The 2015 Munich concert year began at the end of January with two highlights: two performances of Bruckner's Sixth Symphony with Mariss Jansons conducting the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. The live recording, previously reserved exclusively for subscribers to the orchestra, is now being released on album by BR-KLASSIK - an outstanding interpretation of one of the most important compositions in the Late Romantic symphonic repertoire.

For a long time, Anton Bruckner’s Sixth Symphony (along with his Second) was regarded as something of a ‘poor relation’ in his immense symphonic oeuvre, even though the composer himself had moodily referred to it as his "boldest". In view of its performance figures and recordings over the decades, this has now changed significantly, and the work has earned itself a permanent place in the repertoire. The Sixth Symphony forms part of the creative process of the two preceding symphonies, the "Romantic" Fourth (1874/1880) and the Fifth (1875), and is now seen as an important preliminary stage in Bruckner’s last great upsurge that followed the composition of the "Te Deum" and culminated in the sublime grandeur of his final symphonies, the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth. Bruckner worked on his Sixth Symphony in A major (WAB 106) from September 24, 1879 to September 3, 1881. He was only able to hear the complete work at one orchestra rehearsal during his lifetime because only the two middle movements (Adagio and Scherzo) were publicly performed in the concert hall of the Vienna Musikverein on February 11, 1883. The first public performance of the symphony as a whole followed only on February 26, 1899 - two and a half years after the composer’s death. It was conducted by Gustav Mahler, who had, however, made changes to the score, presenting it in a radically shortened version.

This recording of the Symphony No.8 (Edition Haas) marks the start and the first live recording of the Bruckner cycle tour, which began in October 2019 in the much-celebrated concert at the Musikvereinssaal in Vienna. The Vienna Philharmonic, who have premiered four out of Bruckner’s 9 symphonies are familiar to his music unlike any other orchestra. With Christian Thielemann they have one of the few Bruckner experts on their side who has since 2000 been a musical partner of the orchestra. Thielemann has also conducted the New Year’s Concert for the first time in 2019.

The Vienna Philharmonic initiated a new Bruckner symphony cycle with Christian Thielemann in 2019. The new cycle is planned to last until 2024, the the 200th anniversary year of Anton Bruckner’s birth. We will release the live performances from the Musikvereinsaal, Vienna.

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REVIEW:

Thielemann draws fulsome, richly burnished playing from the orchestra. Orchestral textures are transparent, and he has a full grasp of the work’s architecture. Each climax is carefully prepared and powerfully executed. Melodic phrases are shaped with great affection and he uses a wide color palette from his players. Every ingredient is there, carefully measured out and expertly blended, poured into the pan and placed into the oven with care. Sony’s engineers capture the Musikverein’s exalted acoustic and the orchestra’s glorious sound with enviable precision and warmth. This is an exceptionally beautiful performance, with orchestral playing that cannot be bettered.

– TheClassicReview.com

Tchaikovsky's Symphonies are strangely not included in Kubelik's discography. This Album proposes a rare live recording with the same quality as that of a studio. Kubelík was the sixth of the eight sons of the distinguished Czech violinist Jan Kubelík and the Hungarian-born Countess Marianne Csaky-Szell. Between 1921 and 1929 he studied the orchestral repertoire daily by playing four-hand piano arrangements with his uncle František Kubelík, prompting this comment from his father in 1926: ‘He could realise great things. He is eleven, plays splendidly violin, piano, sight-reading scores and has a good knowledge of the orchestra. Some time ago he had a look to one of my orchestral works and asked me to add a horn to a particular part: he was right!’ He entered the Prague Conservatory in 1929 where for the next four years he studied piano, violin and composition. The present release showcases Kubelik with the Weiner Philharmonic, as they perform Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies Nos. 4, 5, and 6, as well as Romeo and Juliet. The original recordings were made in 1960 and 1955.

