Unitel
Domingo creates the magical illusion that Alfano wrote the role especially for him: Domingo de Bergerac" (review of the premiere in the Madrid daily ABC). Plácido Domingo's triumph in Valencia's stunningly futuristic theater El Palau de les Arts in February 2007 echoes the overwhelmingly positive reception he obtained at the Metropolitan Opera and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in this role. A coproduction of the New York, London and Valencia houses, Franco Alfano's little-known 1936 opera Cyrano de Bergerac has been reawakened to life by the great Spanish tenor. Although Alfano (1875-1954) enjoyed a long and prolific career as an opera composer, he is known today above all for having completed Puccini's Turandot . His earlier works not surprisingly reflect Puccini's verismo style, but his later works - including Cyrano de Bergerac - are clearly inspired by Debussy, Ravel and Strauss. Opulent scoring and colorful orchestral effects elegantly underscore the tragic story based on Rostand's famous drama of 1897, which achieved international celebrity in the Oscar-nominated 1990 film adaptation with Gérard Depardieu. Alfano's work faithfully relates the story of the large-nosed soldier poet who pines for the beautiful Roxane and writes her glowing love letters in the...
A typically Spanish musical genre, the zarzuela is a Spanish-language opera with spoken dialogues and filled with pleasant-sounding, often folkloric tunes cast in arias, duets, four-part choruses and dances. While zarzuelas never really made it into the repertoires of theaters outside the Spanish-speaking countries, the many passionate, fiery, or lyrical vocal pieces have continued to thrive in concerts and recitals all over the world. One of the most renowned and ardent supporters of zarzuela melodies is Plácido Domingo, who is featured here in a concert given at the 2007 Salzburg Festival.
Belying his 66 years, the world-famous tenor sings these rousing, seductive melodies with the beguiling sweetness of a much younger man. Delicately painted character studies enhanced with occasional harmonic slides, sighing motifs and castanet laughter – Domingo transports the enraptured listener to the calles and plazas of Madrid and Seville. His phrasing is "subtly shaded, with the wisdom of an older man; the voice is always perfectly focused and led both dazzlingly and intelligently... The audience cheers" (F.A.Z.).
Domingo is accompanied by the Mozarteum Orchestra under Jesús López Cobos and, above all, by his partner for the evening, soprano Ana María Martínez, "a beautiful...
Belying his 66 years, the world-famous tenor sings these rousing, seductive melodies with the beguiling sweetness of a much younger man. Delicately painted character studies enhanced with occasional harmonic slides, sighing motifs and castanet laughter – Domingo transports the enraptured listener to the calles and plazas of Madrid and Seville. His phrasing is "subtly shaded, with the wisdom of an older man; the voice is always perfectly focused and led both dazzlingly and intelligently... The audience cheers" (F.A.Z.).
Domingo is accompanied by the Mozarteum Orchestra under Jesús López Cobos and, above all, by his partner for the evening, soprano Ana María Martínez, "a beautiful...
The excitement is palpable at Paris' Théâtre des Champs-Elysées this 28 March 2007. Anna Netrebko is not only making her debut in France, but she is making it with Rolando Villazon. The "dream couple" of the opera world is about to bring its incomparable charm and magnetism to France's "melomanes", and the result is nothing less than phenomenal: "An unforgettable evening, rich in emotions, which many spectators will look back on with nostalgia one day and say: 'I was there!'" No matter where they appear, Netrebko and Villazon inevitably work their magic on the audience, whether it consists of hundreds or, when broadcast on TV, of millions.
For their Paris concert, the duo chose a broad selection of chiefly late Romantic works – the style for which their voices seem to be tailor-made. A tribute to France is offered with excerpts from Gounod's Romeo et Juliette and the little-known Polyeucte, along with the famous "duo de Saint-Sulpice" from Massenet's Manon. Not surprisingly, a Russian composer also graces the program; Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Iolantha are sung superbly by Netrebko. Villazon's Latin blood heats up Spanish songs by Sotullo-Otero, Vert, Moreno-Torroba and Penella. But it's in the Italian repertoire that the couple reaches heights...
For their Paris concert, the duo chose a broad selection of chiefly late Romantic works – the style for which their voices seem to be tailor-made. A tribute to France is offered with excerpts from Gounod's Romeo et Juliette and the little-known Polyeucte, along with the famous "duo de Saint-Sulpice" from Massenet's Manon. Not surprisingly, a Russian composer also graces the program; Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Iolantha are sung superbly by Netrebko. Villazon's Latin blood heats up Spanish songs by Sotullo-Otero, Vert, Moreno-Torroba and Penella. But it's in the Italian repertoire that the couple reaches heights...
For Johann Sebastian Bach, February 15, 1981 was no doubt one of the darkest days of his afterlife: on this day he lost one of his greatest champions in the 20th century, Karl Richter. Over the course of his long career as conductor, organist and harpsichordist, Richter had become synonymous with Bach. He founded the Munich Bach Choir and the Munich Bach Orchestra. He helped trigger the Bach revival in the 1950s. He was the spirit behind the Ansbach Bach Festival. He turned his adopted city of Munich into a Bach center. And he recorded all the major choral and orchestral works of Bach, including more than 100 cantatas. Richter was born on October 15, 1926 in Plauen, Thuringia, the Bach family's native region. After his years as a choirboy at Dresden's Kreuzkirche ("I sang in virtually all the cantatas and passions"), he studied in Leipzig with the St. Thomas cantors Günther Ramin and Karl Straube and was appointed organist at the Thomaskirche in 1949. He moved to Munich in 1951 and founded his choral and orchestral ensembles shortly thereafter.
Karl Richter absorbed the Bach tradition from the source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his own...
Karl Richter absorbed the Bach tradition from the source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his own...
For Johann Sebastian Bach, February 15, 1981 was no doubt one of the darkest days of his afterlife: on this day he lost one of his greatest champions in the 20th century, Karl Richter. Over the course of his long career as conductor, organist and harpsichordist, Richter had become synonymous with Bach. He founded the Munich Bach Choir and the Munich Bach Orchestra. He helped trigger the Bach revival in the 1950s. He was the spirit behind the Ansbach Bach Festival. He turned his adopted city of Munich into a Bach center. And he recorded all the major choral and orchestral works of Bach, including more than 100 cantatas. Richter was born on October 15, 1926 in Plauen, Thuringia, the Bach family's native region. After his years as a choirboy at Dresden's Kreuzkirche ("I sang in virtually all the cantatas and passions"), he studied in Leipzig with the St. Thomas cantors Günther Ramin and Karl Straube and was appointed organist at the Thomaskirche in 1949. He moved to Munich in 1951 and founded his choral and orchestral ensembles shortly thereafter.
Karl Richter absorbed the Bach tradition from the source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his own...
Karl Richter absorbed the Bach tradition from the source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his own...
For Johann Sebastian Bach, February 15, 1981 was no doubt one of the darkest days of his afterlife: on this day he lost one of his greatest champions in the 20th century, Karl Richter. Over the course of his long career as conductor, organist and harpsichordist, Richter had become synonymous with Bach. He founded the Munich Bach Choir and the Munich Bach Orchestra. He helped trigger the Bach revival in the 1950s. He was the spirit behind the Ansbach Bach Festival. He turned his adopted city of Munich into a Bach center. And he recorded all the major choral and orchestral works of Bach, including more than 100 cantatas. Richter was born on October 15, 1926 in Plauen, Thuringia, the Bach family's native region. After his years as a choirboy at Dresden's Kreuzkirche ("I sang in virtually all the cantatas and passions"), he studied in Leipzig with the St. Thomas cantors Günther Ramin and Karl Straube and was appointed organist at the Thomaskirche in 1949. He moved to Munich in 1951 and founded his choral and orchestral ensembles shortly thereafter.
Karl Richter absorbed the Bach tradition from the source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his own...
Karl Richter absorbed the Bach tradition from the source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his own...
For Johann Sebastian Bach, February 15, 1981 was no doubt one of the darkest days of his afterlife: on this day he lost one of his greatest champions in the 20th century, Karl Richter. Over the course of his long career as conductor, organist and harpsichordist, Richter had become synonymous with Bach. He founded the Munich Bach Choir and the Munich Bach Orchestra. He helped trigger the Bach revival in the 1950s. He was the spirit behind the Ansbach Bach Festival. He turned his adopted city of Munich into a Bach center. And he recorded all the major choral and orchestral works of Bach, including more than 100 cantatas. Richter was born on October 15, 1926 in Plauen, Thuringia, the Bach family's native region. After his years as a choirboy at Dresden's Kreuzkirche ("I sang in virtually all the cantatas and passions"), he studied in Leipzig with the St. Thomas cantors Günther Ramin and Karl Straube and was appointed organist at the Thomaskirche in 1949. He moved to Munich in 1951 and founded his choral and orchestral ensembles shortly thereafter.
Karl Richter absorbed the Bach tradition from the source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his own...
Karl Richter absorbed the Bach tradition from the source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his own...
For Johann Sebastian Bach, February 15, 1981 was no doubt one of the darkest days of his afterlife: on this day he lost one of his greatest champions in the 20th century, Karl Richter. Over the course of his long career as conductor, organist and harpsichordist, Richter had become synonymous with Bach. He founded the Munich Bach Choir and the Munich Bach Orchestra. He helped trigger the Bach revival in the 1950s. He was the spirit behind the Ansbach Bach Festival. He turned his adopted city of Munich into a Bach center. And he recorded all the major choral and orchestral works of Bach, including more than 100 cantatas. Richter was born on October 15, 1926 in Plauen, Thuringia, the Bach family's native region. After his years as a choirboy at Dresden's Kreuzkirche ("I sang in virtually all the cantatas and passions"), he studied in Leipzig with the St. Thomas cantors Günther Ramin and Karl Straube and was appointed organist at the Thomaskirche in 1949. He moved to Munich in 1951 and founded his choral and orchestral ensembles shortly thereafter.
Karl Richter absorbed the Bach tradition from the source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his own...
Karl Richter absorbed the Bach tradition from the source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his own...
For Johann Sebastian Bach, February 15, 1981 was no doubt one of the darkest days of his afterlife: on this day he lost one of his greatest champions in the 20th century, Karl Richter. Over the course of his long career as conductor, organist and harpsichordist, Richter had become synonymous with Bach. He founded the Munich Bach Choir and the Munich Bach Orchestra. He helped trigger the Bach revival in the 1950s. He was the spirit behind the Ansbach Bach Festival. He turned his adopted city of Munich into a Bach center. And he recorded all the major choral and orchestral works of Bach, including more than 100 cantatas. Richter was born on October 15, 1926 in Plauen, Thuringia, the Bach family's native region. After his years as a choirboy at Dresden's Kreuzkirche ("I sang in virtually all the cantatas and passions"), he studied in Leipzig with the St. Thomas cantors Günther Ramin and Karl Straube and was appointed organist at the Thomaskirche in 1949. He moved to Munich in 1951 and founded his choral and orchestral ensembles shortly thereafter.
Karl Richter absorbed the Bach tradition from the source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his own...
Karl Richter absorbed the Bach tradition from the source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his own...
Bach's Christmas Oratorio was first heard in its entirety at Leipzig's St. Thomas church at Christmastime 1734. Some Leipzig church-goers may have recognized some of the melodies, since Bach used material from earlier works, sometimes reworking the music to fit new texts. This practice, called the "parody technique", was frequent in Bach's time. The six separate, large-scale but related parts of the Oratorio tell the Nativity story through texts of the apostles St. Matthew and St. Luke, and through traditional or newly written material. Bach is credited with shaping the text and selecting the Biblical passages in such a way that the work follows a logical sequence. This contribution gives the piece a musically dramatic and compelling textual unity.
Considered one of the world's leading specialists of Baroque music, Nikolaus Harnoncourt founded the Concentus Musicus Wien in 1953. It has since become one of the world's most respected ensembles specializing in the performance of early music on original instruments or faithful reproductions. With its opulent decor and gilt ornamentation, the Austrian Baroque church of Waldhausen provides a setting evocative of Bach's times. An added highlight of the program is the retelling of the Nativity story with the magnificent carved...
Considered one of the world's leading specialists of Baroque music, Nikolaus Harnoncourt founded the Concentus Musicus Wien in 1953. It has since become one of the world's most respected ensembles specializing in the performance of early music on original instruments or faithful reproductions. With its opulent decor and gilt ornamentation, the Austrian Baroque church of Waldhausen provides a setting evocative of Bach's times. An added highlight of the program is the retelling of the Nativity story with the magnificent carved...
For Johann Sebastian Bach, February 15, 1981 was no doubt one of the darkest days of his afterlife: on this day he lost one of his greatest champions in the 20th century, Karl Richter. Over the course of his long career as conductor, organist and harpsichordist, Richter had become synonymous with Bach. He founded the Munich Bach Choir and the Munich Bach Orchestra. He helped trigger the Bach revival in the 1950s. He was the spirit behind the Ansbach Bach Festival. He turned his adopted city of Munich into a Bach center. And he recorded all the major choral and orchestral works of Bach, including more than 100 cantatas.
Richter was born on October 15, 1926 in Plauen, Thuringia, the Bach family's native region. After his years as a choirboy at Dresden's Kreuzkirche ("I sang in virtually all the cantatas and passions"), he
studied in Leipzig with the St. Thomas cantors Günther Ramin and Karl Straube and was appointed organist at the Thomaskirche in 1949. He moved to Munich in 1951 and founded his choral and orchestral ensembles shortly thereafter.
Karl Richter absorbed the Bach tradition from the source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his...
Richter was born on October 15, 1926 in Plauen, Thuringia, the Bach family's native region. After his years as a choirboy at Dresden's Kreuzkirche ("I sang in virtually all the cantatas and passions"), he
studied in Leipzig with the St. Thomas cantors Günther Ramin and Karl Straube and was appointed organist at the Thomaskirche in 1949. He moved to Munich in 1951 and founded his choral and orchestral ensembles shortly thereafter.
Karl Richter absorbed the Bach tradition from the source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his...
For Johann Sebastian Bach, February 15, 1981 was no doubt one of the darkest days of his afterlife: on this day he lost one of his greatest champions in the 20th century, Karl Richter. Over the course of his long career as conductor, organist and harpsichordist, Richter had become synonymous with Bach. He founded the Munich Bach Choir and the Munich Bach Orchestra. He helped trigger the Bach revival in the 1950s. He was the spirit behind the Ansbach Bach Festival. He turned his adopted city of Munich into a Bach center. And he recorded all the major choral and orchestral works of Bach, including more than 100 cantatas.
Richter was born on October 15, 1926 in Plauen, Thuringia, the Bach family's native region. After his years as a choirboy at Dresden's Kreuzkirche ("I sang in virtually all the cantatas and passions"), he
studied in Leipzig with the St. Thomas cantors Günther Ramin and Karl Straube and was appointed organist at the Thomaskirche in 1949. He moved to Munich in 1951 and founded his choral and orchestral ensembles shortly thereafter.
Karl Richter absorbed the Bach tradition from the source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his...
Richter was born on October 15, 1926 in Plauen, Thuringia, the Bach family's native region. After his years as a choirboy at Dresden's Kreuzkirche ("I sang in virtually all the cantatas and passions"), he
studied in Leipzig with the St. Thomas cantors Günther Ramin and Karl Straube and was appointed organist at the Thomaskirche in 1949. He moved to Munich in 1951 and founded his choral and orchestral ensembles shortly thereafter.
Karl Richter absorbed the Bach tradition from the source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his...
For Johann Sebastian Bach, February 15, 1981 was no doubt one of the darkest days of his afterlife: on this day he lost one of his greatest champions in the 20th century, Karl Richter. Over the course of his long career as conductor, organist and harpsichordist, Richter had become synonymous with Bach. He founded the Munich Bach Choir and the Munich Bach Orchestra. He helped trigger the Bach revival in the 1950s. He was the spirit behind the Ansbach Bach Festival. He turned his adopted city of Munich into a Bach center. And he recorded all the major choral and orchestral works of Bach, including more than 100 cantatas.
Richter was born on October 15, 1926 in Plauen, Thuringia, the Bach family's native region. After his years as a choirboy at Dresden's Kreuzkirche ("I sang in virtually all the cantatas and passions"), he
studied in Leipzig with the St. Thomas cantors Günther Ramin and Karl Straube and was appointed organist at the Thomaskirche in 1949. He moved to Munich in 1951 and founded his choral and orchestral ensembles shortly thereafter.
Karl Richter absorbed the Bach tradition from the source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his...
Richter was born on October 15, 1926 in Plauen, Thuringia, the Bach family's native region. After his years as a choirboy at Dresden's Kreuzkirche ("I sang in virtually all the cantatas and passions"), he
studied in Leipzig with the St. Thomas cantors Günther Ramin and Karl Straube and was appointed organist at the Thomaskirche in 1949. He moved to Munich in 1951 and founded his choral and orchestral ensembles shortly thereafter.
Karl Richter absorbed the Bach tradition from the source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his...
For Johann Sebastian Bach, February 15, 1981 was no doubt one of the darkest days of his afterlife: on this day he lost one of his greatest champions in the 20th century, Karl Richter. Over the course of his long career as conductor, organist and harpsichordist, Richter had become synonymous with Bach. He founded the Munich Bach Choir and the Munich Bach Orchestra. He helped trigger the Bach revival in the 1950s. He was the spirit behind the Ansbach Bach Festival. He turned his adopted city of Munich into a Bach center. And he recorded all the major choral and orchestral works of Bach, including more than 100 cantatas.
Richter was born on October 15, 1926 in Plauen, Thuringia, the Bach family's native region. After his years as a choirboy at Dresden's Kreuzkirche ("I sang in virtually all the cantatas and passions"), he
studied in Leipzig with the St. Thomas cantors Günther Ramin and Karl Straube and was appointed organist at the Thomaskirche in 1949. He moved to Munich in 1951 and founded his choral and orchestral ensembles shortly thereafter.
Karl Richter absorbed the Bach tradition from the source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his...
Richter was born on October 15, 1926 in Plauen, Thuringia, the Bach family's native region. After his years as a choirboy at Dresden's Kreuzkirche ("I sang in virtually all the cantatas and passions"), he
studied in Leipzig with the St. Thomas cantors Günther Ramin and Karl Straube and was appointed organist at the Thomaskirche in 1949. He moved to Munich in 1951 and founded his choral and orchestral ensembles shortly thereafter.
Karl Richter absorbed the Bach tradition from the source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his...
For Johann Sebastian Bach, February 15, 1981 was no doubt one of the darkest days of his afterlife: on this day he lost one of his greatest champions in the 20th century, Karl Richter. Over the course of his long career as conductor, organist and harpsichordist, Richter had become synonymous with Bach. He founded the Munich Bach Choir and the Munich Bach Orchestra. He helped trigger the Bach revival in the 1950s. He was the spirit behind the Ansbach Bach Festival. He turned his adopted city of Munich into a Bach center. And he recorded all the major choral and orchestral works of Bach, including more than 100 cantatas.
Richter was born on October 15, 1926 in Plauen, Thuringia, the Bach family's native region. After his years as a choirboy at Dresden's Kreuzkirche ("I sang in virtually all the cantatas and passions"), he
studied in Leipzig with the St. Thomas cantors Günther Ramin and Karl Straube and was appointed organist at the Thomaskirche in 1949. He moved to Munich in 1951 and founded his choral and orchestral ensembles shortly thereafter.
Karl Richter absorbed the Bach tradition from the source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his...
Richter was born on October 15, 1926 in Plauen, Thuringia, the Bach family's native region. After his years as a choirboy at Dresden's Kreuzkirche ("I sang in virtually all the cantatas and passions"), he
studied in Leipzig with the St. Thomas cantors Günther Ramin and Karl Straube and was appointed organist at the Thomaskirche in 1949. He moved to Munich in 1951 and founded his choral and orchestral ensembles shortly thereafter.
Karl Richter absorbed the Bach tradition from the source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his...
For Johann Sebastian Bach, February 15, 1981 was no doubt one of the darkest days of his afterlife: on this day he lost one of his greatest champions in the 20th century, Karl Richter. Over the course of his long career as conductor, organist and harpsichordist, Richter had become synonymous with Bach. He founded the Munich Bach Choir and the Munich Bach Orchestra. He helped trigger the Bach revival in the 1950s. He was the spirit behind the Ansbach Bach Festival. He turned his adopted city of Munich into a Bach center. And he recorded all the major choral and orchestral works of Bach, including more than 100 cantatas.
Richter was born on October 15, 1926 in Plauen, Thuringia, the Bach family's native region. After his years as a choirboy at Dresden's Kreuzkirche ("I sang in virtually all the cantatas and passions"), he
studied in Leipzig with the St. Thomas cantors Günther Ramin and Karl Straube and was appointed organist at the Thomaskirche in 1949. He moved to Munich in 1951 and founded his choral and orchestral ensembles shortly thereafter.
Karl Richter absorbed the Bach tradition from the source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his...
Richter was born on October 15, 1926 in Plauen, Thuringia, the Bach family's native region. After his years as a choirboy at Dresden's Kreuzkirche ("I sang in virtually all the cantatas and passions"), he
studied in Leipzig with the St. Thomas cantors Günther Ramin and Karl Straube and was appointed organist at the Thomaskirche in 1949. He moved to Munich in 1951 and founded his choral and orchestral ensembles shortly thereafter.
Karl Richter absorbed the Bach tradition from the source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his...
Karl Richter, the world-renowned Bach specialist who died in 1981, recorded the St. Matthew Passion at the splendid Benedictine abbey of Ottobeuren with two choruses, his Munich Bach Orchestra and the outstanding soloists Peter Schreier (Evangelist), Ernst Gerold Schramm (Jesus), Siegmund Nismgern (Judas) as well as Helen Donath, Julia Hamari, Walter Berry and Horst Laubenthal. Director Hugo Käch took the cross as his main motif for his stage setting by using a gigantic cross above the performers to suggest menace and oppression as well as protection. Richter's style blends the solid craftsmanship of a Leipzig "cantor" and a profound need for the freedom of improvisation. "I cannot gauge the tempo from the metronome; I have to take to it from my pulse, since the pulse is linked to the center of man, the heart." (Karl Richter)
Over the course of his long career as conductor, organist and harpsichordist, Karl Richter (1926-1981) became synonymous with Bach. He founded the Munich Bach Choir and the Munich Bach Orchestra, and helped trigger the Bach revival in the 1950s. He recorded all the major choral and orchestral works of Bach, including more than 100 cantatas. Although Richter saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his own style, which was considered revolutionary in the 1950s and 60s. This was a "de-romanticized" Bach which featured a reduced body of performers more in keeping with the composer's original forces. Richter's style also accented a cool, brisk, almost abstract attitude toward the music. Our recording with the Munich Bach Choir and Orchestra features such world-renowned soloists as Helen Donath, Julia Hamari, Peter Schreier and Horst Laubenthal.
For Johann Sebastian Bach, February 15, 1981 was no doubt one of the darkest days of his afterlife: on this day he lost one of his greatest champions in the 20th century, Karl Richter. Over the course of his long career as conductor, organist and harpsichordist, Richter had become synonymous with Bach. He founded the Munich Bach Choir and the Munich Bach Orchestra. He helped trigger the Bach revival in the 1950s. He was the spirit behind the Ansbach Bach Festival. He turned his adopted city of Munich into a Bach center. And he recorded all the major choral and orchestral works of Bach, including more than 100 cantatas.
