This is the first recording of pianist Igor Levit, conductor Christian Thielemann and the Vienna Philharmonic with Brahms' two Piano Concertos. The release is a triple-CD album with Levit's recording of Brahm's late solo piano works opp 116-119. As a special encore Levit and Thielemann also play the four-hand Brahms Waltz op. 39/15 together.

REVIEW:

Levit’s utterly compelling accounts of the late sets are the more impressive element in this collection. He does not put a foot wrong in any of them; each piece is perfectly shaped, its subtly varied emotional charge instantly identified. It’s hard to think of many better recordings of these 20 gems, and certainly not of all four opus numbers together.

— The Guardian

In every respect, this is superb. Here is not merely a wonderful souvenir of a special event but a thing of joy forever.

In every respect, this is superb: a 'must'. I recently listened to DG's historic issue of VPO Johann Strauss ((D 435 335-2GWP2), reviewed enthusiastically in February by RO. Here the present needs fear nothing from the past. Indeed Carlos Kleiber combines in one baton, miraculously, every attribute of his predecessors—his father Erich's discipline and élan, Krauss's Schwung, Karajan's elegance, Boskovsky's lift and Krips's insinuating charm. Anyone who saw and heard the concert on television (the video incidentally will be released on Philips) will know just how delightfully Kleiber, with his unorthodox, seemingly effortless methods, achieves his aims and how willingly his complaisant orchestra responds to his peculiar gifts.

If I had to decide between so many winners, I might choose Eine Tausend und eine Nachi for the translucency of its introduction and the champagne elation of its main section, and Spharenklange for ethereal wonder. But then there is the irresistible verve of the Pizzicato Polka where the rubato is perfectly judged, and the tremendous panache of Unter Donner und Blitz. Is there a touch of the mannered just once or twice, as in the opening bars of The Blue Danube? If so, it is usually justified as a means to an entirely convincing end—in this case a familiar piece given with a swooning spontaneity that invites the body to sway with the music.

To crown one's pleasure, the recording is faultless: it has presence, warmth, depth, and captures ideally a sense of the occasion. Here is not merely a wonderful souvenir of a special event but a thing of joy forever. And now if you'll excuse me, I shall go and listen to it again.

-- Gramophone [4/1992]

MAHLER: SYMPHONY NO 3, KINDERT

MAHLER: SYMPHONIES NO 9 & 10 (

MAHLER: SYMPHONIES NO 6 & 7 M

1995 NEW YEAR'S CONCERT MEHTA

Classical Music

Paul Badura-Skoda Plays Mozart: Piano Concertos: No. 25 in C, K503, with Horst Stein conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (performed live 15 June 1978) and No. 22 in Eb, K482, with George Szell conducting the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra (performed live 19 & 20 Dec. 1959). K503: first release; K482: first time on CD. Extensive notes on the music and on these performances by Badura-Skoda. Booklet includes his CD discography. A co-production with the VPO and ORF1 (Austrian Radio). Sparkling performances of two Mozart gems by one of his foremost 20th century interpreters, in the best possible sound.

Heavy and deliberate as Maazel’s idiosyncratic point of view undoubtedly is, you can’t fault the execution, very much on the side of Mahler the modernist. Jagged textures stand revealed throughout, offset by richly resonant sound and characteristically warm VPO strings worked to the bone in an attempt to realise as many of the detailed dynamics as possible. I confess a personal nostalgia for the very Viennese waltzes and ländlers of this scherzo, fondly remembered from youthful impressions of the same work, players and conductor on a first-time visit to Vienna.

-- David Nice, BBC Music Magazine

Classical Music

A staggeringly powerful reading, it represents one of the high points in Furtwängler’s entire discography. Like his two BPO accounts from 1949, this one with the VPO uses modified Haas—the latter’s insertion of 10 bars from the 1887’s Adagio is omitted—and there are elements from the 1892 Schalk (a cymbal clash is heard in the 1949 finales, but not in this one). This 1944 has greater passion and is more listenable than are either of the BPO 1949s.

-- Jeffrey J. Lipscomb, FANFARE [reviewing the box set of Bruckner symphonies conducted by Furtwängler, Music & Arts 1209]

By far the finest reading of this little-heard masterpiece, which combines Bruckner-like counterpoint with a vivid sense of drama. Anton Dermota gives a deeply impressive performance.

I have been seeking out broadcasts and recordings of this oratorio ever since, 20 or so years ago, I first began to suspect that it was a masterpiece. Many of those performances were so dreadful that I began to wonder whether I'd been quite wrong about the work but this, by a long way the finest reading of Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln ("The Book with seven seals") that I have ever heard, triumphantly vindicates it.

Franz Schmidt's oratorio combines learned, Bruckner-like contrapuntal artifice (which in a bad performance can sound crabbed and boring) with a vivid sense of drama that at times recalls the naive peasant baroque of some Austrian and South German carved altarpieces (and can in a bad performance sound merely naive), at others the horrific realism of Matthias Grünewald. As a composer himself and a man of deep religious conviction Mitropoulos responded to both these aspects, and such haunting passages as the duet for two survivors of the pestilence and death spread by the horsemen of the Apocalypse, or the tremendous earthquake chorus that follows the breaking of the seventh seal have a powerful sense of drama which is emphasized by Mitropoulos's precise care for contrapuntal and instrumental detail. Yes, in this live performance there are a few untidinesses (the rushing violin passages in the gipsy "Hallelujah", not altogether unexpectedly - they are hideously difficult) but the impact and the devout urgency of the reading are not in the least diminished by them.

In the hugely taxing central role of St John, Dermota is deeply impressive. Although the part is often given to a dramatic tenor it responds to a lyric voice that is capable at times of ringing fullness. Dermota matches Mitropoulos's urgency, and clearly means every word of the role. At one point, where a descending vocal line illustrates the text's reference to the four beasts and the elders falling down before the Lamb, it is obvious that the bottom note of the phrase is not within his range. Instead, quietly and reverently, he speaks it, and the expressive effect of this is characteristic of his whole performance. The other soloists, Gueden and Berry especially, are distinguished, and both chorus and orchestra audibly respond to Mitropoulos's conviction.

The mono recording is a little constricted at times, with patches of acid string tone, but it improves and gains impact as it proceeds. Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln still has the reputation of a piece that the Austrians regard as a classic but which doesn't travel. This recording refutes that view with inspiriting eloquence.

-- Gramophone [3/1996]

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OPERATIC EXCERPTS & LIEDER

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Burkhard Fritz, Laurent Naouri, Brindley Sherratt, Mikhail Petrenko, Maija Kovalevska, Philippp Stoezl, and Kate Aldrich star in this Vienna State Opera/Vienna Philharmonic production of the Berlioz opera conducted by Valery Gergiev.

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.

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STRINGS, PERCUSSION & CELESTA

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