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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Tchaikovsky: Symphonies Nos. 4-6
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| |  | Sir Georg Solti & Chicago Symphony Orchestra2 February 1985, Royal Festival Hall, London
‘Georg Solti is the hero of the British archive releases produced by ICA Classics.’ (Diapason) In October 2012 music-lovers celebrated the centenary year of ‘one of the world’s greatest conductors’ (The Independent). This concert – a rare gem from the BBC archives – shows Sir Georg Solti at the height of his powers with his favourite orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, of which he was music director from 1969 to 1991, in an alliance that was revered among audiences and critics alike. Released for the first time on DVD, this concert is the last in Sir Georg Solti and his beloved CSO’s European tour in 1985. The Chicago Tribune wrote in January of that year, ‘He (Solti) and the CSO are firmly established as the most leonine team in symphonic music today, and that team has had everyone roaring from Stockholm to Zurich.’ Solti himself wrote: ‘My term as musical director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was the happiest time in my professional life.’ The programme on this DVD features Mozart’s Symphony No.39, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.4, and an encore of Fêtes from Debussy’s Nocturnes – all performed with the flair, passion and majestic artistry for which Solti was famed. His interpretation of Mozart has been hailed as arguably one of the greatest in history. ‘There are certain composers on whose work Solti has stamped his mark with a distinction that has never been equalled, nor probably ever will be, so that his conduit of their intentions has become integral to the experience of listening to them.’ (The Observer) The booklet note for this release is written by Humphrey Burton, who directed the cameras for the BBC at London’s Royal Festival Hall on the 2 February 1985 – the concert from which this DVD is taken. His first-hand, unique insight and behind-the-scenes information provide a fascinating glimpse into the inner workings of the concert, the CSO and the maestro. Sound format: Enhanced Mono DVD format: NTSC Picture format: 4:3 Running time: 83’ Subtitles: n/a Menu languages: English Booklet languages: E/F/G Region code: 0 Territory Restrictions: None |
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| |  | The Complete Tchaikovsky
These recordings were made from 1950 to 1952 and bring all of Furtwängler’s Tchaikovsky recordings together in one set. | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 & Francesca da Rimini
“Andris Nelsons, the CBSO and Tchaikovsky have become synonymous, not least on disc, and the latest in their series of recordings will be eagerly awaited after this week’s performances set down for the Orfeo label. The tone-poem Francesca da Rimini, sometimes seen as a poor relation to the more obvious story-line of Romeo and Juliet, was delivered with searing engagement under Nelsons. He unleashed a whirlwind circle of Dante’s hell, reassembling it at the end, but not before the Francesca’s wonderful narrative (Joanna Patton rising triumphantly to the solo clarinet’s challenges), crowned by fluttering flutes decorating the cellos’ final declaration of doomed, forbidden love. This was an urgent, gripping reading, and so was Nelsons’ account of Tchaikovsky’s tremendous Fourth Symphony, brilliantly responsive to its structure, ebbing and flowing in emotional intensity, and a tribute all the time to the immense trust and love between conductor and orchestra. So many instrumental delights (hopefully some, such as skirling woodwind scarcely heard at the heart of the first movement will undoubtedly be picked up the recording): apocalyptic brass, bassoon and oboe solos to get under the skin, and a massed string pizzicato sounding like one giant balalaika.” Christopher Morley, Birmingham Post 4th June 2011 “Nelsons inspires great enthusiasm in his audience. However, his cool and disciplined style of music-making rather mutes the works on this disc which run the emotional gamut from despair to exhilaration...the quality of the playing is superlative...Live, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra plays under Nelsons's direction with precision and polish.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2012 *** “It's really hard to fault any of Nelsons's choices here. Like Tchaikovsky, he is a classicist at heart: nothing is overcooked, nothing distorted; positively no histrionics. There is an integrity and inevitability about the phrasing and expressivity is always at the behest of good taste..The big moments are exciting but still a notch short of thrilling” Gramophone Magazine, March 2012 “a reading [of the Symphony] which exhibits all of the re-creative freshness and the urgency that has marked out his music-making with [the CBSO] thus far...