Schubert Symphony No.7 Unfinished CLAUDIO ABBADO Audite CD

Live from Lucerne Festival

Claudio Abbado conducts Schubert, Beethoven & Wagner

Schubert Symphony No.7 "Unfinished"

Beethoven Symphony No.2

Wagner Siegfried Idyll

Claudio Abbado conducting the Wiener Philharmoniker and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe

1st Master Release

recorded in 1978 and 1988

Audite CD 95.627

made in Germany

new, factory sealed

​In memory of Claudio Abbado, who died on 20 January 2014 and who was closely associated with LUCERNE FESTIVAL for nearly five decades, audite and LUCERNE FESTIVAL are issuing three previously unreleased live recordings, approved by the conductor himself: on 5 September 1978, Claudio Abbado and the Vienna Philhar­monic performed Franz Schubert's Unfinished in Lucerne - a moving interpretation, emphasising the lyrical character of the work and creating a single arc of suspense from the sombre opening to the concluding transfiguration of the second movement. This work closes a circle insofar as Claudio Abbado also conducted Schubert's Unfinished at his final concert, given on 26 August 2013 in Lucerne. On 25 August 1988, on the occasion of the festival's fiftieth anniversary, Abbado and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe performed exactly the same programme with which Arturo Toscanini had opened the Luzerner Festspiele in 1938, including Ludwig van Beethoven's Second Symphony and Richard Wagner's Siegfried Idyll, the latter written in Lucerne. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung commented enthusiastically that "the sonic subtleties of the Siegfried Idyll were masterfully executed and carried through to a poignant ending with consistency in form and content. And in Abbado's interpretation of Beethoven's Second Symphony the structural clarity of the individual movements was combined with an unabated, almost newly inspired joy of performing amongst the orchestra". All three live recordings are released here for the first time. A particularly attractive aspect of this compilation is the fact that Abbado made studio recordings of the Beethoven and Schubert symphonies with the "opposite" orchestras - i.e. Schubert's Unfinished with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (1987) and Beethoven's Second Symphony with the Vienna Philharmonic (1988) - allowing revealing insights. The extensive booklet in three languages contains a portrait of Claudio Abbado by Peter Hagmann, tracing the conductor's long-standing activities in Lucerne; also included are previously unpublished photos from the archives of LUCERNE FESTIVAL. Claudio Abbado stamped his mark on LUCERNE FESTIVAL as no other conductor. The artistic relationship between festival and conductor lasted for nearly half a century: Abbado made his début at Lucerne in the summer of 1966, performing Sibelius' Violin Concerto, Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphoses and Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony together with the violinist Zino Francescatti and the Swiss Festival Orchestra. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung witnessed a "delightfully unspoiled maestro with an uncorrupted musical spirit" and made the accurate prediction that "this will not have been the last time that Claudio Abbado has conducted in Lucerne". He was to return countless times, soon on an annual basis, appearing with the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic, the ensembles of La Scala, Milan, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic, and of course with the orchestras that Abbado himself had founded: the European Union Youth Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. In 2003 Claudio Abbado and Michael Haefliger jointly founded the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA, an orchestra unique in the world in uniting long-standing artistic colleagues of Abbado's - internationally renowned soloists, chamber musicians and music professors alongside the core performers from the Mahler Chamber Orchestra - into an ensemble in a league of its own. Standing on the podium in front of this "Orchestra of Friends", as he himself called it, Claudio Abbado ended his artistic career on 26 August 2013 in Lucerne, having conducted Franz Schubert's Unfinished and Anton Bruckner's Ninth Symphony at his last concert.

