Mariss Jansons conducts Brahms & Janacek (2012) [Blu-ray]

A “star event” wrote The Guardian about the performance of Johannes Brahms’ “Second Symphony” with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Mariss Jansons. Recalling that this orchestra is now “among the leading ensembles in the world,” The Guardian asserted that “their style is generous, warm and big-hearted, their relationship with Jansons one of mutual adoration.” In 1926 Leoš Janáček wrote his contribution to liturgical settings in a language last spoken about a thousand years ago. With the “Glagolitic Mass” he wanted to emphasize the common bonds between the Slavic nations by writing the text in Old Church Slavonic, which used an alphabet devised by Saints Cyril and Methodius called “Glagolitic”. In this “blistering performance” (The Guardian) filmed at the Lucerne Easter Festival 2012, the Bavarian Radio Chorus complemented the instrumental ensemble of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Mariss Jansons to “give a compelling reading with an enormous breadth of dynamics and an impressive presence, and with the Slovak-Russian quartet guaranteeing idiomatic soli” (Neue Zürcher Zeitung).