Admittedly, Franz Schubert's biography offers little in the way of great adventures, love affairs, glamour and long journeys. Jörg Handstein – in what is now his tenth audio biography in the successful BR-KLASSIK series - devotes himself here to a composer with an altogether quieter life. Schubert's story still remains an exciting one: no famous composer before him had ever chosen to lead a life in which his musical activities were supported solely by a private circle of friends. This did not succeed without resistance, setbacks, great disappointments and personal tragedies. Schubert's unhappiness in love, his terrible illness, and probably also his early death were, ultimately, the price he paid for this unconventional life. He bravely stood his ground, however, countering an age of cultural and political paralysis with his great and bold art. In this audio biography, Schubert’s creative path can be followed in around 130 musical examples – something impossible in any biography in book form. Alongside Udo Wachtveitl (narrator) and Robert Stadlober (Schubert), many other voices bring the composer’s world and his circle of friends to life. Schubert’s conventional image is encumbered by two clichés. On the one hand, we have the warm-hearted, sentimental man, known to his friends familiarly as Schwammerl (“mushroom”), churning out endless songs and beautiful melodies, and on the other, the incessantly tortured outsider, with music primarily conveying a sense of “brokenness” and “alienation”. This audio biography allows Schubert to speak for himself as often as possible. Despite the sparse documentation, a far more nuanced picture emerges – and the well-known Austrian actor and rock musician Robert Stadlober finds richly contrasting colors for it. We discover a different Schubert here: single-minded, argumentative, philosophical, reflective, and with a wide range of interests. That is also what makes his life story so exciting.

For the last seventeen years of his life – from 2003 to 2019 – Mariss Jansons was chief conductor of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and the Bavarian Radio Chorus. Both ensembles and their conductor appreciated each other deeply on an artistic as well as a human level, and this resulted in numerous unforgettable concerts. Jansons’ unrelenting demands on himself and his musicians, his always respectful treatment of his colleagues, and his great devotion to music all played a lead role in their work together. Mariss Jansons occupies a place of honor in the orchestra’s history, and its players will always revere and cherish his memory. With the death of Mariss Jansons one year ago, the music world lost one of its greatest artistic personalities.

Born the son of conductor Arvids Jansons in Riga in 1943, the young Mariss studied at the Leningrad Conservatory before completing his studies with Hans Swarowsky in Vienna and Herbert von Karajan in Salzburg. In 1971 he was a prizewinner at the Karajan Conducting Competition and began his close collaboration with today's St. Petersburg Philharmonic. From 1979 to 2000, Jansons was Music Director of the Oslo Philharmonic; from 1997 to 2004 he conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; and in the 2003/04 season he became Chief Conductor of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and the Bavarian Radio Chorus. The 2004/05 season marked the start of his tenure at the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, which ended in 2015. As a guest conductor, he worked with all the leading orchestras of Europe and the USA, and his discography includes many award-winning recordings.

Poppe’s composition Fett for orchestra dates from 2018/19 and was commissioned by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and its artistic director Gustavo Dudamel, and "musica viva". Enno Poppe is one of the most important younger representatives of New Music. His composition I cannot remember anything for chorus, organ and orchestra, based on words by Marcel Beyer, was written between 2005 and 2015 as a commission for Bayerischer Rundfunk’s "musica viva". The first performance in Germany was recorded on May 8, 2015 in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz. The album edition of the “musica viva” series, founded in June 2000 to document the concert series that has existed since 1945, contains selected live recordings of “musica viva” concerts. An integral part of the edition is made up of concerts by the ensembles of the Bayerischer Rundfunk, guest recordings by international orchestras and ensembles, and also historical recordings. With two or three new releases per year, the main focus of the edition -which sees itself primarily as a series for composers –is mainly on portrait albums.

The portrait of the British composer Rebecca Saunders, who lives in Germany, begins with her 2011 two-part violin concerto Still written in 2011. It was premiered at the Beethoven Festival in Bonn (with Carolin Widmann as soloist). The chamber music composition Aether for two bass clarinets was composed in 2015/16; and Albacame from a composition commission in 2014 by Bayerischer Rundfunk’s "musica viva" and BBC Radio 3 for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. The album edition of the “musica viva” series, founded in June 2000 to document the concert series that has existed since 1945, contains selected live recordings of “musica viva” concerts. An integral part of the edition is made up of concerts by the ensembles of the Bayerischer Rundfunk, guest recordings by international orchestras and ensembles, and also historical recordings. With two or three new releases per year, the main focus of the edition -which sees itself primarily as a series for composers –is mainly on portrait albums.