American Record Guide | September 2014 | Roger Hecht | September 1, 2014

All these performances are from the Lucerne Festival in the years before Claudio Abbado formed his hand-picked Lucerne Festival Orchestra in 2003. According to Michael Haefliger, the head of the Festival, Abbado approved their addition to the Lucerne Festival Historical Performances. Annotator Peter Hagmann describes this performance of Franz Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony as traditional. I have read reviews that agree, adding that Abbado’s recent Schubert is more modern, leaner in texture, and controversial. I haven’t kept up with Schubert recordings in recent years, so I’m in no position to argue. That said, I don’t recall hearing many performances quite like this one from around 1978, especially the first movement, which is dramatic, dark, and even stormy in places. The tempo is a good deal slower than its marking, particularly in transitions, though it maintains its motion. The quieter passages are quiet and mysterious, perhaps even worrying. The Andante is not as relatively slow or as mysterious as I, but it is more serene and mostly at peace. Not all is forgotten, though, as the firm sterner intervals remind us. Quite interesting is how some of the quiet moments, particularly near the end, anticipate the performance of Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll from ten years later that is on this disc. The Vienna Philharmonic is the perfect orchestra for this kind of Schubert. The Siegfried Idyll from 1988 is gentle and childlike with atmosphere that is luminous and touching. It is well known that Debussy was influenced by Wagner, but it would be easy to imagine that the influence ran in both directions from listening to this. While the Schubert is the most interesting performance on this program, the Wagner is probably the best, mainly because it has a luminosity I’ve not heard elsewhere in this work. Even so, for a performance by a small orchestra, I’m drawn more to the one Solti led many years ago with the Vienna Philharmonic on Decca. That one is more closely recorded, more imaginative in phrasing, and more vital overall. The Beethoven comes from the same concert as the Wagner. Again, the performance is small in scale, with technique that is taut and deft. One major difference between the playing here and in the Schubert is that where the Viennese dig into the music, the COE tends to sail over the notes more, and their energy is linear. They do this with great dexterity, but they also create a sameness that carries through all the movements. I is straightforward as well as cleanly delineated and structured. The Larghetto is just as straightforward with a touch of affection. The last two movements are similar and just as deftly played. The Chamber Orchestra of Europe produces a good-sized sound for a smaller orchestra, but I still miss the plushness a larger ensemble can produce in this music. The sound is very good. The interesting notes are concerned mainly with Abbado and his relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic and his history with the Lucerne Festival. All these performances are from the Lucerne Festival in the years before Claudio Abbado formed his hand-picked Lucerne Festival Orchestra in 2003. According to Michael Haefliger, the head of the Festival, Abbado approved their addition to the Lucerne Festival Historical Performances. Annotator Peter Hagmann describes this performance of Franz Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony as traditional. I have read reviews that agree, adding that Abbado’s recent Schubert is more modern, leaner in texture, and controversial. I haven’t kept up with Schubert recordings in recent years, so I’m in no position to argue. That said, I don’t recall hearing many performances quite like this one from around 1978, especially the first movement, which is dramatic, dark, and even stormy in places. The tempo is a good deal slower than its marking, particularly in transitions, though it maintains its motion. The quieter passages are quiet and mysterious, perhaps even worrying. The Andante is not as relatively slow or as mysterious as I, but it is more serene and mostly at peace. Not all is forgotten, though, as the firm sterner intervals remind us. Quite interesting is how some of the quiet moments, particularly near the end, anticipate the performance of Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll from ten years later that is on this disc. The Vienna Philharmonic is the perfect orchestra for this kind of Schubert. The Siegfried Idyll from 1988 is gentle and childlike with atmosphere that is luminous and touching. It is well known that Debussy was influenced by Wagner, but it would be easy to imagine that the influence ran in both directions from listening to this. While the Schubert is the most interesting performance on this program, the Wagner is probably the best, mainly because it has a luminosity I’ve not heard elsewhere in this work. Even so, for a performance by a small orchestra, I’m drawn more to the one Solti led many years ago with the Vienna Philharmonic on Decca. That one is more closely recorded, more imaginative in phrasing, and more vital overall. The Beethoven comes from the same concert as the Wagner. Again, the performance is small in scale, with technique that is taut and deft. One major difference between the playing here and in the Schubert is that where the Viennese dig into the music, the COE tends to sail over the notes more, and their energy is linear. They do this with great dexterity, but they also create a sameness that carries through all the movements. I is straightforward as well as cleanly delineated and structured. The Larghetto is just as straightforward with a touch of affection. The last two movements are similar and just as deftly played. The Chamber Orchestra of Europe produces a good-sized sound for a smaller orchestra, but I still miss the plushness a larger ensemble can produce in this music. The sound is very good. The interesting notes are concerned mainly with Abbado and his relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic and his history with the Lucerne Festival.

