Symphonie-Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Zubin Mehta

The Indian conductor Zubin Mehta is closely associated with the city of Munich and the orchestras based there. From 1998 to 2006, he was General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. He also had the same close ties to the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra's 2018 Asian tour with Zubin Mehta was ranked No. 1 in the "10 Top Concerts of 2018" by Japanese critics. In January 2020, he conducted the memorial concert of the Symphony Orchestra and Choir of the Bayerischer Rundfunk for their late principal conductor Mariss Jansons. - This BRKLASSIK CD offers the recording of concerts from February 28 and March 1, 2013 from the Philharmonie im Gasteig. In 1888, Russian composer Peter I. Tchaikovsky wrote his Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64, the so-called "Symphony of Fate." It was written within a few weeks in his country house Frolovskoye near Klin the first performance took place in St. Petersburg on November 17, 1888, conducted by the composer. - All four movements of the work are permeated by a memory motif ("fate motif"); Tchaikovsky had written about the opening movement: "Introduction. Complete surrender to fate or, what is the same, to the unfathomable counsel of Providence. - Allegro: grumbling, doubts, complaints, reproaches." Only in the third movement, a quiet waltz, does the fate motif appear merely peripherally. In the finale, it is finally turned to D major and forms a solemn conclusion. - Together with the fourth and sixth, the so-called "Symphonie pathètique," the fifth is one of Tchaikovsky's most popular symphonies. Franz Liszt's symphonic poem "Mazeppa" is based on a poem by Victor Hugo and incorporates musical material from his fourth "Etude d'exécution transcendante" of 1846. The symphonic poem was written in 1850 during Liszt's time as Weimar court conductor; it had its premiere on April 16, 1854. (The subject has nothing in common with Tchaikovsky's opera "Mazeppa," which premiered three decades later and is based on a poem by Alexander Pushkin) - Liszt's symphonic poem describes the wild ride of Ivan Masepa, known as Mazeppa, tied to a horse, through the steppes, his emaciation and exhaustion, and finally his rescue by Cossacks who take him to Ukraine.

• Liszt: Mazeppa, symphonic poem No. 6, S100
• Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64