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Live 1973 concert performances by celebrated Polish-American virtuoso concert pianist Arthur Rubinstein, with the Concertgebouw Orchestra under conductor Bernard Haitink. Filmed in August 1973 at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the performances include Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto, in C minor, op. 37; and Brahms's First Piano Concerto, in D minor, op. 15. These are followed by four short pieces for solo piano, by Schubert, Brahms, and Chopin. The 2008 DVD release by Deutsche Grammophon also includes a short documentary, "Rubinstein at 90", an interview with Robert MacNeil, filmed at Rubinstein's home in Paris in 1977.
For Mahlerites, his symphonies are much more than musical performances--they can be an emotional or spiritual journey through the struggles, fears, and triumphs of life. This Sixth Symphony is a 1976 performance in the Vienna Musikvereinssaal with PCM stereo and DTS 5.1. The 2 dvd set also includes the 4th and 5th symphonies, which are performed as magnificently as the Sixth.
Leonard Bernstein made these recordings during his wonderfully productive collaboration with the Wiener Philharmoniker in the mid-1970s when he was at the peak of his career. Humphrey Burton's direction is, as always, very fine, giving the viewer/listener both the larger picture and highlighting individual soloists, players or groups of musicians and, of course, the maestro. The video and audio tracks show their age, but are quite acceptable even for today's standards. Bernstein's Seventh is everything one could desire: dark and spooky, highly sensual, but also structurally strong and assertive where needed. Bernstein's reading does not gloss over breakdowns in tonality and the foreshadowing of later musical developments.
Daniel Barenboim is an expert in exploiting the impact of cyclical performances of composers works: This time he focuses his sharp intellect on all six of Anton Bruckners mature symphonies. Der Tagesspiegel described Barenboim's performance of the works with the Staatskapelle Berlin on six nearly consecutive evenings in June 2010 as a superhuman accomplishment and went on to praise how: His Bruckner is conceived and performed very theatrically, like an opera without words. Bruckners famous Romantic Symphony No. 4 forms the prelude to a spectacular DVD series from Accentus Music and Unitel Classica, exploring Bruckners symphonic cosmos.
Between 1981 and 1984 Leonard Bernstein recorded nearly all of Brahmss orchestral works with the Wiener Philharmoniker to honor the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth in 1983. For the concertos, Bernstein enlisted the services of some of the finest Brahms interpreters of the time: the violoninst Gidon Kremer, the cellist Mischa Maisky and the pianist Krystian Zimerman. Leonard Bernstein, Krystian Zimerman, and the Wiener Philharmoniker, it's very hard to get a better group of musicians for these masterpieces. Mr. Zimerman and Mr. Wolfgang Herzer's piano cello duets in the third movement of Brahms' second is simply tearful.
With nearly 450 years of tradition, the Staatskapelle Berlin is one of the oldest orchestras in the world. Daniel Barenboim has served as its music director since 1992, and in 2000 the orchestra appointed him Chief Conductor for Life. Having already performed important cycles such as Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann together, Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle turned their focus toward Anton Bruckner's last six Symphonies, performed in the Philharmonie Berlin in the course of only one week in June 2010. This music is more serious and more significant than one had thought, the Berliner Zeitung summarized in its review of Daniel Barenboims celebrated Bruckner cycle with the Staatskapelle Berlin. Bruckners unfinished Symphony No. 9 brought to an end, in a poignant manner, the work of one of the greatest symphonic composers of the Classic-Romantic era.
The Süddeutsche Zeitung summed up this highly acclaimed performance of Bruckner's monumental Fifth Symphony by saying: Both Bruckners belief in God, as it majestically wells up out of the chorale of the Fifth, and his deeply tragic world view, collide with one another in Barenboims interpretation. The operatic experience of the conductor was almost tangible, revealing the sheer dramatic instrumental battle between Bruckners God and the Devil between heaven and hell without betraying Bruckners unerring sense of striking proportions. The release of this contrapuntal masterpiece (as Bruckner, not without pride, referred to this work) is part of Daniel Barenboims Bruckner cycle with the renowned Staatskapelle Berlin.
Karajan conducts rehearsal and performance of Schubert's Symphony No. 4 with the Vienna Symphony in Vienna, Nov. 1965, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 with the Berlin Philharmonic, January 1966. Henri-Georges Clouzot directs.
The renowned orchestra presents the world's biggest annual classical open air concert live from their hometown Vienna, Austria on Thursday, May 29th, 2014. The Summer Night Concert with the Vienna Philharmonic is an annual open-air event that takes place in the magical setting of the Schönbrunn Palace Park in Vienna with the palace as a magnificent backdrop. Everyone is invited to come to this unique occasion with free admission. Each year up to 100,000 people can take up the invitation, or enjoy on radio and TV in over 60 countries.