One of the pivotal and bloodiest battles of 16th-century Europe, the four-month siege of Malta by an Ottoman armada of some 200 ships, from which the local population led by the Knights of Malta emerged victorious, was an extraordinary episode of heroism overcoming overwhelming odds. Alexey Shor’s orchestral cycle Images from the Great Siege allows his signature lyrical expressiveness free rein in a suite of romanticized impressions – from an atmospheric Premonition of the Ottoman invasion, to the daring and climactic The Big Bluff and final jubilant Victory Celebration. Verdiana is a virtuosic showpiece that celebrates and transforms Verdi’s music into samba, bossa nova and tango styles.

Sony Classical is proud to announce the release of this year's Summer Night Concert 2020 with the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Valery Gergiev with tenor Jonas Kaufmann as soloist. The Summer Night Concert was performed this year on September 18th 2020. It is an annual open-air event, which has been held since 2008. The previous series was the "Concert for Europe", which took place from 2004 until 2007. The park of Sch�nbrunn Palace in Vienna/Austria is the magical setting for the concert. The illustrious conductors who have previously led the orchestra at this event are Georges Pr�tre, Daniel Barenboim, Franz Welser-M�st, Valery Gergiev, Lorin Maazel, Christoph Eschenbach, Zubin Mehta, Semyon Bychkov and Gustavo Dudamel. Thanks to it's UNESCO World Heritage setting in the Baroque park of Sch�nbrunn with the palace as a backdrop, the Summer Night Concert adds great visual charm to it's superb musical quality. This event is classical music at it's very best. Millions of viewers and listeners in more than 80 countries can follow the concert online, on TV and radio. The Vienna Philharmonic's 2020 Summer Night Concert took place in unusual circumstances. After the coronavirus pandemic resulted in the longest enforced break in the orchestra's history, the concert planned for May 2020 had to be postponed until September and took place for the first time with a reduced audience. The Vienna Philharmonic devoted this very special concert to the theme of love. This is the fourth time that Valery Gergiev has conducted one of these concerts: he first appeared with the orchestra in 1997 and has conducted the Summer Night Concerts in 2007, 2011 and 2018. Valery Gergiev is a vivid representative of the St Petersburg conducting school. His debut at the Mariinsky (then Kirov) Theatre came in 1978 with Prokofiev's War and Peace. In 1988 Valery Gergiev was appointed Music Director of the Mariinsky Theatre, and in 1996 he became it's Artistic and General Director. He successfully collaborates with the world's great opera houses, works with the World Orchestra for Peace (which he has directed since 1997), the Philharmonic Orchestras of Berlin, Paris, Vienna, New York and Los Angeles, the Symphony Orchestras of Chicago, Cleveland, Boston and San Francisco, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Amsterdam) and many other ensembles. From 1995 to 2008 Valery Gergiev was Principal Conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic (of which he remains an honorary conductor to this day), and from 2007 to 2015 of the London Symphony Orchestra. Since autumn 2015 the maestro has headed the Munich Philharmonic. This year's programme featured the star tenor Jonas Kaufmann, who is appearing at one of these concerts for the very first time, even though he has been performing with the orchestra to great acclaim for the last two decades. Since his sensational d�but at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in a performance of "La Traviata" in 2006, Jonas Kaufmann has numbered among the top stars on the operatic horizon. The international press has singled him out as the "new king of tenors". Insiders praise him as the most important German tenor since Fritz Wunderlich. Kaufmann is just as much in demand internationally in the Italian and French repertoires as he is in German opera. He has sung Massenet's Werther in Paris and Vienna, Cavaradossi in Puccini's "Tosca" in London, at the Met and La Scala. His intensive characterizations of Don Jos� in Bizet's "Carmen" and Werther in Massenet's opera took opera fans throughout the world by storm. His solo albums are bestsellers only a few weeks after being released. In 2011 he was presented the coveted "Opera News Award" in New York. Shortly afterwards Kaufmann was named a "Chevalier de l'Ordre de l'Art et des Lettres" by French culture minister Fr�d�ric Mitterrand. Kaufmann has been selected several times as "Singer of the Year", by the classical music magazines "Opernwelt", "Diapason" and "Musical America" as well as by the juries of "Opus-Klassik" and the inaugural "International Opera Awards" (2013). The 177-year old tradition of the Vienna Philharmonic goes back to 1842, when Otto Nicolai conducted a Grand Concert with all members of the imperial "Hof-Operntheater". This event was originally called "Philharmonic Academy" and is regarded as the origin of the orchestra. Since it's founding, the orchestra has been managed by the administrative committee - a democratically elected body - and works with artistic, organisational and financial autonomy. All decisions are reached on a democratic basis during the general meeting of all members.

