Kurt Masur: The Complete Warner Classics Edition | Warner 9029661155

Kurt Masur: The Complete Warner Classics Edition

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Label: Warner

Cat No: 9029661155

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 70

Release Date: 22nd April 2022

Contents

Works

Beethoven, Ludwig van

Egmont, op.84: Incidental Music
Egmont Overture, op.84
Piano Concerto no.1 in C major, op.15
Piano Concerto no.4 in G major, op.58
Romance no.1 in G major for violin and orchestra, op.40
Romance no.2 in F major for violin and orchestra, op.50
Symphony no.5 in C minor, op.67
Triple Concerto in C major for piano, violin and cello, op.56
Violin Concerto in D major, op.61

Berg, Alban

Lulu Suite

Brahms, Johannes

Academic Festival Overture, op.80
Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem), op.45
Piano Concerto no.2 in B flat major, op.83
Schicksalslied, op.54
Symphonies 1-4 (complete)
Tragic Overture, op.81
Variations on a theme by Haydn, op.56a 'St Anthony Variations'
Violin Concerto in D major, op.77

Britten, Benjamin

War Requiem, op.66

Bruch, Max

Violin Concerto no.1 in G minor, op.26

Bruckner, Anton

Symphony no.4 in in E flat major 'Romantic'
Symphony no.7 in E major

Debussy, Claude

La Mer
Prelude a l'Apres-midi d'un faune
Rhapsody for alto saxophone and piano or orchestra, L98

Dvorak, Antonin

Carnival Overture, op.92 B169
In Nature's Realm, op.91 B168
Othello Overture, op.93 B174
Slavonic Dances: Series I, op.46 B83
» no.6 in D major
» no.8 in G minor
Slavonic Dances: Series II, op.72 B147
» no.2 in E minor
Symphony no.8 in G major, op.88 B163
Symphony no.9 in E minor, op.95 B178 'From the New World'
Violin Concerto in A minor, op.53

Franck, Cesar

Les Eolides: Symphonic Tone Poem
Symphony in D minor, op.48

Gershwin, George

I Got Rhythm Variations
Impromptu in Two Keys
Merry Andrew
Porgy and Bess (excerpts, arr. Fazil Say)
Preludes (6)
Promenade 'Walking the Dog'
Rhapsody in Blue
Rialto Ripples
Three-Quarter Blues 'Irish Waltz'

Ives, Charles

Variations on America

Janacek, Leos

Sinfonietta

Kodaly, Zoltan

Hary Janos Suite
Theatre Overture

Liszt, Franz

A Faust Symphony, S108
Eine Symphonie zu Dantes Divina Commedia, S109 'Dante Symphony'
Episoden (2) aus Lenaus Faust
Fantasia on Hungarian Folk Themes, S123
Fantasie on Motives from Beethoven's 'Ruinen von Athen', S122
Grande Fantaisie Symphonique on Themes from Berlioz's 'Lelio', S120
Malediction (Concerto for piano and strings in E minor), op.452 S121
Mephisto Waltz no.1, S110/2 'Der Tanz in der Dorfschenke'
Mephisto Waltz no.2, S111
Piano Concerto no.1 in E flat major, S124
Piano Concerto no.2 in A major, S125
Polonaise brillante (Weber), S367
Symphonic Poems (13), S95-107
Totentanz, paraphrase on the 'Dies irae', S126
Wandererfantasie (Schubert), S366

Mahler, Gustav

Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer)
Symphony no.1 in D major 'Titan'
Symphony no.9 in D major

Mendelssohn, Felix

A Midsummer Night's Dream: Incidental Music, op.61
A Midsummer Night's Dream: Overture, op.21
Capriccio brillant, op.22
Elijah, op.70
Piano Concerto no.1 in G minor, op.25
Piano Concerto no.2 in D minor, op.40
Symphonies 1-5 (complete)
Violin Concerto in E minor, op.64

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus

Piano Concerto no.21 in C major, K467 'Elvira Madigan'
Piano Concerto no.23 in A major, K488

