Revenge/Zadek/Bayle/Hongen/Moralt/Orch. Staatsoper Wien.

This six-disc set of Tchaikovsky concert performances, recorded 1984-2009, features more than a dozen orchestral works, including the composer’s last three symphonies, the Manfred, The Tempest and other symphonic poems. Three of the recordings are first-time releases. The Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, founded 1930, is internationally recognized as one of Russia's most prestigious and versatile orchestras. Vladimir Fedoseyev has, since 1974, held the position of Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the orchestra, now known as the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra.

Fedoseyev/Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra.

Fedoseyev/Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra/Vedernikov/Mikhailova/Pluzhnikov/Pisarenko/Terentyeva/Grand Choir of the USSR Radio & TV.

Fedoseyev/Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra/Shestakov.

Fedoseyev/Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra.

Fedoseyev/Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra.

Fedoseyev/Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra.

Schock/Otto/Ksirova/Walter/Rias-Unterhaltungs orchester.

Fedoseyev/Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra.

Fedoseyev/Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra.

Sokolik/Arkhipova/Sakharenko/Fedoseyev/Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra.

Sapyegina/Lissovsky/Fedoseyev/Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra.

Schlemm/Fischer/Schock/Bohme/Schmidt-Isserstedt/Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester.

Fedoseyev/Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra.

BELLE LURETTE is Jacques Offenbach's last work. He did not get to see or hear the world premiere or that of his fantastic opera "Hoffmanns Erzählungen", which he worked on at the same time. This publication is a recording by Radio Leipzig from 1958. The tapes were only rediscovered in the archive in the summer of 2019 and are thus offered for the very first time on album. The performance features top GDR radio stars, the Grand Radio Orchestra and the Leipzig Radio Choir under the musical direction of Vienna conductor Gottfried Kassowitz, who makes the score sparkle with precision and transparency, yet with great temperament. The arrangement by Walter Zimmer is characterized by subtle interventions and allows all music numbers to be played, with three exceptions. The encore section has been extended to include 10 music numbers from the French O.R.T.F. production of 1965, making it possible to make meaningful comparisons between the original version and the German version. The accompanying text is by Matthias Käther, well-known and popular, among other things, for his music broadcasts on Radio rbb Kultur ("Opernführer" and others).

Fedoseyev/Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra.

In January 1973, the Theater Bern put Rossini's early opera buffa "L'equivoco stravagante" on the program in a German text version created for Bern, thus creating a veritable theatrical sensation. The work was performed fifteen times and even had to be included in the 1973/74 schedule - unusual for a municipal theater that did not maintain a so-called repertory business like large opera houses. Responsible for the great success, which caused surprise throughout the German-speaking world, was a perfectly coordinated ensemble under the direction of the phenomenal general music director EWALD KÖRNER. The performance was recorded in stereo by Swiss Radio DRS in the Bern studio after the season. It is thanks to this circumstance that the "Berner version" of the rather lesser-known buffa can now be presented on 2 albums, thanks to the research of RELIEF, in excellent sound quality, with an exemplary booklet and the libretto of the Berner performance.

As of 2023, most of the multitude of manuscripts documenting the extensive oeuvre of the Lucerne-born composer Franz Joseph Leonti Meyer von Schauensee are missing, if not lost forever. For this reason, there is no official catalogue of his works. His opera Die Engelbergische Talhochzeit (the Engelberg valley wedding) was reconstructed and edited by Hans Vogt and Hans Visscher van Gaasbeck in 1935. Acts one and two were performed as an incomplete work under the baton of Hans Vogt during the Swiss National Exhibition in Zurich in 1939. Sometime later, the third act was discovered in the music library of the Benedictine Abbey of St Andrew in Sarnen, following which Hans Vogt arranged the complete opera for a radio broadcast.

This arrangement was recorded under his direction on December 10, 1958, and broadcast for the first time by Radio Basel on April 5, 1959. The opera went on to be performed in various concert halls throughout German-speaking Switzerland. In 1974, Armin Brunner directed the opera at a studio in Zurich for a DRS television broadcast, though significant cuts were made in the recording. In 1982, Talhochzeit was performed by the Zurich Opera at Stadthof 11 (now Theater 11) in Zurich and subsequently on a tour of various Swiss venues.

Performances at the tradition-steeped Kantonsschule Obwalden grammar school in Sarnen in April 2015 (celebrating the 400-year history of the local abbey) and at the Kursaal hall of the Kempinski Palace hotel in Engelberg (marking the 200th anniversary of the accession of Engelberg to the canton of Obwalden) were the first since 1781 to feature the full composition with all its roles and complete text. The sole complete recording of the work is featured on this CD and so is released here for the first time. The bonus tracks on the second CD are likewise without precedent on disc.

Meyer von Schauensee composed a number of small-scale vocal works. The one presented here is titled Modetorheiten – eine Fastnachtsoperette (roughly: fashion fads – a Shrovetide operetta). This work lasts 30 minutes and seems to have been written for some occasion during the locally celebrated Shrovetide carnival of "Fastnacht”.