The legendary Italian pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920 - 1995), playing at the height of his powers, performs Chopin's Sonata in B flat minor and other music by one of the instrument's most brilliant and idiomatic writers, in the famously rare 1962 RAI television recording, newly restored and remastered for this release. Michelangeli's fine control and perfect clarity - always present in his playing - have positioned him among the most outstanding recording artists of any generation. ""His fingers can no more hit a wrong note or smudge a passage than a bullet can be veered off course once it has been fired...""
Released as a memorial for the great Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, who passed away on 27 April 2007, this DVD contains one bonafide cello concerto, the Schumann Cello Concerto in A minor, and two tone poems with prominent cello parts, Ernest Bloch's Schelomo and Richard Strauss' Don Quixote. Rostropovich mastered the Schumann in several famous recordings. Here, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, he provides a splendid performance. Featuring his trademark powerful technique, smooth legato and crisp vibrato, the Romantic roots of the concerto are never hidden for long, despite the relatively cool playing of the Orchestre National de France.
Anton Bruckner’s 6th Symphony was written between 1879 and 1881: a very happy time in his life. Unlike most of Bruckner’s symphonies, the 6th was not revised. Of all his works, this one seems to come from a single source of inspiration. Bruckner himself called it his “boldest” symphony – probably due to its extreme degree of motivic, rhythmic and harmonic originality. This live recording of the seldom-performed 6th Symphony is the next instalment of the acclaimed Bruckner cycle by the Staatskapelle Berlin and Daniel Barenboim. Anton Bruckner Symphony No. 6 in A major (original version) Daniel Barenboim, Conductor Staatskapelle Berlin Recorded live at the Philharmonie Berlin, 22 June 2010
“Clarity was one thing that made this performance a marvel. Another was the flexibility of Barenboim’s speeds…. The flexibility of Barenboim’s tempi meant that Bruckner’s charm – an often overlooked aspect of his genius – shone through, especially in the genial Trio.” (The Telegraph) Bruckner’s 8th is the last symphony completed by the Austrian composer. Many of his contemporaries regarded the symphony as “the pinnacle of 19th century music”. Even today, this monumental work fascinates listeners with its virtuoso orchestral technique, its immensity of sound, and its inexhaustible richness of detail. Symphony No. 8 in C minor (second version 1887-90, Robert Haas Edition) Daniel Barenboim, Conductor Staatskapelle Berlin Recorded live at the Philharmonie Berlin, 26 June 2010
In Anton Bruckner’s 7th Symphony, the listener encounters a music characterized by great spaciousness and profound solemnity, a music which speaks of grief and lamentation, but also of their transcendence. With its monumental architecture and intensity of sound, the symphony has moved listeners ever since its triumphal premiere in 1884. The Guardian calls Daniel Barenboim’s London interpretation “Tremendous … Barenboim and the Staatskapelle seem to have this work in their systems, and the overall impression was of music unfolding organically at its own pace rather than of a work being self-consciously interpreted or led.” Anton Bruckner Symphony No. 7 in E major (original version) Daniel Barenboim, conductor Staatskapelle Berlin Recorded live at the Philharmonie Berlin, 25 June 2010
This large-scale live recording (Gardiner's second) was made in Venice's St Mark's Basilica. It captures the drama as well as the ceremonial aspect of the work, despite sometimes cloudy recorded sound.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide. “Gardiner's second [recording of the Vespers], spectacularly recorded live in St Mark's, has a punchy choral sound, near-operatic solo singing (Bryn Terfel and Alistair Miles are among the basses), emphatic enunciation, big contrasts and deliberate exploitation of the building's spaces. Its outright theatricality sets it apart from other performances.
From the very first bars of the Coriolan Overture, it is apparent that this is Beethoven at his very best. Vladimir Jurowski and his absolutely brilliant Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment give us a new reading of old favorites that may well blow you out of your chair. There is plenty to discover: sounds and textures never heard before, an orchestral timbre as the composer himself may have envisaged and heard, incredible strength and cohesion and, on the other hand, sensitive nuances that often disappear under a blanket of massed strings in more traditional interpretations.
Karajan conducts these symphonies with eyes closed, often intently enraptured by the music, smiling occasionally when a passage or solo sounds just right to his ear. He conducts Brahms with a greater sense of urgency than does Bernstein: the First symphony is 11 minutes shorter as conducted by Karajan! Nothing is rushed but there is what can only be described as emotional compression, an intensity of expression that sounds quicker than Bernstein's performances.