Anton Bruckner's symphonies were a constant part of the repertoire for Mariss Jansons and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. The existing recordings - almost all the great Bruckner symphonies – are important documents of Jansons’ deep understanding of the works, and the high musical quality of the recordings also testifies to the long Bruckner tradition at the BRSO. Jansons followed Bruckner’s notes and markings with painstaking precision, and listening to a recording with the score reveals again and again how closely the conductor studied these works with the musicians of his orchestra. Bruckner's symphonies form the backbone of Late Romantic symphonic music. To a certain extent, Bruckner reinvented the symphony – something that not even Liszt or Wagner had dared to do in the wake of the groundbreaking masterpieces of Beethoven, which until then had been considered the culmination and conclusion of the genre. It was Bruckner and, somewhat later, Brahms who sought and found new methods of reviving the symphonic genre and developing it further. In this regard, Bruckner's approach was entirely new. From the outset, he relied on the sound of the large orchestra and, rather than mixing the individual groups of instruments, he tended to either separate them from each other or couple them together like organ registers (with which, as an organist, he was very familiar). Terraced dynamics, that is, the immediate juxtaposition of piano and forte without transition, was also something Bruckner derived from organ music. As a church musician, he had close contact with these and other elements of Baroque music, and they flowed into his symphonies. As far as dramaturgical development was concerned, he tended to favor Schubert; indeed, it was the organic continuation and alternating interconnection of themes Bruckner had learned from Schubert that also explains the unprecedented performance length of his symphonies.

No more Bruckner under Haitink, that's a cut in the history of interpretation (Wiener Zeitung) To end his active conducting career after 65 years, maestro Bernard Haitink together with the Wiener Philharmoniker gives a farewell concert at the Gro�es Festspielhaus at Salzburg Festival, leaving no doubt of being one of the best Bruckner interpreters ever. The Dutch conductor, who was appointed honorary member of the Wiener Philharmoniker shortly before the concert, is joined by star pianist Emanuel Ax in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4: a musical interaction "of a depth of sentiment and an agreement in making music together that sounds wonderfully natural" (Salzburger Nachrichten). The concert ends with Bruckner's monumental Symphony No. 7 with it's famous second movement, which marked the composer's breakthrough and remains one of his most popular symphonies. The Wiener Philharmoniker play under Haitink's masterful baton completely focused, but dynamic and with deepest sensation. The atmosphere of this last performance is without doubt exceptional and a visibly emotional Haitink was celebrated by the audience with long standing ovations. "You shouldn't throw terms like 'magic moments' around easily. But what could be heard in Salzburg was certainly one" (Klassikinfo. De)

Also available on Blu-ray

Operetta enthusiast Barrie Kosky has landed a gigantic success with Offenbach’s subversive and hilarious reversion of the Orpheus myth at the Salzburg Festival. Kosky created a magically precise and witty staging with numerous extravagant costumes in a glittering opulent scenery and a literally devilish choreography. For the dialogues he has found an impressively ingenious solution as they are not spoken by the singers. Rather they are performed by the brilliant German actor Max Hopp as John Styx “who performs a true vocal miracle” (Neue Zürcher Zeitung) in a slapstick-like manner. The superb cast impresses with virtuoso singing as well as ravishingly comedic acting, first and foremost the American coloratura soprano Kathryn Lewek as Eurydice “with crystal clear coloraturas and sovereign top tones” (Salzburger Nachrichten), the Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter as severe L’Opinion publique or the Austrian bass baritone Martin Winkler as foolish father of the gods Jupiter. Under the Italian conductor Enrique Mazzola’s precise conducting the Wiener Philharmoniker provide an exquisite “sparkling orchestral sound” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). “A frantic and fabulous show” (New York Times)