Richter was born on October 15, 1926 in Plauen, Thuringia, the Bach family's native region. After his years as a choirboy at Dresden's Kreuzkirche ("I sang in virtually all the cantatas and passions"), he
studied in Leipzig with the St. Thomas cantors Günther Ramin and Karl Straube and was appointed organist at the Thomaskirche in 1949. He moved to Munich in 1951 and founded his choral and orchestral ensembles shortly thereafter.
Karl Richter absorbed the Bach tradition from the source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his own...
Richter was born on October 15, 1926 in Plauen, Thuringia, the Bach family's native region. After his years as a choirboy at Dresden's Kreuzkirche ("I sang in virtually all the cantatas and passions"), he
studied in Leipzig with the St. Thomas cantors Günther Ramin and Karl Straube and was appointed organist at the Thomaskirche in 1949. He moved to Munich in 1951 and founded his choral and orchestral ensembles shortly thereafter.
Karl Richter absorbed the Bach tradition from the source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his own...
For Johann Sebastian Bach, February 15, 1981 was no doubt one of the darkest days of his afterlife: on this day he lost one of his greatest champions in the 20th century, Karl Richter. Over the course of his long career as conductor, organist and harpsichordist, Richter had become synonymous with Bach. He founded the Munich Bach Choir and the Munich Bach Orchestra. He helped trigger the Bach revival in the 1950s. He was the spirit behind the Ansbach Bach Festival. He turned his adopted city of Munich into a Bach center. And he recorded all the major choral and orchestral works of Bach, including more than 100 cantatas.
Richter was born on October 15, 1926 in Plauen, Thuringia, the Bach family's native region. After his years as a choirboy at Dresden's Kreuzkirche ("I sang in virtually all the cantatas and passions"), he
studied in Leipzig with the St. Thomas cantors Günther Ramin and Karl Straube and was appointed organist at the Thomaskirche in 1949. He moved to Munich in 1951 and founded his choral and orchestral ensembles shortly thereafter.
Karl Richter absorbed the Bach tradition from the source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his...
Richter was born on October 15, 1926 in Plauen, Thuringia, the Bach family's native region. After his years as a choirboy at Dresden's Kreuzkirche ("I sang in virtually all the cantatas and passions"), he
studied in Leipzig with the St. Thomas cantors Günther Ramin and Karl Straube and was appointed organist at the Thomaskirche in 1949. He moved to Munich in 1951 and founded his choral and orchestral ensembles shortly thereafter.
Karl Richter absorbed the Bach tradition from the source, in the cities where the composer had lived and worked. Although he saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his...
In only a few years, trumpeter Alison Balsom has shot forward to the topmost ranks of today's instrumental soloists, reaching untold popularity for her playing - and for the trumpet. Since her appearance in a live international broadcast of the Last Night of the Proms, she has become one of the best known UK artists of today, with sales of her CDs topping the charts. She won two Classical BRIT Awards, one in 2006 as best young British classical performer, and another in 2009 as female artist of the year - one of the rare brass players to win such acclaim. She was also the first female UK artist to win an ECHO Klassik Award as best young artist (2007). For her CD with trumpet concertos by Haydn and Hummel, she took home another ECHO Klassik award in 2009.
At the center of the documentary are two performances. One is a public performance of Haydn's celebrated Trumpet Concerto in E flat major with the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra under the Chinese conductor Xian Zhang, recorded in the classicistic hall of the Konzerthaus Berlin. The other is a "private" recording of Bach's Concerto in D major, BWV 792 with organist David Goode, Gigue, BWV 1008 and Debussy's Syrinx. The recording in the Sophienkirche was made with a RED One camera, a special HD camera that impressively...
At the center of the documentary are two performances. One is a public performance of Haydn's celebrated Trumpet Concerto in E flat major with the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra under the Chinese conductor Xian Zhang, recorded in the classicistic hall of the Konzerthaus Berlin. The other is a "private" recording of Bach's Concerto in D major, BWV 792 with organist David Goode, Gigue, BWV 1008 and Debussy's Syrinx. The recording in the Sophienkirche was made with a RED One camera, a special HD camera that impressively...
Nowhere in the world is the myth of Wagner as alive as in Bayreuth, and nowhere are performances of his works followed as closely as those at the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth. But after a decade-long reign as the uncontested ruler of the Wagner Festival, the composer's grandson Wolfgang Wagner has stepped down from his post. A new era is about to begin...
This documentary thematizes the past, present and future of the festival and provides rare insights behind the scenes of the Wagner "workshop." For the first time ever, the film team was able to record in the legendary Bayreuth orchestra pit, giving rise to stunningly candid shots of conductor Christian Thielemann rehearsing Götterdämmerung. A conversation with Wolfgang Wagner recorded especially for this production is presumably the patriarch's last appearance on film as head of the festival. The program also features rehearsals of the new 2008 production of Parsifal with director Stefan Herheim and conductor Daniele Gatti. Members of the Wagner family and leading Wagner interpreters of our time also comment on the unique Wagner aura. The authors have assembled an amazing collection of historical film material and photos on the history of the festival. There are also excerpts from great productions recorded by Unitel...
This documentary thematizes the past, present and future of the festival and provides rare insights behind the scenes of the Wagner "workshop." For the first time ever, the film team was able to record in the legendary Bayreuth orchestra pit, giving rise to stunningly candid shots of conductor Christian Thielemann rehearsing Götterdämmerung. A conversation with Wolfgang Wagner recorded especially for this production is presumably the patriarch's last appearance on film as head of the festival. The program also features rehearsals of the new 2008 production of Parsifal with director Stefan Herheim and conductor Daniele Gatti. Members of the Wagner family and leading Wagner interpreters of our time also comment on the unique Wagner aura. The authors have assembled an amazing collection of historical film material and photos on the history of the festival. There are also excerpts from great productions recorded by Unitel...
The Creatures of Prometheus , a ballet produced in Vienna in 1801, was not well received at its first performance. Today, aside from the overture, the ballet music is rarely heard. This work was composed during a time of intense personal crisis for Beethoven. In 1801 he wrote a friend, "I am leading a miserable life; for almost two years now I have been avoiding all social functions simply because I feel incapable of telling people that I am deaf." The ballet is based on the myth of the god Prometheus, who stole the fire from the heavens and gave it to mankind, along with the knowledge of arts and sciences. In writing the Prometheus score, Beethoven had to adhere to the conventions of ballet music, which required a chain of relatively short pieces.
This recording is part of Leonard Bernstein’s Beethoven cycle, recorded primarily with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in the early 1980s. Writing in The New York Times, critic John J. O'Connor stated: "As Mr. Bernstein says, there is 'no single body of work in the universe of orchestral music that is in any way comparable to this one.' Conducted with intense dedication and soaring spirits by Mr. Bernstein, these recordings are superb, both visually and aurally."
This recording is part of Leonard Bernstein’s Beethoven cycle, recorded primarily with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in the early 1980s. Writing in The New York Times, critic John J. O'Connor stated: "As Mr. Bernstein says, there is 'no single body of work in the universe of orchestral music that is in any way comparable to this one.' Conducted with intense dedication and soaring spirits by Mr. Bernstein, these recordings are superb, both visually and aurally."
In the spring of 1810, the Vienna Burgtheater commissioned Beethoven to compose incidental music for a stage production of Goethe's tragedy Egmont. Although Beethoven was a great admirer of Goethe and was profoundly flattered by this commission, he did not complete the music by the time the play was given its premiere on 24 May 1810. Only at the third performance of the play on 15 June was Beethoven's music heard for the first time. Like the Leonore overtures, the Egmont also foreshadows the events to come. In Egmont, they are encapsulated in the main theme of defiance of tyranny, which gives the music its explosive power.
Bernstein's impassioned renderings of Beethoven move audiences in a unique way. "Beethoven has always meant universality to me, ever since my early adolescence, when I first heard that unforgettable cry of 'Brüder!' From that moment on, every...symphony came to mean heart-to-heart communication, travelling satellite-fashion via the cosmos itself. I offer [this cycle] to all music-loving ears as a testament of faith and of my most profound reactions to this greatest of all composers" (Leonard Bernstein, 1980).
Bernstein's impassioned renderings of Beethoven move audiences in a unique way. "Beethoven has always meant universality to me, ever since my early adolescence, when I first heard that unforgettable cry of 'Brüder!' From that moment on, every...symphony came to mean heart-to-heart communication, travelling satellite-fashion via the cosmos itself. I offer [this cycle] to all music-loving ears as a testament of faith and of my most profound reactions to this greatest of all composers" (Leonard Bernstein, 1980).
For a stage production of Goethe's Egmont planned for spring 1810, the Vienna Burgtheater commissioned Beethoven to compose incidental music to Goethe's tragedy. Although Beethoven was a great admirer of Goethe and was profoundly flattered by this commission, he did not complete the music by the time the play was given its premiere on 24 May 1810. Only at the third performance of the play on 15 June was Beethoven's music heard for the first time. Like the Leonore overtures, the Egmont also foreshadows the events to come. In Egmont , they are encapsulated in the main theme of defiance of tyranny, which gives the music its explosive power.
Music for the masses! This could have been the war cry of both Beethoven and Karajan. For this they had in common: the wish to reach out to millions and ensure the survival of their art. Beethoven, at the dawn of the romantic era, no longer wrote exclusively for titled patrons, but for the middle classes. To reach them, he needed new means of popularizing and distributing his works, such as concerts for paying audiences and the publication of arrangements for everything from piano to brass band. In the mid 20th century, Herbert von Karajan also saw a new way of reaching out to greater numbers of people through the combination of...
Music for the masses! This could have been the war cry of both Beethoven and Karajan. For this they had in common: the wish to reach out to millions and ensure the survival of their art. Beethoven, at the dawn of the romantic era, no longer wrote exclusively for titled patrons, but for the middle classes. To reach them, he needed new means of popularizing and distributing his works, such as concerts for paying audiences and the publication of arrangements for everything from piano to brass band. In the mid 20th century, Herbert von Karajan also saw a new way of reaching out to greater numbers of people through the combination of...
Thunderous applause and loud cries of "bravo" greeted the premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven's Fidelio at the inaugural performance of the first opera season in Valencia's new Palau de les Arts on 25 October 2006. Attending the stellar performance in architect Santiago Calatrava's breathtaking theater complex was Queen Sofía of Spain, who added to the glamour of the event. With this spectacular production directed by Pierluigi Pier'Alli, Valencia has put itself back on the map of the international opera world.
Calatrava's sweeping structure recalls the organic forms of Catalonia's "Modernisme" style. Hints of Gaudì and traces of Gothic arches and nave-like spaces project a feeling of openness and freedom. Not surprisingly, Fidelio was chosen to inaugurate the theater's main concert hall - an opera about freedom set in Spain, and in which the contrast between the darkness of Florestan's dungeon and the light of justice and love embodied by Leonore is both heard in the music and seen on the stage.
The production by noted Italian director Pierluigi Pier'Alli does full justice to the opera's concept with an imaginative treatment of light, projections and digital wizardry. Pier'Alli himself says that his concept "becomes increasingly symbolic and abstract" as the work...
Calatrava's sweeping structure recalls the organic forms of Catalonia's "Modernisme" style. Hints of Gaudì and traces of Gothic arches and nave-like spaces project a feeling of openness and freedom. Not surprisingly, Fidelio was chosen to inaugurate the theater's main concert hall - an opera about freedom set in Spain, and in which the contrast between the darkness of Florestan's dungeon and the light of justice and love embodied by Leonore is both heard in the music and seen on the stage.
The production by noted Italian director Pierluigi Pier'Alli does full justice to the opera's concept with an imaginative treatment of light, projections and digital wizardry. Pier'Alli himself says that his concept "becomes increasingly symbolic and abstract" as the work...
Rafael Kubelik (1914-1996) was the son of the well-known Bohemian violinist Jan Kubelik. He studied music in Prague and made his conducting debut at 20 at the head of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Later he became the principal conductor of this famous orchestra and founded the "Prague Spring" Festival. After the Communist takeover of the government, Kubelik emigrated to the West and returned to his native land only after the end of the Communist regime. From 1950 to 1953 he headed the Chicago Symphony, from 1955 to 1958 he was music director of the Covent Garden Opera in London. A period of great artistic successes began in 1961, when he was appointed principal conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Many recordings document Kubelik's mastery and sense of artistry, his enjoyment of music and his temperament. His connection with the Munich orchestra lasted 18 years; in between, he also briefly served as music director of New York's Metropolitan Opera. Kubelik retired from the concert staged in 1985. But on the occasion of the first Prague Spring Festival after the fall of Communism in 1990, he returned to the podium of the Czech Philharmonic after more than 40 years in exile and conducted Smetana's My Fatherland cycle. His profound bonds with his native land...
The Missa solemnis , scored for four solo voices, chorus, orchestra and organ, is one of the world's greatest choral works. It blends an age-old religious service with a musical outpouring of human emotions in an intensely personal manner. As with other musical forms, Beethoven altered, expanded and shaped the mass until it corresponded to his creative needs. Beethoven conceived the mass for a religious occasion, the installation of Archduke Rudolf as Archbishop of Olmütz in 1820. However, he did not complete it in time and the work was given its premiere in St. Petersburg on 7 April 1824. In his score, Beethoven wrote the words "From the heart... may it find its way to the heart" (vom Herzen - möge es wieder zu Herzen gehen!). Indeed, the work's dramatic, almost volcanic fervor never fails to go to the heart of all listeners.
This work is part of the complete cycle of Beethoven symphonic and choral works featuring the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam conducted by Leonard Bernstein. In this recording with the Dutch orchestra, Bernstein also conducts the soloists Edda Moser, Hanna Schwarz, René Kollo and Kurt Moll, along with the Chorus of Radio Hilversum.
This work is part of the complete cycle of Beethoven symphonic and choral works featuring the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam conducted by Leonard Bernstein. In this recording with the Dutch orchestra, Bernstein also conducts the soloists Edda Moser, Hanna Schwarz, René Kollo and Kurt Moll, along with the Chorus of Radio Hilversum.
The key of C minor was Beethoven's "Storm and Stress" key, that of some of his most dramatic and heroic works, such as the Fifth Symphony and the Pathetique Sonata . Composed around 1800, the Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 displays an emotional intensity that marks it as one of the first of Beethoven's mature and individual major works. As if to show that the keyboard was too narrow for his ideas, Beethoven rewrote some of the piano part in 1804 to incorporate the extra notes that had been added to the keyboard in the first years of the century. The simple but assertive opening theme of the first movement is treated with bold imaginativeness. The Largo sets the stage for a true dialogue between the piano and the orchestra, which culminates in the almost aggressive earnestness of the Rondo .
Maurizio Pollini is one of the most distinguished pianists of our time, who has performed with the world's leading orchestras. A committed advocate of contemporary music, Pollini frequently performs works by Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Nono, Boulez and Stockhausen. However, he has also given complete cycles of the Beethoven sonatas in Berlin, Milan, New York, Munich and other cities. On the occasion of a performance of the Beethoven concertos at New York's Carnegie Hall,...
Maurizio Pollini is one of the most distinguished pianists of our time, who has performed with the world's leading orchestras. A committed advocate of contemporary music, Pollini frequently performs works by Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Nono, Boulez and Stockhausen. However, he has also given complete cycles of the Beethoven sonatas in Berlin, Milan, New York, Munich and other cities. On the occasion of a performance of the Beethoven concertos at New York's Carnegie Hall,...
When, in the mid 1960s, Herbert von Karajan decided to record on film all nine Beethoven symphonies with the Berlin Philharmonic, he began with the Fifth and asked the famous French movie director Henri-Georges Clouzot (Quai des Orfevres) to direct. Recognizing in the music-loving director a kindred soul and master of the symbolic image, Karajan found an inspired partner. In another of Karajan's first efforts, he asked six directors to "stage" one movement each of a Beethoven symphony. For a full week, the directors had the Berlin Philharmonic and Herbert von Karajan – all in full dress – at their disposal, with all the 35mm film, cameras, lighting and technical assistance they needed. Karajan's most controversial production was Hugo Niebeling's highly personal interpretation of the Pastorale , with its abstract shots of instruments, rapid rhythms, fade-ins and symbolically arranged colors. Some critics raved: "This music film could have been made by Antonioni, Fellini or Godard." Karajan pursued his plan with tenacity, and the result is a milestone in the history of music on film: all nine Beethoven symphonies recorded at the peak of Karajan's powers, unified by the performers but varied through the artistic vision of different directors.
When, in the mid 1960s, Herbert von Karajan decided to record on film all nine Beethoven symphonies with the Berlin Philharmonic, he began with the Fifth and asked the famous French movie director Henri-Georges Clouzot to direct. Recognizing in the music-loving director a kindred soul and master of the symbolic image, Karajan found an inspired partner. In another of Karajan's first efforts, he asked six directors to "stage" one movement each of a Beethoven symphony. For a full week, the directors had the Berlin Philharmonic and Herbert von Karajan - all in full dress - at their disposal, with all the 35mm film, cameras, lighting and technical assistance they needed. Karajan's most controversial production was Hugo Niebeling's highly personal interpretation of the Pastorale , with its abstract shots of instruments, rapid rhythms, fade-ins and symbolically arranged colors. Some critics raved: "This music film could have been made by Antonioni, Fellini or Godard." Karajan pursued his plan with tenacity, and the result is a milestone in the history of music on film: all nine Beethoven symphonies recorded at the peak of Karajan's powers, unified by the performers but varied through the artistic vision of different directors.
The concert given by the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela under its conductor Gustavo Dudamel at the Beethovenfest 2007 in Bonn was a highlight of the musical year. Over 200 young musicians between the ages of 10 and 24, many from underprivileged backgrounds, performed with nearly untamable energy under the baton of a young maestro destined to conduct the most fabled orchestras in the world.
Born in 1981, Gustavo Dudamel is a product of Venezuela's Sistema de Orquestas, which was founded by J. A. Abreu to allow children of all social milieus to learn an instrument and play in an ensemble. After winning a competition in 2004, Dudamel quickly went on to conduct several major orchestras. Critics try to capture Dudamel's effect on musicians and audiences with words such as "electricity," "vibrancy" and "magic," and Sir Simon Rattle has called him "the most astonishingly gifted conductor I have ever come across."
The concert program includes Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony and pieces by Latin-American composers Moncayo, Márquez and Ginastera. At the end of the concert, when the youngsters rip loose in the encores and turn the Beethovenfest into a Latin fiesta, no one will be able to resist tapping the rhythms with their foot and joining in the unbridled and infectious...
Born in 1981, Gustavo Dudamel is a product of Venezuela's Sistema de Orquestas, which was founded by J. A. Abreu to allow children of all social milieus to learn an instrument and play in an ensemble. After winning a competition in 2004, Dudamel quickly went on to conduct several major orchestras. Critics try to capture Dudamel's effect on musicians and audiences with words such as "electricity," "vibrancy" and "magic," and Sir Simon Rattle has called him "the most astonishingly gifted conductor I have ever come across."
The concert program includes Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony and pieces by Latin-American composers Moncayo, Márquez and Ginastera. At the end of the concert, when the youngsters rip loose in the encores and turn the Beethovenfest into a Latin fiesta, no one will be able to resist tapping the rhythms with their foot and joining in the unbridled and infectious...
The Fourth Symphony was first performed in Vienna in 1807 at the home of one of Beethoven's patrons, Prince Franz Joseph Lobkowitz. Compared with the Third Symphony , the Fourth is more modest and traditional; its style and structure are closer to the Second . The Fourth Symphony is not a monumental work; on the contrary, the orchestra is the smallest for any Beethoven symphony. The gentle harmony and placidity of this symphony prompted the French composer Hector Berlioz to comment about the second movement: "...the being who wrote such a marvel of inspiration... was not human."
This recording is part of Bernstein's complete cycle of Beethoven symphonies recorded with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra live in Vienna. The series won the Ace Award, the U.S. Cable TV Association's top award for outstanding quality and entertainment value. Bernstein's impassioned renderings of Beethoven move audiences in a unique way. "Beethoven has always meant universality to me, ever since my early adolescence, when I first heard that unforgettable cry of 'Brüder!'. From that moment on, every... symphony came to mean heart-to-heart communication, travelling satellite-fashion via the cosmos itself. I offer [this cycle] to all music-loving ears as a testament of faith and of my most...
This recording is part of Bernstein's complete cycle of Beethoven symphonies recorded with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra live in Vienna. The series won the Ace Award, the U.S. Cable TV Association's top award for outstanding quality and entertainment value. Bernstein's impassioned renderings of Beethoven move audiences in a unique way. "Beethoven has always meant universality to me, ever since my early adolescence, when I first heard that unforgettable cry of 'Brüder!'. From that moment on, every... symphony came to mean heart-to-heart communication, travelling satellite-fashion via the cosmos itself. I offer [this cycle] to all music-loving ears as a testament of faith and of my most...
When, in the mid 1960s, Herbert von Karajan decided to record on film all nine Beethoven symphonies with the Berlin Philharmonic, he began with the Fifth and asked the famous French movie director Henri-Georges Clouzot to direct. Recognizing in the music-loving director a kindred soul and master of the symbolic image, Karajan found an inspired partner. In another of Karajan's first efforts, he asked six directors to "stage" one movement each of a Beethoven symphony. For a full week, the directors had the Berlin Philharmonic and Herbert von Karajan - all in full dress - at their disposal, with all the 35mm film, cameras, lighting and technical assistance they needed. Karajan's most controversial production was Hugo Niebeling's highly personal interpretation of the Pastorale , with its abstract shots of instruments, rapid rhythms, fade-ins and symbolically arranged colors. Some critics raved: "This music film could have been made by Antonioni, Fellini or Godard." Karajan pursued his plan with tenacity, and the result is a milestone in the history of music on film: all nine Beethoven symphonies recorded at the peak of Karajan's powers, unified by the performers but varied through the artistic vision of different directors.
Nature was often Beethoven's companion during his long solitary walks in the countryside near Vienna. His communion with nature brought forth the Pastoral Symphony , composed between in 1807/1808. Its first performance took place in Vienna on 22 December 1808. Each of the Pastoral 's five movements (it is Beethoven's only five-movement symphony) bears a descriptive title, suggesting a scene from country life. In the second movement, woodwinds imitate bird calls: flute (nightingale), oboe (quail)and clarinet (cuckoo). Beethoven's joy is expressed throughout the work: "How glad I am to be able to roam in woods and thickets, among the trees,flowers and rocks", he said. "No one can love the country as I do... my bad hearing does not trouble me here."
This recording is part of Bernstein's complete cycle of Beethoven symphonies recorded with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra live in Vienna. The series won the Ace Award, the U.S. Cable TV Association's top award for outstanding quality and entertainment value. Bernstein's impassioned renderings of Beethoven move audiences in a unique way. "Beethoven has always meant universality to me, ever since my early adolescence, when I first heard that unforgettable cry of 'Brüder!'. From that moment on, every... symphony came to mean...
