As part of the ambitious Tutto Verdi project, the rarely performed La battaglia di Legnano is available for the first time on DVD and Blu-ray. The patriotic war story of La battaglia gives a taste of the real-life revolutionary ideals of the composer, as he delivers a thinly veiled exhortation to throw off the bonds of foreign rule for love of country.
The Verbier Festival is one of classical music’s greatest events. In celebration of the festival’s 25th anniversary, this unique concert brings together 36 classical stars in an unprecedented evening of ingenious programming and captivating performances. The line-up includes the world’s greatest violinists, violists, cellists and pianists as well as other leading performers conducted by Valery Gergiev and Gabor Takacs-Nagy. Founder and director Martin T:son Engstroem writes: “We started this incredible adventure in 1994, and 25 years on, our Festival has become one of the world’s most important cultural events. But it is not just another festival; our vision right from the beginning was to build something which combined important musicians with a very visible youth and learning element. This is what we set out to do and this is what we achieved.”
Petitgirard: The Elephant Man / Sykorova, Rivenq, Et Al
Marco Polo
DVD
$16.49$32.99Save 50%Sep 20, 2005
Laurent PETITGIRARD (b. 1950)
Joseph Merrick, The Elephant Man
Elephant Man - Jana Sykorova Doctor Treves - Nicolas Rivenq Tom Norman, showman - Robert Breault Mary, nurse - Valérie Condoluci Eva Lükes, matron - Elsa Maurus Carr Gomm, hospital manager - Nicolas Courjal The Coloratura - Magali Léger Jimmy, showman's assistant - Mari Laurila-Lili Nice Opera Chorus · Nice Philharmonic Orchestra Conducted by Laurent Petitgirard
DVD 9 · NTSC · Regions 1-6 Picture Format: 16:9 Audio Formats: Dolby Digital 2.0 · Dolby Digital 5.1 Subtitles: English · French · German Running time: 166 mins
Written in 1998, Petitgirard's opera differs from David Lynch's cult film in offering an entirely different perspective on the tale of Joseph Merrick, born in 1863 with horrific deformities, exhibited as a freak at the circus, taken in by Dr. Treves at the London Hospital and subsequently afforded celebrity status. Where the film is based largely on Dr. Treves' memoirs, the opera is based on biographies of Joseph Merrick giving his character a more central focus than in the film.
"The opera is many ways the most original treatment of the story... The most revolutionary aspect of the opera is the writing of Merrick's part for a female singer. At first tempted to make Merrick a counter-tenor, Petitgirard finally decided that only the contralto voice could give him the effects he wanted. Certainly, in the theatre, this helps to create the aura of strangeness, of otherness, which Merrick personifies." -- The Independent "Petitgirard's musical vocabulary reflects his French heritage - the influences of Fauré, Ravel, Poulenc and Satie are evident - but his subtlety, melodic gift and sensitivity to the drama make him well-equipped to inherit the mantle and create his own outstandingly original idiom... No doubt [the opera] would prove even more powerful onstage than on disc." -- Opera News
Freedom, fraternity and humanity – this is what Beethoven’s 9th Symphony stands for. It opens the 10th Grafenegg Festival, performed by the Tonkunstler Orchestra, joined by 24 alumni of the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO) and “a soloist quartet which no one could possibly imagine to be more prestigious” (Die Presse). “Vogt’s tenor and the Wiener Singverein were especially moving” (Wiener Zeitung) and “the vocal performance by excellent bass René Pape, the fabulous soprano Camilla Nylund and the brilliant mezzosoprano Elena Zhidkova … in Beethoven’s Ninth was just sensational. Bravo!” (Kurier) Composer in Residence Christian Jost’s new work also centres around Beethoven, featuring the song “An die Hoffnung” (“To Hope”), and “convincingly used an impressive orchestra” (Der Standard), with “tenor Klaus Florian Vogt as a well-cast soloist” (Salzburger Nachrichten).
