All just my personal opinion
2015-09-16, Season’s Opening Concert with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich under Lionel Bringuier — Johannes Brahms: Double Concerto in a-minor, op.102, with Lisa Batiashvili (Artist in Residence) & Gautier Capuçon; compositions by and with Jörg Widmann, clarinet and Creative Chair; Alexander Scriabin: Symphony No.4, “Poème de l’extase”, op.54
Concert matinée at the Tonhalle Zurich, featuring Bach (excerpts from “The Art of the Fugue”, BWV 1080) and his re-discoverer, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (String Quintet No.1 in A major, op.18), with members of the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No.7 in A major, op.92 — comparing recordings with the following artists: Bernstein/New York Philharmonic (1964), Bernstein/Vienna Philharmonic (1978), Böhm (1972), Dausgaard (2001), Furtwängler/Vienna Philharmonic (1954), Hogwood (1989), Kleiber/Concertgebouw (1950), Klemperer (1955), Norrington/RSO Stuttgart (2002), Toscanini (1951), Walter/New York Philharmonic (1951), Walter/Columbia Symphony Orchestra (1958), Zinman (1997)
Beethoven: Symphony No.3 in E♭ major, op.55, “Eroica” — comparing recordings with the following artists: Bernstein/New York Philharmonic (1964), Bernstein/Vienna Philharmonic (1978), Böhm (1972), Dausgaard (2006), Furtwängler/Vienna Philharmonic (1948), Furtwängler/Berlin Philharmonic (1952), Hogwood (1985), Kleiber/Concertgebouw (1950), Klemperer (1959), Norrington/RSO Stuttgart (2002), Toscanini (1953), Walter/New York Philharmonic (1941 & 1949), Walter/Columbia Symphony Orchestra (1961), Zinman (1998)
Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D major, op.61 — comparing recordings with the following artists: Batiashvili (2007), Busch/Busch (1942), Faust/Abbado (2010), Francescatti/Walter (1961), Grumiaux/Galliera (1966), Heifetz/Munch (1955), Huberman/Szell (1934), Jansen/Järvi (2009), Kennedy (2007), Kopatchinskaja/Herreweghe (2009), Kreisler/Blech (1926), Kremer/Harnoncourt (1992), Menuhin/Furtwängler (1947), Milstein/Szell (1964), Mullova/Gardiner (2002), Oistrakh/Gauk (1952), Oistrakh/Cluytens (1959), Stern/Bernstein (1959), Szeryng/Schmidt-Isserstedt (1965), Suk/Konwitschny (1962), Tetzlaff/Zinman (2005), Zehetmair/Brüggen (1997)
The first part of this evening was devoted to Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.3 in D minor, op.30 — a well-respected benchmark among pianists of the top league. Lise de la Salle played this concerto eloquently, with compassion — she visibly lived with the music, also in the orchestral parts: her playing is fluent, competent, aimed at a full, rounded sound…