This recording is part of Bernstein's complete cycle of Beethoven symphonies recorded with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra live in Vienna. The series won the Ace Award, the U.S. Cable TV Association's top award for outstanding quality and entertainment value. Bernstein's impassioned renderings of Beethoven move audiences in a unique way. "Beethoven has always meant universality to me, ever since my early adolescence, when I first heard that unforgettable cry of 'Brüder!'. From that moment on, every... symphony came to mean...
Carlos Kleiber's all too rare concert appearances are always musical occasions to cherish and remember. The vitality and precision of his authoritative gestures never fail to generate excitement and inspire playing of great elan from orchestras throughout the world. When Carlos Kleiber conducts the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam in Beethoven, one can expect a performance of intense musical concentration and exceptional expressive power. Carlos Kleiber made this recording with the Dutch orchestra in 1983, conducting Beethoven's Fourth and Seventh Symphonies . The mesmeric command of this elusive conductor over his musicians is fascinating. With none of the excessive glamor of the star performer, Carlos Kleiber, with meticulous care for detail, creates clear instrumental textures, compelling rhythmic designs and magical moments of fine repose. This is spell-binding music-making. This is vintage Carlos Kleiber.
When, in the mid 1960s, Herbert von Karajan decided to record on film all nine Beethoven symphonies with the Berlin Philharmonic, he began with the Fifth and asked the famous French movie director Henri-Georges Clouzot to direct. Recognizing in the music-loving director a kindred soul and master of the symbolic image, Karajan found an inspired partner. In another of Karajan's first efforts, he asked six directors to "stage" one movement each of a Beethoven symphony. For a full week, the directors had the Berlin Philharmonic and Herbert von Karajan – all in full dress – at their disposal, with all the 35mm film, cameras, lighting and technical assistance they needed. Karajan's most controversial production was Hugo Niebeling's highly personal interpretation of the Pastorale , with its abstract shots of instruments, rapid rhythms, fade-ins and symbolically arranged colors. Some critics raved: "This music film could have been made by Antonioni, Fellini or Godard." Karajan pursued his plan with tenacity, and the result is a milestone in the history of music on film: all nine Beethoven symphonies recorded at the peak of Karajan's powers, unified by the performers but varied through the artistic vision of different directors.
When, in the mid 1960s, Herbert von Karajan decided to record on film all nine Beethoven symphonies with the Berlin Philharmonic, he began with the Fifth and asked the famous French movie director Henri-Georges Clouzot (Quai des Orfèvres) to direct. Recognizing in the music-loving director a kindred soul and master of the symbolic image, Karajan found an inspired partner. In another of Karajan's first efforts, he asked six directors to "stage" one movement each of a Beethoven symphony. For a full week, the directors had the Berlin Philharmonic and Herbert von Karajan – all in full dress – at their disposal, with all the 35mm film, cameras, lighting and technical assistance they needed. Karajan's most controversial production was Hugo Niebeling's highly personal interpretation of the Pastorale , with its abstract shots of instruments, rapid rhythms, fade-ins and symbolically arranged colors. Some critics raved: "This music film could have been made by Antonioni, Fellini or Godard." Karajan pursued his plan with tenacity, and the result is a milestone in the history of music on film: all nine Beethoven symphonies recorded at the peak of Karajan's powers, unified by the performers but varied through the artistic vision of different directors.
The reigning queen of bel canto, Edita Gruberova has laid the cornerstone for a new Norma legend in her first stage performance of this virtuoso role. The premiere of Vincenzo Bellini's opera at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich marked a resounding new triumph in the singer's career. Sharing the stage with Gruberova were Zoran Todorovich, Roberto Scandiuzzi, Sonia Ganassi and other renowned soloists, along with the chorus of the Bavarian State Opera. Friedrich Haider conducted the production directed by Jurgen Rose. Emmy Award winner Brian Large directed the HDTV recording made in late January and early February 2006.
Edita Gruberova fulfilled all expectations, and in view of her great predecessors Callas, Caballe and Sutherland, these expectations were clearly very high. The expressive intensity of the one, the velvet timbre of the second, the brilliance of the third – Gruberova united all the strengths of the prima donnas of the past in her interpretation of a Norma that has already become a new high point in the history of this role. Gruberova captures her audiences not only through her stupendous technique, but also through her command of an incredibly large palette of subtle nuances. With her voice alone, she infuses her role with a rich spectrum of feelings...
Edita Gruberova fulfilled all expectations, and in view of her great predecessors Callas, Caballe and Sutherland, these expectations were clearly very high. The expressive intensity of the one, the velvet timbre of the second, the brilliance of the third – Gruberova united all the strengths of the prima donnas of the past in her interpretation of a Norma that has already become a new high point in the history of this role. Gruberova captures her audiences not only through her stupendous technique, but also through her command of an incredibly large palette of subtle nuances. With her voice alone, she infuses her role with a rich spectrum of feelings...
"A mix of futurism a la Metropolis, fantasy a la Batman and quotes from Piranesi's Carceri, juxtaposed in the form of photo montages, enhanced with... robots, a helicopter, a shark and the winged vehicle of a pop star Pope," effuses critic Marianne Zelger-Vogt (Neue Zurcher Zeitung). The object of her rapture is not a Broadway musical but a French opera written in the 1830s, Hector Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini . The absence of the work in the operatic repertoire is certainly due in part to its musical excesses: the work is so complex, richly detailed and prolifically imaginative that Berlioz's contemporaries considered it unplayable and unsingable.
This is resoundingly proven false in the 2007 Salzburg Festival production of director Philipp Stolzl, conductor Valery Gergiev (The wild man of music) and a high-caliber cast accompanied by the Vienna Philharmonic and its chorus. Stolzl, above all, has poured his experience as director of music videos, commercials and films into this project, termed "science fiction for Grand Opera" (Suddeutsche Zeitung), "breathtaking" (Der Standard), and "spectacularly successful" (F.A.Z.)
Berlioz hips the action forward by disguising his hero, the celebrated goldsmith and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571), as a monk and having him...
This is resoundingly proven false in the 2007 Salzburg Festival production of director Philipp Stolzl, conductor Valery Gergiev (The wild man of music) and a high-caliber cast accompanied by the Vienna Philharmonic and its chorus. Stolzl, above all, has poured his experience as director of music videos, commercials and films into this project, termed "science fiction for Grand Opera" (Suddeutsche Zeitung), "breathtaking" (Der Standard), and "spectacularly successful" (F.A.Z.)
Berlioz hips the action forward by disguising his hero, the celebrated goldsmith and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571), as a monk and having him...
If Herbert von Karajan continues to be a looming presence in today's classical music world, then it is not only because of his more than 800 records and CDs, but also because of the many hours of video recordings which he produced over the course of many years. He began preserving his performances on film back in 1965 with La Boheme . His Carmen is based on his 1966 production for the Salzburg Festival with Grace Bumbry – one of the greatest interpreters of the title role in our time -, Jon Vickers, Mirella Freni and Justino Diaz in the lead roles. Perhaps the most popular opera in the world today, Carmen began its life as a failure when it was premiered in Paris in 1875. Tchaikovsky, however, who was in Paris at the time, prophesied that the opera would be a global success in only ten years. It took a little longer, but his prophecy did come true... and with works such as the Habanera , the Toreador Song , the Seguidilla and the Flower Song , how could the prophecy not come true?
Between 1981 and 1984, Leonard Bernstein recorded nearly all of Brahms's orchestral works with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra to honor the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth in 1833. Today, the cycle is considered as a landmark in the interpretation of Brahms's music. For Bernstein, Brahms was "a true Romantic, containing his passions in classical garb," but also a "North-German classicist swept away to Vienna, and fired by Danubian, Carpathian and gypsy passions." Bearing this dualism in mind, Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic have underscored both the classicism and romanticism, the dramatic intensity and the sober restraint of Brahms's music. The venue was Vienna's Musikvereinssaal, where two of Brahms's symphonies were premiered and where Brahms himself conducted. For the concertos, Bernstein enlisted the services of some of the finest Brahms interpreters of the time: the violinist Gidon Kremer, the cellist Misha Maisky and the pianist Krystian Zimerman.
Johannes Brahms composed his Requiem in 1865/66, shortly after the death of his mother. A profoundly moving work for soprano and baritone solo, chorus and orchestra, it is the composer's largest single composition. No work did more to win Brahms international recognition and, after the first complete performance of the Requiem in Leipzig in 1869, he was regarded as one of the leading composers of his time. It was not the first requiem in German, but the first in which a composer pieced together his text from Bible passages in Martin Luther's German translation. It is an intensely personal selection which speaks to the living and seeks to offer hope and comfort. Through his subtle, almost surreal, affinity to Brahms's unorthodox, elusive worldview, conductor Christian Thielemann has crafted a performance that places him among the best interpreters of this work, such as Maazel, Furtwängler, Karajan, Klemperer... An acknowledged specialist of romantic music, Thielemann "put forth a dignified account that offers considerable material for reflection. At the end, one understood all too well why the audience was requested to refrain from applauding at the end. For the seventh and last section is the solemn, meditative chorus "Selig sind die Toten" ... In Thielemann's hands, this...
Between 1981 and 1984, Leonard Bernstein recorded nearly all of Brahms's orchestral works with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra to honor the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth in 1833. Today, the cycle is considered as a landmark in the interpretation of Brahms's music. For Bernstein, Brahms was "a true Romantic, containing his passions in classical garb", but also a "North-German classicist swept away to Vienna, and fired by Danubian, Carpathian and gypsy passions". Bearing this dualism in mind, Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic have underscored both the classicism and romanticism, the dramatic intensity and the sober restraint of Brahms's music. The venue was Vienna's Musikvereinssaal, where two of Brahms's symphonies were premiered and where Brahms himself conducted. For the concertos, Bernstein enlisted the services of some of the finest Brahms interpreters of the time: the violinist Gidon Kremer, the cellist Mischa Maisky and the pianist Krystian Zimerman.
Rafael Kubelik was a full-blooded musician. Every performance of his radiated a feeling of spontaneity, impulsiveness and joy. Kubelik died in Lucerne in August 1996 at the age of 82 after a long illness. Bruckner’s Fourth had a tortuous history, beginning with a first version in 1874 and leading to a number of revisions, both major and minor, culminating in a heavily cut first publication of the score in 1889. This first edition, however, violated Bruckner’s express wishes that the score be printed in its entirety. After World War II, a new scholarly edition was published and is generally used for performances to this day. Rafael Kubelik leads the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in this recording.
Elemental, metaphysical, primordial – these are some of the terms used to describe Bruckner's nine symphonies and which fully apply to his Fourth Symphony, the "Romantic." Though Bruckner provided programmatic explanations to the music, one seeks in vain the "medieval city" and "leaping steeds" in this work, which disregards conventions and expectations. Monolithic blocks of sound derived from the simple horn melody of the opening measures, sweeping themes that hypnotically revolve around themselves, long build-ups that suddenly break off when a climax is imminent – the Fourth is a milestone in Bruckner's symphonic oeuvre. Bruckner originally wrote the Fourth Symphony in 1874 but revised it thoroughly in 1880 before its premiere in Vienna in 1881, which was a resounding success. Although he continued to revise it in later years, the version most often played today is the first revised version of 1880. This is also the version featured on this recording of a concert held at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, which was greeted with storms of applause. Leading the Munchner Philharmoniker in this concert is its principal conductor Christian Thielemann, a maestro internationally known and admired above all as a specialist of Romantic music. Having mastered the repertoire...
"Grandiose, unaffected, expansive, majestic, immovable..." – Christian Thielemann's description of Anton Bruckner's music vividly captures its essence and uniqueness. And he himself captures the soul of the great romantic composer in his interpretation of Bruckner's Seventh Symphony with the Munich Philharmonic. Recorded live at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden on 14 November 2006, the concert also features three orchestral preludes from the opera Palestrina by another late-romantic composer, Hans Pfitzner.
The preludes from Pfitzner's Palestrina , the composer's most well-known work, evoke the events about to transpire in the acts that follow them. While the subtle, refined nuances of the first prelude suggests the creative crisis of the opera's hero, the Renaissance composer Palestrina, the second reflects the turbulent atmosphere of the Council of Trent and the third the inner peace found at long last by Palestrina beneath the cupola of St. Peter's. Completed in September 1883, several months after the death of Richard Wagner, Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 in E major is a stunning homage to the composer of the Ring . A passionate admirer of Wagner, Bruckner claimed that he had the master's death in mind while writing the "Adagio" of this symphony. With its...
The preludes from Pfitzner's Palestrina , the composer's most well-known work, evoke the events about to transpire in the acts that follow them. While the subtle, refined nuances of the first prelude suggests the creative crisis of the opera's hero, the Renaissance composer Palestrina, the second reflects the turbulent atmosphere of the Council of Trent and the third the inner peace found at long last by Palestrina beneath the cupola of St. Peter's. Completed in September 1883, several months after the death of Richard Wagner, Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 in E major is a stunning homage to the composer of the Ring . A passionate admirer of Wagner, Bruckner claimed that he had the master's death in mind while writing the "Adagio" of this symphony. With its...
Ravel, Handel, Elgar, Stravinsky, a snippet of Puccini's Turandot, a bass-clarinet homage to George Gershwin, glissandi, hints of musicals, film music and Gilbert & Sullivan - Unsuk Chin is a master of stylistic parody, but also much more than that: she is clearly at home on every highway and byway of music history. Yet the musical house she constructs with the building blocks of the past and the present is definitely her own house, which she has designed and which self-assuredly proclaims her unmistakable individuality and style. It is a thoroughly modern house that welcomes everyone who loves music. "I did not want to write music that needs several pages of explanations to be understood," she says about her first opera, Alice in Wonderland.
Unsuk Chin, born in Seoul, Korea, in 1961, had always been fascinated by Lewis Carroll's fairy tale for children and adults. Director Achim Freyer, whose productions have been setting standards for decades, sees Chin's opera as a collection of "dream sequences," for which he has created imaginary spaces: with the help of pulleys, acrobats depict the magical characters of Alice's world and suggest the action through pantomime, and with the help of colorful masks and props. "Nightmare visions of the girl. Dream, reality, hyperreality...
Unsuk Chin, born in Seoul, Korea, in 1961, had always been fascinated by Lewis Carroll's fairy tale for children and adults. Director Achim Freyer, whose productions have been setting standards for decades, sees Chin's opera as a collection of "dream sequences," for which he has created imaginary spaces: with the help of pulleys, acrobats depict the magical characters of Alice's world and suggest the action through pantomime, and with the help of colorful masks and props. "Nightmare visions of the girl. Dream, reality, hyperreality...
Artur Rubinstein was one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century. Born in Lodz in 1887, he took piano lessons in his native city and at the Warsaw Conservatory. In Berlin he continued his training and debuted there in 1900 under the musical direction of Joseph Joachim. This was followed by appearances in America and many European countries. At the beginning of the First World War, he vowed never to play again in Germany. As a Pole and Jew, he renewed this vow and maintained it till the end of his life. After three decades of active concert activity, the bon-vivant Rubinstein took an artistic pause in 1932 and returned to public performance in 1937, at the age of 50. Rubinstein, the "blessed virtuoso" as Thomas Mann once called him, worked with the most famous musicians of his time, made recordings and was celebrated all over the world as the "pianist of the century."
Rubinstein's interpretations are considered to this day as exemplary and often unsurpassed. His multi-faceted repertoire, impeccable technique and irresistibly beautiful tone turned every performance into an event. Rubinstein played works from the German classic and romantic eras as well as Russian, Spanish and French piano works. He devoted himself particularly intensively to the works of his fellow...
Rubinstein's interpretations are considered to this day as exemplary and often unsurpassed. His multi-faceted repertoire, impeccable technique and irresistibly beautiful tone turned every performance into an event. Rubinstein played works from the German classic and romantic eras as well as Russian, Spanish and French piano works. He devoted himself particularly intensively to the works of his fellow...
Brass concerts at Christmas are famous in Germany. In Soest, a historic city which once belonged to the Hanseatic League, Christmas music has been ringing from the city's tower on Christmas Day since the Middle Ages.
This is a film of pageantry which shows the full diversity of the world of mountains, with their proud peaks, deep valleys and gorges, forbidding fir forests, and the park of Linderhof, one of the castles built by Ludwig II, the fairytale king of Bavaria. The distant beauty of the mountains is just one of the moods which the film evokes, moods which recall to mind those conveyed by the Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich, moods which quietly help us in our preparation for the joys of the festive days to come.
The path taken by the film leads us out of the barren isolation of remote upland valleys and the handful of remaining farms, down into the lush, colourful baroque ornamentation of Bavarian churches, and then finally to the Bavarian National Museum, where some of the most beautiful mangers in the world have been collected.
The Berlin Philhamonic Brass Ensemble journeys through the countryside, from mountain peaks to fortress courtyards whose only illumination is provided by torches. The modern troubadours play rousing, ceremonial music as the spirit...
This is a film of pageantry which shows the full diversity of the world of mountains, with their proud peaks, deep valleys and gorges, forbidding fir forests, and the park of Linderhof, one of the castles built by Ludwig II, the fairytale king of Bavaria. The distant beauty of the mountains is just one of the moods which the film evokes, moods which recall to mind those conveyed by the Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich, moods which quietly help us in our preparation for the joys of the festive days to come.
The path taken by the film leads us out of the barren isolation of remote upland valleys and the handful of remaining farms, down into the lush, colourful baroque ornamentation of Bavarian churches, and then finally to the Bavarian National Museum, where some of the most beautiful mangers in the world have been collected.
The Berlin Philhamonic Brass Ensemble journeys through the countryside, from mountain peaks to fortress courtyards whose only illumination is provided by torches. The modern troubadours play rousing, ceremonial music as the spirit...
Brass concerts at Christmas are famous in Germany. In Soest, a historic city which once belonged to the Hanseatic League, Christmas music has been ringing from the city's tower on Christmas Day since the Middle Ages.
This is a film of pageantry which shows the full diversity of the world of mountains, with their proud peaks, deep valleys and gorges, forbidding fir forests, and the park of Linderhof, one of the castles built by Ludwig II, the fairytale king of Bavaria. The distant beauty of the mountains is just one of the moods which the film evokes, moods which recall to mind those conveyed by the Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich, moods which quietly help us in our preparation for the joys of the festive days to come.
The path taken by the film leads us out of the barren isolation of remote upland valleys and the handful of remaining farms, down into the lush, colourful baroque ornamentation of Bavarian churches, and then finally to the Bavarian National Museum, where some of the most beautiful mangers in the world have been collected.
The Berlin Philhamonic Brass Ensemble journeys through the countryside, from mountain peaks to fortress courtyards whose only illumination is provided by torches. The modern troubadours play rousing, ceremonial music as the spirit...
This is a film of pageantry which shows the full diversity of the world of mountains, with their proud peaks, deep valleys and gorges, forbidding fir forests, and the park of Linderhof, one of the castles built by Ludwig II, the fairytale king of Bavaria. The distant beauty of the mountains is just one of the moods which the film evokes, moods which recall to mind those conveyed by the Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich, moods which quietly help us in our preparation for the joys of the festive days to come.
The path taken by the film leads us out of the barren isolation of remote upland valleys and the handful of remaining farms, down into the lush, colourful baroque ornamentation of Bavarian churches, and then finally to the Bavarian National Museum, where some of the most beautiful mangers in the world have been collected.
The Berlin Philhamonic Brass Ensemble journeys through the countryside, from mountain peaks to fortress courtyards whose only illumination is provided by torches. The modern troubadours play rousing, ceremonial music as the spirit...
Brass concerts at Christmas are famous in Germany. In Soest, a historic city which once belonged to the Hanseatic League, Christmas music has been ringing from the city's tower on Christmas Day since the Middle Ages.
This is a film of pageantry which shows the full diversity of the world of mountains, with their proud peaks, deep valleys and gorges, forbidding fir forests, and the park of Linderhof, one of the castles built by Ludwig II, the fairytale king of Bavaria. The distant beauty of the mountains is just one of the moods which the film evokes, moods which recall to mind those conveyed by the Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich, moods which quietly help us in our preparation for the joys of the festive days to come.
The path taken by the film leads us out of the barren isolation of remote upland valleys and the handful of remaining farms, down into the lush, colourful baroque ornamentation of Bavarian churches, and then finally to the Bavarian National Museum, where some of the most beautiful mangers in the world have been collected.
The Berlin Philhamonic Brass Ensemble journeys through the countryside, from mountain peaks to fortress courtyards whose only illumination is provided by torches. The modern troubadours play rousing, ceremonial music as the spirit...
This is a film of pageantry which shows the full diversity of the world of mountains, with their proud peaks, deep valleys and gorges, forbidding fir forests, and the park of Linderhof, one of the castles built by Ludwig II, the fairytale king of Bavaria. The distant beauty of the mountains is just one of the moods which the film evokes, moods which recall to mind those conveyed by the Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich, moods which quietly help us in our preparation for the joys of the festive days to come.
The path taken by the film leads us out of the barren isolation of remote upland valleys and the handful of remaining farms, down into the lush, colourful baroque ornamentation of Bavarian churches, and then finally to the Bavarian National Museum, where some of the most beautiful mangers in the world have been collected.
The Berlin Philhamonic Brass Ensemble journeys through the countryside, from mountain peaks to fortress courtyards whose only illumination is provided by torches. The modern troubadours play rousing, ceremonial music as the spirit...
This "intermezzo giocoso" for bass and orchestra by Domenico Cimarosa features Maurizio Muraro in the solo part. The conductor is Ton Koopman. The Dutch musician was born in 1944 and ranks among the outstanding specialists in the field of historical performance practice. He studied organ, harpsichord and musicology in Amsterdam and turned to conducting during his training. From the very beginning, he used original instruments and combined theory and practice into a fascinating, historically well-founded interpretation of the works. In 1979 he founded the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. He is the principal conductor of the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra. As a performing artist and teacher, Koopman has made decisive contributions to the renaissance of the music of the 17th and 18th centuries. He has published many books and articles, teaches at the Conservatory of The Hague and is an honorary member of the Royal Music Academy in London. The Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg goes back to the "Dom-Musik-Verein und Mozarteum" founded in 1841. Since 1938 it has been an independent institution with professional musicians. It has been the orchestra of the city and the Land of Salzburg since 1958 and, in addition to its activity as opera and concert orchestra, it also performs regularly...
Gaetano Donizetti may have achieved immortality with his comic operas Don Pasquale and L'Elisir d'amore, and won a lasting place in the hearts of coloratura sopranos everywhere with Maria Stuarda and Lucia di Lammermoor, but for sheer entertainment, his La Fille du Régiment can't be beat. Especially when it's served in such a saucy, light-footed way by director Laurent Pelly in this coproduction of the Vienna State Opera, London's Covent Garden and New York's Metropolitan Opera. The plot revolves around Marie, the "daughter of the regiment", who was found on the battlefield as a baby and raised by the soldiers as their daughter. She falls in love with the young Tyrolean Tonio, who joins the regiment in order to be near her. When the Marquise de Birkenfeld hears about Marie, she claims that she is her long-lost niece, whom she will turn into a lady... Her plans backfire, of course, as Marie will never abandon her Tonio and most certainly never become a lady! French soprano Natalie Dessay, not only a dazzling singer but also a gifted actress, effortlessly sweeps her castmates along in this turbulent buffo delight of an opera.
Her partner is Juan Diego Florez, one of the leading young tenors of our time. Clad in lederhosen, he cheerfully seduces Marie – and the...
