Recordings Review: (Just Like) Starting Over

Sir Simon Rattle conducts Das Rheingold in Munich.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

"Ein gold'ner Ring ragt dir am Finger...."
Photo © 2015 Bildquelle/Picture Alliance DPA courtesy Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

It may seem silly, considering that this blog is in the middle of reviewing another recordig of Wagner's Ring, to jump back and take a look at a different conductor's approach to Das Rheingold the "preliminary evening" that is a heroic undertaking in its own right. Here though, that conductor is the always interesting Sir Simon Rattle, whose own discography is extensive though generally not dipping far into the Wagner repertory. (This is technically his fifth recording of Das Rheingold, but the first to be commercially available.) This is a live recording with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and released (in 2015) on the BRSO's own BR Klassik label.

Concert Review: The Darkness is in the Details

The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra plays Mahler's Seventh.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

 Mariss Jansons at the helm of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Photo by Brescia and Amisano © 2017 the BBC Proms.

Gustav Mahler’s Seventh Symphony is his least played, his least loved, and for the unwary conductor or their orchestra, the most dangerous of his symphonies. This sprawling five-movement work (sometimes referred to, though never by Mahler himself, as the "Song of the Night")  is riddled with trapdoors and land mines, illusory orchestrations, unusual instrumentation (there are solos for cowbells, tambourine, mandolin and guitar) and other hazards. Messing up any of these can torpedo a performance and sink both conductor and orchestra with no survivors.

Concert Review: Don't Mention the War

The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra marches on Leningrad.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

A propaganda poster during the Siege of Leningrad.
It says "Everybody, rise to defend Leningrad."

The Siege of Leningrad during what the Russians call the Great Patriotic War (and what the rest of the world calls World War II) was a case of unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. German troops marched on the city in 1941 and besieged it for 900 days. During that epic siege, composer Dmitri Shostakovich conceived and completed his Symphony No. 7, working in the city as it was under fire and ultimately finishing the work at a dacha to the east.