Opening Concert Salzburger Festspiele 2012

The Opening Concert of the Salzburg Festival has traditionally been a highly regarded event. The vibrant heart of the Salzburg Festival, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, under the Russian conductor Valery Gergiev presents an exclusively Russian programme whose theme and content revolve around the most profound questions of human life: Igor Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms and a masterly feat on the brink of the existential abyss – Modest Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death – sung by Russian tenor Sergei Semishkur, who gives these fascinatingly dark songs an alarming intensity. Finally, the Vienna Philharmonic excels in its performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony, demonstrating outstanding virtuosity and exceptional musicality. Recorded at Salzburg Festival, 29 July 2012.