Vienna Philharmonic

Pre-Release

Essential Albums

  • Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen
    Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen
    Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen

    Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen revolutionized 19th-century opera: an epic four-opera cycle, that uses ancient stories to forge a shattering modern myth, set to music of unprecedented beauty, originality, and power. Created over three decades between 1848 and 1876, it tells a tale of a world broken and plundered and a society ruled not by love but by gold, as once-mighty rulers struggle to hold back the tide of change. The characters are gods, humans, and magical beings, and the setting is a vividly imagined world of ancient Germanic myth. But the emotions Wagner portrays are startlingly modern, and his all-embracing music asks as many questions as it answers. That was the challenge that the record producer John Culshaw (1924-1980) faced when, in 1958, he set out to make the first studio recording of The Ring. Before the invention of the long-playing record (LP), the very idea of recording the complete 16-hour drama was unthinkable. Even in the late 1950s, with the advent of stereo sound, many of Culshaw’s colleagues at the record label Decca were skeptical. In the event the project would take an entire decade before the full Ring cycle was released—for the first time ever—as a single set of LPs. In order to achieve his vision of recreating Wagner’s theatrical universe as closely as possible on disc, Culshaw had to overcome technical and artistic challenges on a scale never before seen in the recording studio. Wagner broke the rules, said Culshaw. “And when we set out on the recording of Rheingold, I fear that we too broke many of the rules which had prevailed in the world of professional recording.” He didn’t have much choice. Whether balancing Wagner’s colossal orchestra (including 18 anvils and six harps) or simulating the echo of a dragon’s cave, inventive and innovative solutions had to be found if Culshaw was to stand any chance of recreating Wagner’s sonic world in the acoustic of the Sofiensaal, the converted Viennese swimming bath that was used as a studio. By comparison, assembling a cast of the greatest Wagner performers of the period was relatively straightforward. Culshaw was able to draw on Decca’s whole roster of star singers, and the Vienna Philharmonic was conducted by the brilliant 46-year-old Hungarian Georg Solti, whose energy and commitment to the project matched Culshaw’s own. The result, when Der Ring des Nibelungen was finally released as a set in 1968, was overwhelming: the single most ambitious opera recording ever made, as immediate and as fresh as a live theatrical performance. “Without ever quite releasing what we were doing we made something which many critics hailed as a new conception of opera on records,” recalled Culshaw. More than 50 years on, it remains an unforgettable listening experience, and the benchmark against which all Wagner recordings—some would say all opera recordings—are measured.

  • Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7
    Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7
    Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7

    This is one of those truly classic recordings, as powerful today as the day it was made. It landed in record stores in 1975 and was immediately hailed as an outstanding work. It also established Carlos Kleiber, son of another great conductor, Erich, as a musician of extraordinary talent. Collaborating with an orchestra that knows the work as well as any, Kleiber achieves what every conductor strives for—to make the music sound fresh and new. From the first bar, this performance crackles with electricity, and it surges on, buoyed by a very special magic. The Seventh also receives a performance of tremendous energy and, like the Fifth, it’s stunningly well played.

  • Mahler: Symphony No. 5
    Mahler: Symphony No. 5
    Mahler: Symphony No. 5

    Mahler's Fifth Symphony is a consistent crowd-pleaser with its powerful opening funeral march and its soulful Adagietto, originally a musical love letter to the composer's wife. Leonard Bernstein had a special affinity for Mahler, perhaps because he too was torn between his talents for conducting and composing. His '60s recordings almost single-handedly rescued Mahler's then declining reputation, but the live recordings with Mahler's own Vienna Philharmonic in the final years of Bernstein's life will stand as his legacy. It is hard to imagine a more emotionally satisfying reading of the Fifth in particular, by turns desperately anxious and ecstatically jubilant.

  • Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 20 & 21
    Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 20 & 21
    Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 20 & 21

    This set begins in unusually dark Mozart territory, with the composer’s Piano Concerto No. 20 (much admired by Beethoven). Though the soloist still needs a lightness of touch—especially at the outset—in order to bring across the full impact of the music’s arc. Friedrich Gulda’s playing in the first movement is delicate, early on, before turning stormier during the cadenza composed by Beethoven. (Gulda’s way with that cadenza also sets up a winning contrast with the following, often-serene slow movement.) Concerto No. 21 is, likewise, a joy; conductor Claudio Abbado and the Vienna players provide ingenious support throughout.

Artist Playlists

About Vienna Philharmonic

The Wiener Philharmoniker, or Vienna Philharmonic, is unusual among the world’s great orchestras in having never appointed a principal conductor to oversee its music-making. Working instead with a succession of pre-eminent guest conductors—Wilhelm Furtwängler, Bruno Walter, Clemens Krauss, and Herbert von Karajan among them—has not prevented the Philharmonic from developing a worldwide reputation for its wonderfully burnished tonal blend, and impeccable standards of taste and execution. Founded in 1842, the Vienna Philharmonic was from the outset a self-governing body, drawing its members from the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera. Early in its history, the orchestra premiered symphonies by Brahms and Bruckner, and to this day retains a special proficiency in music from the Austro-Germanic tradition. In 1939, the Philharmonic initiated its celebrated New Year concert in Vienna, an event that nowadays attracts a global television audience of millions. Despite controversy in recent years surrounding the orchestra’s relationship with the Nazi regime during World War II, and its belated decision to admit women players—the first, a harpist, was recruited in 1997—the Vienna Philharmonic remains a touchstone of class and sophistication in its live performances and innumerable studio recordings.

FROM
Vienna, Austria
FORMED
1842
GENRE
Classical

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