Mussorgsky, Modest

Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Gorchakov)

Prokofiev, Sergei

Alexander Nevsky, op.78
Piano Concertos nos.1-5 (complete)
Romeo and Juliet, op.64 (excerpts)
Scythian Suite, op.20
Symphony no.1 in D major, op.25 'Classical'
Symphony no.5 in B flat major, op.100

Ravel, Maurice

Bolero
La Valse

Reger, Max

Variations and Fugue on a theme of Mozart, op.132

Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai

Capriccio espagnol, op.34
Scheherazade, op.35
The Tale of Tsar Saltan
» Flight of the Bumblebee

Schnittke, Alfred

Cello Concerto no.1

Schubert, Franz

Symphony no.3 in D major, D200
Symphony no.8 in B minor, D759 'Unfinished'

Schumann, Robert

Cello Concerto in A minor, op.129
Piano Concerto in A minor, op.54
Symphonies 1-4 (complete)

Shostakovich, Dmitri

Symphony no.7 in C major, op.60 'Leningrad'
Symphony no.13 in B flat minor, op.113 'Babi-Yar'

Sibelius, Jean

Finlandia, op.26
Karelia: Overture, op.10
Lemminkainen Suite, op.22
» no.2 The Swan of Tuonela
Violin Concerto in D minor, op.47

Strauss, Richard

Don Juan, op.20
Tod und Verklarung (Death and Transfiguration), op.24
Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs), AV150

Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich

Concert Fantasia in G major, op.56
Eugene Onegin, op.24
» Waltz
Festival Coronation March
Francesca da Rimini, op.32
Hamlet: Overture and Incidental Music, op.67
» Entr'acte Waltz
Manfred Symphony, op.58
Mazeppa
» Gopak
Piano Concerto no.1 in B flat minor, op.23
Piano Concerto no.2 in G major, op.44
Piano Concerto no.3 in E flat major, op.75
Romeo and Juliet: Fantasy Overture in F major, op.64
Serenade for strings in C major, op.48
» II Waltz
Swan Lake, op.20
» Waltz
Symphonies 1-6 (complete)
The Nutcracker, op.71
» Waltz of the Flowers
The Sleeping Beauty, op.66
» Valse (Act 1)

Weber, Carl Maria von

Clarinet Concerto no.1 in F minor, op.73 J114
Clarinet Concerto no.2 in E flat major, op.74 J118

Weill, Kurt

Die sieben Todsunden (The Seven Deadly Sins)

Artists

Barbara Bonney (soprano)
Helen Donath (soprano)
Kerstin Klein (soprano)
Sylvia McNair (soprano)
Carol Vaness (soprano)
Deborah Voigt (soprano)
Edith Wiens (soprano)
Christiane Oertel (mezzo-soprano)
Carolyn Watkinson (mezzo-soprano)
Jard van Nes (alto)
Donald George (tenor)
Jerry Hadley (tenor)
Peter Schreier (tenor)
Hakan Hagegard (baritone)
Thomas Hampson (baritone)
Sergei Leiferkus (baritone)
Alastair Miles (bass)
Yevgeny Yevtushenko (narrator)
Michel Beroff (piano)
Boris Berezovsky (piano)
Sarah Chang (violin)
Stanley Drucker (clarinet)
Helene Grimaud (piano)
Natalia Gutman (cello)
Ulf Hoelscher (violin)
Helen Huang (piano)
Sharon Kam (clarinet)
Cyprien Katsaris (piano)
Elisabeth Leonskaja (piano)
Yehudi Menuhin (violin)
Cecile Ousset (piano)
Fazil Say (piano)
Heinrich Schiff (cello)
Maxim Vengerov (violin)
Christian Zacharias (piano)
Thomas Zehetmair (violin)
Dresdner Philharmonie
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
London Philharmonic Orchestra
New York Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductor

