大象传媒

James Jolly with recordings by our Artist of the Week, Herbert von Karajan: a polka from the Vienna New Year's Day Concert of 1987 and in a performance of Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony 'the Pathetique' by Herbert von Karajan described in Gramophone magazine as "a truly great performance, memorable for the riveting, electrically committed contribution from the Berlin Philharmonic players, obviously deeply involved in the great climax of the first movement (which makes shivers run down my back), and playing like demons in the March-Scherzo."

10.00
Dvorak
In Nature's Realm
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Karel Ancerl (conductor)
SUPRAPHON 110605-2

10.15 Beethoven Piano Sonata Cycle
Beethoven
Sonata in G major, Op.79
Jean-Bernard Pommier (piano)
ERATO 4509 917272-2

10.24
Puccini
Manon Lescaut: Intermezzo
Staatskapelle Dresden
Silvio Varviso (conductor)
PHILIPS 412 236-2

10.29
Vivaldi
Concerto in G minor, RV577 (per l'orchestra di Dresda)
Academy of Ancient Music
Christopher Hogwood (director)
L'OISEAU LYRE 436 867-2

10.39
J. Strauss II
Unter Donner und Blitz, Op.324 [Thunder and Lightning Polka]
Vienna Philharmonic
Herbert von Karajan (conductor)
DG 477 6336

11.10
Rumour attached to the famous dies hard - Paganini's pact with the devil, Salieri's poisoning of Mozart, Tchaikovsky's suicide, undertaken to maintain the honour of a School of Jurisprudence. The evidence is inconclusive. Yet Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony premiered one month before his death, with its funereal tone (Tchaikovsky underlays every important theme of the first movement with verbal rhythms from the Russian Orthodox funeral service) and sudden bursts of passionate resistance, seems by its very nature to suggest that it is a confessional piece, a prediction of the composer's death. Perhaps a more relevant reason for its funereal tone is that in the months leading up to its composition, Tchaikovsky suffered the death of many friends and colleagues - Konstantin Shilovsky, co-librettist of Yevgeny Onegin, Karl Albrecht of the Moscow Conservatory, Vladimir Shilovsky, to whom the composer had once been deeply attached, and Aleksey Apukhtin, his exact contemporary, former classmate and lifelong friend. (Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians)

Tchaikovsky
Symphony No.6 in B minor, Op.74 (Pathetique)
Berlin Philharmonic
Herbert von Karajan (conductor)
DG 474 284-2.