bayreuth Festival, and others. Considering the importance of opera in Solti’s career, the absence of singers with whom he worked from the ranks of commentators is surprising and regrettable. The film is mostly in German, with English subtitles, although there is some narration and comment in English. Solti himself speaks in German.

The documentary provides a succinct overview of Solti’s career: his musical training in his native Budapest under Bartók, Ernö Dohnányi, and Leo Weiner; his 1937 visit to Salzburg, where he met Toscanini and was recruited to serve as a repetiteur; his second meeting with Toscanini in Lucerne in 1939, on the eve of World War II, which resulted in his being stranded in Switzerland for the duration of the conflict. In postwar Germany, he finally had the opportunity to begin a conducting career, since most German conductors were temporarily barred by the victorious Allies from performing. He first headed the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, where life for him was very difficult. The opera orchestra (“all Nazis” according to Solti) did not take kindly to being led by a young Hungarian Jew and showed it. In 1951 he moved to the somewhat friendlier territory of Frankfurt. His career took a giant step forward when producer John Culshaw selected him for the Ring project over more senior and established figures, perceiving him as someone who was more amenable to the demands of the recording studio and capable of achieving the results Culshaw envisioned for this ground-breaking effort. The Decca Ring is said to have led to Solti’s appointment to head London’s Royal Opera, although most of Ring operas had not yet been released when this selection took place. After his successful although controversial tenure at Covent Garden (1961-71), where he brought the company to “the highest international standards,” he had had enough of presiding over opera houses and wished to devote himself to symphony orchestras. As music director of the Chicago Symphony (1969-91), he perhaps reached the peak of his career, bringing the orchestra to a level of world-wide acclaim it had never before approached. Not so successful was his brief tenure with the Orchestre de Paris (1972-75), described in the film as “a terrible orchestra” where “no one goes…except for the money.” Curiously, the documentary does not mention his involvement with the London Philharmonic, which he led in the years 1979-83 and with which he recorded Elgar’s symphonies and several Mozart operas, among other works. When Karajan died in 1989 prior to the Salzburg Festival, Solti was urgently requested to take over the production of Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, which he did with some reluctance. Up to then he had never been invited to conduct at Salzburg or at the Berlin Philharmonic. There was no love lost between the two conductors, but they did listen to each other’s recordings to find out how the other was approaching a work. In Solti’s final years, he renewed his ties with Munich in guest appearances with the Bavarian Radio Symphony and returned to his homeland to lead the recently founded Budapest Festival Orchestra in a recording of works by his three teachers.

When the commentators attempt to characterize Solti’s style as a conductor, words like energy, vitality, and fire crop up repeatedly and are underscored by images of his abrupt, even violent movements on the podium. These movements, according to one observer, provoked orchestras to play loudly, and he had difficulty getting them to play more softly. In addition to fire, according to Gergiev, he possessed “icy control.” Other commentators mention his perfectionism, focus on detail, and special concern for rhythm, which are reflected in his practice of singing, or rather chanting, a passage to demonstrate how it should go. The Vienna Philharmonic cellist Werner Resel emphasizes and, I think, exaggerates the role of recordings in establishing Solti’s reputation, arguing that Solti “didn’t make a career by conducting concerts and delighting audiences but by making records that turned out to be great.” This gentleman apparently missed the decades in which Solti was thrilling audiences with his Chicago Symphony concerts, in Europe as well as the U.S. Peter Schmidl, another VPO musician, makes the surprising and demonstrably false claim that “Solti’s great career as a conductor became possible only when Böhm had stopped conducting and Karajan had died…and when Bernstein was no longer around,” in other words, in the last seven years of Solti’s life. The same observer, however, expresses regret that Solti was not called earlier to Salzburg, where he could have achieved great results.

The concert performances included as a supplement are drawn from a 1977 telecast featuring Russian music. The Khovanshchina Prelude is performed in Rimsky-Korsakov’s smoothed-out and comparatively bland revision. In the Prokofiev “Classical” Symphony, Solti’s weighty approach and the massive sound of the Chicago Symphony are perhaps not the best fit for this light and frothy music, but the piece is brilliantly played and enjoyable to hear. The fast-paced, forceful, and once again brilliantly played Shostakovich is the most satisfying item on the program. As was his practice, Solti tends to set a tempo and stick to it, without much inflection for expressive purposes, and with the solid, steady rhythmic underpinning that was one of his hallmarks. Others may bring more mystery and sense of underlying menace to this work, but with Solti the menace is quite overt. The sound is free from distortion, brilliant in tutti, and wide in dynamic range, if a bit opaque and lacking in spaciousness.

Returning to the question I posed at the beginning of this review, I have no definitive answer. Solti’s Ring , which has just been reissued in an expensive, hefty “super deluxe” edition and is said to be by far the best-selling classical recording of all time, retains its status, as does his Mahler Eighth, although even they are not without their detractors, as witness Lynn René Bayley’s unfavorable comments in 36:3. Solti’s legacy as an opera conductor, in Wagner, Strauss, Verdi, and, somewhat surprisingly, Mozart, seems to me secure. Although he was never one of my favorite conductors, he was one who engaged my interest, and I have a good many of his recordings of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler, and others on my overburdened shelves. I will retain these performances as having enduring value, even if they would not necessarily be among my first choices for the works in question. Solti remains a worthy contributor to the almost infinite variety of performance that enriches our experience of music. For those interested in his life and career, the Wübbolt documentary, despite the shortcomings noted, offers a concise overview with many insights.

FANFARE: Daniel Morrison

1977 Video Production

Picture format: NTSC 16:9 (documentary) / 4:3 (bonus)
Sound format: PCM Stereo
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Languages: English, German
Subtitles: French, Spanish, Korean
Running time: 52 mins (documentary) + 55 mins (bonus)
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)