Beethoven Mariss Jamsons

Ludwig van Beethoven's 'Nine Symphonies' are the core repertoire of virtually every orchestra in the world and the Concertgebouworkest is no exception. Until the 1960s the Beethoven tradition of the Concertgebouworkest meant yearly symphony cycles that closed concert seasons. Later on Beethoven 'Symphonies' were mainly programmed one at a time, with a different (guest) conductor. This box set offers the finest recorded Concertgebouworkest live performances of the 'Nine Symphonies' since the 1970s. With a variety of conductors, from Leonard Bernstein to Nikolaus Harnoncourt it demonstrates the orchestra's incredible versatility.

Masters of Classical Music is an informative and captivating guide to twenty of the most important works in music history. Outtakes from the original scores within the documentaries, assist the viewer by making it easier to follow the music and to overall comprehend the structure of the works. The viewer will travel back in time to experience the birth places of these compositions and will thereby gain insight into the lives of the composers whilst receiving a thorough introduction to the works.

To celebrate the 100th birthday of the great Soviet composer Dmitry Shostakovich, Mariss Jansons assembled eight of the world's finest orchestras to determine which is the best of his 15 symphonies. There is no doubt that Jansons is the man for the job. Trained under Mravinsky and long steeped in Shostakovich's music, Jansons brings a lifetimes' love and intimacy to his interpretations - not to mention a terrific baton technique and an unfailing sense of tempo.

Antonín Dvorák's Stabat Mater, Op. 58, written in the aftermath of the deaths of three of his children, is a sober and powerful work, inexplicably neglected and unlike any other work of choral music from the 19th century. Perhaps most performances don't capture its full weight, but this live recording from the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Mariss Jansons, does so. There are many deep pleasures here. The orchestra's choir is extraordinary: rich yet without a hint of wobble and utterly clear in its sense of the text. Jansons keeps things at a deliberate pace that lets the music breathe and the currents of personal experience rise to the surface. The soloists, none terribly well known, are fine in their individual numbers, but absolutely transcendent in ensembles, nowhere more so that in the sublime "Quando corpus morietur" finale (track 10); there are a couple of other strong recordings of this work, but it seems likely that no one has ever matched this conclusion. The live recording from the Herkulessaal in Munich is impressively transparent and faithful to the spontaneity of the event. A superb Dvorák release.

From 2003 to 2019, Mariss Jansons was chief conductor of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and the Bavarian Radio Chorus. His death on December 1, 2019 marked the end of an era. As a conductor, Mariss Jansons was appreciated by the musicians of his orchestra and chorus like no other, he was loved by his Munich audience, and revered by his fans in international concert halls from Tokyo to New York. To create a place for everyone who wants to remember individual concerts or tours during his time as the principal conductor of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, there is now a timeline on the orchestra’s website. All the concerts since his inaugural one in Munich on October 23, 2003 can be found there. In addition to documentation of programmes and line-ups, selected concerts are accompanied by image galleries, concert videos, backstage material and excerpts from interviews or rehearsals from the archives of BR-KLASSIK and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. These archives are continually being extended, so the timeline is worth visiting again and again. We hope that this “virtual collection of memories” will give Jansons fans all over the world pleasure in browsing and remembering.

The Oslo Philharmonic is a world-class orchestra, and the playing in these two Honegger symphonies is superlative. Mariss Jansons conducts with real concentration and control; his attention to matters of detail and balance serves the longer-term expressive and symphonic concerns, while the recording allows the full range of the music to be experienced. Both these great symphonies date from the war years, the Second from the dark days when Honegger lived through the occupation of Paris, the Third from 1945. In his Second Symphony the string orchestra is joined in the closing bars by a single trumpet sounding a chorale of hope; and in Jansons’s performance this image emerges naturally from the resolution of the conflicts and the strenuous rhythmic activity which have come before.