Gotterdammerung ('Twilight of the Gods') is the final opera of Wagner's epic tetralogy "Der Ring des Nibelungen" ('The Ring of the Nibelung') in which his visionary masterpiece reaches it's cataclysmic conclusion. Betrayal and death, murder and remorse, lie at the opera's heart, in a work that draws together every plot element in writing of blazing intensity. As the ring is restored to the Rhinemaidens, the age of the gods ends, with the opera offering the certainty of destruction but the consolation of renewal. Staged by the award-winning director Stefan Herheim, this innovative new production from Deutsche Oper Berlin features a leading international cast conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles. The release includes "Making Of" documentary featuring interviews with Stefan Herheim and Sir Donald Runnicles, and behind the scenes footage.
Wagner: Götterdämmerung / Runnicles, Deutsche Oper Berlin
Naxos AudioVisual
DVD
$18.99$37.99Save 50%May 10, 2024
Götterdämmerung ('Twilight of the Gods') is the final opera of Wagner’s epic tetralogy "Der Ring des Nibelungen" ('The Ring of the Nibelung') in which his visionary masterpiece reaches its cataclysmic conclusion. Betrayal and death, murder and remorse, lie at the opera’s heart, in a work that draws together every plot element in writing of blazing intensity. As the ring is restored to the Rhinemaidens, the age of the gods ends, with the opera offering the certainty of destruction but the consolation of renewal. Staged by the award-winning director Stefan Herheim, this innovative new production from Deutsche Oper Berlin features a leading international cast conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles. The release includes "Making Of" documentary featuring interviews with Stefan Herheim and Sir Donald Runnicles, and behind the scenes footage.
One of our day’s most legendary performers, pianist Rudolph Buchbinder has been appearing on stages all over the globe for the last fifty years. Later this year, in celebration of his 70th birthday, he will be honored in numerous concert halls, including Carnegie Hall, Suntory Hall, and the Berliner Philharmonie. The Kurier newspaper described this performance with rave reviews. “It is not every day that Brahms sounds so perfect as this.” (Kurier) They also praised Buchbinder as a “phenomenal piano virtuoso.” In the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein, under the baton of Maestro Zubin Mehta, Buchbinder performs for this release the First and Second Piano Concertos of Johannes Brahms. These works demand a soloist with a wide range of both interpretal refinement and technical skill, both of which Buchbinder brings to the table. “What Rudolph Buchbinder, the Vienna Philharmonic and conductor Zubin Mehta delivered at the Musikverein easily deserves the accolade ‘milestone’.” (Kurier)
Picture Format: 1080i, 16;9 Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DTS-HD MA 5.0 Region Code: 0 (Worldwide) Running Time: 96 mins
When the revered writer Alessandro Manzoni died in 1873, Verdi was unable to bring himself to attend the funeral. Instead he composed his monumental Messa da Requiem in Manzoni’s memory and conducted its first performance on the first anniversary of the writer’s death. In addition to its profound spirituality, the work also brings together all the finest qualities familiar from Verdi’s operas, qualities that include endless melodic lines and powerful musico-dramatic effects. The present performance was recorded in Los Angeles’s legendary Hollywood Bowl in August 2013 and brought together three superstars from the world of music: the conductor Gustavo Dudamel, the tenor Vittorio Grigolo and the bass-baritone Ildebrando D’Arcangelo, all of them at the top of their form. “It was an important and exceptional evening … That experience involved a radical and wondrous rethinking of the Requiem on Dudamel‘s part.” (Los Angeles Times)
When lockdown was imposed in 2020 many artists began streaming performances from their own homes. In response, pianist Francesco Piemontesi and director Jan Schmidt-Garre launched a concert series to showcase artists living in Berlin, given in the renowned Schinkel Pavillon with an expert technical team assembled at short notice. Fourteen concerts were held, without audiences, under the name Home Music Berlin featuring some of the world’s leading instrumentalists and singers. In addition, a documentary film captured rehearsals and private backstage scenes. This collection of performances is a testament to the resilience and solidarity of these artists during the pandemic.