Kurt Masur

Works

Beethoven, Ludwig van

Egmont, op.84: Incidental Music
Egmont Overture, op.84
Piano Concerto no.1 in C major, op.15
Piano Concerto no.4 in G major, op.58
Romance no.1 in G major for violin and orchestra, op.40
Romance no.2 in F major for violin and orchestra, op.50
Symphony no.5 in C minor, op.67
Triple Concerto in C major for piano, violin and cello, op.56
Violin Concerto in D major, op.61

Berg, Alban

Lulu Suite

Brahms, Johannes

Academic Festival Overture, op.80
Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem), op.45
Piano Concerto no.2 in B flat major, op.83
Schicksalslied, op.54
Symphonies 1-4 (complete)
Tragic Overture, op.81
Variations on a theme by Haydn, op.56a 'St Anthony Variations'
Violin Concerto in D major, op.77

Britten, Benjamin

War Requiem, op.66

Bruch, Max

Violin Concerto no.1 in G minor, op.26

Bruckner, Anton

Symphony no.4 in in E flat major 'Romantic'
Symphony no.7 in E major

Debussy, Claude

La Mer
Prelude a l'Apres-midi d'un faune
Rhapsody for alto saxophone and piano or orchestra, L98

Dvorak, Antonin

Carnival Overture, op.92 B169
In Nature's Realm, op.91 B168
Othello Overture, op.93 B174
Slavonic Dances: Series I, op.46 B83
» no.6 in D major
» no.8 in G minor
Slavonic Dances: Series II, op.72 B147
» no.2 in E minor
Symphony no.8 in G major, op.88 B163
Symphony no.9 in E minor, op.95 B178 'From the New World'
Violin Concerto in A minor, op.53

Franck, Cesar

Les Eolides: Symphonic Tone Poem
Symphony in D minor, op.48

Gershwin, George

I Got Rhythm Variations
Impromptu in Two Keys
Merry Andrew
Porgy and Bess (excerpts, arr. Fazil Say)
Preludes (6)
Promenade 'Walking the Dog'
Rhapsody in Blue
Rialto Ripples
Three-Quarter Blues 'Irish Waltz'

Ives, Charles

Variations on America

Janacek, Leos

Sinfonietta

Kodaly, Zoltan

Hary Janos Suite
Theatre Overture

Liszt, Franz

A Faust Symphony, S108
Eine Symphonie zu Dantes Divina Commedia, S109 'Dante Symphony'
Episoden (2) aus Lenaus Faust
Fantasia on Hungarian Folk Themes, S123
Fantasie on Motives from Beethoven's 'Ruinen von Athen', S122
Grande Fantaisie Symphonique on Themes from Berlioz's 'Lelio', S120
Malediction (Concerto for piano and strings in E minor), op.452 S121
Mephisto Waltz no.1, S110/2 'Der Tanz in der Dorfschenke'
Mephisto Waltz no.2, S111
Piano Concerto no.1 in E flat major, S124
Piano Concerto no.2 in A major, S125
Polonaise brillante (Weber), S367
Symphonic Poems (13), S95-107
Totentanz, paraphrase on the 'Dies irae', S126
Wandererfantasie (Schubert), S366

Mahler, Gustav

Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer)
Symphony no.1 in D major 'Titan'
Symphony no.9 in D major

Mendelssohn, Felix

A Midsummer Night's Dream: Incidental Music, op.61
A Midsummer Night's Dream: Overture, op.21
Capriccio brillant, op.22
Elijah, op.70
Piano Concerto no.1 in G minor, op.25
Piano Concerto no.2 in D minor, op.40
Symphonies 1-5 (complete)
Violin Concerto in E minor, op.64

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus

Piano Concerto no.21 in C major, K467 'Elvira Madigan'
Piano Concerto no.23 in A major, K488

Mussorgsky, Modest

Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Gorchakov)

Prokofiev, Sergei

Alexander Nevsky, op.78
Piano Concertos nos.1-5 (complete)
Romeo and Juliet, op.64 (excerpts)
Scythian Suite, op.20
Symphony no.1 in D major, op.25 'Classical'
Symphony no.5 in B flat major, op.100

