Claudio Abbado conducts Prokofiev, Berg & Tchaikovsky

Lucerne Festival at Easter 2010

Five years after first conducting the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra in their Venezuelan home, Claudio Abbado continues his commitment to this stunning ensemble in this first joint audiovisual concert recording.

Prokofiev’s extrovert Scythian Suite is a gift for the boundless energy of these young players, while the intricacy and anguish of Berg’s Lulu-Suite are an Abbado speciality, with soprano Anna Prohaska, in her Lucerne Festival debut, singing the heroine’s dazzling statement of self-justification.

The concert ends with an impassioned account of Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique, his final symphony, one of the most moving works in music history.

“I have never heard deeper articulation in the first-movement development, and its ‘aria’ is a model of sensitive filming …” — BBC Music Magazine

“Aided by superb camera work, we see him, (Abbado) gaunt but energized, bringing sophistication and élan to Prokofiev’s monster canvas …” — Financial Times