This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

These two symphonies brought vividly to life through the inspired partnership of Alexander Anissimov and the Moscow Symphoney Orchestra. Track highlights include: Symphonies Nos. 1 "Slavyanskaya" and 4.

Albeniz: Iberia

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

...the conservative musical language rather brings Verdi to mind, and in a very real sense this cycle is a twentieth century equivalent to the latter’s Requiem: both are symphonic in construction and operatic in idiom, composed from spiritual rather than religious standpoints...

Listening to these two works by Aulis Sallinen is a bit like looking at two different photographs of the composer: the face is undeniably the same but not the perspective. Songs of Life and Death (1993-4) arose, rather by mischance, from a failed effort to compose a Requiem on verses by Lassi Nummi. Although title and outward form suggest Mahlerian associations, the conservative musical language rather brings Verdi to mind, and in a very real sense this cycle is a twentieth century equivalent to the latter’s Requiem: both are symphonic in construction and operatic in idiom, composed from spiritual rather than religious standpoints, and make use of secular elements. There are differences of course, not the least in scale and conception, which serve to underline a similarity of purpose and stature relative to their epochs. And while Sallinen's songs are very much songs of life, death is not here perceived as a grim or tragic end, and this imparts to the whole a peculiarly late twentieth-century aspect. Here at last is the choral-and-orchestral masterpiece Sibelius should have written, Finnish to the core yet international in appeal. It is, I believe, one of the very finest compositions Sallinen has yet produced...Very strongly recommended.

- Gramophone, 12/1995

}Gramophone (2/97, p. 58) "...DePreist gives us a pair of sensible, very well-prepared performances in good, albeit slightly studio-bound sound..."{

Also available on Blu-ray

LEONARD BERNSTEIN CONDUCTS BEETHOVEN AND HAYDN

Released for the first time on DVD and BluRay, Leonard Bernstein’s interpretations of Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 16 and Haydn’s Missa in tempore belli are quite superb. Only the strings of the Vienna Philharmonic could carry off the orchestral rendition of Beethoven’s opus 135 with bravura, since each player is a true soloist. Bernstein and the orchestra wanted to play a difficult Beethoven Quartet in a monster setting, achieving a truly exciting performance unlike anything anyone has ever heard.

Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet No. 16 in F major, Op. 135 (arr. for string orchestra)

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Leonard Bernstein, conductor

Joseph Haydn: Missa in tempore belli, Hob. XXII:9, “Paukenmesse”

Judith Blegen, soprano
Brigitte Fassbaender, contralto
Claes-Hakan Ahnsjö, tenor
Hans Sotin, bass

Bavarian Radio Symphony Chorus and Orchestra
Leonard Bernstein, conductor

Recorded live in 1984 (Haydn) and 1989 (Beethoven)

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles (Haydn): Latin, English, German, French, Spanish, Korean, Chinese
Running time: 93 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

R E V I E W


BEETHOVEN String Quartet No. 16. 1 HAYDN Missa in tempore belli 2 • Leonard Bernstein, cond; 1 Vienna PO; 2 Judith Blegen (sop); 2 Brigitte Fassbaender (mez); 2 Claes Ahnsjö (ten); 2 Hans Sotin (bs); 2 Bavarian Radio Ch & O • C MAJOR 711604 (Blu-ray: 93:00); C MAJOR 711508 (DVD: 93: 00) Live: 1 Vienna 09/13-19/1989, 2 Ottobeuren 09/30/1984


This arrangement for string orchestra of Beethoven’s final quartet, the op. 135, was previously reviewed by Mortimer H. Frank in 16:4 on a DVD that paired it with a similar arrangement of the Quartet No. 14, op. 131. While his assessment was positive overall, he had reservations about “a Mahlerian malaise” that he thought infected some portions of the performance and “indulgent adjustments” to some of the rhythms, comparing them unfavorably to Toscanini’s more taut account of the second and third movements with the NBC Symphony. As someone inclined to romantic readings of the Beethoven symphonies (favoring Bruno Walter and Wilhelm Furtwängler as opposed to Toscanini), I have no such reservations. The conductor here is actually far less self-indulgent than he was wont to be at this twilight stage of his career, and leads a performance of rapt intensity, with the incomparable advantage of the string section of the Vienna Philharmonic at his command. The arrangement, originally published by Eulenburg and retouched by Bernstein, was first heard by the latter when he attended a performance of it with Dmitri Mitropoulos and the Boston Symphony at Harvard in 1936, when he was only 18 years old. He immediately sought out the conductor, borrowed his copy of the score, and added it to his repertoire early on, so this performance represents the culmination of over five decades of commitment to the work in this guise. For those who want a string orchestra version of the quartet, but in a less romantic interpretation, there is also a recording with the smaller forces of the Amsterdam Sinfonietta on Channel Classics.


