Celibidache Conducts Swedish radio symphony orchestra and Sheherazade with SWR Stuttgart DG 5CDs

Sergiu Celibidache was one of the podium's great individualists whose idiosyncratic interpretations drive listeners either to scorn or to reverence. This compilation of broadcasts made during his Swedish years provides material for both views, though most listeners should come away awed by "Celi" at his best. The Sibelius Fifth, for example, is a great performance, incredibly intense within a spacious framework of epic grandeur. The Sibelius Second, while on a less exalted level, is painted on a similarly broad canvas with playing of remarkable concentration and power. The Hindemith, too, is outstanding, Celibidache probing depths few other conductors find in the work. His Strauss is more conventional, affectionate without eclipsing other, more volatile Straussians such as Reiner and Kempe. Since Jacqueline Du Pré's picture shares the cover with the conductor, her fans will be curious about the unlikely combination of the rhapsodic cellist and the refined, even calculating conductor. Sure enough, they tend to go their own ways in the Dvorák, leading to an often exciting, although anything but unified, performance. All in all, this set is one of the most desirable of DG's Celibidache releases. --Dan Davis


1. Cello Concerto in B minor, B. 191 (Op. 104)
Composed by Antonin Dvorak
Performed by Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra
with Jacqueline du Pre
Conducted by Sergiu Celibidache

2. Symphony, in D minor, Op. 48
Composed by Cesar Franck
Performed by Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Sergiu Celibidache

3. Mathis der Maler, symphony (from opera)
Composed by Paul Hindemith
Performed by Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Sergiu Celibidache

4. Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 43
Composed by Jean Sibelius
Performed by Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Sergiu Celibidache

5. Symphony No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 82
Composed by Jean Sibelius
Performed by Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Sergiu Celibidache

6. Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche (Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks), tone poem for orchestra, Op. 28 (TrV 171)
Composed by Richard Strauss
Performed by Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Sergiu Celibidache

7. Don Juan, tone poem for orchestra, Op. 20 (TrV 156)
Composed by Richard Strauss
Performed by Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra
with Arve Tellefsen
Conducted by Sergiu Celibidache

8. Symphony No. 9 in E flat major, Op. 70
Composed by Dmitry Shostakovich
Performed by Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Sergiu Celibidache

9. Rimsky-Korsakov: Sheherazade

10.Stravinsky: Firebird Suite