Ludwig van Beethoven Missa Solemnis Regine Hangler, Clementine Margaine, Christian Elsner, Franz Josef Selig. Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, MDR Rundfunkchor Leipzig Marek Janowski, conductor Released on 01-06-2017, PENTATONE PTC 5186565 “From the heart to the heart” – Beethoven’s deeply felt and visionary choral masterpiece, the Missa Solemnis The conductor Marek Janowski and the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin continue…
Tag: Beethoven
The Performance of a Lifetime: Sviatoslav Richter Plays Brahms
Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 83 Beethoven Sonata No. 23, Op. 57 “Appassionata” Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf (conductor) Sviatoslav Richter (piano) Sony G010001718537R
Wagner, Schopenhauer and The Will to Live
Richard Wagner first came across the works of the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer while he was lying low in Switzerland following his participation in the 1848 Dresden uprising where he had manned the barricades and was even rumoured to have had set fire to the opera house where he was Kapellmeister.
Press releases: October 2016
(1) Antonín Dvořák: Slavonic Rhapsodies & Symphonic Variations (2) Beethoven & Bruch: Violin Concertos
Back in the USSR: Going Viral with Sviatoslav Richter
Sviatoslav Richter was undoubtedly one of the greatest and most influential pianists of the 20th century. He came to epitomise everything that people expected from a Russian virtuoso: a stern, penetrating intellect, breathtaking skill, demonic powers and magical, tantalising performances. But he was no flamboyant showman. Complex, intensely private and sometimes eccentric, reports of his…
Wagner – from minor to major
While Richard Wagner’s lasting fame rests on his groundbreaking operas, he was evidently quite fond of his youthful Symphony in C major from 1832. Near the end of his life, he conducted a performance in Venice on 24 December 1882 for the birthday of his wife, Cosima Wagner; her father Franz Liszt also performed in…
Wagner – a Biographical Sketch
Written for the collector’s edition of the Wagner Ring Cycle on Pentatone, released May 2016.
The Wit and Wisdom of Sir Thomas Beecham
It was the sort of gaffe that only Sir Thomas Beecham could get away with. As part of a tour of Germany in 1936 with his newly-formed London Philharmonic Orchestra, he gave a live broadcast concert in Berlin. Noticing Adolf Hitler in the audience applauding after the first piece, he turned to the orchestra and,…
Brave New World
In December 1790, shortly before his departure for London, Joseph Haydn (1732 – 1809) dined with his friend and former pupil Mozart, and the Dutch aristocrat, Baron Gottfried van Swieten. Mozart was uneasy; Haydn was famous internationally but had rarely travelled, having spent most of the previous 30 years ensconced in rural Eisenstadt as the…