The Haydn Mass has also been released before, though it has not previously been reviewed in these pages. Bernstein was a noted Haydn conductor, and many critics (including several who write for Fanfare ) still consider him the reference standard for the “Paris” and “London” symphonies. I do not have the same degree of enthusiasm for those recordings, being partial instead to Georg Solti on modern instruments and Sigiswald Kuijken on period ones, but I have found Bernstein’s recordings of the late Haydn masses to be both effective and affecting. Bernstein made a previous recording of this work at the Washington Cathedral in January 1973, as part of a peace protest against the Vietnam War. It featured a pickup orchestra, the Norman Scribner Choir (an ad hoc ensemble put together for the occasion by the now longtime director of the Choral Arts Society of Washington), and an uneven quartet of soloists (Patricia Wells, Gwendolyn Killebrew, Michael Devlin, and Alan Titus). James H. North reviewed it in 16:4, commending its spirit but noting problems with the recorded sound. I would add that the obviously heartfelt commitment of the performers to the occasion does not overcome a lot of rather scrappy orchestral and choral work. Here, with digital recorded sound, a stellar solo vocal quartet, and a world-class orchestra and chorus, with everyone in fine fettle, there are no such reservations. The performance—more relaxed than the Washington version—is also a feast for the eyes as well as the ears, as it was given in the massive, ornate, soaring Baroque basilica of the Ottobeuren Abbey in the far southwestern corner of Bavaria. It’s a visual knockout, like having a free museum tour thrown in with the concert, and certainly gives one a great deal more to watch than does the typical concert video. There are no other versions of this Mass presently available on DVD; there are of course several excellent performances on CD, conducted by such notables as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Richard Hickox, and Helmuth Rilling. Since (including Bernstein) these run the interpretive gamut from period instruments to modern full orchestra and choir, there is something out there to please every taste.


As usual, the Blu-ray release creates a crisper visual picture than appears on a regular DVD, though the difference here between the two is marginal. A brief (4:32) talk by Bernstein about the Haydn Mass is included as a bonus. The soundtracks of both of these performances were also released on separate CDs by Deutsche Grammophon, so if you don’t see the need to duplicate them on DVD, or if you’re one of those people who doesn’t care to watch videos of concert performances, you have that alternative as well. As someone who does watch concert videos with pleasure, I thoroughly enjoyed this, and recommend it unhesitatingly.


FANFARE: James A. Altena

2017 marks the centenary of Finland’s independence. This new release encompasses works by native composers from 1917 to the present, and reflects the flourishing talent, artistry and experimentation of Finland’s classical music scene. These compositions are imbued with the beauty and isolation of the Finnish landscape, while capturing the nuance and personality of each composer. This anthology features Finnish artists from the Ondine catalogue, including some of the most prestigious orchestras, singers and instrumentalists of the country.

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.


This is a stunning disc. Rautavaara continues to operate at the peak of his form, despite suffering a serious heart attack in mid-composition of Book of Visions that kept him hospitalized for six months. It's a remarkable work in four movements (or "tales") lasting some 40 minutes. Each tale has a tantalizing title (Night, Fire, Love, and Fate) vague enough to leave the specifics to the listener's imagination, but full of musical possibilities that Rautavaara seizes with relish. You might call this new work a "Four Lemminkäinen Legends" for the new millennium, since as always that indefinable Finnish sensibility is quite audibly present but is always expressed in the composer's own personal idiom. The music is gorgeous: evocative, mysterious, luminously scored, and extremely well-crafted--and it practically goes without saying that dedicatee Mikko Franck does a spectacular job conducting this premiere. This is a major statement, make no mistake.

Rautavaara's First Symphony has often been revised, from a four-movement original, down to two movements, and back up to the present three, which, as the composer notes, provides a more balanced sequence than previously. It was written when Prokofiev and Shostakovich were major influences, but with the passing of time the lyricism of the first movement now seems fully characteristic of Rautavaara. Adagio Celeste is yet another example (there are many in Rautavaara) of how music based on a 12-note theme can still be very beautiful and approachable. In this regard he recalls Swiss composer Frank Martin. It's a lovely work scored for small orchestra (the "string orchestra" designation on the tray card is incorrect). Once again the performances of this work and the symphony are all that anyone could ask, and the sonics, whether in stereo or multichannel formats, are fully up to the quality of the interpretations. A knockout, not to be missed!

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

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.

