• Tracks

During the 50s and 60s, George Szell regularly appeared at Lucerne Festival. The concert recordings presented here - both first releases - encompass two works central in his repertoire: In 1962, the 'anti-romantic and master of precision' (Harold C. Schonberg), alongside the Swiss Festival Orchestra, achieved a powerful and intensely determined interpretation of Brahms' First Symphony, whose transparently played, chamber-like middle movements are framed by outer movements full of suspense. In the summer of 1969 - one year after the violent defeat of the 'Prague Spring' - Szell was reunited with the Czech Philharmonic in Lucerne. His thrillingly energetic reading of Dvorak's Symphony No. 8 enthused the audience and critics in equal measure.