Recorded at the Philharmonie am Gasteig, Munich, 2016. As an artist in residence with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the American cellist Yo-Yo Ma had the opportunity to do what is perhaps the second thing he loves the most after playing: sharing his love of music with others. Yo-Yo Ma doesn’t fade away into the music, nor does he take a worshipful attitude towards the pieces he performs. From the moment he walks onto the stage, he exudes charisma that immediately confirms his truly exceptional status as the “best cellist in the world”. With its ten variations on a theme of knightly character for full orchestra, Richard Strauss’ tone poem “Don Quixote” not only depicts the colourful adventures of Cervantes’ chivalrous hero, but also functions as a virtuoso display of glorious solo melodies embedded in stunning orchestral passages. It is, in a way, a second Strauss cello concerto that can take it up with any other late-19th century piece of this kind. Joining “the Don” later is a viola solo that personifies the faithful Sancho Panza and is played by Wen Xiao Zheng.
Celebrating his 75th birthday with a programme of Stravinsky, Hummel and Beethoven, “everything about Mariss Jansons exudes joy and sovereignty,” wrote Süddeutsche Zeitung. This thrilling, varied concert was recorded in January 2018, with Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra demonstrating the close relationship which has developed between them over the past 18 years. This recording also features a stellar quartet of soloists partnering with one of this fine orchestra, playing under the conductor who, even at 75, continues to inspire them to great artistic heights. Born in 1943 in the Latvian capital of Riga, Mariss Jansons grew up in the Soviet Union as the son of conductor Arvid Jansons, studying violin, viola and piano and completing his musical education in conducting with high honours at the Leningrad Conservatory. Further studies followed with Hans Swarovsky in Vienna and Herbert von Karajan in Salzburg. In 1971 he won the conducting competition sponsored by the Karajan Foundation in Berlin. His work was also significantly influenced by the legendary Russian conductor Yevgeny Mravinsky, who engaged Mariss Jansons as his assistant at the Leningrad Philharmonic in 1972. Over the succeeding years Mariss Jansons remained loyal to this orchestra, today renamed the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, as a regular conductor until 1999, conducting the orchestra during that period on tours throughout the world. Since 2003 Jansons has been Chief Conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.
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REVIEW:
Beethoven insisted that the keynotes of his Mass were cheerfulness and gentleness, and these qualities are evident in a tenderly shaped Sanctus and Benedictus.
Celebrating his 75th birthday with a programme of Stravinsky, Hummel and Beethoven, “everything about Mariss Jansons exudes joy and sovereignty,” wrote Süddeutsche Zeitung. This thrilling, varied concert was recorded in January 2018, with Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra demonstrating the close relationship which has developed between them over the past 18 years. This recording also features a stellar quartet of soloists partnering with one of this fine orchestra, playing under the conductor who, even at 75, continues to inspire them to great artistic heights. Born in 1943 in the Latvian capital of Riga, Mariss Jansons grew up in the Soviet Union as the son of conductor Arvid Jansons, studying violin, viola and piano and completing his musical education in conducting with high honours at the Leningrad Conservatory. Further studies followed with Hans Swarovsky in Vienna and Herbert von Karajan in Salzburg. In 1971 he won the conducting competition sponsored by the Karajan Foundation in Berlin. His work was also significantly influenced by the legendary Russian conductor Yevgeny Mravinsky, who engaged Mariss Jansons as his assistant at the Leningrad Philharmonic in 1972. Over the succeeding years Mariss Jansons remained loyal to this orchestra, today renamed the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, as a regular conductor until 1999, conducting the orchestra during that period on tours throughout the world. Since 2003 Jansons has been Chief Conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.
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REVIEW:
Beethoven insisted that the keynotes of his Mass were cheerfulness and gentleness, and these qualities are evident in a tenderly shaped Sanctus and Benedictus.
"•The particularity of this edition of Donizetti’s masterpiece is in its reconstruction of the 1845 Saint Petersburg version. Along with some key transpositions, this 2010 performance presents the alternative finale adopted at the same time.
• Bass-baritone Lorenzo Regazzo is an acclaimed “bel canto” and “coloratura” singer and renowned Mozart and Rossini interpreter. Giovanni Battista Rigon is considered “one of the best Rossini conductors...spirited...never tiring” (Il Corriere della Sera)."
Rarely has a production of Verdi's "Otello" taken place in such a prestigious location, the courtyard of the Palazzo Ducale in Venice. Directed by Francesco Micheli, this special outdoor "event production" of the Gran Teatro La Fenice supports the claim that "Venice is asserting itself more than ever on a global scale as one of the great capitals of music" (GB Opera).