Her partner is Juan Diego Florez, one of the leading young tenors of our time. Clad in lederhosen, he cheerfully seduces Marie – and the...
The phenomenal Edita Gruberova, the world's undisputed Queen of bel canto, proves once again why she deserves this title: following her tumultuously applauded concert debut as Lucrezia Borgia in Barcelona, her mesmerizing role debut in a staged version of this work took place at the Bavarian State Opera and was acclaimed just as enthusiastically, and rightly so. Her performance, noted Opera Magazine, "vindicated the Munich audience's near-idolization of her".
With Lucrezia Borgia, Gruberova follows up her recent triumphs in Roberto Devereux and Norma with another bel canto masterwork. Singing with "exquisite purity" (Opera Magazine), the soprano also beguiles with her physical presence. Stage director Christof Loy and two-time Emmy Award-winning video director Brian Large both focus on the plot's dramatic potential and Gruberova's talent for expressing it with every tone and gesture. The singer is excellently paired with young tenor Pavol Breslik as her son Gennaro. Breslik, a native of Slovakia like Gruberova, gives such a radiant interpretation of the tormented youth that he is now being hailed as "the most promising new voice among lyrical tenors" (Neue Zürcher Zeitung).
With Lucrezia Borgia, Gruberova follows up her recent triumphs in Roberto Devereux and Norma with another bel canto masterwork. Singing with "exquisite purity" (Opera Magazine), the soprano also beguiles with her physical presence. Stage director Christof Loy and two-time Emmy Award-winning video director Brian Large both focus on the plot's dramatic potential and Gruberova's talent for expressing it with every tone and gesture. The singer is excellently paired with young tenor Pavol Breslik as her son Gennaro. Breslik, a native of Slovakia like Gruberova, gives such a radiant interpretation of the tormented youth that he is now being hailed as "the most promising new voice among lyrical tenors" (Neue Zürcher Zeitung).
London, 1601: love, desire and a death sentence at the English royal court – an ideal combination for an Italian grand opera, and Gaetano Donizetti's Roberto Devereux could hardly be grander or more fit for a queen, making it the ideal showcase for Edita Gruberova, and the prima donna assoluta of bel canto triumphs in this rarely performed work. In Christof Loy's production at Munich's National Theater, Gruberova sings the role of Queen Elizabeth I. Friedrich Haider conducts the chorus and orchestra of the Bavarian State Opera, and the recording is directed by Emmy award winner Brian Large. "Wavering between wounded pride, desperate love, moments of mildness and blind revenge she fashions a mad scene that takes the viewers' breath away. The furious coloraturas, the swelling tones, the outbursts, the nearly inaudible groans – everything fuses into an image of psychological desolation."
While Charles Gounod's Romeo et Juliette is less well-known than his Faust , it is blessed with four great show-stopping love duets that let its two title roles bask in lyrical luxury. In this Salzburg Festival production recorded at the Felsenreitschule, the titular heroes are the much acclaimed Mexican tenor Rolando Villazon and the young Georgian soprano Nino Machaidze – two singers and personalities with the makings of a new "dream couple".
"Villazon is "ideal" Romeo. His vocal cords seem to be grafted directly onto his heart" (Der Tagesspiegel) – a charming image that captures the singer's one-hundred-percent commitment to emotion, his hot-blooded stage artistry, and his ability to express erotic fulfillment, the blaze of passion, and the hopelessness of his fate with his voice alone. His Juliette, Nino Machaidze, unites captivating good looks with a bright, clear voice and an agile, youthful stage presence – a singer on her way to stardom!
Broadway director Bartlett Sher and his team succeed in evoking Shakespeare's Verona with a few evocative props, many fine costumes and much plot-driven action. In the eyes of many, however, the real discovery of the production is the young Montreal conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin, who gives a vivid and...
"Villazon is "ideal" Romeo. His vocal cords seem to be grafted directly onto his heart" (Der Tagesspiegel) – a charming image that captures the singer's one-hundred-percent commitment to emotion, his hot-blooded stage artistry, and his ability to express erotic fulfillment, the blaze of passion, and the hopelessness of his fate with his voice alone. His Juliette, Nino Machaidze, unites captivating good looks with a bright, clear voice and an agile, youthful stage presence – a singer on her way to stardom!
Broadway director Bartlett Sher and his team succeed in evoking Shakespeare's Verona with a few evocative props, many fine costumes and much plot-driven action. In the eyes of many, however, the real discovery of the production is the young Montreal conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin, who gives a vivid and...
At 88, Artur Rubinstein showed no trace of losing that quality of joie de vivre that had so fascinated audiences for almost three quarters of a century. The true Rubinstein sound, full and sonorous at every pitch, was always one of the distinctive marks of his playing ever since he began appearing in public. Rubinstein's performance of Grieg's ever-popular piano concerto, accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra under Andre Previn, is a perfect testimony of his notion of a "singing tone." With playing that is by turns vital and poetic, extroverted and reflective, rhapsodic and poised, this performance, filmed in April 1975 at London's Fairfield Hall, is Rubinstein at his warm-hearted, lyrical best.
When one of Germany's most famous filmmakers and stimulating operatic directors focuses her creativity on a rarely performed Handel opera, the result is a "mixture of dancers and singers, comedy and pathos" (The Times). Admeto , one of Handel's most popular operas in his lifetime, was premiered in London in January 1727. Doris Dörrie, whose Japan-inspired feature film "Cherry Blossoms - Hanami" was a major German box-office hit and won several international awards, returns to her beloved Japan in this production. Flowing robes, translucent panels and the participation of Japan's Mamu Dance Theater and its choreographer/dancer Tadashi Endo add an evocative dimension to the work whose lead roles were written for a popular castrato and two rivaling primadonnas. Sensitively directed for video by Agnes Méth, who worked with Dörrie on Mozart's La finta giardiniera at the Salzburg Festival, the opera is played by Nicholas McGegan's FestspielOrchester Göttingen on period instruments. For this production, a coproduction of the Internationale Händel-Festspiele in Göttingen and the Edinburgh International Festival on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of Handel's death, Doris Dörrie was awarded the Edinburgh Festival's prestigious Herald Angel Award.
On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of Handel's death, Vienna's Theater an der Wien, famous for innovative and unconventional opera productions, realized a unique and truly extraordinary project: the staging of one of Handel's most popular oratorios. For this production, the theater signed up one of the most renowned stage directors of our time, Claus Guth. The result: "An emotionally and psychologically changed sequences of images", as the Suddeutsche Zeitung wrote about Gith's portrayal of a family dynasty, complete with guilt, betrayal, suicide and reconciliation.
Conductor Jean-Christophe Spinosi triumphs "with his phenomenal orchestra (Ensemble Matheus) and the subtle Arnold Schoenberg Choir" (Suddeutsche Zeitung). Winner of the Diapason d'Ore and the BBC Music Magazine Award, the ensemble is internationally acclaimed for its interpretation of early music on authentic period instruments. Offering "the best of Handel vocal artistry" (Frankfurter Rundschau) are Cornelia Horak, Susan Gritton, Richard Croft and the sublime altus Bejun Mehta. Video director Hannes Rossacher, internationally known as one of the leading video directors for rock and pop events (Rolling Stones), has captured this unique performance of the oratorio on film.
Conductor Jean-Christophe Spinosi triumphs "with his phenomenal orchestra (Ensemble Matheus) and the subtle Arnold Schoenberg Choir" (Suddeutsche Zeitung). Winner of the Diapason d'Ore and the BBC Music Magazine Award, the ensemble is internationally acclaimed for its interpretation of early music on authentic period instruments. Offering "the best of Handel vocal artistry" (Frankfurter Rundschau) are Cornelia Horak, Susan Gritton, Richard Croft and the sublime altus Bejun Mehta. Video director Hannes Rossacher, internationally known as one of the leading video directors for rock and pop events (Rolling Stones), has captured this unique performance of the oratorio on film.
It would be hard to imagine a more seductive hero, a more passionate performer, a more glorious interpreter of the great Romantic roles of Verdi and Puccini than Rolando Villazon. Yet the singer's temporary withdrawal from the spotlight in 2007 opened up a wealth of new possibilities for the singer. Among the "new paths" that Villazon envisioned for the future were "adventures" such as Baroque music. Next to a recording of works by the early Baroque composer Claudio Monteverdi, he now offers a selection of arias by George Frideric Handel.
This intimate concert featuring Villazon and the Gabrieli Players under Paul McCreesh was filmed in a setting that ideally suits the style of the music, St. Paul's Church in Deptford, near London, one of Britain's finest Baroque churches. It was built between 1712 and 1730, almost exactly when Handel was writing his most celebrated operas and oratorios.
Villazon proves that he is a master of dazzling coloratura, virtuoso runs and expressive cantabile melodies. Among the highlights of the concert – which also includes two purely orchestral works – are the beloved arioso "Ombra mai fu" from Serse , Grimoaldo's aria "Pastorello d'un povero armento" from Rodelinda , the lyrical, longing "Scherza infida" from Ariodante , and...
This intimate concert featuring Villazon and the Gabrieli Players under Paul McCreesh was filmed in a setting that ideally suits the style of the music, St. Paul's Church in Deptford, near London, one of Britain's finest Baroque churches. It was built between 1712 and 1730, almost exactly when Handel was writing his most celebrated operas and oratorios.
Villazon proves that he is a master of dazzling coloratura, virtuoso runs and expressive cantabile melodies. Among the highlights of the concert – which also includes two purely orchestral works – are the beloved arioso "Ombra mai fu" from Serse , Grimoaldo's aria "Pastorello d'un povero armento" from Rodelinda , the lyrical, longing "Scherza infida" from Ariodante , and...
Born in Saxony in 1926, Karl Richter discovered his true musical vocation in Leipzig, where he studied under the great Karl Straube and Günther Ramin. The organ and the harpsichord were at the origin of his career, and his first performances were devoted to serving Bach through these keyboard instruments on which he was a virtuoso and a poet. Soon, however, Richter was swept up by a passion for the orchestra and the choral masses. He founded the Munich Bach Choir and the Munich Bach Orchestra in the 1950s, toured with his ensembles all over the world and made about 150 recordings.
Richter was perhaps at his most compelling when interpreting his two great fellow countrymen Bach and Handel. He was superb at translating Handel's monumental rhythms and vast soundscapes, the dynamic writing and sanguine spirit of his music. Although Richter saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his own style, which was considered revolutionary in the 1950s and 60s. This was a "de-romanticized" approach to the Baroque which was characterized, among other things, by a reduced body of performers more in keeping with the original forces. Richter's style also accented a cool, brisk, almost abstract attitude toward the music, which...
Richter was perhaps at his most compelling when interpreting his two great fellow countrymen Bach and Handel. He was superb at translating Handel's monumental rhythms and vast soundscapes, the dynamic writing and sanguine spirit of his music. Although Richter saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his own style, which was considered revolutionary in the 1950s and 60s. This was a "de-romanticized" approach to the Baroque which was characterized, among other things, by a reduced body of performers more in keeping with the original forces. Richter's style also accented a cool, brisk, almost abstract attitude toward the music, which...
Born in Saxony in 1926, Karl Richter discovered his true musical vocation in Leipzig, where he studied under the great Karl Straube and Günther Ramin. The organ and the harpsichord were at the origin of his career, and his first performances were devoted to serving Bach through these keyboard instruments on which he was a virtuoso and a poet. Soon, however, Richter was swept up by a passion for the orchestra and the choral masses. He founded the Munich Bach Choir and the Munich Bach Orchestra in the 1950s, toured with his ensembles all over the world and made about 150 recordings.
Richter was perhaps at his most compelling when interpreting his two great fellow countrymen Bach and Handel. He was superb at translating Handel's monumental rhythms and vast soundscapes, the dynamic writing and sanguine spirit of his music. Although Richter saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his own style, which was considered revolutionary in the 1950s and 60s. This was a "de-romanticized" approach to the Baroque which was characterized, among other things, by a reduced body of performers more in keeping with the original forces. Richter's style also accented a cool, brisk, almost abstract attitude toward the music, which eschewed...
Richter was perhaps at his most compelling when interpreting his two great fellow countrymen Bach and Handel. He was superb at translating Handel's monumental rhythms and vast soundscapes, the dynamic writing and sanguine spirit of his music. Although Richter saw several dramatic shifts in Baroque performance practice during his lifetime, he remained true to his own style, which was considered revolutionary in the 1950s and 60s. This was a "de-romanticized" approach to the Baroque which was characterized, among other things, by a reduced body of performers more in keeping with the original forces. Richter's style also accented a cool, brisk, almost abstract attitude toward the music, which eschewed...
A highlight of the Handel commemorative year (250th anniversary of death) was the Salzburg Festival's first-ever staging of Handel's oratorio Theodora of 1750. Christof Loy, who was voted "director of the year" three times by the prestigious journal "Opernwelt", created a production that is, in his words, "almost as an installation", and groups his characters around the remains of a gigantic organ in situations that echo the libretto's tragic dilemma of love, faith and virtue. His concept is supported by the vigorous Ivor Bolton and the Freiburger Barockorchester playing on original instruments, the Salzburger Bachchor, and, above all, by a fine cast. It is led by the luminous Christine Schafer as a Theodora who "perfectly encapsulates the heroine's combination of fragility and defiance" (AFP), and countertenor Bejun Mehta, who "excels as Theodora's lover Didymus" (The New York Times).
Video director Hannes Rossacher, known both in the pop (Rolling Stones) and classical worlds, captures the essence of this rarely recorded work, another joint project of the exclusive audiovisual partners Salzburg Festival and Unitel Classica.
Video director Hannes Rossacher, known both in the pop (Rolling Stones) and classical worlds, captures the essence of this rarely recorded work, another joint project of the exclusive audiovisual partners Salzburg Festival and Unitel Classica.
The Artis Quartet was founded at the Vienna Musikhochschule in 1980. The ensemble studied in Vienna and Cincinnati with the LaSalle Quartet. After many awards at the beginning of the 1980s, the group began its international career, which has taken it to the major musical venues of the world. The Artis Quartet has been giving its own concert series at the Vienna Musikverein since 1988.
This work was recorded at the Salzburg "Mozartwoche" 2001. Here the ensemble plays Haydn's String Quartet in G minor Hob. III:74 , one of the quartets which Haydn wrote for his second London visit in 1794. This work was conceived above all to show off the performers' skill and virtuosity rather than to explore innovative harmonies and structures.
This work was recorded at the Salzburg "Mozartwoche" 2001. Here the ensemble plays Haydn's String Quartet in G minor Hob. III:74 , one of the quartets which Haydn wrote for his second London visit in 1794. This work was conceived above all to show off the performers' skill and virtuosity rather than to explore innovative harmonies and structures.
The former Camerata Academica Salzburg was renamed simply Camerata Salzburg in 2001. It was founded in 1951 by Bernhard Paumgartner, who was its head and mentor for many years. From 1978 to 1997 its artistic director was Sandor Vegh and in 1997 Roger Norrington was appointed principal conductor of the ensemble. The Camerata Salzburg can be heard every year at the Salzburg Mozartwoche and Salzburg Festival.
Roger Norrington was born in Oxford and studied in Cambridge and London. From 1969 to 1984 he was musical director of the Kent Opera and conducted productions at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Milan's La Scala and the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. He founded the London Classical Players and is principal conductor of the Camerata Salzburg and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Roger Norrington was born in Oxford and studied in Cambridge and London. From 1969 to 1984 he was musical director of the Kent Opera and conducted productions at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Milan's La Scala and the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. He founded the London Classical Players and is principal conductor of the Camerata Salzburg and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Christopher Hogwood founded the Academy of Ancient Music in 1973 and is one of the pioneers of historical performance practice as a harpsichordist conductor. His interpretations of the Baroque and Classical opera and concert literature have brought him international acclaim. The Academy of Ancient Music has taken as its goal the performance of the works of the Baroque and Classical eras on historic instruments. The ensemble, which has a varying amount of performers, boasts a number of outstanding specialists for historical performance practice.
A "triumph of remembrance," wrote the daily Die Welt in its online service following a stirring concert that left its audience hovering between hushed reverence and deafening exultation. The Golden Hall of Vienna's Musikverein was the dazzling venue for the live recording of one of four concerts given by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa and with Anne-Sophie Mutter. The series began in Berlin's Philharmonie before going on to Paris, Lucerne and Vienna, where it culminated on 28 January. And there, in Vienna, Karajan's "Berliner" never sounded better, evoking "a time which self-confidently sought the private and subjective in music, and believed it could find them in the mirror of the works" (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung).
The program begins with Beethoven's Violin Concerto, Op. 61 performed by Anne-Sophie Mutter, who was discovered by Karajan and first played with the Berlin Philharmonic under his direction at the Salzburg Easter Festival in 1977. Her performance glows with a sensuality and ethereal beauty that turn her interpretation into a memorial for two men whom she grew up with, Beethoven and Karajan. As an encore, Mutter plays Bach's Sarabande in D minor "in memoriam Herbert von Karajan," as she announces. Tchaikovsky's "Pathétique" is given a...
The program begins with Beethoven's Violin Concerto, Op. 61 performed by Anne-Sophie Mutter, who was discovered by Karajan and first played with the Berlin Philharmonic under his direction at the Salzburg Easter Festival in 1977. Her performance glows with a sensuality and ethereal beauty that turn her interpretation into a memorial for two men whom she grew up with, Beethoven and Karajan. As an encore, Mutter plays Bach's Sarabande in D minor "in memoriam Herbert von Karajan," as she announces. Tchaikovsky's "Pathétique" is given a...
Pagliacci is often celebrated as one of the finest examples of verismo, or realist opera. It is even based on a true story: Leoncavallo's father, a judge, once presided over the trial of an actor who, in a fit of jealousy, murdered his wife immediately following a performance. Pagliacci is frequently performed along with Mascagni's one-acter Cavalleria Rusticana . Both works are strongly linked with the name of Franco Zeffirelli, the great stage and film director who has been infusing the operatic repertoire with grace, elegance and poignancy. Both his Emmy Award-winning production of Pagliacci and his Cavalleria feature international star tenor Placido Domingo.
Just a few months before his final illness and death, Leonard Bernstein conducted three masterworks by Gustav Mahler in a concert at Vienna's Musikvereinssaal with the Vienna Philharmonic. The program consisted of the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen , the Ruckertlieder and the Kindertotenlieder . The soloist was the American baritone Thomas Hampson. The trade publication Musik & Theater wrote: "I know of no other baritone today who can profess a similar mastery of these three Mahler song cycles on a vocal, emotional and textually sensitive level ... [It is] a singular vocal accomplishment and a worthy conclusion of Bernstein's extensive Mahler discography."
Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) was one of Mahler's later symphonic works, written in 1908. Mahler often used the human voice as an adjunct to the orchestra in his symphonic writing. Das Lied von der Erde borrowed as a framework Hans Bethge's German translation of six poems by the 18th-century Chinese poet Li-Tai-Po. The songs have been described as "the valedictory of a man who loved life and nature and who knew the bittersweet nostalgia of passing youth and beauty." The work was recorded at the Frederic Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Leonard Bernstein. The program's soloists are Christa Ludwig, alto, and René Kollo, tenor.
Just a few months before his final illness and death, Leonard Bernstein conducted three masterworks by Gustav Mahler in a concert at Vienna's Musikvereinssaal with the Vienna Philharmonic. The program consisted of the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen , the Ruckertlieder and the Kindertotenlieder . The soloist was the American baritone Thomas Hampson. The trade publication "Musik & Theater" wrote: "I know of no other baritone today who can profess a similar mastery of these three Mahler song cycles on a vocal, emotional and textually sensitive level. [...] a singular vocal accomplishment and a worthy conclusion of Bernstein's extensive Mahler discography."
Just a few months before his final illness and death, Leonard Bernstein conducted three masterworks by Gustav Mahler in a concert at Vienna's Musikvereinssaal with the Vienna Philharmonic. The program consisted of the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen , the Ruckertlieder and the Kindertotenlieder . The soloist was the American baritone Thomas Hampson. The trade publication "Musik & Theater" wrote: "I know of no other baritone today who can profess a similar mastery of these three Mahler song cycles on a vocal, emotional and textually sensitive level. [...] a singular vocal accomplishment and a worthy conclusion of Bernstein's extensive Mahler discography."
Leonard Bernstein was the first conductor ever to record all of Mahler's symphonies not only on disk, but also on video. The Mahler cycle was the first project in the more than 20-year-long association between Leonard Bernstein and Unitel. The leading Mahler interpreter of our time, Bernstein recorded all of Mahler's symphonies between 1971 and 1985, chiefly with the Vienna Philharmonic, producing a unique musical document and triggering a major re-appreciation of Mahler's works. "All Mahler symphonies, all Mahler works for that matter, deal in extremes, extremes of dynamic, of tempo, of emotional meaning. When it is bare, it's extremely bare, when it is thick and rich, it's thicker and richer than anything in Gotterdammerung, and when it is suffering it suffers to a point that no music has ever suffered before" (Leonard Bernstein).
Mahler's last symphony was begun in the summer of 1910, ostensibly during a serious conjugal crisis, and was left unfinished at the time of the composer's death in Vienna on 18 May 1911. The work was to have consisted of five movements, though it is possible that Mahler might have altered his original plan. And while several attempts have been made to complete the work on the basis of sketches, only the first movement, Adagio , was fully completed by the composer. It is an austere piece, with incisive sonorities and an ethereal beauty.
Leonard Bernstein was the first conductor ever to record all of Mahler's symphonies not only on disk, but also on video. The Mahler cycle was the first project in the more than 20-year-long association between Leonard Bernstein and Unitel. The leading Mahler interpreter of our time, Bernstein recorded all of Mahler's symphonies between 1971 and 1985, chiefly with the Vienna Philharmonic, producing a unique musical document and triggering a major re-appreciation of Mahler's works.
Leonard Bernstein was the first conductor ever to record all of Mahler's symphonies not only on disk, but also on video. The Mahler cycle was the first project in the more than 20-year-long association between Leonard Bernstein and Unitel. The leading Mahler interpreter of our time, Bernstein recorded all of Mahler's symphonies between 1971 and 1985, chiefly with the Vienna Philharmonic, producing a unique musical document and triggering a major re-appreciation of Mahler's works.
Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2 is the first of Mahler's symphonies to introduce voices - soprano, alto and chorus - into the orchestral texture, and the first to refer explicitly to his songs based on Des Knaben Wunderhorn. This it shares with the symphonies Nos. 3 and 4 as well, which stamps it as the first part of a trilogy. Mahler worked on it from 1888 to 1894 and conducted the first performance in Berlin on 13 December 1895.
Leonard Bernstein was the first conductor ever to record all of Mahler's symphonies not only on disk, but also on video. The Mahler cycle was the first project in the more than 20-year-long association between Leonard Bernstein and Unitel. The leading Mahler interpreter of our time, Bernstein recorded all of Mahler's symphonies between 1971 and 1985, chiefly with the Vienna Philharmonic, producing a unique musical document and triggering a major re-appreciation of Mahler's works.
Leonard Bernstein was the first conductor ever to record all of Mahler's symphonies not only on disk, but also on video. The Mahler cycle was the first project in the more than 20-year-long association between Leonard Bernstein and Unitel. The leading Mahler interpreter of our time, Bernstein recorded all of Mahler's symphonies between 1971 and 1985, chiefly with the Vienna Philharmonic, producing a unique musical document and triggering a major re-appreciation of Mahler's works.