International Record Review | November 2014 | Patrick Rucker | November 1, 2014

These superb live performances further document the near half-century-long association of the Lucerne Festival and the late Claudio Abbado, who conducts two stellar orchestras with which he frequently collaborated. There are some 28 recordings of the Schubert 'Unfinished' Symphony by the Vienna Philharmonic available. However, as far as I've been able to determine, this is the only time the VPO recorded the piece under Abbado. His complete Schubert Symphony cycle was a collaboration with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the group he helped found and which he conducts here in the Beethoven Second Symphony and Siegfried Idyll. This is the fifth recording in a series called 'Lucerne Festival Historic Performances' that presents remastered recordings originally made for broadcast by SWR, Swiss Radio and Television. The Vienna Philharmonic Schubert was recorded in September 1978 and the COE Beethoven and Wagner in August 1988. Despite the performances' vintage, the recorded sound will probably satisfy discriminating listeners. As unlikely as it might seem to describe any interpretation of the 'Unfinished' as startlingly original, that is the inescapable impression left by this performance. The gripping intensity of the first movement is tempered by a lithe grace. Divested of weighty stolidity, the music gains credibility as the creation of a young man portraying an epic confrontation. Schubert's dissonances, often lost in the fulsome thickness of string sound, here emerge as sharp and painful. If there is anything to be regretted, it is that the exposition was not repeated. The Andante is often interpreted as an antidote to the scathing conflicts and tensions unearthed in the first movement. Not so here. The dramatic impetus of the Allegro moderato, in some ineffably sublimated form, is extended, telescoped, even compounded into the farthest reaches of the slow movement, which seems to speak of cosmic loneliness. Meanwhile, it is blessed by the Vienna winds, for theirs is the sound most nearly approaching perfection. This performance alone is easily worth the price of the disc. In the wake of the tragically inflected 'Unfinished', the robust and buoyant D major Beethoven of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe comes as a shift to sunny skies and sweet breezes. After the ample, spacious introduction, the Allegro con brio fairly bristles with energy, each perfectly calculated sforzando contributing to a palpable joy in unified precision of execution. Bucolic vistas and subtle intrigues in the Larghetto are described with refined brushwork, using a delicately blended palette. A scherzo more witty than raucous provides the swift transition to the finale, lithe, athletic and brimming with detail, that is the summation and fulfilment of all that has gone before. This performance could serve as a paradigm of the symphonic ideal, bequeathed by Haydn and Mozart, to be exalted by Beethoven. This Siegfried Idyll is a Wagnerian canvas with the varnish of pretence and excess painstakingly removed. What remains is unalloyed ardour, simply expressed with disarming directness. This interpretation combines dappled colours with a round, gentle ripeness that is likely to render all but a handful of others drab by comparison. These superb live performances further document the near half-century-long association of the Lucerne Festival and the late Claudio Abbado, who conducts two stellar orchestras with which he frequently collaborated. There are some 28 recordings of the Schubert 'Unfinished' Symphony by the Vienna Philharmonic available. However, as far as I've been able to determine, this is the only time the VPO recorded the piece under Abbado. His complete Schubert Symphony cycle was a collaboration with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the group he helped found and which he conducts here in the Beethoven Second Symphony and Siegfried Idyll. This is the fifth recording in a series called 'Lucerne Festival Historic Performances' that presents remastered recordings originally made for broadcast by SWR, Swiss Radio and Television. The Vienna Philharmonic Schubert was recorded in September 1978 and the COE Beethoven and Wagner in August 1988. Despite the performances' vintage, the recorded sound will probably satisfy discriminating listeners. As unlikely as it might seem to describe any interpretation of the 'Unfinished' as startlingly original, that is the inescapable impression left by this performance. The gripping intensity of the first movement is tempered by a lithe grace. Divested of weighty stolidity, the music gains credibility as the creation of a young man portraying an epic confrontation. Schubert's dissonances, often lost in the fulsome thickness of string sound, here emerge as sharp and painful. If there is anything to be regretted, it is that the exposition was not repeated. The Andante is often interpreted as an antidote to the scathing conflicts and tensions unearthed in the first movement. Not so here. The dramatic impetus of the Allegro moderato, in some ineffably sublimated form, is extended, telescoped, even compounded into the farthest reaches of the slow movement, which seems to speak of cosmic loneliness. Meanwhile, it is blessed by the Vienna winds, for theirs is the sound most nearly approaching perfection. This performance alone is easily worth the price of the disc. In the wake of the tragically inflected 'Unfinished', the robust and buoyant D major Beethoven of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe comes as a shift to sunny skies and sweet breezes. After the ample, spacious introduction, the Allegro con brio fairly bristles with energy, each perfectly calculated sforzando contributing to a palpable joy in unified precision of execution. Bucolic vistas and subtle intrigues in the Larghetto are described with refined brushwork, using a delicately blended palette. A scherzo more witty than raucous provides the swift transition to the finale, lithe, athletic and brimming with detail, that is the summation and fulfilment of all that has gone before. This performance could serve as a paradigm of the symphonic ideal, bequeathed by Haydn and Mozart, to be exalted by Beethoven. This Siegfried Idyll is a Wagnerian canvas with the varnish of pretence and excess painstakingly removed. What remains is unalloyed ardour, simply expressed with disarming directness. This interpretation combines dappled colours with a round, gentle ripeness that is likely to render all but a handful of others drab by comparison.