Verdi's masterpiece "Simon Boccanegra" is presented in a "clear and levelheaded" (The New York Times) staging by Andreas Kriegenburg from the Salzburg Festival. The tragedy of the corsair who becomes Doge of Genoa and is poisoned shortly after having found his lost daughter is conducted by Valery Gergiev, "makes for gorgeously beautiful tone colours" (Der Kurier). The excellent cast includes Luca Salsi ("Italy's finest baritone today", Financial Times) in the title role, Ren� Pape ("in sumptuous voice", Financial Times) as his contrahent Fiesco, as well as Marina Rebeka and Charles Castronovo as the loving couple Amelia and Adorno who "together create islands of bliss in duet and action." (Neue Z�rcher Zeitung). Valery Gergiev provides for an excellent musical realization, the Wiener Philharmoniker and the Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor perform superbly: "The Wiener Philharmoniker seemed to have virtually conspired with the conductor and the work, shining into every hidden sound angle, playing out all their sovereignty and opera experience" (S�ddeutsche Zeitung).

Verdi's masterpiece "Simon Boccanegra" is presented in a "clear and levelheaded" (The New York Times) staging by Andreas Kriegenburg from the Salzburg Festival. The tragedy of the corsair who becomes Doge of Genoa and is poisoned shortly after having found his lost daughter is conducted by Valery Gergiev, "makes for gorgeously beautiful tone colours" (Der Kurier). The excellent cast includes Luca Salsi ("Italy's finest baritone today", Financial Times) in the title role, Ren� Pape ("in sumptuous voice", Financial Times) as his contrahent Fiesco, as well as Marina Rebeka and Charles Castronovo as the loving couple Amelia and Adorno who "together create islands of bliss in duet and action." (Neue Z�rcher Zeitung). Valery Gergiev provides for an excellent musical realization, the Wiener Philharmoniker and the Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor perform superbly: "The Wiener Philharmoniker seemed to have virtually conspired with the conductor and the work, shining into every hidden sound angle, playing out all their sovereignty and opera experience" (S�ddeutsche Zeitung).

It was on the borderline between High and Late Romanticism, where the style of the times was to change and finally dissolve, that Anton Bruckner once again conjured up the very essence of the Romantic attitude to life with his Fourth Symphony. It was the composer himself who gave the work its popular title "Romantic"; the name appears in much of his correspondence. – This "Romantic" symphony conjures up an ideal world in bright, unbroken colors, and looks back on an intact and carefree past. The consistently relaxed and positive mood of the symphony seems all the more astonishing when one considers the complicated history of the work’s genesis. The first version of 1874, a year of professional setbacks, was rejected by Bruckner after several plans for a premiere came to nothing; with relentless self-criticism, he referred to it as “overladen” and "too restless". In 1878 he subjected it to radical revision, in the course of which, among other things, a completely new third movement was written - the hunting scherzo. The other three movements were also profoundly reworked, partly shortened and formally condensed, and up to 1880 Bruckner repeatedly altered the final movement, which gradually grew into a crowning finale within the symphonic structure that would dissolve and overcome every last contradiction. It was in this version of 1878/1880, also the basis of this recording, that the Fourth Symphony was premiered on February 20, 1881 in Vienna, played by the Philharmonic under the baton of the Wagner aficionado Hans Richter. The performance was a great triumph, and marked a decisive change in the reception of Bruckner's music. His symphonic work to date had largely met with rejection, but now, with the "Romantic", he had made his breakthrough. As one of Bruckner’s most-performed works alongside the Seventh, the Fourth has remained just as successful to this day.