This production with Christa Ludwig, alto, the Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor, the Vienna Boys' Choir and the Vienna Philharmonic was recorded at Vienna's Musikvereinssaal in 1972. Leonard Bernstein was the first conductor ever to record all of Mahler's symphonies not only on disk, but also on video.
The Mahler cycle was the first project in the more than 20-year-long association between Leonard Bernstein and Unitel. The leading Mahler interpreter of our time, Bernstein recorded all of Mahler's symphonies between 1971 and 1985, chiefly with the Vienna Philharmonic, producing a unique musical document and triggering a major reappreciation of Mahler's works. "All Mahler symphonies, all Mahler works for that matter, deal in extremes, extremes of dynamic, of tempo, of emotional meaning. When it is bare, it's extremely bare, when it is thick and rich, it's thicker and richer than anything in Gotterdammerung, and when it is suffering it suffers to a point that no music has ever suffered before" (Leonard Bernstein).
The Mahler cycle was the first project in the more than 20-year-long association between Leonard Bernstein and Unitel. The leading Mahler interpreter of our time, Bernstein recorded all of Mahler's symphonies between 1971 and 1985, chiefly with the Vienna Philharmonic, producing a unique musical document and triggering a major reappreciation of Mahler's works. "All Mahler symphonies, all Mahler works for that matter, deal in extremes, extremes of dynamic, of tempo, of emotional meaning. When it is bare, it's extremely bare, when it is thick and rich, it's thicker and richer than anything in Gotterdammerung, and when it is suffering it suffers to a point that no music has ever suffered before" (Leonard Bernstein).
The Mahler cycle was the first project in the more than 20-year-long association between Leonard Bernstein and Unitel. The leading Mahler interpreter of our time, Bernstein recorded all of Mahler's symphonies between 1971 and 1985, chiefly with the Vienna Philharmonic, producing a unique musical document and triggering a major reappreciation of Mahler's works. "All Mahler symphonies, all Mahler works for that matter, deal in extremes, extremes of dynamic, of tempo, of emotional meaning. When it is bare, it's extremely bare, when it is thick and rich, it's thicker and richer than anything in Gotterdammerung, and when it is suffering it suffers to a point that no music has ever suffered before" (Leonard Bernstein).
The Mahler cycle was the first project in the more than 20-year-long association between Leonard Bernstein and Unitel. The leading Mahler interpreter of our time, Bernstein recorded all of Mahler's symphonies between 1971 and 1985, chiefly with the Vienna Philharmonic, producing a unique musical document and triggering a major reappreciation of Mahler's works. "All Mahler symphonies, all Mahler works for that matter, deal in extremes, extremes of dynamic, of tempo, of emotional meaning. When it is bare, it's extremely bare, when it is thick and rich, it's thicker and richer than anything in Gotterdammerung, and when it is suffering it suffers to a point that no music has ever suffered before" (Leonard Bernstein).
Long considered as a particularly demanding and difficult work, the Symphony No. 6 in A minor was begun in 1903, completed the following year and premiered in Essen on 27 May 1906. Superficially, it is the most conventional in that it follows the traditional four-movement form and ends in the key in which it begins. Although this key, A minor, is a tragic one in Mahler's oeuvre, the work itself is not a song of despair, but a dense and forceful testimony of furious inner battles whose outcome remains unclear until the very end.
Leonard Bernstein was the first conductor ever to record all of Mahler's symphonies not only on disk, but also on video. The Mahler cycle was the first project in the more than 20-year-long association between Leonard Bernstein and Unitel. The leading Mahler interpreter of our time, Bernstein recorded all of Mahler's symphonies between 1971 and 1985, chiefly with the Vienna Philharmonic, producing a unique musical document and triggering a major re-appreciation of Mahler's works.
Leonard Bernstein was the first conductor ever to record all of Mahler's symphonies not only on disk, but also on video. The Mahler cycle was the first project in the more than 20-year-long association between Leonard Bernstein and Unitel. The leading Mahler interpreter of our time, Bernstein recorded all of Mahler's symphonies between 1971 and 1985, chiefly with the Vienna Philharmonic, producing a unique musical document and triggering a major re-appreciation of Mahler's works.
Leonard Bernstein conducted the work at the Salzburg Festival in 1975 and shortly thereafter in Vienna's Konzerthaus, where it was recorded. The stage of the Konzerthaus was enlarged to make room for the unusually large orchestra, the two choruses, the children's choir and the soloists.
Bernstein was the first conductor ever to record all of Mahler's symphonies not only on disk, but also on video. The Mahler cycle was the first project in the more than 20-year-long association between Leonard Bernstein and Unitel. The leading Mahler interpreter of our time, Bernstein recorded all of Mahler's symphonies between 1971 and 1985, chiefly with the Vienna Philharmonic, producing a unique musical document and triggering a major reappreciation of Mahler's works. "All Mahler symphonies, all Mahler works for that matter, deal in extremes, extremes of dynamic, of tempo, of emotional meaning. When it is bare, it's extremely bare, when it is thick and rich, it's thicker and richer than anything in Götterdämmerung, and when it is suffering it suffers to a point that no music has ever suffered before" (Leonard Bernstein).
Bernstein was the first conductor ever to record all of Mahler's symphonies not only on disk, but also on video. The Mahler cycle was the first project in the more than 20-year-long association between Leonard Bernstein and Unitel. The leading Mahler interpreter of our time, Bernstein recorded all of Mahler's symphonies between 1971 and 1985, chiefly with the Vienna Philharmonic, producing a unique musical document and triggering a major reappreciation of Mahler's works. "All Mahler symphonies, all Mahler works for that matter, deal in extremes, extremes of dynamic, of tempo, of emotional meaning. When it is bare, it's extremely bare, when it is thick and rich, it's thicker and richer than anything in Götterdämmerung, and when it is suffering it suffers to a point that no music has ever suffered before" (Leonard Bernstein).
"Mahler created a new world with each of his symphonies (...) It is a fantastic journey for both of us". With these few words, Daniel Barenboim sums up the vast scope of a project undertaken with his friend Pierre Boulez: two very different world-class conductors tackle all nine completed symphonies of Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) with one orchestra, the Staatskapelle Berlin. Performed as a complete cycle in Berlin, Vienna and New York, the concerts were a tremendous success. The Financial Times even wrote: "New York is going Mahler mad".
In addition to being a fascinating insight into Mahler's symphonic oeuvre, which allows the viewer to uncover the essence of Mahler's music, "The Mahler Project" also features a complete concert recording from the Berliner Philharmonie of the colossal Ninth Symphony , which is considered as the culmination of the Austrian composer's works. Conductor Daniel Barenboim delivers an interpretation which The New York Times proclaimed "a milestone for the Staatskapelle Berlin".
In addition to being a fascinating insight into Mahler's symphonic oeuvre, which allows the viewer to uncover the essence of Mahler's music, "The Mahler Project" also features a complete concert recording from the Berliner Philharmonie of the colossal Ninth Symphony , which is considered as the culmination of the Austrian composer's works. Conductor Daniel Barenboim delivers an interpretation which The New York Times proclaimed "a milestone for the Staatskapelle Berlin".
Leonard Bernstein was the first conductor ever to record all of Mahler's symphonies not only on disk, but also on video. The Mahler cycle was the first project in the more than 20-year-long association between Leonard Bernstein and Unitel. The leading Mahler interpreter of our time, Bernstein recorded all of Mahler's symphonies between 1971 and 1985, chiefly with the Vienna Philharmonic, producing a unique musical document and triggering a major reappreciation of Mahler's works. "All Mahler symphonies, all Mahler works for that matter, deal in extremes, extremes of dynamic, of tempo, of emotional meaning. When it is bare, it's extremely bare, when it is thick and rich, it's thicker and richer than anything in Götterdämmerung, and when it is suffering it suffers to a point that no music has ever suffered before" (Leonard Bernstein).
What more appropriate venue for Ildebrando Pizzetti's operatic masterwork of 1958 Assassinio nella Cattedrale than the austere, Romanic Basilica di San Nicola in the southern Italian port city of Bari. A striking coincidence: the action of T.S. Eliot's stage play Murder in the Cathedral , on which the opera is based, takes place in December 1170; the Basilica di San Nicola also dates from the 12th century and was consecrated in 1197...
Pizzetti, one of Italy's leading lyrical composers of the first half of the 20th century, composed several operas, of which Assassinio nella Cattedrale is one of his most famous. It unites all the elements of his lyrical style, such as a supple arioso treatment of the text that bears echoes of Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande as well as of Monteverdi and the Florentine monodists; and powerful, surging choral movements that are even more breathtaking when performed in a church. Pizzetti's religiosity also manifests itself in his choice of T.S. Eliot's modern-day miracle play about St. Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who returns from a seven-year-exile only to be confronted by various torments, including Four Temptations; he succumbs to the fourth, the temptation of martyrdom.
Internationally acclaimed bass-baritone Ruggero...
Pizzetti, one of Italy's leading lyrical composers of the first half of the 20th century, composed several operas, of which Assassinio nella Cattedrale is one of his most famous. It unites all the elements of his lyrical style, such as a supple arioso treatment of the text that bears echoes of Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande as well as of Monteverdi and the Florentine monodists; and powerful, surging choral movements that are even more breathtaking when performed in a church. Pizzetti's religiosity also manifests itself in his choice of T.S. Eliot's modern-day miracle play about St. Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who returns from a seven-year-exile only to be confronted by various torments, including Four Temptations; he succumbs to the fourth, the temptation of martyrdom.
Internationally acclaimed bass-baritone Ruggero...
"Domingo creates the magical illusion that Alfano wrote the role especially for him: Domingo de Bergerac" (review of the premiere in the Madrid daily ABC). Plácido Domingo's triumph in Valencia's stunningly futuristic theater El Palau de les Arts in February 2007 echoes the overwhelmingly positive reception he obtained at the Metropolitan Opera and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in this role. A coproduction of the New York, London and Valencia houses, Franco Alfano's little-known 1936 opera Cyrano de Bergerac has been reawakened to life by the great Spanish tenor. Although Alfano (1875-1954) enjoyed a long and prolific career as an opera composer, he is known today above all for having completed Puccini's Turandot. His earlier works not surprisingly reflect Puccini's verismo style, but his later works - including Cyrano de Bergerac - are clearly inspired by Debussy, Ravel and Strauss. Opulent scoring and colorful orchestral effects elegantly underscore the tragic story based on Rostand's famous drama of 1897, which achieved international celebrity in the Oscar-nominated 1990 film adaptation with Gérard Depardieu. Alfano's work faithfully relates the story of the large-nosed soldier poet who pines for the beautiful Roxane and writes her glowing love letters in the name of...
Munich's court theater was the venue for the premiere of Mozart's Idomeneo on 29 January 1781; today, it hosts another premiere of this same work, now to celebrate the reopening of this sparkling Rococo gem of a theater, now known after its architect as the Cuvilliés Theater. Restored at the cost of over 25 million euros, the theater provides an exultant red, gold and white setting for Mozart's opera seria, which is considered as the first of the seven uncontested masterworks of Mozart's dramatic oeuvre.
Drama keynotes Idomeneo , which is drenched in endless despair, the constant threat of death, and the destructive passions of jealousy and hatred. For having saved his life, King Idomeneo promises Neptune to sacrifice the first person he encounters. Unfortunately, this happens to be his son Idamante, who is torn between two women: the Trojan Princess Ilia, whom he loves, and the Greek Princess Elettra, who desperately wants to marry him and ascend the throne.
Mozart's highly expressive music is given a passionate reading by conductor Kent Nagano, who leads his singers and players with brisk energy. The dark, full sound of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester provides lush underpinnings for the bravura arias and glittering coloraturas. In the title role, John Mark Ainsley...
Drama keynotes Idomeneo , which is drenched in endless despair, the constant threat of death, and the destructive passions of jealousy and hatred. For having saved his life, King Idomeneo promises Neptune to sacrifice the first person he encounters. Unfortunately, this happens to be his son Idamante, who is torn between two women: the Trojan Princess Ilia, whom he loves, and the Greek Princess Elettra, who desperately wants to marry him and ascend the throne.
Mozart's highly expressive music is given a passionate reading by conductor Kent Nagano, who leads his singers and players with brisk energy. The dark, full sound of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester provides lush underpinnings for the bravura arias and glittering coloraturas. In the title role, John Mark Ainsley...
After his first two operas Oberto and Un giorno di regno , Verdi fell into a depression that dissipated only when he was shown the libretto to Nabucco and discovered the chorus "Va, pensiero". The words sung by the Hebrew exiles made an indelible impression on the composer, who also saw the political potential within them: an echo of the Italians' longing for freedom and a unified nation. The work was premiered at the Teatro alla Scala on 9 March 1842 and was an enormous success. The story of the Babylonian King and the captive Israelites stirred a patriotic cord in the hearts of the Milan audiences and swiftly carried Verdi's name throughout Italy and the rest of the world. Nabucco has long been at home in the Arena di Verona, and for many, the Va pensiero chorus is, along with the triumphal march from Aida , the very embodiment of the Verona experience. This video production vividly captures this unique experience and provides the viewer with fascinating details that escape many of the Arena's spectators. Stage director Denis Krief casts the work in a sparse modern setting, providing a highly effective showcase for the true heroes of the evening, the singers under conductor Daniel Oren. "Nuanced and temperamental, Daniel Oren's interpretation dazzles with...
Blame it on the Russian Revolution: it took Sergey Prokofiev (1891–1953) only a few months to write his early opera The Gambler between October 1915 and March 1916, but problems arose during rehearsals in January 1917, and the premiere in St. Petersburg (then Petrograd) had to be cancelled when the first revolution broke out in February. This first version of the work was never heard, since the composer revised the tempestuous score eleven years later, reducing it and eliminating what he considered "padding." The work was premiered in this version in Brussels in 1929.
Based on Dostoyevsky’s novel of the same name, The Gambler is a dark study of human failings and the corruptive power of money. In this work, everyone gambles: the hero Alexey, the General and even the wealthy aunt Babulenka gamble with money; Blanche, the Marquis and Polina – who loves Alexey – gamble with their fellow human beings. The results are humiliation, ruin and self-delusion. But when the Staatskapelle Berlin under world-famous conductor Daniel Barenboim provide the orchestral sound to the full, lustrous voices of Vladimir Ognovenko, Kristine Opolais, Misha Didyk, Stefania Toczyska and their colleagues, there is nothing even remotely dismal about the opera or its...
Based on Dostoyevsky’s novel of the same name, The Gambler is a dark study of human failings and the corruptive power of money. In this work, everyone gambles: the hero Alexey, the General and even the wealthy aunt Babulenka gamble with money; Blanche, the Marquis and Polina – who loves Alexey – gamble with their fellow human beings. The results are humiliation, ruin and self-delusion. But when the Staatskapelle Berlin under world-famous conductor Daniel Barenboim provide the orchestral sound to the full, lustrous voices of Vladimir Ognovenko, Kristine Opolais, Misha Didyk, Stefania Toczyska and their colleagues, there is nothing even remotely dismal about the opera or its...
From "dream team" of the opera stage to "dream team" of classic and pop - Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón have long since conquered the entire world of music. Yet while their CD Duets ranked third on the pop charts, the opera stage remains their preferred venue. And in Jules Massenet's Manon, they have found a drama worthy of their combined talents.
Manon, the tragic heroine of Massenet's work, is torn between flirtatiousness and profound love, between frivolity and deep commitment. Netrebko seems predestined for this role, with her body language alternating between girlish, introspective and carefree, and her voice radiating brilliance, warmth, mystery and longing. As the impoverished young nobleman Des Grieux, Rolando Villazón compellingly depicts the burning passion of an ultimately doomed lover with his glowing, supple, slender tenor voice.
The glittering production's distinctly Hollywood touch is due to director Vincent Paterson, who makes his operatic debut with Manon. Paterson knows what stars want: he worked his way up from dancer to director of music video clips and internationally renowned choreographer who has worked with Madonna, Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney, and staged several Broadway musicals. He also worked on films such as Dancer in the Dark,...
Manon, the tragic heroine of Massenet's work, is torn between flirtatiousness and profound love, between frivolity and deep commitment. Netrebko seems predestined for this role, with her body language alternating between girlish, introspective and carefree, and her voice radiating brilliance, warmth, mystery and longing. As the impoverished young nobleman Des Grieux, Rolando Villazón compellingly depicts the burning passion of an ultimately doomed lover with his glowing, supple, slender tenor voice.
The glittering production's distinctly Hollywood touch is due to director Vincent Paterson, who makes his operatic debut with Manon. Paterson knows what stars want: he worked his way up from dancer to director of music video clips and internationally renowned choreographer who has worked with Madonna, Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney, and staged several Broadway musicals. He also worked on films such as Dancer in the Dark,...
Unlike the piano, the violin or even the flute, the oboe is a relatively rare instrument for a solo career. And when a soloist such as Albrecht Mayer plays the oboe, one wishes composers had written more works for this sweetly mellow instrument. Critics write about the "divine spark" that inspires his playing, and about the "miraculous oboe" that turns into "an instrument of seduction." With his particularly warm tone and exceptionally broad palette of nuances, it's no surprise that Albrecht Mayer is one of today's most sought-after international oboists.
In this documentary portrait of the oboist, we retrace the musician's impressive career and witness some of its many high points. Mayer embarked on a professional career in 1990, when he joined the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra as solo oboist. Two years later, he made the transition to the absolute top league with his appointment as solo oboist of the Berlin Philharmonic, and since then he has made countless international appearances, playing under such eminent conductors as Abbado, Rattle and Harnoncourt. In addition to his work as a soloist, Mayer also attaches great importance to chamber music. He is a permanent member of the Sabine Meyer Wind Ensemble and also plays with such partners as Thomas Quasthoff, Matthias Goerne...
In this documentary portrait of the oboist, we retrace the musician's impressive career and witness some of its many high points. Mayer embarked on a professional career in 1990, when he joined the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra as solo oboist. Two years later, he made the transition to the absolute top league with his appointment as solo oboist of the Berlin Philharmonic, and since then he has made countless international appearances, playing under such eminent conductors as Abbado, Rattle and Harnoncourt. In addition to his work as a soloist, Mayer also attaches great importance to chamber music. He is a permanent member of the Sabine Meyer Wind Ensemble and also plays with such partners as Thomas Quasthoff, Matthias Goerne...
Unlike the piano, the violin or even the flute, the oboe is a relatively rare instrument for a solo career. And when a soloist such as Albrecht Mayer plays the oboe, one wishes composers had written more works for this sweetly mellow instrument. Critics write about the "divine spark" that inspires his playing, and about the "miraculous oboe" that turns into "an instrument of seduction." With his particularly warm tone and exceptionally broad palette of nuances, it's no surprise that Albrecht Mayer is one of today's most sought-after international oboists. In this documentary portrait of the oboist, we retrace the musician's impressive career and witness some of its many high points. Mayer embarked on a professional career in 1990, when he joined the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra as solo oboist. Two years later, he made the transition to the absolute top league with his appointment as solo oboist of the Berlin Philharmonic, and since then he has made countless international appearances, playing under such eminent conductors as Abbado, Rattle and Harnoncourt. In addition to his work as a soloist, Mayer also attaches great importance to chamber music. He is a permanent member of the Sabine Meyer Wind Ensemble and also plays with such partners as Thomas Quasthoff, Matthias Goerne and...
One of the world's foremost violinists, Anne-Sophie Mutter is a musical celebrity known even by countless people who rarely listen to classical music. The artist and teacher, who promotes young musicians and commissions new works from contemporary composers, made her spectacular breakthrough under Herbert von Karajan at the 1977 Salzburg Easter Festival. She has since concertized at every major venue throughout the world. In 2008 she was awarded not only the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music Award, but also the Leipzig Mendelssohn Award. The award ceremony in March 2008 was crowned by a gala concert at Leipzig's Gewandhaus with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Kurt Masur, at which Mutter performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor Op. 64 presented here.
Mutter has performed the Violin Concerto several times in her career. Joining her in Mendelssohn's Violin Sonata is pianist Andre Previn, who is also an internationally renowned conductor and composer. Previn accompanied Mutter in several Mozart Trios that are part of her "Mozart Project." He and cellist Lynn Harrell now interpret the D minor Trio with her. This is a stunning anthology of chamber and orchestral music from one of the most vibrant composers of the early Romantic Era, performed by top artists of today!
Mutter has performed the Violin Concerto several times in her career. Joining her in Mendelssohn's Violin Sonata is pianist Andre Previn, who is also an internationally renowned conductor and composer. Previn accompanied Mutter in several Mozart Trios that are part of her "Mozart Project." He and cellist Lynn Harrell now interpret the D minor Trio with her. This is a stunning anthology of chamber and orchestral music from one of the most vibrant composers of the early Romantic Era, performed by top artists of today!
Once upon a time there was a king who took great delight in the melody of a little bird outside his window. Then, as winter came, the bird disappeared and the king grew melancholy. Three brave men set out to find one that could sing "the most beautiful song." Did they succeed? What begins as an enchanting fairy tale turns into exciting reality in this documentary on the first edition of baritone Thomas Quasthoff's new international song competition for young singers, Das Lied. With the fairy tale gently articulating the course of the competition, the film sweeps the viewer away on a thrilling "search for singers." Thomas Quasthoff founded this contest to ensure that the Lied, which the baritone calls "the most beautiful form of music making," continues to hold its place in the concert repertoire of the future.
The film accompanies some of the young singers during the competition's three rounds, providing a showcase not only for beautiful voices and poignant Lieder, but also, and above all, for emotions. The hopes and disappointments, the joys and doubts, the tension and exhilaration of the young singers are all captured on film. And it soon emerges that the contest is as stimulating and galvanizing for the jurors as it is for the contestants! Excerpts from the closing gala...
The film accompanies some of the young singers during the competition's three rounds, providing a showcase not only for beautiful voices and poignant Lieder, but also, and above all, for emotions. The hopes and disappointments, the joys and doubts, the tension and exhilaration of the young singers are all captured on film. And it soon emerges that the contest is as stimulating and galvanizing for the jurors as it is for the contestants! Excerpts from the closing gala...
Once upon a time there was a king who took great delight in the melody of a little bird outside his window. Then, as winter came, the bird disappeared and the king grew melancholy. Three brave men set out to find one that could sing "the most beautiful song." Did they succeed? What begins as an enchanting fairy tale turns into exciting reality in this documentary on the first edition of baritone Thomas Quasthoff's new international song competition for young singers, Das Lied. With the fairy tale gently articulating the course of the competition, the film sweeps the viewer away on a thrilling "search for singers." Thomas Quasthoff founded this contest to ensure that the Lied, which the baritone calls "the most beautiful form of music making." continues to hold its place in the concert repertoire of the future.
The film accompanies some of the young singers during the competition's three rounds, providing a showcase not only for beautiful voices and poignant Lieder, but also, and above all, for emotions. The hopes and disappointments, the joys and doubts, the tension and exhilaration of the young singers are all captured on film. And it soon emerges that the contest is as stimulating and galvanizing for the jurors as it is for the contestants! Excerpts from the closing gala...
