Has there ever been such a lovely, poised account of the great Schiller-inspired song ‘Die Götter Griechenlands’ or such an ingratiating one of ‘Sehnsucht’, the Mayrhofer setting? The first offering, ‘Im Freien’, has its winning cantilena filled with gloriously sustained, long-breathed tone. The programme ends with ‘Einsamkeit’. This grandly imaginative if slightly impersonal quasi-cantata, to a Mayrhofer text, a composition that Schubert himself thought so highly of, is a kind of a panorama of a life, ending in a wonderfully reposeful final section. Janowitz and her impressive partner perform it with total conviction, sustaining interest throughout. it's Curzon and members of the Vienna Octet who remain my favourites—for their tautly sprung rhythm, their smiling charm and above all, their immediacy. In their own seeming delight in making music together, Curzon and his colleagues convey all the young Schubert's unalloyed happiness on that never-to-be-forgotten walking tour with Vogl in the summer of 1819. Karl Maria von Weber, Concerto for piano and orchestra No. 1 in C major, op. 11, J. 98, Allegro, Adagio When Blomstedt talks about "his" orchestra, he's not referring to the Viennese ensemble, but to one of three orchestras that shaped his life and career over many years: the Staatskapelle Dresden, where he was principal conductor from 1975 to 1985; the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, where he was music director from 1985 to 1995; and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, which he led from 1998 to 2005.

Most of the part-songs here evoke some aspect of night, whether benevolent, romantic, transfigured or sinister. Between them they give a fair conspectus of Schubert’s achievement in the part-song genre, ranging from the mellifluous, Biedermeier Die Nacht, forerunner of many a Victorian glee, and the gently sensuous Gondel-fahrer to the eerie, harmonically visionary Grab und Mondand the brooding Gesang der Geister über den Wassern. Other highlights here include the alfresco Nachtgesang, with its quartet of echoing horns, Ständchen, a delicious nocturnal serenade, the austere, bardic Scott setting Coronach and the serenely luminous Nachthelle. Unfinished’symphony, Blomstedt conjures up a beautifully sensitive interpretation, allowing the music to develop without haste or any tension; he finds that delicate balance between reading the score after many years of performances and study. One certainly feels that these symphonies the new edition are being heard anew. Remarkably Blomstedt's interpretative powers show no sign of waning, and here produces great readings, adding to his remarkable recordings of three and four decades ago. After this we get a sharply characterised Goethe group that encompasses the bleakness of the three Harper’s Songs (done with characteristic intense immediacy) and ends with an impulsive, dancing ‘Der Musensohn’ that rightly brings the house down. Dirigent Herbert Blomstedt erhält Opus Klassik für Lebenswerk". nmz – neue musikzeitung (in German). 28 July 2023 . Retrieved 28 July 2023.You grew up as the son of an Adventist pastor and continue to follow these teachings. We read that you start your day with a prayer, you eat only vegetarian food and do not drink alcohol. Does your incredible creativity at such an advanced age have anything to do with your beliefs and lifestyle?

