Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensembles: Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonic Choir. Conductor: Richard Hayman.

Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 9

Ravel: Bolero - Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 1 - Ma mère l'oye

Zarathustra, a mouthpiece for Nietzsche, took himself to the mountains, staying there for ten years in solitude. Then, one morning, he arose and addressed the Sun, seeking his blessing, as he proposes to descend once more among men to impart to them his wisdom, setting as the Sun sets and pouring out to mankind his accumulated understanding. The complex process of the tone poem takes Zarathustra from the splendor of sunrise through a rejection of those who look to the past, to longing, joys and passions. He turns from satiety and despair, in the funeral song, and finds no comfort in science. Falling as one dead, he is revived and finds joy in the dance of laughter, in which all human aspirations may be combined. Night comes and the song of the watcher, as midnight renews it's eternal enigma. The opera Salome, based on Oscar Wilde's play, was first staged in Dresden in 1905 and won immediate favor, although the censors in Vienna prevented it's performance until 1918. Salome's dance, in return for which she demands from Herod the head of John the Baptist, was, as Strauss suggested, the dance of a chaste oriental princess, to be performed with the most simple and restrained gestures. His wishes have not always been respected in the theatre. Der Rosenkavalier, with a libretto by Hugo von Hoffmannsthal, was completed in 1910 and staged in Dresden the following year. The drama centres on the Marschallin and her unselfish renunciation of her young lover Oktavian in a work that seems filled with bitter-sweet nostalgia, a feeling that is perceptible in the waltz sequence from the opera that Strauss arranged in 1944, to which he added further thematic development. Nevertheless the concert version must make much of it's effect in reminding us of the opera itself. The Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra has benefited considerably from the work of it's distinguished conductors. These included Vaclav Talich (1949 - 1952), Ludovit Rajter and Ladislav Slovak. The Czech conductor Libor Pesek was appointed resident conductor in 1981, and the present Principal Conductor is the Slovak musician Bystrik Rezucha. Zden�k Ko�ler has also had a long and distinguished association with the orchestra and has conducted many of it's most successful recordings, among them the complete symphonies of Dvorak.

MOZART: Symphonies Nos. 40, 28 and 31

MOZART: Symphonies Nos. 34, 35 and 39

VIVALDI: Pastor Fido (Il), Op. 13, Nos. 1-6

Mozart: Bassoon Concerto / Oboe Concerto / Clarinet Concerto

ELGAR: Symphony No. 1 / Imperial March

SCHUMANN, R.: Overtures

BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 9

Shostakovich's 14th Symphony is actually more of a song cycle, made up of settings of poems by Lorca, Rilke and others, centered around the topic of death, scored for soprano, bass and chamber orchestra augmented by a variety of percussion instruments. This symphony, perhaps, one of the best darkest, pessimist works ever written (with Mahler's 6th Symphony, Sibelius 4th Symphony, Vaughan Williams' 4th and 6th Symphonies)... This work, be constituted in 11 movements and based on poems by F. Garcia Lorca (in 1 and 2), G. Appolinairre (3 -8), W. K�chelbecker (9) and Rainer M. Rilke (10 and 11). I impressed especially, 3rd mvt: Lorelei, At the Sante Jail, O Delvig, Delvig! And a short Conclusion (1 mnt. ) Shostakovich was used 12-tone system for the first and last time in this work. Only, the 9th movement, "O Delvig, Delvig!" written in D-flat Major and I think, this is the most romantic movement of symphony and comes without a break and suddenly after 8th movement which tells a war between Cosscaks and Byzantines. And after this tense music, suddenly comes a romantic and sentimental music from violas and violoncellos which tells a love story.

FRANCK: Symphony in D Minor / Prelude, Choral et Fugue

HANDEL: Concerti Grossi Op. 6, Nos. 8, 10 and 12

BACH, J.S.: Cantatas, BWV 80 and 147