[Francesca] ranks with Leopold Stokowski's and Charles Munch's as among the most revealing accounts of what is arguably the finest of Tchaikovsky's non-symphonic orchestral works.” International Record Review, January 2012 “These thrillingly temperamental accounts of much-recorded music gain from the frisson of live performance. In Francesca, the young conductor revels in the Wagnerian chromaticism, evidently inspired by Tristan und Isolde; and in the symphony, the orchestra join him in an emotional rollercoaster ride, with fabulous work from the solo clarinet in the opening movement and a haunting bassoon in the andantino.” Sunday Times, 13th November 2011 “Rather than unleashing pure frenzy from the outset, he builds gradually into the depiction of Dante's Inferno, and the tension he achieves by the end is little short of staggering. His performance of the Fourth, however, is altogether more reflective. This is not so much a battle with fate, as an expression of nostalgia on the part of one already crushed by it” The Guardian, 9th February 2012 **** “Under Andris Nelsons, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra gives a live performance of tremendous vitality and discipline, the colours deep and lucid, the music intensely felt, the tempi bold. Anguish continues in the Fourth Symphony. Superlative playing under a superlative conductor.” The Independent on Sunday, 27th November 2011 “Nelson avoids [hysteria] while paying full tribute to the music’s lush Romanticism. At the other end of the scale, the pizzicato third movement of the symphony is played with a sweet simplicity.” The Telegraph, 18th November 2011 “Stunningly well played and conducted with manic fervour, this performance of Tchaikovsky’s symphonic fantasy Francesca da Rimini confirms that the alliance between Andris Nelsons and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is made in heaven...By contrast, Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony is emotionally a little bland, though the performance is never less than clean and cogent.” The Times, 3rd December 2011 **** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Tchaikovsky: Symphonies Nos. 4, 5 & 6
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| |  | Gennadi Rozhdestvensky conducts Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky & Prokofiev
Mussorgsky: | A Night on the Bare Mountain Sorochinsky Fair version. Royal Albert Hall, London, 27 July 1981. David Wilson-Johnson (bass-baritone) BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Chorus & BBCSO | Prokofiev: | The Love for Three Oranges: Suite Op. 33a Far East Tour, Kurashiki City Auditorium, Kurashiki, Japan, 31 May 1981 BBCSO | Tchaikovsky: | Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 Leeds Music Festival, Leeds Town Hall, Leeds, 1 June 1979 BBCSO |
Gennadi Rozhdestvensky (b. 1931) is the last living survivor of a great Russian quartet of conductors consisting of Mravinsky, Kondrashin and Svetlanov. He was the highly distinguished principal conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 1978 to 1981, an exciting period in the orchestra’s history, faithfully captured here. The Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev recordings have never been issued before on CD, while the Mussorgsky was released on the now defunct BBC Radio Classics series over 15 years ago. Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.4 from the 1979 Leeds Music Festival is one of the conductor’s most inspired performances, rivalling Mravinsky in his celebrated accounts. Rozhdestvensky treats it as a broad tragedy of the highest order without sentimentalising it. Rozhdestvensky’s championship of Mussorgsky produces a rarity – the version of A Night on a Bare Mountain used in the composer’s Sorochinsky Fair, which includes a chorus and a bass-baritone (David Wilson-Jones). This version, from the 1981 BBC Proms, is sung in English. Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges Suite was given on a Far East tour in Kurashiki, Japan in 1981 and benefits from Rozhdestvensky’s long experience with ballet and, in this performance, his fiery impetus. | | | (also available to download from $10.50) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 & Serenade for Strings
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| |  | Tchaikovsky - Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5
Recording Place & Date: Avery Fisher Hall, New York, April 1975 (Symphony no. 4, Violin Concerto, Andante Cantabile) Tanglewood, July 1974 ( Symphony no. 5) | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Tchaikovsky - Symphonies Nos. 4, 5 & 6
Recording Place & Date: Philharmonie Berlin, 1974 “Others have gotten more sadness out of Tchaikovsky… but not more virility and controlled intense beauty than Karajan in the Unitel film” New York Times | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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“Janson's… live performance of the Fourth…has…a very real sense of in-the-moment excitement and imperative about it. Jansons gets increasing urgency into the fatalistic fanfares each time they are sent to try us. Lyrically, too, everything is shaped and nurtured to entrancing effect.” Gramophone Magazine, Janurary 2008 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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