The DG recordings are first-rate. The engineers balance the ensemble expertly so that fine clarity of detail is achieved and there’s also an excellent dynamic range. In addition, there’s a lovely bloom on the sound so that the tonal richness of the orchestra is readily apparent. The Italians’ playing has freshness, affection, firm control and above all authority to a degree that no relative newcomer can match. It’s notable not only for the highest standards of ensemble, intonation and blend, but also for its imaginative insights; these attributes readily apply to the music-making on this Duo reissue, particularly in the slow movements. Indeed, the players’ progress through the wonderful set of variations in the Andante con moto, which reveals the Death and the Maiden Quartet’s association with the famous Schubert song of that name, has unforgettable intensity. Yes, I think so. Music has a very special meaning in our time. People long for experiences like this concert. Schumann said: "The task of the musician is to send light into the depths of the human soul. Light in the darkness —all of us, each of us, have a dark room in our soul. It could be illness or disappointment in life; we all have something. You need light in this darkness, and music can do that better than any other art. The list begins with orchestral works, then moves through chamber and instrumental, and finishes with vocal. All of these lists are, of course, subjective, but every recording here has received the approval of Gramophone's critics and are artistic and musical benchmarks. So if you want to hear Schubert performance at its best, this list is the perfect place to start.The Ninth, also known as the Seventh and Eighth, needs, in this unbelievably intense account, a readiness for coping with a deluge of sound which is unlike anything else in music. Blomstedt takes every last repeat, which means we are subjected to more than an hour of assault, with the rare restful passages leaving us unprepared for the next onslaught. If you want to listen to music which makes any other, including Mahler, seem sedate, head for this and wonder Bringing together all seven of Schubert’s completed symphonies, as well as the much loved B minor ‘Unfinished’, this set charts the development of Schubert’s voice as a symphonist. His first six symphonies were composed between 1813 and 1818 for the orchestra at the religious school that he attended in Vienna. Although they could be considered to be apprentice works, and are clearly influenced by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and – in the case of the Sixth Symphony – Rossini, they are remarkable achievements for such a young composer, and the listener can hear some of the hallmarks of Schubert’s more forwardlooking, romantic style, such as a bolder and richer harmonic language, beginning to emerge. Steinbrink, Mark (9 March 1986). "San Francisco's New Conductor – A Man of Firm Beliefs". The New York Times . Retrieved 10 July 2017.

This is true, most strikingly, in the great penultimate A major Sonata, D959. The catalogue may be filled to the brim with oustanding discs of this epic work (Schnabel, Kempff, Brendel, Kovacevich, Lupu and Paul Lewis, to name but six) yet few more deeply charged or felt performances now exist on record. Everything is weighted with greater drama and significance than before. Cooper wrings every expressive ounce from the massive opening Allegro and the result is movingly personal rather than overbearing or idiosyncratic. Time and again she makes you sense the dark undertow beneath Schubert’s outward geniality, the pain as well as the fullness of his tragically brief life. Here, the dramatic and poetic parameters are stretched close to the edge, and in the second movement Cooper’s numbingly slow and intense view of Schubert’s Andantino makes you feel as if the protagonist from Winterreise had returned to haunt you with his world-weary despair. Blomstedt is currently Conductor Laureate of the San Francisco Symphony and Honorary Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony, Swedish Radio Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Staatskapelle Dresden. If you allow yourself this peace, then you will find it — and each person in their own way. We were about a thousand people in the hall...An intriguing point arises in the second movement. It’s meant to be Adagio but the Gaudier pace it fairly swiftly, offering a reminder that one edition marks it Andante un poco mosso. The Gaudier, though, are anything but perfunctory. Their line is curvaceous and malleable, with a dynamic range that contains many shades of softness. Engineer Tony Faulkner has helped by using the ambience of the Henry Wood Hall to create both a blend and a distinctiveness of timbre. There’s a glow to the sound that other versions don’t have. James Gilchrist’s Wanderer has been around a bit. Not enough to make him weary or wary, far from it – a first-kindled enthusiasm only burns itself out a little in the fourth song, ‘Danksagung an den Bach’ – but in place of youthful impetuosity is the anxiety of a man to seize what he can while he can. His jealousy – ‘Eifersucht und Stolz’ – gains thereby a specially manic edge, and leaves him almost shouting at the end of ‘Die Böse Farbe’ before he takes his leave of love and life in both sorrow and anger over the ever-more-painful course of the last triptych. Prégardien’s dulcet tenor, subtly and gracefully deployed, is heard to advantage both in these Seidl songs and in Schwanengesang. Where so many singers seem to ‘think’ the whole collection in the minor key, as it were, Prégardien is eagerly expectant in ‘Liebesbotschaft’ and sings a smiling, seductive ‘Fischermädchen’. His ‘Ständchen’, taken at an easy, mobile tempo, is likewise all caressing charm, while ‘Abschied’ is blithely insouciant, the wistfulness of the final verse lightly touched – and how well the delicate, slightly veiled sonorities of Staier’s fortepiano complement the voice, here and elsewhere.