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Also available on Blu-ray

BERNSTEIN CONDUCTS DEBUSSY

Claude Debussy: Images, Prélude à l'apres-midi d'un faune, La Mer

Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Leonard Bernstein, conductor

Recorded live from the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome, 1989.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Booklet notes: English, German, French
Running time: 86 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

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DEBUSSY Images pour orchestre. Prélude à l’près-midi d’un faune. La Mer • Leonard Bernstein, cond; Santa Cecila Natl Academy O • UNITEL 701608 (DVD: 86: 00)


Although Debussy did not figure largely in Bernstein’s repertoire, the conductor had an innate affinity for the composer’s music. We are therefore fortunate to have this concert, from scarcely a year before Bernstein’s death, preserving his interpretations of this repertoire in digital sound. Bernstein’s older Columbia recordings with the New York Philharmonic from 1960–63 are also still in print, although to duplicate this particular program one must acquire two different CDs (one from Sony, the other an ArkivMusic reissue). Those performances, however, are completely superseded by the present ones, both sonically and interpretively. In his later years Bernstein became decidedly self-indulgent, and his performances sometimes assumed bloated dimensions, as in the famous (or notorious) 1989 Christmas Day Berlin performance of the Beethoven Ninth. (I was blessed to attend that concert in person, being resident in East Berlin for my doctoral dissertation research at the time. As an interpretation it verged on the preposterous, but I still wouldn’t have missed it for all the world.) Here, however, he is in top form, eliciting performances with superb clarity of line, pellucid orchestral color and instrumental balance, and moderate tempi that are convincingly right at every point. Debussy is not the first thing I, as someone partial to Romantic German and Slavic orchestral repertoire, think to take off the shelf for personal listening pleasure, but Bernstein leaves me marveling at the sheer genius of these masterworks, providing a joy of rediscovery.


There are of course many performances of these works available on CD; most readers will already have their favorites, so I will not assay a broader discussion that in any case would exceed the bounds of this review. Regarding performances on DVD, this is the only complete performance of Images available. (For whatever reason, Bernstein altered the order of its three movements and placed Iberia in third position.) The Naxos issue with Alexander Rahbari and the Belgian Radio Symphony, which also has the Prélude and La Mer , omits Iberia in favor of the Nocturnes ; those are solid performances but not in the same class as these. The only other DVD to feature both the Prélude and La Mer is with Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic, reviewed negatively by Christopher Abbot in Fanfare 26:2 and positively by Colin Clarke in 32:3. I do not intend to enter the lists of the debates between champions and detractors of the German and American maestros; suffice it to say that in these works I prefer Bernstein’s clarity and sense of motion to Karajan’s lushness and perfumed languor. His DVD has more interesting camerawork to boot, with better lighting and more varied and better close-ups of the instrumentalists. The sound quality is excellent, the recordings having been made for commercial issue at the time. For those with more slender wallets, or who are uninterested in the visual aspects of an orchestral concert, these same performances were issued on CD by DG and are still in print as an ArkivMusic reissue. Strongly recommended.


FANFARE: James A. Altena

BEETHOVEN: SINFONIE NR. 5/TRIP

Classical Music

This is the third recording and an 80th birthday tribute to the amazing Valerie Tryon, whose pianism and musicianship are totally undiminished as her long, glittering career provides ample witness. The Rachmaninov Piano Concerto, as well as Strauss Burlesque and the Dohn�nyi Variations, have long been in her repertoire.

This 2 DVD C Major Entertainment release of Gustav Mahler's Fifth and Sixth Symphonies continues the issuance of the complete, acclaimed Mahler cycle with Paavo J�rvi and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, which since the 1980s and the release of Eliahu Inbal's FRSO Mahler cycle has come to be known as a "powerful Mahler orchestra" (Frankfurter Rundschau). As on previous releases, conductor Paavo J�rvi's learned and probing introductions to the symphonies heard on the accompanying release are a worthy and self-recommending bonus feature.

If the number of compositions written for a specific instrument is any indication of a predilection, then Ferdinand Ries did indeed have a soft place in his heart for the flute. He penned no fewer than six quartets for flute and string trio, a quintet for flute, violin, two violas, and violoncello, a trio for piano, flute and violoncello, and many works for flute and piano - more works than for any other wind instrument. His first Flute Quartet presents itself as a grand, imposing quartet in the affirmative key of C major and contains many surprising elements. Here too, as already in his symphonies and string quartets, Ries proves to be an entirely independent and original composer - despite his close association with Beethoven. The Ardinghello ensemble adheres undogmatically to historically informed performance practice. Karl Kaiser plays transverse flutes from the early nineteenth century. The string players perform on instruments with stringing and bows from around 1820.