Giuseppe Verdi OTELLO
Otello - Gregory Kunde Desdemona - Carmela Remigio Jago - Lucio Gallo Emilia - Elisabetta Martorana Cassio - Francesco Marsiglia Roderigo - Antonello Ceron Lodovico - Mattia Denti Montano - Matteo Ferrara Un Araldo - Antonio Casagrande
Teatro la Fenice Chorus and Orchestra (chorus master: Claudio Marino Moretti) Myung-Whun Chung, conductor
Francesco Micheli, stage director Edoardo Sanchi, set designer Silvia Aymonino, costume designer Fabio Barettin, lighting designer Recorded from the Palazzo Ducale di Venezia, 2013
Picture format: NTSC 16:9 Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.1 Region code: 0 (worldwide) Subtitles: Italian, German, English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese Booklet notes: English, German, French Running time: 149 mins No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)
Franz Liszt: A Faust Symphony, S108/R425 Endrik Wottrich, tenor Dresden State Opera Chorus Dresden Staatskapelle Christian Thielemann, conductor
Recorded live from the Semperoper Dresden, 2011.
Picture format: NTSC 16:9 Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.1 Region code: 0 (worldwide) Subtitles: German, English, French, Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Japanese Running time: 90 mins No. of DVDs: 1
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3542380.az_LISZT_Faust_Symphony_WAGNER.html
LISZT A Faust Symphony. WAGNER A Faust Overture • Christian Thielemann, cond; Endrik Wottrich (ten); Dresden St Op Ch; Staatskapelle Dresden • C MAJOR 707708 (DVD: 90:00) Live: Semperoper, Dresden 02/21–22/2011
Now here’s a good release, entering an uncluttered field with repertoire that coincides neatly with an anniversary and that fits its performers like a glove. Where I recently argued that Christian Thielemann just about makes a (flawed) case for himself in the congested world of Beethoven symphonies, his credentials for Wagner and Liszt are far less controversial. A retro knight of big-boned, smoothly contoured orchestral playing, he is here heard to great effect in repertoire that is shamefully underrepresented. I also cannot fault the pairing of a young Wagner’s aborted attempt at a symphony with Liszt’s epic achievement on the same subject. Before Cosima, what linked Wagner and Liszt were their respective attempts to set Goethe’s Faust to music. Wagner intended this, written during his Paris years, to be merely the first movement of a Faust symphony, before Der fliegende Holländer and his Saxony post got in the way. So it remained an overture, and it was Liszt who would carry on some of Wagner’s initial intentions, such as a second movement based on the character of Gretchen. Liszt himself conducted Wagner’s piece in 1852, but despite a final revision in 1855 (the version given here) and a sketch for Gretchen’s theme, Wagner’s “symphony” remains a tantalizing what-if, giving clearance for the older composer to work on his vast set of Faustian character portraits. As Tobias Niederschlag’s admirable notes point out, Lizst’s late addition of tenor and chorus (always a bit of an afterthought in my view) to his tonal portraits can be seen as a nod to Beethoven’s Ninth, a sign of the massive ambition on display.
Given its fractious birth, Wagner’s A Faust Overture tends, not surprisingly, to be dismissed as a rather nothingy, juvenile work, but Thielemann and the Dresdeners really do make a fine case for it. Despite the full string textures and grandly played climaxes, Thielemann wisely doesn’t linger or pull things about for effect, as he sometimes does, and the Dresdeners’ dark, burnished sound helps underline the familiar traits of mature Wagner, without preventing it from being an intense, nimble account of a work that deserves to be better known. Yes, there are hangovers of Weber in the tuttis, and obvious foreshadows of the Holländer overture, but also there is a germ of Wagner’s later epic arches of texture and melodic development. The dying chords of Tristan und Isolde, for instance, can surely be heard in the finals bars of this piece.
With those mournful broken woodwind phrases in the “Nostalgia” opening, Wagner must have had Liszt’s symphony at the back of his mind during Tristan’s development. Although grotesque humor doesn’t feature in Wagner’s opera, both pieces share that introverted sense of Weltschmerz that naturally brings out the best from Thielemann. Faust’s feverish obsession is brilliantly conveyed in the frenzied string writing, but Thielemann doesn’t let the symphony as a whole become the empty showpiece that some of Liszt’s vast tapestries can become. The second movement (Gretchen) is, likewise, very well controlled, with the love theme played with sincerity, but no less heartfelt than many more drawn-out versions, and with much exquisite solo playing from the orchestra.
