He did not thrust himself into the limelight but put himself, with economical, clear gestures, entirely at the service of the music: amongst the conductors of his time, Karl Böhm epitomized the anti-star. In the summer of 1964 he delighted the Lucerne audience with a compellingly flowing and cantabile reading of Bruckner’s Seventh – of course at the helm of “his” Vienna Philharmonic, with whom he was also to perform a buoyant Hindemith concerto six years later.

The Summer Night Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic is the world's biggest annual classical open-air concert and will take place in the magical setting of the Schönbrunn Palace Baroque park in Vienna on June 18, 2021. The theme for this year is Fernweh and includes musical favorites from Bernstein, Verdi, Rachmaninov, Sibelius, Elgar, Debussy and Holst. It will also include many fantastic Summer Night Concert debuts: SNC debut by pianist Igor Levit & British conductor Daniel Harding.

Sony Classical releases the second installment of Christian Thielemann’s complete cycle of Anton Bruckner’s symphonies with the Vienna Philharmonic – the orchestra’s first Bruckner cycle under a single conductor.

Rued Langgaard (18931952) was the major Danish late-Romantic composer who did not gain recognition in his mother country. His greatest successes took place in Germany and Austria, where his Symphonies Nos. 2 and 6 were met with considerable acclaim. Back home, he never received that kind of backing. He died a careworn and despairing individual. On this recording with one of the world's leading orchestras, the tradition-conscious Vienna Philharmonic, one is therefore able to hear Langgaard's music 'return home' to a central European musical culture. At the same time things were going swimmingly for his colleague Jacob Gade (18791963) whose Tango Jalousie has become the absolutely most frequently played piece of Danish music for almost a century.