Yevgeny Mravinsky: Soviet Conductor, Russian Aristocrat
Yevgeny Mravinsky was for almost 50 years the chief conductor of the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, making it the most celebrated of all Russian orchestras and rivalling those in Berlin and Vienna. Mravinsky achieved the highest levels of orchestral precision through almost fanatical levels of rehearsal which given the conductor's dislike of studio recordings, makes these filmed archives of his preparation and performance of Weber's Oberon Overture and Tchaikovsky's Francesca da Rimini, doubly rewarding. The bonus has Gennady Rozhdestvensky conducting the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra in a powerful and authoritative performance of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.4. one of the orchestra's great showpieces at London's Royal Albert Hall in 1971.