Search - Richard Strauss: Ein Heldenleben - Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra - Mariss Jansons Chief Conductor on DVD

Promising Start to a Fine Musical Partnership

John Kwok | New York, NY USA | 05/18/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Often underrated, conductor Mariss Jansons now has the unenviable task of leading two of the world's great orchestras; the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. I've had the pleasure of seeing him conduct live several times at Carnegie Hall, leading the Pittsburgh Symphony and Wiener Philharmoniker in impressive performances of late 19th through mid 20th Century music. Needless to say, he is in splendid form here conducting the Concertgebouw in a dazzling, vibrant performance of this well-known Richard Strauss tone poem; a performance which he repeated at Carnegie Hall with this orchestra. Friends and acquaintances who heard him at Carnegie Hall have observed that it was a far more intriguing, emotionally riveting account of Ein Heldenleben than a Berliner Philharmoniker performance of the same work with Sir Simon Rattle conducting less than a month before. With the sole exception of a rather overwrought, extremely dramatic, interpretation of an early Beethoven symphony performed last year at Carnegie Hall by the Wiener Philharmoniker, I have been pleasantly surprised and impressed with Jansons' live performances and recordings. Without question this fine DVD is the promising start of a fine musical partnership between Maestro Jansons and an orchestra that I regard as among the world's top five."