I still have the occasional feeling of extreme control-freakery, as on Thielemann’s recent Beethoven, but here his quirks and homogenized sound fit the repertoire brilliantly, and although as typically plush and molded an experience as I had predicted from this team, this DVD confounds a lot of my prejudices about him. Most surprising is how swift Thielemann is, with the Liszt falling roughly between young (Sony audio) and old (Euroarts DVD) Leonard Bernstein in basic length, and similar in scale to Barenboim’s audio version. Likewise I wouldn’t have predicted how well Thielemann creates a sense of fun on the podium; the ironisch comes out well in the opening of the grotesque Mesphisto episode, spritely in tone, in complete contrast to the opening two sections. I would almost say light and fleet-footed, but after some comparison with 1960s Bernstein, or a terrific YouTube clip of Dmitri Mitropoulos rehearsing the same section, Thielemann cannot yield all of his steeliness. Choral singing is excellent, although I can think of more alluring sounds than the rather pinched, clunky tones of tenor Endrik Wottrich, in rather tense form here. DVD competition is scarce, but Kenneth Riegel on Leonard Bernstein’s 1976 Boston DVD is better. For true vocal allure, if weird German, Plácido Domingo on Barenboim’s Warner CD is the obvious choice.
I do wish concert DVDs would come with the option of having an mp3 of the audio only. I, for one, would love the Wagner overture on my iPod. But C Major’s presentation is still very fine, with good booklet notes and logical DVD menuing. Pity that there are no extras (Thielemann’s Beethoven symphonies on the same label came with a 60-minute discussion of each work), but camerawork is unobtrusive and the sound is very clear and balanced, possibly at times allowing that Dresden acoustic to give quieter moments a rather cold demeanor. Perhaps, because of that last point, I find myself preferring the Bernstein DVD, boisterous and all-embracing despite much slower tempi throughout. But it is not a clear victory, especially considering modern picture, sound, and so fine a Faust Overture performance as a filler. So, yes, unlikely readers who only want one version: Get the Thielemann.
From the innovative and gorgeous "Tutto Verdi" project comes a chance to catch all the high points! "Tutto Verdi" includes arias from 20 Verdi operas. The selections hail from the best-known and loved productions like Aida, La Traviata and Rigoletto as well as lesser-known beauties, all in HD.
Giuseppe Verdi TUTTO VERDI - The Complete Operas (Highlights)
excerpts from: Oberto Un Giorno di Regno Nabucco I Lombardi alla prima crociata Ernani I due Foscari Giovanna d’Arco Attila Macbeth Il Corsaro Luisa Miller Rigoletto Il Trovatore La Traviata I Vespri Siciliani Simon Boccanegra Un Ball in Maschera La Forza del Destino Falstaff
with: Anna Caterina Antonacci Barbara Bargnesi Silvia Dalla Benetta Daniela Dessì Norma Fantini Tamar Iveri Nino Machaidze Susan Neves Dimitra Theodossiou Sylvie Valayre Svetla Vassileva Marcelo Alvarez Marco Berti Francesco Demuro Antonio Gandia Carlo Guelfi Ambrogio Maestri Francesco Meli Leo Nucci Luca Salsi Roberto Scandiuzzi Vladimir Stoyanov
Parma Teatro Regio Chorus and Orchestra
Recorded live from the Teatro Regio di Parma
Picture format: NTSC 16:9 Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.1 Region code: 0 (worldwide) Subtitles: Italian, English Running time: 94 mins No. of DVDs: 1
Oberto was Verdi's first staged operas and was heard for the first time at La Scala, Milan in November 1839. As a young and unknown composer, Verdi was subject to the rules governing the opera industry in Italy. Even so, there are many scenes in this early work that reveal unmistakable signs of the composer's individual style.