Ravel, Maurice

Bolero
La Valse

Reger, Max

Variations and Fugue on a theme of Mozart, op.132

Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai

Capriccio espagnol, op.34
Scheherazade, op.35
The Tale of Tsar Saltan
» Flight of the Bumblebee

Schnittke, Alfred

Cello Concerto no.1

Schubert, Franz

Symphony no.3 in D major, D200
Symphony no.8 in B minor, D759 'Unfinished'

Schumann, Robert

Cello Concerto in A minor, op.129
Piano Concerto in A minor, op.54
Symphonies 1-4 (complete)

Shostakovich, Dmitri

Symphony no.7 in C major, op.60 'Leningrad'
Symphony no.13 in B flat minor, op.113 'Babi-Yar'

Sibelius, Jean

Finlandia, op.26
Karelia: Overture, op.10
Lemminkainen Suite, op.22
» no.2 The Swan of Tuonela
Violin Concerto in D minor, op.47

Strauss, Richard

Don Juan, op.20
Tod und Verklarung (Death and Transfiguration), op.24
Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs), AV150

Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich

Concert Fantasia in G major, op.56
Eugene Onegin, op.24
» Waltz
Festival Coronation March
Francesca da Rimini, op.32
Hamlet: Overture and Incidental Music, op.67
» Entr'acte Waltz
Manfred Symphony, op.58
Mazeppa
» Gopak
Piano Concerto no.1 in B flat minor, op.23
Piano Concerto no.2 in G major, op.44
Piano Concerto no.3 in E flat major, op.75
Romeo and Juliet: Fantasy Overture in F major, op.64
Serenade for strings in C major, op.48
» II Waltz
Swan Lake, op.20
» Waltz
Symphonies 1-6 (complete)
The Nutcracker, op.71
» Waltz of the Flowers
The Sleeping Beauty, op.66
» Valse (Act 1)

Weber, Carl Maria von

Clarinet Concerto no.1 in F minor, op.73 J114
Clarinet Concerto no.2 in E flat major, op.74 J118

Weill, Kurt

Die sieben Todsunden (The Seven Deadly Sins)

Artists

Barbara Bonney (soprano)
Helen Donath (soprano)
Kerstin Klein (soprano)
Sylvia McNair (soprano)
Carol Vaness (soprano)
Deborah Voigt (soprano)
Edith Wiens (soprano)
Christiane Oertel (mezzo-soprano)
Carolyn Watkinson (mezzo-soprano)
Jard van Nes (alto)
Donald George (tenor)
Jerry Hadley (tenor)
Peter Schreier (tenor)
Hakan Hagegard (baritone)
Thomas Hampson (baritone)
Sergei Leiferkus (baritone)
Alastair Miles (bass)
Yevgeny Yevtushenko (narrator)
Michel Beroff (piano)
Boris Berezovsky (piano)
Sarah Chang (violin)
Stanley Drucker (clarinet)
Helene Grimaud (piano)
Natalia Gutman (cello)
Ulf Hoelscher (violin)
Helen Huang (piano)
Sharon Kam (clarinet)
Cyprien Katsaris (piano)
Elisabeth Leonskaja (piano)
Yehudi Menuhin (violin)
Cecile Ousset (piano)
Fazil Say (piano)
Heinrich Schiff (cello)
Maxim Vengerov (violin)
Christian Zacharias (piano)
Thomas Zehetmair (violin)
Dresdner Philharmonie
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
London Philharmonic Orchestra
New York Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductor

Kurt Masur

About

Kurt Masur’s achievement is defined above all by his relationships with two orchestras exemplifying vastly different traditions. Having spent some 20 years as Kapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, which traces its roots to the 15th century, he became the transformational music director of the New York Philharmonic, an embodiment of the New World. Through all this, his musical integrity remained consistent. As the New York Times wrote: “He brought to the podium the ardent conviction that music-making was a moral act that could heal the world.” Masur himself put things more simply: “My goal is meaningful playing ... What counts is to be able to communicate the composer’s meaning to the audience ... When I conduct Beethoven, I wouldn't like to replace Beethoven. He should be in your mind, not me.” This 70-CD set consolidates the entirety of the catalogues that Masur built for EMI and Teldec between 1974 and 2009.

