Nhk

The Rite of Spring is a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1913 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company; the original choreography was by Vaslav Nijinsky with stage designs and costumes by Nicholas Roerich. When first performed at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on 29 May 1913, the avant-garde nature of the music and choreography caused a sensation. Many have called the first-night reaction a "riot" or "near-riot", though this wording did not come about until reviews of later performances in 1924, over a decade later. Although designed as a work for the stage, with specific passages accompanying characters and action, the music achieved equal if not greater recognition as a concert piece and is widely considered to be one of the most influential musical works of the 20th century.

For anyone who is a devotee of Otto Klemperer’s readings of the Beethoven Symphonies, they will not be disappointed with much of what is on offer here. In the main, these are weighty and highly-charged performances, with a certain grandeur…Horst gives us monumental, full-blooded and noble readings of these symphonies.

The NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo is a Japanese broadcast orchestra based in Tokyo. The orchestra gives concerts in several venues, including the NHK Hall, Suntory Hall, and the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall…

Stern’s well known strengths in Brahms, as evidenced in his studio recordings, are reprised here. He plays with a communicative classicism that embraces romanticised rubati - which elongates but never breaks the line - and which vests the music sometimes with a heartbreaking sense of pathos…The orchestra remains rather bluff…But never mind, it’s Stern’s show and Wöss accompanies admirably.

Controversy has surrounded Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 6 in A minor, "Tragic," ever since he reversed the order of the inner movements, from what he originally published as Scherzo/Andante, to Andante/Scherzo, which became his actual practice. Whether one favors the former or the latter ordering may be a moot point, with a century of recordings of both versions indicating the general acceptance by audiences in either form. Paavo Järvi and the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo use the originally published sequence, also adopted by the 1963 critical edition, and deliver the symphony with high energy and force, reflecting the driven march of the opening Allegro energico.

Nelson Goerner is not especially known for his Brahms, and this 2018 Alpha release of the Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major marks his first commercial recording of a major Brahms work. While he is widely viewed as a poet at the piano, mostly because of his introspective playing of solo piano music by Chopin and Debussy, Goerner's close-to-the-vest approach may be viewed as a liability in such a heroic and powerful work as this concerto, where assertive playing is required and pianists are expected to demonstrate muscular prowess over poetry.