The film accompanies some of the young singers during the competition's three rounds, providing a showcase not only for beautiful voices and poignant Lieder, but also, and above all, for emotions. The hopes and disappointments, the joys and doubts, the tension and exhilaration of the young singers are all captured on film. And it soon emerges that the contest is as stimulating and galvanizing for the jurors as it is for the contestants! Excerpts from the closing gala...
The most spectacular homage to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on his 250th birthday in 2006 was incontestably the presentation of all of his operas and operatic fragments at the Salzburg Festival, "Mozart 22." Recorded on film, this monumental project has been preserved for posterity as a benchmark of Mozart interpretation in the early 21st century. The Mozart Gala held at the Felsenreitschule on 30 July 2006, in the first days of the 2006 Salzburg Festival, presents a kind of microcosm of the Mozart festivities, with a selection of arias and orchestral music performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under Daniel Harding and featuring some of the top vocalists of the 2006 Salzburg Festival.
A sampling of exquisite hors d'oeuvres prepared by the most outstanding musical chefs! Internationally celebrated soprano Anna Netrebko lives up to her reputation as a fiery, dramatic diva in her passionate rendition of Elettra's aria "D'Oreste, d'Aiace" from Idomeneo. Thomas Hampson, one of the greatest baritones of our time, burnishes Guglielmo's aria "Rivolgete a lui lo sguardo" from Cosi fan tutte with his full, rich, mellow tone. Leading Mozart tenor Michael Schade appears twice, in arias from Don Giovanni and La clemenza di Tito. A particularly bright moment awaits listeners when Rene...
A sampling of exquisite hors d'oeuvres prepared by the most outstanding musical chefs! Internationally celebrated soprano Anna Netrebko lives up to her reputation as a fiery, dramatic diva in her passionate rendition of Elettra's aria "D'Oreste, d'Aiace" from Idomeneo. Thomas Hampson, one of the greatest baritones of our time, burnishes Guglielmo's aria "Rivolgete a lui lo sguardo" from Cosi fan tutte with his full, rich, mellow tone. Leading Mozart tenor Michael Schade appears twice, in arias from Don Giovanni and La clemenza di Tito. A particularly bright moment awaits listeners when Rene...
The great Russian pianist Emil Gilels was universally acclaimed for his breathtaking performances of the most demanding concertos and most challenging pieces of piano literature. But he was also a master of the miniature form, and his interpretations of Songs Without Words and other little pieces by Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chopin, Grieg and others were nothing short of mesmerizing. A specialist of the German repertoire, Gilels gave an all German-Austrian program at the 1971 Carinthian Summer Festival in Austria, where Mozart's Variations were recorded.
Mozart was eleven years old when he wrote Apollo et Hyacinthus, K. 38 and Die Schuldigkeit desersten Gebots (The Obligation to Observe the First Commandment), K. 35 in 1767. Their brevity and contemporaneity made it seem fitting to entrust them to one director for their stage interpretations within the Mozart 22 project. John Dew, known and admired for his rediscoveries of long-neglected works and his highly imaginative productions, has created a semi-ironic framework that ideally suits the two little pieces. They are given a graceful musical accompaniment by the Symphony Orchestra of the Mozarteum University.
Apollo et Hyacinthus is Mozart's very first operatic venture and was commissioned soon after the successful performance of Schuldigkeit . "Apollo" is a Latin intermezzo that was intended as an insert between the prologue and the five-act school drama "Clementia Croesi." Curiously, it already contains many of the themes that would recur in Mozart's later operas: disguise, intrigue, transformation, self-discovery. The plot concerns Zephyrus' love for Melia, who is about to marry Apollo. In his jealousy, Zephyrus gravely wounds Hyacinthus with a discus and, to have Apollo banished, accuses Apollo of murder. Apollo, who saw Zephyrus throw the discus, turns the true...
Apollo et Hyacinthus is Mozart's very first operatic venture and was commissioned soon after the successful performance of Schuldigkeit . "Apollo" is a Latin intermezzo that was intended as an insert between the prologue and the five-act school drama "Clementia Croesi." Curiously, it already contains many of the themes that would recur in Mozart's later operas: disguise, intrigue, transformation, self-discovery. The plot concerns Zephyrus' love for Melia, who is about to marry Apollo. In his jealousy, Zephyrus gravely wounds Hyacinthus with a discus and, to have Apollo banished, accuses Apollo of murder. Apollo, who saw Zephyrus throw the discus, turns the true...
Ascanio in Alba, K. 111 came about through the good offices of Count Firmian, who had shared the Milan audience's enthusiasm for Mitridate and exerted his influence on the Empress in Vienna. He suggested entrusting the young Mozart with the composition of a festa teatrale for the wedding of the Empress's son, Archduke Ferdinand, and Maria Beatrice d'Este of Modena. Mozart began working on the score in late August 1771. Tailor-made for the royal wedding, the work's main function was to portray the members of the Habsburg wedding party as generous, kindly rulers and virtuous heroes. For the creative team of the production shown at the Salzburg Festival but originating at the Nationaltheater Mannheim, this specificity proved to be a rewarding challenge. Since the audience had no pre-formulated expectations with Ascanio in Alba, K. 111 , director David Hermann and his stage and costume designer Christof Hetzer sought to draw out of this unknown opera the elements that are of particular interest to us today.
Bastien und Bastienne takes up the plot of the little French opera Le devin du village (The Village Soothsayer) by the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The "soothsayer" Colas, a wise old shepherd, advises the unhappy shepherdess Bastienne to secure the love of the fickle Bastien by arousing his jealousy. The despairing Bastien then also seeks advice from Colas, who pretends to use magic to bring the two lovers together again. Der Schauspieldirektor revolves around an impresario's problems in assembling a group of singers for a performance.
With Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Die Zauberflöte, Mozart made immortal contributions to the genre of the German Singspiel - German-language opera with spoken dialogues. But in the course of his career, Mozart also wrote two short German-language works that are different in musical craftsmanship, but both utterly delightful: Bastien und Bastienne, K. 50 , one of Mozart's earliest dramatic works, and Der Schauspieldirektor (The Impresario), K. 486 , a mature work written at the same time as Le nozze di Figaro.
Entrusting the two operas to the world-famous Salzburg Marionette Theater for the Mozart 22 cycle was perfectly natural, especially since Bastien und Bastienne was the very first work staged by this theater...
With Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Die Zauberflöte, Mozart made immortal contributions to the genre of the German Singspiel - German-language opera with spoken dialogues. But in the course of his career, Mozart also wrote two short German-language works that are different in musical craftsmanship, but both utterly delightful: Bastien und Bastienne, K. 50 , one of Mozart's earliest dramatic works, and Der Schauspieldirektor (The Impresario), K. 486 , a mature work written at the same time as Le nozze di Figaro.
Entrusting the two operas to the world-famous Salzburg Marionette Theater for the Mozart 22 cycle was perfectly natural, especially since Bastien und Bastienne was the very first work staged by this theater...
The Slovakian soprano Luba Orgonasova sings at all the major opera houses of the world and numbers among the most sought-after interpreters of the lyrical and coloratura parts of opera and concert literature. She was one of the last discoveries of Herbert von Karajan: she sang the part of Marzelline (Fidelio) at the Salzburg Festival in 1990, which marked the beginning of her rapid rise to celebrity. The Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg has been the orchestra of the city and Land of Salzburg since 1958 and regularly concertizes at the Salzburg Festival and the Mozartwoche. The principal conductor is the Dutch-born Hubert Soudant, who led the Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique de France in Paris from 1981 to 1983 and the Utrecht Symphony Orchestra from 1983 to 1986. In addition to his activities in Salzburg, Soudant is also the principal conductor of the Orchestra and Opera des Pays de Loire in Nantes and Angers, France.
Written in spring 1771, Betulia Liberata is an azione sacra, a sacred play in the style of the Italian oratorio. The libretto takes up the well-known biblical story of Judith and Holofernes. The Assyrian general and dictator is laying siege to the Jewish town of Betulia. He has the town surrounded and its water supplies cut off. While the Prince of Betulia, Ozias, and religious leaders discuss what to do, the widow Judith decides to act: she boldly strides into the enemy camp, where she wins Holofernes' trust, arouses his senses and cuts off his head.
As befits an oratorio, the Salzburg production of Betulia Liberata is a semi-staged concert performance. The incisive playing of the Munich Chamber Orchestra under its early-music-inspired conductor Christoph Poppen provides the dynamic basis for the homogeneous cast headed by Jeremy Ovenden as Ozias, a demanding tenor part sung with nimble bravura, Marjana Mijanovic as a darkly hued and sensual Judith, Franz-Josef Selig as a profound Alchior and Julia Kleiter as a luminous Amital. Noteworthy is the rousing vitality of the Chorus of the Vienna State Opera.
As befits an oratorio, the Salzburg production of Betulia Liberata is a semi-staged concert performance. The incisive playing of the Munich Chamber Orchestra under its early-music-inspired conductor Christoph Poppen provides the dynamic basis for the homogeneous cast headed by Jeremy Ovenden as Ozias, a demanding tenor part sung with nimble bravura, Marjana Mijanovic as a darkly hued and sensual Judith, Franz-Josef Selig as a profound Alchior and Julia Kleiter as a luminous Amital. Noteworthy is the rousing vitality of the Chorus of the Vienna State Opera.
Don Alfonso is convinced that the sweethearts of the two soldiers Ferrando and Guglielmo, Dorabella and Fiordiligi, would be unfaithful to them, given the opportunity. The two soldiers are convinced otherwise and bet with him. With the help of the young ladies' maid Despina, Alfonso devises an elaborate scheme to make the two young women believe their lovers have gone off to the army. Then he brings back the two young men, now disguised as "Albanians." Dorabella and Fiordiligi are smitten, and soon fall in love with the handsome strangers, but not with the "right" ones.
In their light-footed, witty and poetic staging, the Herrmanns took advantage of the wide stage of the Grosses Festspielhaus to create a luminous and elegantly minimalist landscape dotted with a few sparing but stylish props. The lovers are portrayed with verve and compelling emotional confusion by Ana María Martinez (Fiordiligi) and Sophie Koch (Dorabella) as the two sisters, and Stéphane Degout (Guglielmo) and Shawn Mathey (Ferrando) as the cocky soldiers who learn that lying isn't the best way to find out the truth. Thomas Allen (Don Alfonso) and the great Helen Donath (Despina) add their incomparable stage presence to the action. Conductor Manfred Honeck entices a wondrous delicacy and tenderness from the...
In their light-footed, witty and poetic staging, the Herrmanns took advantage of the wide stage of the Grosses Festspielhaus to create a luminous and elegantly minimalist landscape dotted with a few sparing but stylish props. The lovers are portrayed with verve and compelling emotional confusion by Ana María Martinez (Fiordiligi) and Sophie Koch (Dorabella) as the two sisters, and Stéphane Degout (Guglielmo) and Shawn Mathey (Ferrando) as the cocky soldiers who learn that lying isn't the best way to find out the truth. Thomas Allen (Don Alfonso) and the great Helen Donath (Despina) add their incomparable stage presence to the action. Conductor Manfred Honeck entices a wondrous delicacy and tenderness from the...
Director Claus Guth's production of Mozart's da Ponte trilogy for the
Salzburg Festival reaches its sensational conclusion with his elegant,
stylish production from the "Haus für Mozart". Guth bolsters the unity of the cycle by making ingenious reference to his stagings of the first two works, Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni . His widely acclaimed production of the trilogy, which began in the Mozart Year 2006, consolidates Guth's international reputation as one of the most sought-after stage directors of our time. Among his other major successes are Der fliegende Hollander in Bayreuth and Luisa Miller at the Bavarian State Opera.
Guth assembles a superb ensemble of young singers who toy with love and trust under the cynical gaze of "ringmaster" Bo Skovhus' Don Alfonso and his foxy, temperamental sidekick Despina, played by fiery young soprano Patricia Petitbon. Baritone Florian Boesch and tenor Topi Lehtipuu ideally complement their frisky partners Miah Persson and Isabel Leonard. Conductor Adam Fischer keeps the tempi brisk and the Wiener Philharmoniker on their toes in his layered reading of the score. "Uno spettacolo superbo", wrote the Corriere della Sera.
Salzburg Festival reaches its sensational conclusion with his elegant,
stylish production from the "Haus für Mozart". Guth bolsters the unity of the cycle by making ingenious reference to his stagings of the first two works, Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni . His widely acclaimed production of the trilogy, which began in the Mozart Year 2006, consolidates Guth's international reputation as one of the most sought-after stage directors of our time. Among his other major successes are Der fliegende Hollander in Bayreuth and Luisa Miller at the Bavarian State Opera.
Guth assembles a superb ensemble of young singers who toy with love and trust under the cynical gaze of "ringmaster" Bo Skovhus' Don Alfonso and his foxy, temperamental sidekick Despina, played by fiery young soprano Patricia Petitbon. Baritone Florian Boesch and tenor Topi Lehtipuu ideally complement their frisky partners Miah Persson and Isabel Leonard. Conductor Adam Fischer keeps the tempi brisk and the Wiener Philharmoniker on their toes in his layered reading of the score. "Uno spettacolo superbo", wrote the Corriere della Sera.
Filmed at the 1954 Salzburg Festival, this restored and technically enhanced recording of Don Giovanni is more than simply a superb performance of one of the world's most lastingly popular operas with an exquisite cast led by Cesare Siepi, Elisabeth Grummer and Lisa della Casa. It is the last visual document of Wilhelm Furtwangler's art, the legacy of a great conductor. A giant among 20th-century conductors, Wilhelm Furtwangler was associated for many years with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. After the war, he discovered a new, exceptionally rewarding venue for his artistry at the Salzburg Festival. Beginning with Fidelio in 1948, Furtwangler ushered in a golden age of memorable performances in Salzburg.
Il dissoluto punito, ossia Il Don Giovanni is the full title of the opera that is widely held to be the most perfect work of its genre. Luckily, it is known today merely as Don Giovanni , a title that far better evokes the hero in all of his seductive power, his disregard for the social order, his merry wantonness. It is this hero who fascinated Mozart, not the "dissolute punito" - the "rake punished" - who harks back to the morals and conventions of the late 18th century.
As sung by baritone Thomas Hampson, who made his international breakthrough as Don Giovanni under Harnoncourt in 1987, the title hero superbly incarnates the aging rake and emotional anarchist who's seen and done everything. Ildebrando D'Arcangelo plays his servant without exaggeration, as an astute observer. While Melanie Diener dazzles as Donna Elvira, it is Christine Schafer and Piotr Beczala who, with their powerful stage presence, give exceptionally unforgettable performances as Donna Anna and Don Ottavio.
Director Martin Kusej interprets Don Giovanni with compelling images that cast the rake as a child of today's consumer society, a man who acquires women, uses them and disposes of them after consumption. Happiness can be bought - but the specter of retribution is never far away, as in the...
As sung by baritone Thomas Hampson, who made his international breakthrough as Don Giovanni under Harnoncourt in 1987, the title hero superbly incarnates the aging rake and emotional anarchist who's seen and done everything. Ildebrando D'Arcangelo plays his servant without exaggeration, as an astute observer. While Melanie Diener dazzles as Donna Elvira, it is Christine Schafer and Piotr Beczala who, with their powerful stage presence, give exceptionally unforgettable performances as Donna Anna and Don Ottavio.
Director Martin Kusej interprets Don Giovanni with compelling images that cast the rake as a child of today's consumer society, a man who acquires women, uses them and disposes of them after consumption. Happiness can be bought - but the specter of retribution is never far away, as in the...
Wild animals live in the woods. Robbers hide there. Mystery is at home there. And, when the woods are on the stage of Salzburg's Haus fur Mozart, a notorious ladies' man and his unsavory accomplice can also find shelter there. For here, in the dense forest planted by director Claus Guth, is the home of the rugged macho Don Giovanni, who, assisted by Leporello, lures the ladies with the heady scent of danger. In Guth's almost cinematic Salzburg Festival production, every character in Mozart's most realistic opera seems to carry a back-story of thwarted love and frustration. Everyone appears to be seeking either salvation or damnation in the woods – a compelling concept that removes the opera from its traditional pseudo-Seville squares and palaces.
Don Giovanni is played by Christopher Maltman. Donna Anna, played by Annette Dasch, Donna Elvira by Dorothea Roschmann and Zerlina by Ekaterina Siurina. With a physique as striking as his full-bodied baritone voice, Maltman embodies Don Giovanni as an almost reluctant seducer, a man fated to bring misery to women and, ultimately, to himself. Next to Maltman, it is Uruguayan bass-baritone Erwin Schrott who rivets the audience in this production: "Schrott's Leporello is an event in his own right, the event of the Salzburg Don...
Don Giovanni is played by Christopher Maltman. Donna Anna, played by Annette Dasch, Donna Elvira by Dorothea Roschmann and Zerlina by Ekaterina Siurina. With a physique as striking as his full-bodied baritone voice, Maltman embodies Don Giovanni as an almost reluctant seducer, a man fated to bring misery to women and, ultimately, to himself. Next to Maltman, it is Uruguayan bass-baritone Erwin Schrott who rivets the audience in this production: "Schrott's Leporello is an event in his own right, the event of the Salzburg Don...
The plot couldn't be simpler: the Spanish nobleman Belmonte must free his fiancee Konstanze, her English maid Blonde and Belmonte's servant Pedrillo from the clutches of the Turkish Bassa, or Pasha, Selim. Belmonte must sneak into the pasha's seraglio and sneak back out again, all the while eluding and outsmarting Osmin, the overseer of the harem. With his Salzburg production of 2003, young Norwegian director Stefan Herheim raised a storm of controversy that continued to crackle in 2006, when the production was revised for the Mozart 22 cycle.
Giving powerful accounts of their difficult roles is a top-notch cast dominated by Laura Aikin as Konstanze and Charles Castronovo as Belmonte. With her elegiac Andante arias, Aikin is an oasis of calm and nobility. Castronovo suggests his own vulnerability with his wonderfully lyrical timbre. At the head of the Mozarteum Orchestra, Ivor Bolton once again confirms his reputation as a dynamic and sensitive interpreter of Baroque and Classical operas. The clarity and wisdom of his music-making provide an astute contrast to the turbulent activity on stage. Indeed, the marriage of orchestra and voices evokes the image of the stage of life: on the surface, everything is in motion; below, order rules - but it is an order that is often lost in...
Giving powerful accounts of their difficult roles is a top-notch cast dominated by Laura Aikin as Konstanze and Charles Castronovo as Belmonte. With her elegiac Andante arias, Aikin is an oasis of calm and nobility. Castronovo suggests his own vulnerability with his wonderfully lyrical timbre. At the head of the Mozarteum Orchestra, Ivor Bolton once again confirms his reputation as a dynamic and sensitive interpreter of Baroque and Classical operas. The clarity and wisdom of his music-making provide an astute contrast to the turbulent activity on stage. Indeed, the marriage of orchestra and voices evokes the image of the stage of life: on the surface, everything is in motion; below, order rules - but it is an order that is often lost in...
Luba Orgonasova hails from Slovakia and sings at all the major opera houses of the world. She is one of the most sought-after interpreters of the lyrical and coloratura parts of opera and concert literature. She was one of Herbert von Karajan's last discoveries: in 1990 she sang the part of Marzelline (Fidelio) at the Salzburg Festival – a role that marked the beginning of her meteoric career.
The Dutch musician Ton Koopman was born in 1944 and ranks among the outstanding specialists in the field of historical performance practice. He studied organ, harpsichord and musicology in Amsterdam and turned to conducting during his training. From the very beginning, he used original instruments and combined theory and practice into a fascinating, historically well-founded interpretation of the works. In 1979 he founded the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. He is the principal conductor of the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra. As a performing artist and teacher, Koopman has made decisive contributions to the renaissance of the music of the 17th and 18th centuries. He has published many books and articles, teaches at the Conservatory of The Hague and is an honorary member of the Royal Music Academy in London. The Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg goes back to the Dom-Musik-Verein und...
The Dutch musician Ton Koopman was born in 1944 and ranks among the outstanding specialists in the field of historical performance practice. He studied organ, harpsichord and musicology in Amsterdam and turned to conducting during his training. From the very beginning, he used original instruments and combined theory and practice into a fascinating, historically well-founded interpretation of the works. In 1979 he founded the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. He is the principal conductor of the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra. As a performing artist and teacher, Koopman has made decisive contributions to the renaissance of the music of the 17th and 18th centuries. He has published many books and articles, teaches at the Conservatory of The Hague and is an honorary member of the Royal Music Academy in London. The Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg goes back to the Dom-Musik-Verein und...
The great Russian pianist Emil Gilels was universally acclaimed for his breathtaking performances of the most demanding concertos and most challenging pieces of piano literature. But he was also a master of the miniature form, and his interpretations of Songs Without Words and other little pieces by Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chopin, Grieg and others were nothing short of mesmerizing. A specialist of the German repertoire, Gilels gave an all German-Austrian program at the 1971 Carinthian Summer Festival in Austria, where Mozart's D minor Fantasy was recorded.
Belfiore believes he has killed his betrothed, Violante, in a fit of
jealousy. He flees in panic - which does not prevent him from falling for Arminda, who then spurns her admirer Ramiro in favor of Belfiore. Violante, meanwhile, searches for her lover with her servant Roberto. Under a false name, she takes a post as gardener on the estate of Don Anchise; her servant passes himself off as her cousin. While Anchise pursues Violante, Roberto romances the maid. The labyrinth of pursuit and deception becomes completely entangled when Belfiore, his new conquest Arminda and her persistent admirer Ramiro turn up on the estate...
The Mozart 22 production of La finta giardiniera was placed in the hands of Doris Dorrie, a noted filmmaker and, more recently, director of controversial opera productions. Asked why she set the work in a garden center, Dorrie replied: "It's a market of emotions! The plants represent feelings, the garden is our little paradise. We all have the same dream, which is why we buy so much equipment, chemicals, even weapons to keep our garden under control. It must be kept in its boundaries, for just as an uncontrolled garden can mutate into a wild jungle, so can uncontrolled emotions, proliferating like wild plants, become dangerous to us."
The rousing...
jealousy. He flees in panic - which does not prevent him from falling for Arminda, who then spurns her admirer Ramiro in favor of Belfiore. Violante, meanwhile, searches for her lover with her servant Roberto. Under a false name, she takes a post as gardener on the estate of Don Anchise; her servant passes himself off as her cousin. While Anchise pursues Violante, Roberto romances the maid. The labyrinth of pursuit and deception becomes completely entangled when Belfiore, his new conquest Arminda and her persistent admirer Ramiro turn up on the estate...
The Mozart 22 production of La finta giardiniera was placed in the hands of Doris Dorrie, a noted filmmaker and, more recently, director of controversial opera productions. Asked why she set the work in a garden center, Dorrie replied: "It's a market of emotions! The plants represent feelings, the garden is our little paradise. We all have the same dream, which is why we buy so much equipment, chemicals, even weapons to keep our garden under control. It must be kept in its boundaries, for just as an uncontrolled garden can mutate into a wild jungle, so can uncontrolled emotions, proliferating like wild plants, become dangerous to us."
The rousing...
