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Valery Gergiev Conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in Prokofiev, Schnittke & Stravinsky |
List Price: $24.99
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Reviews |
Features:
Description:
All classical-music buffs should find much to appreciate in this captivating record of Valery Gergiev conducting the Viennese Philharmonic Orchestra in an all-Russian night of music at the 2000 Salzburg Festival. The production quality of the disc overall is first rate: from the moment the conductor greets his expectant audience until the last note is sounded, the symphony and its conductor are portrayed, visually, aurally, and stylistically at a standard of quality rarely seen. To begin Gergiev leads the VPO through a precise if somewhat lackluster performance of Prokofiev's Classical Symphony, which serves here as a stretching session compared to the substantially heavier fare to follow. Universally acclaimed violist Yuri Bashmet leads an intrepid and inspired treatment of Schnittke's Viola Concerto, which the composer penned especially for him. The centerpiece of the concert, though, is undoubtedly Stravinsky's Firebird, in which the orchestra and conductor are at the height of their powers, filling each moment with an intensity and excitement that reverberates through to its finish. The viewer owns the best seat in the house simply by virtue of strategic camera work and visual direction that captures individual members of the orchestra at key moments, finding the oboists before their featured melody, then panning to a cellist before he saws away a descending phrase. Included as special features are insightful interviews with Giergiev and Bashmet, which provide additional background into the inspirations behind the concert. --Karl Wachter
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