Mahler, Gustav/Strauss, Richard: Erich Leinsdorf conducts... (Ica Classics DVD)

This series of DVDs will make the publicly broadcast BSO concerts from this era available for the first time since they were broadcast. This rare material represents some of the earliest televised concerts with the Boston Symphony and Erich Leinsdorf, and has been restored using the greatest care and state-of-the-art techniques. It is of exceptional musical interest and historic value. The BSO’s Music Director for seven seasons, Leinsdorf had a long and distinguished career, having worked with Toscanini and Walter, conducting at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Cleveland Orchestra and Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in addition to his tenure at the BSO. Born in Mahler’s city, just over eight months after the composer’s death, Leinsdorf began his career as assistant to Mahler’s own assistant and protege, Bruno Walter. He played an important role in building an audience for Mahler’s symphonies during his tenure at the BSO, which came just before the Mahler boom in the 1960s. Leinsdorf recorded all of Mahler’s symphonies apart from the Fourth for RCA Victor; recordings which became the benchmark both for sound and performance quality. Intense, warm and expressive, his performance of Mahler’s First Symphony is an intensely personal account whilst Till Eulenspiegel – which was a party piece for the BSO during his tenure - is performed with great precision and finesse. Two of ICA’s BSO DVDs featuring Charles Munch as conductor, have been awarded the Diapason d’Or in France’s Diapason magazine