Maurice Ravel: Bolero, La Valse, Alborada Del Grazioso, Daphis et Chloe New York Philharmonic; Leonard Bernstein

Les danses hongroises n°5 et 6 de Brahms (respectivement captées en 1967 et 1966) mettent d'entrée de jeu l'auditeur au parfum : c'est à une démonstration de dynamisme et de lyrisme que le grand chef américain nous convie. Ces danses de Brahms se hissent parmi les meilleures, et ne font poindre qu'un seul regret : qu'il n'y en ait que deux !
Les Préludes de Liszt (1963) nous rappellent alors quelles formidables affinités Bernstein trouvait dans l'univers lisztien (il faut connaitre absolument sa fantastique Faust-Symphonie ).

Early in 1935, the American violinist Louis Krasner suggested to Berg that he write a violin concerto, but Berg, involved with the orchestration of his opera Lulu, was not then interested in a new project. However, the death from poliomelytis of his young friend Manon Gropius, daughter of Mahler’s widow, that spring so saddened him that he decided to compose a concerto as a memorial to her. Te score was finished on August 11, 1935 – record time for the slow-working, meticulous Berg. Dedicated ‘to the memory of an angel’ the Violin Concerto was to be his last completed work, for on December 24 he died of septicemia of the age of fifty. Krasner gave the world premiere on April 19, 1936, in Barcelona, under Hermann Scherchen.

Conductor Robert Trevino's new album release on Ondine – after a successful debut with a complete Beethoven symphony cycle – features six orchestral pieces by Maurice Ravel (1875–1937), one of the most famous Basque composers, played by the Basque National Orchestra. Born in a small town in France very close to the Spanish border, Ravel spent most of his life in Paris. However, he was extremely proud of his Basque background having absorbed himself to the culture already as a child, and many elements of Basque music can be found in his compositions. In this historic release, we can finally hear Ravel's orchestral music being interpreted by Basque musicians in the form of the Basque National Orchestra. These performances on some of the most fantastic orchestral scores of the 20th Century also shed light to the Basque influences in Ravel's music.

The circumstances surrounding this April 6, 1962 concert at Carnegie Hall are as legendary as the performance itself. Pianist Gould desired to play the piece at a slower-than-usual tempo, Bernstein (who was conducting the New York Philharmonic) did not. Gould prevailed, but Bernstein shared his disavowal in an infamous pre-concert speech to the audience. This CD-the concert recording's first authorized release-includes Bernstein's speech, the complete performance and a revealing Glen Gould interview recorded two years later.

Rudolf Serkin's 1964 recording of Beethoven's Piano Concerto in C minor is surely among the greatest recordings of the work ever made, and certainly his finest performance of the work. The energy and enthusiasm and even passion he brings to Concerto in C minor is overwhelming, and indeed, it overwhelms Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, who accompany Serkin with the sort of commitment that only a conductor and orchestra give to soloists when they are deeply inspired. But while Serkin's 1962 recording of Beethoven's Piano Concerto in E flat major is also surely among the greatest recordings of the work ever made, it is not quite Serkin's finest recording of the work.

Leonard Bernstein conducts three works by Tchaikovsky: Symphony in F Minor, op 36 (performed by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra), Symphony in E Minor, op 64 (performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra) and Violin Concerto in D Major, op 35 (featuring Russian violin virtuoso Boris Belkin).

2 CDs mit Leonard Bernsteins herausragenden Interpretationen der Haydn-Sinfonien mit dem New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Als erster US-Amerikaner war Leonard Bernstein von 1958-1969 Musikdirektor des New York Philhamonic Orchestra. In seinem Wirken als Dirigent fand er weltweit große Beachtung mit einem Repertoire, das von der Klassik bis zur Avantgarde reichte.