Munich's court theater was the venue for the premiere of Mozart’s Idomeneo on 29 January 1781; today, it hosts another premiere of this same work, now to celebrate the reopening of this sparkling Rococo gem of a theater, now known after its architect as the Cuvilliés Theater. Restored at the cost of over 25 million euros, the theater provides an exultant red, gold and white setting for Mozart's opera seria, which is considered as the first of the seven uncontested masterworks of Mozart's dramatic oeuvre.
Drama keynotes Idomeneo, which is drenched in endless despair, the constant threat of death, and the destructive passions of jealousy and hatred. For having saved his life, King Idomeneo promises Neptune to sacrifice the first person he encounters. Unfortunately, this happens to be his son Idamante, who is torn between two women: the Trojan Princess Ilia, whom he loves, and the Greek Princess Elettra, who desperately wants to marry him and ascend the throne.
Mozart's highly expressive music is given a passionate reading by conductor Kent Nagano, who leads his singers and players with brisk energy. The dark, full sound of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester provides lush underpinnings for the bravura arias and glittering coloraturas. In the title role, John Mark...
Drama keynotes Idomeneo, which is drenched in endless despair, the constant threat of death, and the destructive passions of jealousy and hatred. For having saved his life, King Idomeneo promises Neptune to sacrifice the first person he encounters. Unfortunately, this happens to be his son Idamante, who is torn between two women: the Trojan Princess Ilia, whom he loves, and the Greek Princess Elettra, who desperately wants to marry him and ascend the throne.
Mozart's highly expressive music is given a passionate reading by conductor Kent Nagano, who leads his singers and players with brisk energy. The dark, full sound of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester provides lush underpinnings for the bravura arias and glittering coloraturas. In the title role, John Mark...
Written for the court of Munich in 1780/81, Idomeneo is often regarded as the first of the seven undisputed masterworks in Mozart's dramatic oeuvre. Never before had he cast such bold, impassioned music into a dramatic form or devised such a well-calibrated dramaturgy. Was it the plot that drove Mozart to such extremes of expressive power? The story evokes countless other opera seria subjects: King Idomeneo has promised to sacrifice to Neptune the first person he meets if he is saved from shipwreck; this turns out to be his son Idamante, who stands between two women, the Trojan Princess Ilia, whom he loves, and the Greek princess Elettra, who loves him. Four people on the edge of the abyss, drawn together by passion, torn apart by reasons of state...
Such an extraordinary work deserves an exceptional interpretation. And this is ensured by Sir Roger Norrington and the Camerata Salzburg playing on an "island" (the action unfolds on Crete) surrounded by narrow ramps on which the singers, literally "on the edge of the abyss," pace about in search of one another, of love, of redemption... Simplicity and elegance stamp both the production of Ursel and Karl-Ernst Herrmann, and the playing of the Camerata Salzburg. Norrington entices entire catalogues of nuances from his players,...
Such an extraordinary work deserves an exceptional interpretation. And this is ensured by Sir Roger Norrington and the Camerata Salzburg playing on an "island" (the action unfolds on Crete) surrounded by narrow ramps on which the singers, literally "on the edge of the abyss," pace about in search of one another, of love, of redemption... Simplicity and elegance stamp both the production of Ursel and Karl-Ernst Herrmann, and the playing of the Camerata Salzburg. Norrington entices entire catalogues of nuances from his players,...
The Irrfahrten (Odysseys) trilogy comprises three independent, self-contained performances that are motivically interwoven into a compelling whole through a great variety of references. Various artistic genres - music, theater, dance and video - are fused into an original form of music theater that could very well point to the future. The trilogy was conceived by Joachim Schlömer, a noted dancer, choreographer and director. He sees his project as the "odyssey of an artist from external control to self-determination" (Schlömer). This concerns not only Mozart himself, but also the artist in general, and, by extension, everyone who has overcome a crisis in their life to achieve their personal freedom.
At the beginning of the trilogy is the twelve-year-old Mozart's first opera buffa, La finta semplice (The Make-Believe Simpleton), a full-length opera with commedia dell'arte-style characters. "The music," says Schlömer, "tells of wanting something - even if the characters still don't really know what they want." The second Odyssey, Abendempfindung (Evening Sensation), a pasticcio of Mozart arias, songs, instrumental pieces (including some for the rare and evocative glass harmonica) and letters. The great Ann Murray is the featured performer here. The third Odyssey, Rex...
At the beginning of the trilogy is the twelve-year-old Mozart's first opera buffa, La finta semplice (The Make-Believe Simpleton), a full-length opera with commedia dell'arte-style characters. "The music," says Schlömer, "tells of wanting something - even if the characters still don't really know what they want." The second Odyssey, Abendempfindung (Evening Sensation), a pasticcio of Mozart arias, songs, instrumental pieces (including some for the rare and evocative glass harmonica) and letters. The great Ann Murray is the featured performer here. The third Odyssey, Rex...
Following the success of his Mitridate, Mozart received another commission to write an opera for Milan, a dramma per musica in three acts. He began working on Lucio Silla in late 1772, while on his third trip to Italy. Although the rehearsals were fraught with problems caused by recalcitrant singers, the work was nevertheless given 26 performances to full houses. Yet despite this success, Lucio Silla was the last opera Mozart wrote for Italy.
"I see it as a kind of political thriller, the story of a plot against an inhuman regime. [...] Lucio Silla is, in my opinion, one of the few truly political pieces by Mozart." Director Jürgen Flimm conceived his production accordingly, delivering a taut and often breathtakingly raw interpretation of the story of the dictator Lucio Silla. Although the action unfolds in ancient Rome, Flimm has transposed it to Mozart's day, when absolutistic monarchs still held sway over Europe.
Coveting the betrothed of the senator Cecilio, the dictator Silla exiles the senator and declares him dead. Giunia, however, wards off Silla's advances and is happily reunited with Cecilio when he secretly returns. But Silla refuses to yield and tries to force Giunia to give herself to him. She refuses once, she refuses twice... Then Silla publicly...
"I see it as a kind of political thriller, the story of a plot against an inhuman regime. [...] Lucio Silla is, in my opinion, one of the few truly political pieces by Mozart." Director Jürgen Flimm conceived his production accordingly, delivering a taut and often breathtakingly raw interpretation of the story of the dictator Lucio Silla. Although the action unfolds in ancient Rome, Flimm has transposed it to Mozart's day, when absolutistic monarchs still held sway over Europe.
Coveting the betrothed of the senator Cecilio, the dictator Silla exiles the senator and declares him dead. Giunia, however, wards off Silla's advances and is happily reunited with Cecilio when he secretly returns. But Silla refuses to yield and tries to force Giunia to give herself to him. She refuses once, she refuses twice... Then Silla publicly...
Karl Bohm heads the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in this performance of the Minuet, K. 409, written in Vienna towards 1782. It was presumably composed for a performance of the Symphony in C major, K. 338 in Vienna's Augarten in May 1782. Let us recall that the autograph of the Symphony, K. 338, written in Salzburg, contained only the beginning of a minuet, which was then crossed out. The more progressive Viennese public preferred four-movement works, which might explain the origin of this minuet, one of Mozart's most imaginative and beguiling.
Karl Bohm was universally acclaimed for his Mozart interpretations. Though Wagner was one of Bohm's first loves, his friendship with Richard Strauss led to a deep knowledge and appreciation of Mozart. In his autobiography, Bohm wrote that "Richard Strauss revealed to me the ultimate secrets of this, in my opinion, greatest of all musical geniuses, Mozart." Bohm's discovery of these secrets transformed his Mozart interpretations into unforgettable events.
Karl Bohm was universally acclaimed for his Mozart interpretations. Though Wagner was one of Bohm's first loves, his friendship with Richard Strauss led to a deep knowledge and appreciation of Mozart. In his autobiography, Bohm wrote that "Richard Strauss revealed to me the ultimate secrets of this, in my opinion, greatest of all musical geniuses, Mozart." Bohm's discovery of these secrets transformed his Mozart interpretations into unforgettable events.
Widely acclaimed as one of the absolute top productions of the Mozart 22 cycle in Salzburg, Mitridate has everything going for it. It is a wild story of erotic desire, jealousy, intrigue and betrayal; a dramatically focused staging that does full justice to the conflicted relations; a cast of singers who are all of the highest caliber; and a sensational musical ensemble led by a singularly powerful and charismatic conductor.
Indeed, the real star of this production is conductor Marc Minkowski, who is famed for his recordings of Baroque music with his ensemble Les Musiciens du Louvre - Grenoble, who also play on this recording. It is nothing less than phenomenal how Minkowski storms into the score and unleashes raw emotions encompassing everything from happiness and tenderness to madness and murderous jealousy. As he plumbs the depths of this music, he carries his singers on his orchestra's richly nuanced fabric, whips them along impetuously, and envelops them in opulent sounds.
In stage director Günter Krämer and his set designer Jürgen Bäckmann, Minkowski found partners on a par with his vibrant talent. Through cleverly placed mirrors, Krämer reveals what's going on "behind the scenes" at the same time that we see what is occurring before our eyes - a breathtaking...
Indeed, the real star of this production is conductor Marc Minkowski, who is famed for his recordings of Baroque music with his ensemble Les Musiciens du Louvre - Grenoble, who also play on this recording. It is nothing less than phenomenal how Minkowski storms into the score and unleashes raw emotions encompassing everything from happiness and tenderness to madness and murderous jealousy. As he plumbs the depths of this music, he carries his singers on his orchestra's richly nuanced fabric, whips them along impetuously, and envelops them in opulent sounds.
In stage director Günter Krämer and his set designer Jürgen Bäckmann, Minkowski found partners on a par with his vibrant talent. Through cleverly placed mirrors, Krämer reveals what's going on "behind the scenes" at the same time that we see what is occurring before our eyes - a breathtaking...
Anna Netrebko, Christine Schäfer, Dorothea Röschmann, Bo Skovhus and Ildebrando D'Arcangelo under the direction of Nikolaus Harnoncourt and accompanied by the Vienna Philharmonic - this Marriage of Figaro is a feast for musical gourmets. Of all the Mozart 22 productions of the Salzburg Festival's Mozart year 2006, Figaro is no doubt the most popular, both among connoisseurs and amateurs - perhaps because it is above all a triumph of superior music-making.
The story is well-known, the work is fast-moving, witty, touching and vibrant. Based on a politically and socially explosive comedy by Beaumarchais, but toned down by Mozart's librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, it treats the topic of love, lust and justice among the various classes: nobility, indentured servants and the rising bourgeoisie. The joy of the work lies above all in its characters, which are perhaps the most "human" human beings to be found on the opera stage.
Harnoncourt's musical concept is meticulously worked-out, interpreted with a wealth of subtle nuances and, with respect to the madness of the romantic intrigues unfolding on the stage, nothing less than thought-provoking. Director Claus Guth's staging fits the music like a glove: there are no farcical elements or slapstick; he takes each and every character...
The story is well-known, the work is fast-moving, witty, touching and vibrant. Based on a politically and socially explosive comedy by Beaumarchais, but toned down by Mozart's librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, it treats the topic of love, lust and justice among the various classes: nobility, indentured servants and the rising bourgeoisie. The joy of the work lies above all in its characters, which are perhaps the most "human" human beings to be found on the opera stage.
Harnoncourt's musical concept is meticulously worked-out, interpreted with a wealth of subtle nuances and, with respect to the madness of the romantic intrigues unfolding on the stage, nothing less than thought-provoking. Director Claus Guth's staging fits the music like a glove: there are no farcical elements or slapstick; he takes each and every character...
When Anne-Sophie Mutter says that Mozart wrote his trios for violin, violoncello and piano for his own enjoyment, then this is not merely a conclusion derived from the artist's own pleasure in playing these works with talented colleagues. Mozart himself, in a letter of June 1788 to his friend Michael Puchberg, added this postscript: "When are we to have a little musical party at your house again? I have composed a new trio!" He was referring to the Piano Trio in E major, K. 542.
All three trios on this recording are not only late works, but were also published together in 1788, lending weight to the claim that they are the three finest and most exemplary works in this genre by Mozart. In the earliest of the three, K. 502, Mozart broke through the traditional predominance of the piano to give equal weight to the strings, whereby the violin is given ample opportunity to display the soloist's bravura.
The Trios K. 542 and 548 were both written in the astonishingly fruitful summer of 1788, during which Mozart wrote the great trilogy of his last symphonies. They show Mozart at the very height of his powers. Proof that Mozart thought highly of K. 542 emerges in the fact that he played it at the court of Dresden in 1789 when he was seeking an appointment there. Finally, K. 548 in C...
All three trios on this recording are not only late works, but were also published together in 1788, lending weight to the claim that they are the three finest and most exemplary works in this genre by Mozart. In the earliest of the three, K. 502, Mozart broke through the traditional predominance of the piano to give equal weight to the strings, whereby the violin is given ample opportunity to display the soloist's bravura.
The Trios K. 542 and 548 were both written in the astonishingly fruitful summer of 1788, during which Mozart wrote the great trilogy of his last symphonies. They show Mozart at the very height of his powers. Proof that Mozart thought highly of K. 542 emerges in the fact that he played it at the court of Dresden in 1789 when he was seeking an appointment there. Finally, K. 548 in C...
Critics were unanimous in their praise of the opening production of the Mozart 22 project at the Salzburg Festival 2006: the premiere of the serenata Il rè pastore, K. 208 . It was composed in early 1775 for the visit to Salzburg of Archduke Maximilian. As in La finta giardiniera of the previous year, it takes up the motif of the trials of love and virtue in a pastoral setting. The shepherd Aminta unexpectedly learns that he is the rightful heir to a kingdom. Initially delighted to become a king, Aminta loses his enthusiasm when he learns he must marry Tamiri instead of his beloved Elisa.
Thomas Hengelbrock, the production's director and conductor, gives eloquent voice to Mozart's tale with his Balthasar Neumann Ensemble, which plays on original instruments (including an early "fortepiano" instead of the traditional harpsichord as continuo instrument). At 19, Mozart was no beginner, and his next work was to be Idomeneo, which is generally considered to be his first operatic masterpiece. In Il rè pastore, it is amazing how Mozart manages to infuse life into the rigid conventions of the opera seria genre. There is dramatic impact and emotional depth, for
example in Aminta's rondo "L'amerò, sarò costante" with obbligato solo violin; and there are poignant depictions of...
Thomas Hengelbrock, the production's director and conductor, gives eloquent voice to Mozart's tale with his Balthasar Neumann Ensemble, which plays on original instruments (including an early "fortepiano" instead of the traditional harpsichord as continuo instrument). At 19, Mozart was no beginner, and his next work was to be Idomeneo, which is generally considered to be his first operatic masterpiece. In Il rè pastore, it is amazing how Mozart manages to infuse life into the rigid conventions of the opera seria genre. There is dramatic impact and emotional depth, for
example in Aminta's rondo "L'amerò, sarò costante" with obbligato solo violin; and there are poignant depictions of...
Violinist Christian Tetzlaff was born in Hamburg and trained in Lubeck and Cincinnati. He has appeared with the world's leading orchestras, and as chamber musician he concertizes with prominent partners. Roger Norrington was born in Oxford and studied in Cambridge and London. From 1969 to 1984 he was musical director of the Kent Opera and conducted productions at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Milan's La Scala and the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. He founded the London Classical Players and is principal conductor of the Camerata Salzburg and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra.
The former Camerata Academica Salzburg was renamed simply Camerata Salzburg in 2001. It was founded in 1951 by Bernhard Paumgartner, who was its head and mentor for many years. From 1978 to 1997 its artistic director was Sandor Vegh and in 1997 Roger Norrington was appointed principal conductor of the ensemble. The Camerata Salzburg can be heard every year at the Salzburg Mozartwoche and Salzburg Festival.
The former Camerata Academica Salzburg was renamed simply Camerata Salzburg in 2001. It was founded in 1951 by Bernhard Paumgartner, who was its head and mentor for many years. From 1978 to 1997 its artistic director was Sandor Vegh and in 1997 Roger Norrington was appointed principal conductor of the ensemble. The Camerata Salzburg can be heard every year at the Salzburg Mozartwoche and Salzburg Festival.
Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots is an allegorical drama in three parts that was first performed in the Archibishop's residence in March 1767. Mozart composed the first part. The work is an offshoot of the 17th-century tradition of the Jesuit school drama in which the characters are purely symbolic. Here, the "lukewarm Christian" becomes the object of contention between two authorities. Worldliness tempts him with the pleasures of the senses; a trio formed by Justice, Mercy and Christian Spirit urges him to choose an active Christian life. Mozart included such subtle musical touches as a 3/4 dance rhythm and merry woodwinds deployed by Worldliness and an alto trombone that summons the hero to the Last Judgement – an instrumental color that will appear prominently in Don Giovanni .
Karl Böhm leads the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in this little work
written by Mozart in Salzburg in January 1776. What sets this work apart from other serenades is its scoring for two small orchestras, which produces a deliberate echo effect. One can almost imagine the courtly guests bantering amidst the two groups of players at the opposite ends of a grand salon. Although the work begins with a march, called "Marcia maestoso," it soon gives up all martial pretenses for lightness and grace. The final Rondo is particularly spirited and frisky, with episodes of a nature that must have made more than one guest stop mid-conversation!
Karl Böhm was universally acclaimed for his Mozart interpretations. Though Wagner was one of Böhm's first loves, his friendship with Richard Strauss led to a deep knowledge and appreciation of Mozart. In his autobiography,Böhm wrote that "Richard Strauss revealed to me the ultimate secrets of this, in my opinion, greatest of all musical geniuses, Mozart." Böhm's discovery of these secrets transformed his Mozart interpretations into unforgettable events.
written by Mozart in Salzburg in January 1776. What sets this work apart from other serenades is its scoring for two small orchestras, which produces a deliberate echo effect. One can almost imagine the courtly guests bantering amidst the two groups of players at the opposite ends of a grand salon. Although the work begins with a march, called "Marcia maestoso," it soon gives up all martial pretenses for lightness and grace. The final Rondo is particularly spirited and frisky, with episodes of a nature that must have made more than one guest stop mid-conversation!
Karl Böhm was universally acclaimed for his Mozart interpretations. Though Wagner was one of Böhm's first loves, his friendship with Richard Strauss led to a deep knowledge and appreciation of Mozart. In his autobiography,Böhm wrote that "Richard Strauss revealed to me the ultimate secrets of this, in my opinion, greatest of all musical geniuses, Mozart." Böhm's discovery of these secrets transformed his Mozart interpretations into unforgettable events.
Born in Riga in 1947, Gidon Kremer is not only one of the leading
violinists in the world, but also - thanks to his unquenchable curiosity and search for new impulses - one of the most fascinating musical personalities of our time. His repertoire ranges from Bach to the present, whereby a number of contemporary composers have achieved international recognition through his commitment. Since 1997 Kremer has devoted a large part of his activities to the chamber orchestra Kremerata Baltica, which he founded. The ensemble consists of young musicians from the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania; the average age of its members is 25. The debut of the chamber orchestra in February 1997 corresponded with the 50th birthday of its founder. With this orchestral project, Kremer wants to pass on his artistic experiences to young musicians of his native country and to draw international attention to the outstanding musical situation of the Baltic nations. The Kremerata Baltica performs in all of the world's major musical venues.
This little work was written by Mozart in Salzburg in January 1776. What sets this work apart from other serenades is its scoring for two small orchestras, which produces a deliberate echo effect. One can almost imagine the courtly guests bantering...
violinists in the world, but also - thanks to his unquenchable curiosity and search for new impulses - one of the most fascinating musical personalities of our time. His repertoire ranges from Bach to the present, whereby a number of contemporary composers have achieved international recognition through his commitment. Since 1997 Kremer has devoted a large part of his activities to the chamber orchestra Kremerata Baltica, which he founded. The ensemble consists of young musicians from the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania; the average age of its members is 25. The debut of the chamber orchestra in February 1997 corresponded with the 50th birthday of its founder. With this orchestral project, Kremer wants to pass on his artistic experiences to young musicians of his native country and to draw international attention to the outstanding musical situation of the Baltic nations. The Kremerata Baltica performs in all of the world's major musical venues.
This little work was written by Mozart in Salzburg in January 1776. What sets this work apart from other serenades is its scoring for two small orchestras, which produces a deliberate echo effect. One can almost imagine the courtly guests bantering...
Born in Riga in 1947, Gidon Kremer is not only one of the leading violinists in the world, but also – thanks to his unquenchable curiosity and search for new impulses – one of the most fascinating musical personalities of our time. His repertoire ranges from Bach to the present, whereby a number of contemporary composers have achieved international recognition through his commitment. Since 1997 Kremer has devoted a large part of his activities to the chamber orchestra Kremerata Baltica, which he founded. The ensemble consists of young musicians from the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania; the average age of its members is 25. The debut of the chamber orchestra in February 1997 corresponded with the 50th birthday of its founder. With this orchestral project, Kremer wants to pass on his artistic experiences to young musicians of his native country and to draw international attention to the outstanding musical situation of the Baltic nations. The Kremerata Baltica performs in all of the world's major musical venues.
The genre of Il sogno di Scipione hovers between opera seria and oratorio. Devoid of psychological development or even dramatic conflict, it centers on Scipio, who dreams of two beautiful allegorical women: Fortuna (Fortune) and Costanza (Constancy). The two women both try to win him over. Ultimately, Scipio has to choose one, and his choice falls, unsurprisingly, on Costanza.
The Mozart 22 production of Il sogno di Scipione (Scipio's Dream) adds two more superlatives to the already stunning list of this project's matchless achievements. The musical direction is in the hands of the youngest conductor of all Mozart 22 works, Robin Ticciati, born in 1983; and it is most likely the very first staged performance ever of this work, which was not given its first full-length concert premiere until 1979, at the Salzburg Mozartwoche. Based on a libretto by Pietro Metastasio, like Betulia liberata, Tito and Rè pastore, the azione teatrale was composed between April and August 1771. Although it was intended for Archbishop Schrattenbach, he died before the work was completed.
Director Michael Sturminger has devised a light and witty staging with artists from the Klagenfurt Municipal Theater. He transposes the action to what looks like a large suite in a luxury hotel. Gone are...
The Mozart 22 production of Il sogno di Scipione (Scipio's Dream) adds two more superlatives to the already stunning list of this project's matchless achievements. The musical direction is in the hands of the youngest conductor of all Mozart 22 works, Robin Ticciati, born in 1983; and it is most likely the very first staged performance ever of this work, which was not given its first full-length concert premiere until 1979, at the Salzburg Mozartwoche. Based on a libretto by Pietro Metastasio, like Betulia liberata, Tito and Rè pastore, the azione teatrale was composed between April and August 1771. Although it was intended for Archbishop Schrattenbach, he died before the work was completed.
Director Michael Sturminger has devised a light and witty staging with artists from the Klagenfurt Municipal Theater. He transposes the action to what looks like a large suite in a luxury hotel. Gone are...
Ever since its founding in 1979, the Wiener Streichsextett (Vienna String Sextet) has ranked among the most distinguished chamber music ensembles in the international musical world. The six musicians – three of them are actually Viennese – discovered their enjoyment in making music together in their student days. The ensemble has been playing in the formation presented here since 1982. This live recording documents the debut of the ensemble at the Mozartwoche in Salzburg.
