Vienna Philharmonic: Summer Night Concert Schönbrunn 2015

Classic FM Drive Featured Album, 22 June 2015, after 6pm

Some 100,000 people attended this year’s traditional, open-air, free summer concert given by the Vienna Philharmonic at the Schönbrunn Palace on 14 May, with Zubin Mehta conducting and the great pianist Rudolf Buchbinder as soloist in the Grieg Piano Concerto.

Broadcast to more than 80 countries, the concert featured compositions by a galaxy of northern European composers who are regularly performed on concert programmes of the orchestra, among them, Christian Sinding, whose works are today nearly forgotten, although he was very popular and successful during his lifetime. Sinding’s best-known piece Rustle of Spring is a highlight in this programme.

In addition to Buchbinder's bold rendition of the Grieg Piano Concerto, the orchestra are on sterling form in Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite No.1 and the whole show reaches a stirring, brassy climax with Sibelius’s Finlandia.

Full marks to Sony Classical for a superb production and getting the concert out again so quickly.