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
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)
Giuseppe Verdi: La traviata: E strano! … Ah, fors e lui … Sempre libera / De’ miei bollenti spiriti / Di Provenza il mar, il suol Rigoletto: Questa o quella / Caro nome che il mio cor / La donna e mobile Don Carlo: Io la vidi e al suo sorriso / O don fatale Aida: Celeste Aida / Numi, pietà del mio soffrir! Il trovatore: Stride la vampa! / Ah! sì, ben mio … Di quella pira I vespri siciliani: Mercé, dilette amiche Un ballo in maschera: Ma se m’è forza perderti La forza del destino: Pace, pace mio Dio! / O tu che in seno agli angeli Otello: Piangea cantando nell’erma landa / Ave Maria, piena di grazia / Niun mi tema
featuring Nino Machaidze, soprano Daniela Dessì, soprano Dimitra Theodossiou, soprano Marcelo Álvarez, tenor Francesco Meli, tenor Leo Nucci, baritone
Picture format: 1080i High Definition Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Region code: 0 (worldwide) Subtitles: Italian, English Running time: 110 mins No. of Discs: 1
Note: This Blu-ray Disc is playable only on Blu-ray Disc players, and not compatible with standard DVD players.
A film by Yosif Feyginberg
The date is May 2nd, 1957. Stalin died only four years before and perestroika is still a long way off. However, the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, who is just 24, arrives in Moscow for an exceptional tour: he is the first North American musician to play behind the iron curtain. This is the story that Glenn Gould in Russia tells by revealing documents from the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that had remained classified for years. Witness accounts from musicians such as Ashkenazy and Rostropovitch, parts of the original recordings of Gould’s concerts in Moscow and Leningrad, as well as a recording that had never been released before of his lecture-recital in Leningrad make this an invaluable documentary revealing an aspect of Glenn Gould’s artistry that few people are aware of.
DETAILS:
Picture format: 1080i High Definition Sound format: PCM 2.0 (Historical material: Mono) Region code: 0 (worldwide) Subtitles: English, German, French, Korean Running time: 60 mins No. of Discs: 1 (Blu-ray)
Giuseppe Verdi: La traviata: E strano! … Ah, fors e lui … Sempre libera / De’ miei bollenti spiriti / Di Provenza il mar, il suol Rigoletto: Questa o quella / Caro nome che il mio cor / La donna e mobile Don Carlo: Io la vidi e al suo sorriso / O don fatale Aida: Celeste Aida / Numi, pietà del mio soffrir! Il trovatore: Stride la vampa! / Ah! sì, ben mio … Di quella pira I vespri siciliani: Mercé, dilette amiche Un ballo in maschera: Ma se m’è forza perderti La forza del destino: Pace, pace mio Dio! / O tu che in seno agli angeli Otello: Piangea cantando nell’erma landa / Ave Maria, piena di grazia / Niun mi tema
featuring Nino Machaidze, soprano Daniela Dessì, soprano Dimitra Theodossiou, soprano Marcelo Álvarez, tenor Francesco Meli, tenor Leo Nucci, baritone
Picture format: NTSC 16:9 Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.1 Region code: 0 (worldwide) Subtitles: Italian, English Running time: 110 mins No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)
Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden are continuing their internationally acclaimed Bruckner cycle with the Symphony No. 5. For Anton Bruckner, his Fifth Symphony was a glorious confrontation with the music of the past – from a personal, biographical angle, but also as a departure from the composition techniques he preferred up to this point. Not for nothing is this tremendous opus magnum regarded as Bruckner’s “contrapuntal masterpiece”. In this universally lauded performance, Christian Thielemann, already the leading Bruckner interpreter of our times, has once again proven himself to be a “magician of the Bruckner sound”. (Kurier)
Anton Bruckner SYMPHONY NO. 5 (Blu-ray Disc Version)
Dresden Staatskapelle Christian Thielemann, conductor
Recorded live at the Semperoper, Saxon State Opera, Dresden, 2013
Picture format: 1080i High Definition Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Region code: 0 (worldwide) Subtitles: English, German, French Running time: 89 mins No. of Discs: 1 (BD 25)
SOLTI – Journey of a Lifetime Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the birth of Sir Georg Solti (Blu-ray Disc Version)
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
1977 Video Production
Picture format: 1080i High Definition (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 Discs: 1 (BD 25)
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