Kurt Masur: The Complete Warner Recordings draws together the entirety of conductor Kurt Masur’s EMI and Teldec catalogues, assembled over a period of 35 years.

German conductor Kurt Masur (1927-2015), admired above all for his interpretations of the core Austro-German symphonic repertoire, is especially closely associated with a pair of major orchestras that represent highly contrasting cultures and traditions:
- the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, of which he was Kapellmeister from 1970 to 1996. This period included the fall of the Berlin Wall and Communist East Germany’s integration into a reunited Germany.
- the New York Philharmonic, of which Masur was Music Director from 1991-2002.
The majority of recordings in Kurt Masur: The Complete Warner Recordings were made with these two orchestras.
Masur also had close relationships with the London Philharmonic and Israel Philharmonic (both represented in the set) and the Orchestre National de France.

In an interview with Gramophone magazine in 1993, Masur said: “My goal is meaningful playing ... What counts is to be able with each piece to communicate to the audience the composer’s meaning.”

When Masur died in 2015, The Guardian summed up his life’s trajectory thus: “Kurt Masur, who began his career as a Kapellmeister proved himself able to adapt to the changing musical climate nearly half a century later. From the closed musical scene of East Germany after the second world war, he rose to become an international figure on both human and musical levels, ready to identify with the wide-ranging new policies of two of the world’s leading orchestras.”

In 2001, when he conducted Brahms’s German Requiem as a tribute to the victims of 9/11, The New York Times spoke of “Kurt Masur’s unabashed belief in the power of music to make big statements and foster healing …” In its obituary for the conductor the newspaper wrote: “He brought to the podium the ardent conviction that music-making was a moral act that could heal the world.”

Kurt Masur was born in 1927 in Brieg in Silesia (now Brzeg in Poland). He studied piano, composition and conducting in Leipzig. One of his first conducting appointments was with the Dresdner Philharmonie (Dresden Philharmonic), from 1955 to 1958. He again held a post with the orchestra from 1967 to 1972.

In 2009 Masur made his final recording for Teldec: it was with the Dresdner Philharmonie. The work in question was the Brahms Violin Concerto with Sarah Chang as soloist. In 2010, Gramophone named it one of the 250 Greatest Recordings of All Time, as chosen by a panel of 35 musicians, among them such conductors as Semyon Bychkov, Neeme Järvi and David Zinman.

In 1970 Masur became Kapellmeister of Leipzig’s Gewandhaus Orchestra. He remained in the post until 1996.

The Leipzig Gewandhaus, which can trace its origins back to the 15th century, has existed as an orchestra since the 18th century. With the Dresden Staatskapelle it was a flagship orchestra in East Germany. As the leader of such an institution, Masur was an influential figure in his country, able to spearhead the construction of a new concert hall for the Gewandhaus Orchestra. The previous building, dating from the late 19th century, had been destroyed by Allied bombs in World War 2 and the new hall was inaugurated in 1981.

Masur was never a member of the Communist Party. In 1989, shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall, there were anti-government demonstrations in the streets of Leipzig, Masur invited protestors into the Gewandhaus to speak directly to political leaders, encouraging dialogue and calming the threat of violence. After this episode (and prior to the formal re-unification of Germany in 1990), he was mooted as a possible president of East Germany, but he chose to remain with music and take up the post of Music Director at the New York Philharmonic. In 1994 the New York Times wrote: “After three seasons, the improbable match of Masur and the Philharmonic looks as if it were made in heaven.”

Over his decade with the New York Philharmonic (1991-2002), in the words of the New York Times, “he galvanised the orchestra, raising standards and giving it back the style it had enjoyed under conductors such as Leonard Bernstein.” In 2002 the American Record Guide wrote: “There is no question he [Kurt Masur] has restored the New York Philharmonic as one of the world’s great orchestras.”