John Williams is one of the greatest film composers of all time by any objective standard; his 49 Academy Award nominations are second only to Walt Disney himself. Williams and Walt Disney Concert Hall have gone together since the beginning. He opened the third inaugural gala, Soundstage L.A., in 2003 with the world premiere of his Soundings, a piece that has also provided the carillon lobby chimes that announce the end of intermission.

For the 2014-15 Opening Night Concert and Gala, the Los Angeles Philharmonic paid loving tribute to the composer, long a champion and close friend of the LA Phil. Gustavo Dudamel, an awestruck fan of the musical icon, led the orchestra in a cross-section of Maestro Williams’s matchless canon.

A JOHN WILLIAMS CELEBRATION featuring works from:
Olympic Fanfare and Theme
Schindler’s List
Fiddler on the Roof
Soundings
Catch Me If You Can
Star Wars
Amistad
Jaws
The Empire Strikes Back

Itzhak Perlman, violin
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
Gustavo Dudamel, conductor
Recorded at Walt Disney Concert Hall, USA, 2014

Bonus: Interviews with John Williams, Gustavo Dudamel, and Itzhak Perlman

Running time: 85 mins (concert) + 18 mins (bonus)

Subtitles: German, French, Spanish, Korean
Booklet: English, German, French
Picture: NTSC, 16:9
Audio: PCM Stereo, PCM 5.1
Region Code: 0 (worldwide)

C. P. E. BACH Symphonies, Wq 174–75, 178–81 • Christian Zacharias, cond; CO de Lausanne • MDG 9401824 (SACD: 68:49)


Students and fans of C. P. E. Bach will rejoice in this recording of six of his short but feisty and innovative symphonies from the late 1700s. Although the performances aren’t quite as dynamic or lively as those by Hartmut Haenchen with the C. P. E. Bach Chamber Orchestra (Berlin Classics) or Gustav Leonhardt with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Virgin), they are certainly beautifully phrased and well articulated. The Andante and Largo movements, in particular, have a lovely sense of repose that Haenchen does not always achieve.


As the liner notes explain, the three-movement concert symphony began in Crown Prince Frederick’s small court orchestra. What the notes don’t explain is that it was essentially an outgrowth of the tripartite “overture” style developed by both French and German composers. This may explain C. P. E. Bach’s penchant for linking movements, something that was certainly ahead of its time, but it’s interesting to note that when other composers such as Haydn and Mozart began to emulate this style, they usually wrote three completely separate movements, thus un-linking the music. But, of course, there’s a lot more to Bach’s music here than just linked movements. The harmonic audacity (for its time), angular melodic structure ( far ahead of its time), and quirky pauses in the flow of the music (copied to some extent by Haydn, but largely unique to him) make his music much more than museum pieces. One example among many of his audacity and originality: listen to the agitated string figures in the first movement of the Symphony Wq 178, with their frequent and audacious upward key changes. They sound almost identical to the music with which Gluck introduces his “storm” music in the first scene of Iphigénie en Tauride. To be honest, I’m surprised that C. P. E. Bach’s music isn’t programmed more often in modern-day symphony concerts. It certainly holds up well and, in fact, makes a better complement to any 20th-century works that may also be in the same concert.


This is one of those cases where saying little about a disc actually says a lot. Any attempt to over-analyze this music or over-praise the performances would be futile, since this is primarily an auditory experience. Nevertheless, as I have tried to make clear, these are very good performances of some truly outstanding music.


FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

Also available on Blu-ray

In choreographic episodes, combining dream, memory, premonition and reality John Neumeier’s ballet Tatiana, with music by Lera Auerbach, brings to life the story of Tatiana, a young girl brought up in the Russian countryside and her first great love. When considering Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin as a plot for a ballet, it was obvious that Neumeier would not be content with a simple story line. He was more interested in the complex strands of Tatiana’s destiny, the influence of her early life, her experience and evolution into womanhood. As I read Pushkin’s verse novel, I realised that I was fascinated by the role of Tatiana Larina. She became more profound and more interesting with every paragraph, every page that I read. And so I had the idea to explore her role and her perspective in more detail through my ballet”, says Neumeier. “Nearly nobody else besides John Neumeier can tell story with the bodies of his dancers. Tatiana is three hours of danced poetry.” Hamburger Morgenpost. - C Major


Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles (bonus): English, German, French, Japanese Booklet notes: English, German, French
Running time: 135 mins (ballet) + 34 mins (bonus: Tatiana - Back to Pushkin)

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

The composer's great-granddaughter was keen to stage Cord Garben's abridged version of the cycle at the Teatro Colin in Buenos Aires, but in the event things turned out rather differently. The present documentary provides a thrilling and visually memorable account of the long journey taken by this version from it's inception to the first night.

Classical Music

FAMOUS SYMPHONIC POEMS, VOL. 1