Over his time in New York, he affirmed his mastery of music in the European symphonic tradition while also engaging closely with American music, including jazz, and commissioning more than 40 new works from composers including Tan Dun, Ned Rorem, Sofia Gubaidulina, Thomas Adès, Kaija Saariaho, and Giva Kancheli. After he stood down from the post of Music Director in 2002, he became the orchestra’s Music Director Emeritus.

Between 2000 and 2008 he served as Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic, and he was Music Director of the Orchestre National de France from 2002 to 2008. He was also lifetime Honorary Guest Conductor of the Israel Philharmonic.

This 70-CD box encompasses recordings made between 1974 and 2009, comprising symphonies, concertos, tone poems, overtures, ballet music, songs/vocal works and choral works.

It includes several complete cycles (see list of composers below), including Mendelssohn’s symphonies with the Gewandhaus Orchestra, of which Mendelssohn was chief conductor and music director from 1835 to 1847.

The box also includes a number of works that lie somewhat outside the mainstream, such as a number of rarely heard tone poems by Liszt, Reger’s Variations and Fugue on a theme of Mozart, Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins and Ives’s Variations on ‘America’.

Discussing Masur’s recordings in 1991, the New York Times wrote: “At his best, he blends idiomatic tradition with a softer, gentler feeling for music as a communal art, a real collaboration between players and conductor.”

When his Gewandhaus recordings of Mendelssohn were released as a set in 2006, Gramophone’s Editor-on-Chief, James Jolly wrote: “Masur … is alive to those magical orchestral textures that make this music so enchanting. [His] soloists in the choral Second Symphony … couldn't be bettered and he pays full attention to the varied moods and textures. And what a great orchestra the Gewandandhaus is (remember it was Mendelssohn's own orchestra too, so here's true authenticity)! The ‘Italian’ and ‘Scottish’ [symphonies] are delightful and the sadly seldom heard First is played with great panache. The Midsummer Night 's Dream music is utterly winning …. The piano concertos are done with tremendous virtuosity by the technically astounding Cyprien Katsaris … Warmly recommended.”

Gramophone welcomed the album of Liszt symphonic poems (also with the Gewandhaus) by saying: “These are strong, exciting and idiomatic performances. Masur draws impassioned playing from the Gewandhaus orchestra in the best known of the tone-poems, Les Préludes, but he drives the music along forcefully in Mazeppa's ride without the sense of self-indulgence that is a danger in such virtuoso romantic pieces: the energy is made to come from within, rather than being applied from without … The disc is a safe recommendation for anyone who loves Liszt, and a fine introduction to some superb music for those who do not.”

The New York Philharmonic recording Shostakovich’s harrowing Symphony no.13, ‘Babi Yar’, was made live at Avery Fisher Hall in 2001. The New York Times wrote: “All Kurt Masur's musical strengths come boiling to the surface when he conducts Shostakovich ... He produced a mighty performance, grave, searing and uncomfortable … The performance was a triumph for the Philharmonic.”

Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, recorded with the New York Philharmonic, Westminster Symphonic Choir and soloists Sylvia McNair and Håkan Hagegård, was described by Gramophone as “not 'just any old Brahms Requiem' but a rather special one”, while MusicWeb International praised it as “an interpretation which through its fleetness and lightness of touch evidently wishes to bring to the fore the qualities of compassion and consolation … The prevailing mood [is] propulsive and underpinned by a refreshing element of tension.”

The recording of Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Leipzig Radio Chorus and soloists including Helen Donath and Alastair Miles won a Gramophone Award in 1993. The critic Alan Blyth wrote: “This one is an assured winner. Disposing of Victorian plush and sentiment, Masur, with the welcome alliance of a German choir … and an Israeli orchestra, presents the piece with unwonted immediacy, helped by a superb (live) recording that is forward and immediate enough to make the most of the alert responses of singers and players alike … As a whole, the performance fairly sweeps you along in its own enthusiastic drive.”

Maxim Vengerov’s recording of the Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and Bruch’s Violin Concerto no.1, recorded with the Leipzig Gewandhaus and Masur, was one of the recordings that resulted in his being named Gramophone’s Young Artist of the Year in 1994.

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