Filmed mainly in Vienna's splendid Musikvereinssaal, the Mozart symphonies conducted by Karl Böhm are all interpreted by one of the world's foremost orchestras, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, whose principal conductors have included Wilhelm Furtwängler, Bruno Walter, Herbert von Karajan, Claudio Abbado and, of course, Karl Böhm. "Thanks to Bruno Walter's exemplary performances, particularly of Mozart's works, I grabbed on to Mozart and fell in love with him so much that I had only one wish: to conduct Mozart, Mozart, Mozart" (Karl Böhm).
Mozart wrote his first symphony in London in 1764/65 at the age of 8. The boy sought his inspiration above all in the works of a German composer who had settled in London: Johann Christian Bach, the youngest son of the great Johann Sebastian, who became a lifelong friend of Mozart and exerted a strong influence on his style. The work reflects the Italian opera buffa atmosphere of the young symphonic genre, and its freshness and experimental delight in sonorities anticipate the inventiveness and mastery of Mozart's later works.
Karl Böhm was universally acclaimed for his Mozart interpretations. Though Wagner was one of Böhm's first loves, his friendship with Richard Strauss led to a deep knowledge and appreciation of Mozart. In his...
Mozart wrote his first symphony in London in 1764/65 at the age of 8. The boy sought his inspiration above all in the works of a German composer who had settled in London: Johann Christian Bach, the youngest son of the great Johann Sebastian, who became a lifelong friend of Mozart and exerted a strong influence on his style. The work reflects the Italian opera buffa atmosphere of the young symphonic genre, and its freshness and experimental delight in sonorities anticipate the inventiveness and mastery of Mozart's later works.
Karl Böhm was universally acclaimed for his Mozart interpretations. Though Wagner was one of Böhm's first loves, his friendship with Richard Strauss led to a deep knowledge and appreciation of Mozart. In his...
Filmed mainly in Vienna's splendid Musikvereinssaal, the Mozart symphonies conducted by Karl Bohm are all interpreted by one of the world's foremost orchestras, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, whose principal conductors have included Wilhelm Furtwangler, Bruno Walter, Herbert von Karajan, Claudio Abbado and, of course, Karl Bohm. "Thanks to Bruno Walter's exemplary performances, particularly of Mozart's works, I grabbed on to Mozart and fell in love with him so much that I had only one wish: to conduct Mozart, Mozart, Mozart" (Karl Bohm).
Like the "Little" G minor Symphony, K. 183, the Symphony in C major, K. 200 is also one of the early "Salzburg" symphonies. Its originality places it on a par with the G minor work. The onward-rushing, sharply profiled theme prefigured an evolution which led to a more individual characterization of the melodies and to a more thorough exploitation of their combinative possibilities. While the muted strings and "sigh" motifs of the Andante point to techniques Mozart was to perfect in later works, the final sprightly Presto recalls the structure of the opening movement, thus rounding off the work in an admirable fashion.
Karl Böhm was universally acclaimed for his Mozart interpretations. Though Wagner was one of Bohm's first loves, his...
Like the "Little" G minor Symphony, K. 183, the Symphony in C major, K. 200 is also one of the early "Salzburg" symphonies. Its originality places it on a par with the G minor work. The onward-rushing, sharply profiled theme prefigured an evolution which led to a more individual characterization of the melodies and to a more thorough exploitation of their combinative possibilities. While the muted strings and "sigh" motifs of the Andante point to techniques Mozart was to perfect in later works, the final sprightly Presto recalls the structure of the opening movement, thus rounding off the work in an admirable fashion.
Karl Böhm was universally acclaimed for his Mozart interpretations. Though Wagner was one of Bohm's first loves, his...
The Dutch musician Ton Koopman was born in 1944 and ranks among the outstanding specialists in the field of historical performance practice. He studied organ, harpsichord and musicology in Amsterdam and turned to conducting during his training. From the very beginning, he used original instruments and combined theory and practice into a fascinating, historically well-founded interpretation of the works. In 1979 he founded the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. He is the principal conductor of the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra. As a performing artist and teacher, Koopman has made decisive contributions to the renaissance of the music of the 17th and 18th centuries. He has published many books and articles, teaches at the Conservatory of The Hague and is an honorary member of the Royal Music Academy in London.
The Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg goes back to the Dom-Musik-Verein und Mozarteum founded in 1841. Since 1938 it has been an independent institution with professional musicians. It has been the orchestra of the city and the Land of Salzburg since 1958 and, in addition to its activity as opera and concert orchestra, it also performs regularly at the Salzburg Festival and the Mozartwoche.
After his trip to Paris in 1778, Mozart spent only two and a half more years in...
The Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg goes back to the Dom-Musik-Verein und Mozarteum founded in 1841. Since 1938 it has been an independent institution with professional musicians. It has been the orchestra of the city and the Land of Salzburg since 1958 and, in addition to its activity as opera and concert orchestra, it also performs regularly at the Salzburg Festival and the Mozartwoche.
After his trip to Paris in 1778, Mozart spent only two and a half more years in...
Rafael Kubelik (1914-1996) was the son of the well-known Bohemian violinist Jan Kubelik. He studied music in Prague and made his conducting debut at 20 at the head of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Later he became the principal conductor of this famous orchestra and founded the Prague Spring Festival. After the Communist takeover of the government, Kubelik emigrated to the West and returned to his native land only after the end of the Communist regime. From 1950 to 1953 he headed the Chicago Symphony, and from 1955 to 1958 he was music director of the Covent Garden Opera in London. A period of great artistic successes began in 1961, when he was appointed principal conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Many recordings document Kubelik's mastery and sense of artistry, his enjoyment of music and his temperament. His connection with the Munich orchestra lasted 18 years; in between, he also briefly served as music director of New York's Metropolitan Opera. Kubelik retired from the concert stage in 1985, but on the occasion of the first Prague Spring Festival after the fall of Communism in 1990, he returned to the podium of the Czech Philharmonic after more than 40 years in exile and conducted Smetana's My Fatherland cycle. His profound bonds with his native land...
Filmed mainly in Vienna's splendid Musikvereinssaal, the Mozart symphonies conducted by Karl Bohm are all interpreted by one of the world's foremost orchestras, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, whose principal conductors have included Wilhelm Furtwangler, Bruno Walter, Herbert von Karajan, Claudio Abbado and, of course, Karl Bohm. "Thanks to Bruno Walter's exemplary performances, particularly of Mozart's works, I grabbed on to Mozart and fell in love with him so much that I had only one wish: to conduct Mozart, Mozart, Mozart" (Karl Bohm).
The G minor Symphony is undoubtedly Mozart's most popular work in this genre. What makes it so exciting to us – and what endeared this work to 19th-century audiences – are its relentless passion and romantic tension. The very first bars set the scene: above a nervous, pulsating viola accompaniment enters an equally agitated principal theme. There is nothing spectacular here, and yet the piano beginning – unusual for an 18th-century symphony – and the insistent rhythm are nothing less than gripping. The mastery with which Mozart then contrapuntally exploits the opening theme is simply breathtaking – particularly in the development section, which darts out into the most distant keys. After the profoundly...
The G minor Symphony is undoubtedly Mozart's most popular work in this genre. What makes it so exciting to us – and what endeared this work to 19th-century audiences – are its relentless passion and romantic tension. The very first bars set the scene: above a nervous, pulsating viola accompaniment enters an equally agitated principal theme. There is nothing spectacular here, and yet the piano beginning – unusual for an 18th-century symphony – and the insistent rhythm are nothing less than gripping. The mastery with which Mozart then contrapuntally exploits the opening theme is simply breathtaking – particularly in the development section, which darts out into the most distant keys. After the profoundly...
Filmed mainly in Vienna's splendid Musikvereinssaal, the Mozart symphonies conducted by Karl Bohm are all interpreted by one of the world's foremost orchestras, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, whose principal conductors have included Wilhelm Furtwangler, Bruno Walter, Herbert von Karajan, Claudio Abbado and, of course, Karl Bohm. "Thanks to Bruno Walter's exemplary performances, particularly of Mozart's works, I grabbed on to Mozart and fell in love with him so much that I had only one wish: to conduct Mozart, Mozart, Mozart" (Karl Bohm).
Mozart's last symphony is a solemn and formal work which looks back to the past more than its two fellow works K. 504 and 550. It contains strong reminiscences of Baroque forms like the fugue and the concerto grosso in its opposition of clear-cut themes and the interplay of solo and tutti groups. Particularly the last movement is one of the most impressive in symphonic literature because of its unique blend of melodic flow and "scholarly" fugal treatment. Although not truly a fugue, the movement incorporates some exciting imitative work. The theme was well known and often used in the 18th century. Mozart himself used it in two of his masses and in the Symphony, K. 319. The "Jupiter" Symphony, a truly Olympian work, must be viewed together...
Mozart's last symphony is a solemn and formal work which looks back to the past more than its two fellow works K. 504 and 550. It contains strong reminiscences of Baroque forms like the fugue and the concerto grosso in its opposition of clear-cut themes and the interplay of solo and tutti groups. Particularly the last movement is one of the most impressive in symphonic literature because of its unique blend of melodic flow and "scholarly" fugal treatment. Although not truly a fugue, the movement incorporates some exciting imitative work. The theme was well known and often used in the 18th century. Mozart himself used it in two of his masses and in the Symphony, K. 319. The "Jupiter" Symphony, a truly Olympian work, must be viewed together...
The violin concertos K. 211, 216, 218 and 219 were all composed within a few months, between June and December 1775, while Mozart was in the employ of the Archbishop of Salzburg. The Violin Concerto No. 2 radiates a distinctly galant atmosphere reminiscent of the French style of violin playing. Dazzling and elegant, it gives the soloist luminous passages such as the minor-key melody in the first movement and the main melody of the Andante. The concluding Rondo again recalls the brilliance of the French style. After having devoted himself to Baroque music for many years, Nikolaus Harnoncourt began turning increasingly to the orchestral works of Mozart in the 1980s. Here, too, Harnoncourt's views differed radically from those of traditional Mozart reception. For him, Mozart is "the most romantic composer of all," his music "dramatic, dynamic, often strikingly and exceedingly emotional."
In Gidon Kremer, Harnoncourt found a partner who shared his views. The German-Russian violin virtuoso has also sought his own path in his Mozart interpretations. In 1970 the then 23-year-old virtuoso attained the first peak of his career by winning the first prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. He has since become one of the most sought-after violinists in the world. It...
In Gidon Kremer, Harnoncourt found a partner who shared his views. The German-Russian violin virtuoso has also sought his own path in his Mozart interpretations. In 1970 the then 23-year-old virtuoso attained the first peak of his career by winning the first prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. He has since become one of the most sought-after violinists in the world. It...
Anne-Sophie Mutter chose to begin her homage to Mozart's 250th birthday with the violin concertos. The choice is certainly fitting, as the concertos have been a major pillar of her repertoire ever since her earliest days: she played the Second Concerto at her public debut when she was nine, and performed the G major Concerto K. 216 at her spectacular Salzburg debut under Herbert von Karajan when she was 13. She vigorously affirms that Mozart has since been present in her life on a daily basis.
Although she has already recorded Mozart's violin concertos in the past, Ms. Mutter is aware that her more recent interpretations bring a different perspective and greater maturity to her view of Mozart – while not diminishing the value of her earlier recordings. For this recording, which was filmed in Salzburg in December 2005, Ms. Mutter decided to conduct the ensemble herself. And with the Camerata Salzburg, she had at her disposal a supple and sensitive partner.
Mozart was not only a gifted pianist but also an accomplished string player, who enjoyed playing both the violin and the viola. His first violin concerto, K. 207 in B flat major , was written in 1773 and is possibly Mozart's very first concerto for solo instrument and orchestra. The other four works – K....
Although she has already recorded Mozart's violin concertos in the past, Ms. Mutter is aware that her more recent interpretations bring a different perspective and greater maturity to her view of Mozart – while not diminishing the value of her earlier recordings. For this recording, which was filmed in Salzburg in December 2005, Ms. Mutter decided to conduct the ensemble herself. And with the Camerata Salzburg, she had at her disposal a supple and sensitive partner.
Mozart was not only a gifted pianist but also an accomplished string player, who enjoyed playing both the violin and the viola. His first violin concerto, K. 207 in B flat major , was written in 1773 and is possibly Mozart's very first concerto for solo instrument and orchestra. The other four works – K....
Anne-Sophie Mutter chose to begin her homage to Mozart's 250th birthday with the violin concertos. The choice is certainly fitting, as the concertos have been a major pillar of her repertoire ever since her earliest days: she played the Second Concerto at her public debut when she was nine, and performed the G major Concerto K. 216 at her spectacular Salzburg debut under Herbert von Karajan when she was 13. She vigorously affirms that Mozart has since been present in her life on a daily basis.
Although she has already recorded Mozart's violin concertos in the past, Ms. Mutter is aware that her more recent interpretations bring a different perspective and greater maturity to her view of Mozart – while not diminishing the value of her earlier recordings. For this recording, which was filmed in Salzburg in December 2005, Ms. Mutter decided to conduct the ensemble herself. And with the Camerata Salzburg, she had at her disposal a supple and sensitive partner.
Mozart was not only a gifted pianist but also an accomplished string player, who enjoyed playing both the violin and the viola. His first violin concerto, K. 207 in B flat major , was written in 1773 and is possibly Mozart's very first concerto for solo instrument and orchestra. The other four works – K....
Although she has already recorded Mozart's violin concertos in the past, Ms. Mutter is aware that her more recent interpretations bring a different perspective and greater maturity to her view of Mozart – while not diminishing the value of her earlier recordings. For this recording, which was filmed in Salzburg in December 2005, Ms. Mutter decided to conduct the ensemble herself. And with the Camerata Salzburg, she had at her disposal a supple and sensitive partner.
Mozart was not only a gifted pianist but also an accomplished string player, who enjoyed playing both the violin and the viola. His first violin concerto, K. 207 in B flat major , was written in 1773 and is possibly Mozart's very first concerto for solo instrument and orchestra. The other four works – K....
Violinist Christian Tetzlaff was born in Hamburg and trained in Lübeck and Cincinnati. He has appeared with the world's leading orchestras, and as chamber musician he concertizes with prominent partners. Roger Norrington was born in Oxford and studied in Cambridge and London. From 1969 to 1984 he was musical director of the Kent Opera and conducted productions at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Milan's La Scala and the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. He founded the London Classical Players and is principal conductor of the Camerata Salzburg and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra.
The former "Camerata academica Salzburg" was renamed simply "Camerata Salzburg" in 2001. It was founded in 1951 by Bernhard Paumgartner, who was its head and mentor for many years. From 1978 to 1997 its artistic director was Sándor Végh and in 1997 Roger Norrington was appointed principal conductor of the ensemble. The Camerata Salzburg can be heard every year at the Salzburg Mozartwoche and Salzburg Festival.
The former "Camerata academica Salzburg" was renamed simply "Camerata Salzburg" in 2001. It was founded in 1951 by Bernhard Paumgartner, who was its head and mentor for many years. From 1978 to 1997 its artistic director was Sándor Végh and in 1997 Roger Norrington was appointed principal conductor of the ensemble. The Camerata Salzburg can be heard every year at the Salzburg Mozartwoche and Salzburg Festival.
Anne-Sophie Mutter chose to begin her homage to Mozart's 250th birthday with the violin concertos. The choice is certainly fitting, as the concertos have been a major pillar of her repertoire ever since her earliest days: she played the Second Concerto at her public debut when she was nine, and performed the G major Concerto K. 216 at her spectacular Salzburg debut under Herbert von Karajan when she was 13. She vigorously affirms that Mozart has since been present in her life on a daily basis.
Although she has already recorded Mozart's violin concertos in the past, Ms. Mutter is aware that her more recent interpretations bring a different perspective and greater maturity to her view of Mozart – while not diminishing the value of her earlier recordings. For this recording, which was filmed in Salzburg in December 2005, Ms. Mutter decided to conduct the ensemble herself. And with the Camerata Salzburg, she had at her disposal a supple and sensitive partner.
Mozart was not only a gifted pianist but also an accomplished string player, who enjoyed playing both the violin and the viola. His first violin concerto, K. 207 in B flat major , was written in 1773 and is possibly Mozart's very first concerto for solo instrument and orchestra. The other four works – K....
Although she has already recorded Mozart's violin concertos in the past, Ms. Mutter is aware that her more recent interpretations bring a different perspective and greater maturity to her view of Mozart – while not diminishing the value of her earlier recordings. For this recording, which was filmed in Salzburg in December 2005, Ms. Mutter decided to conduct the ensemble herself. And with the Camerata Salzburg, she had at her disposal a supple and sensitive partner.
Mozart was not only a gifted pianist but also an accomplished string player, who enjoyed playing both the violin and the viola. His first violin concerto, K. 207 in B flat major , was written in 1773 and is possibly Mozart's very first concerto for solo instrument and orchestra. The other four works – K....
An abducted beauty in a harem, a noble rescuer from Europe, a merciless Muslim ruler - aren't these the ingredients for Mozart's Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail ? Yes, but not only. They are also found in the fragment of a Turkish opera that Mozart wrote shortly before the Entfuhrung , a work that was later given the title Zaide . The fragmentary nature and splendid music of Zaide have long stimulated enterprising artists to attempt completions or collages to make the work performable. For the Mozart 22 project, Salzburg Festival director Peter Ruzicka commissioned the Israeli composer Chaya Czernowin to produce a new work that stage director Claus Guth would then interweave with the Zaide fragment.
In Zaide we have two lovers, Zaide and Gomatz, held prisoner in a harem in an imaginary past, somewhere in the Middle East. In Adama we have two lovers, a Woman and a Man, caught in the irreconcilable religious and political conflicts of today's Middle East. Mozart's themes are imprisonment, doomed love, culture clash and despotism; Czernowin's are the same, but transported into our time. She tells of the love between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man, a partnership doomed to fail in a world torn by violence.
Czernowin approached her task with great reverence for...
In Zaide we have two lovers, Zaide and Gomatz, held prisoner in a harem in an imaginary past, somewhere in the Middle East. In Adama we have two lovers, a Woman and a Man, caught in the irreconcilable religious and political conflicts of today's Middle East. Mozart's themes are imprisonment, doomed love, culture clash and despotism; Czernowin's are the same, but transported into our time. She tells of the love between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man, a partnership doomed to fail in a world torn by violence.
Czernowin approached her task with great reverence for...
Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute) is Mozart's most popular and beloved opera, and its melodies - from Papageno's folkloric tunes to the Queen of the Night's breathtaking coloraturas - are familiar even among non-listeners of classical music. In this production by Pierre Audi, however, it is the eyes and not the ears that first fall under the spell of this truly magical Magic Flute . From the illustration on the stage curtain to the incredible, wildly colored, primeval-looking monsters, animals and decorative elements on the stage, the production is dominated by the unmistakable expressive world of the Dutch artist and sculptor Karel Appel. A co-founder of the acclaimed Cobra Group, Appel developed a darkly expressionistic idiom and was the "secret dramaturge" of the production, says director Audi. Appel died at the age of 85 three months before the premiere of Die Zauberflote at the Salzburg Festival.
While the sets may be a treat for the eyes, the music is a feast for the ears. Metropolitan Opera and La Scala star Diana Damrau shines as a Queen of the Night who effortlessly tosses out her coloraturas with dazzling accuracy. Rene Pape's Sarastro is a worthy counterpart, a solemn figure with balsamic bass tones. Paul Groves' supple tenor voice ensures a faultless Tamino...
While the sets may be a treat for the eyes, the music is a feast for the ears. Metropolitan Opera and La Scala star Diana Damrau shines as a Queen of the Night who effortlessly tosses out her coloraturas with dazzling accuracy. Rene Pape's Sarastro is a worthy counterpart, a solemn figure with balsamic bass tones. Paul Groves' supple tenor voice ensures a faultless Tamino...
The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra left its significant mark on the programming of the Salzburg Festival 2007. The symphonic concerts in the Grosses Festspielhaus, the chamber music concerts in the Mozarteum and the "School for Listening" workshops in the Great University Hall with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra under the guidance of Daniel Barenboim turned out to be another highlight of the political ambitious project that started in 1999 as a workshop for chamber music.
This documentary provides an insight into the rehearsals of the musicians, covers political discussions and shows the legendary West-Eastern Divan Orchestra - Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra soccer match. The final tour concert in the sold-out Berliner Philharmonie from the grand finale.
This documentary provides an insight into the rehearsals of the musicians, covers political discussions and shows the legendary West-Eastern Divan Orchestra - Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra soccer match. The final tour concert in the sold-out Berliner Philharmonie from the grand finale.
One of the world's foremost violinists, Anne-Sophie Mutter is a musical celebrity known even by countless people who rarely listen to classical music. The artist and teacher, who promotes young musicians and commissions new works from contemporary composers, made her spectacular breakthrough under Herbert von Karajan at the 1977 Salzburg Easter Festival. She has since concertized at every major venue throughout the world. In 2008 she was awarded not only the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music Award, but also the Leipzig Mendelssohn Award. The award ceremony in March 2008 was crowned by a gala concert at Leipzig’s Gewandhaus with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Kurt Masur, at which Mutter performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor op. 64 .
On the occasion of the Mendelssohn Year, Unitel Classica offers the documentary Anne-Sophie Mutter – Encounters with Mendelssohn , in which the artist discusses her affinity to Mendelssohn and explains why she particularly admires the works presented here.
On the occasion of the Mendelssohn Year, Unitel Classica offers the documentary Anne-Sophie Mutter – Encounters with Mendelssohn , in which the artist discusses her affinity to Mendelssohn and explains why she particularly admires the works presented here.
Just as in Orpheus in the Underworld , this opera-travesty by Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880) also uses an ancient Greek subject as a means of caricaturing contemporary social and political issues. The main target of Offenbach's barbs are the unscrupulousness and moral decline of France's "Second Empire". The action of the ancient saga of gods and heroes is stripped of its loftiness and parodistically reduced to an ironic display of very human motivations, weaknesses and excesses. "The ambivalence of Offenbach's genius emerges here more clearly than in any other of his works - a genius that masters with the same skillfullness all the facets of musical expression: emotion and intellect, romance and parody." (Bernard Grun, Cultural History of the Operetta)
Four of the greatest singers of our time combine their talents and their artistry in an evening of beloved operatic numbers – rarely has a concert deserved the title "Opera Summit" as much as this one, recorded live at the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden on 3 August 2007. Heading the quartet is soprano Anna Netrebko with her inimitable blend of glamour and simplicity, her enticing appearance and seductive singing, a musical powerhouse who tops the pop charts and sells out operas houses within hours.
Hardly less dazzling than her Russian colleague is Latvian mezzo Elina Garanca, whose crystal-clear voice and charismatic stage presence never fail to enthrall her audiences. She is a frequent guest of the Vienna State Opera and the Salzburg Festival, where she made her sensational debut as Annio in Mozart's La clemenza di Tito in 2003. Her international career has taken her to Covent Garden, the Met and other prestigious stages. She was awarded the European Cultural Prize in Dresden in 2006.
Replacing the indisposed Rolando Villazon is his fellow Mexican tenor Ramon Vargas, who began his career in Europe after winning the first prize in the Enrico Caruso Competition in Milan. His international breakthrough came in 1993 when he replaced Luciano Pavarotti as Edgardo in...
Hardly less dazzling than her Russian colleague is Latvian mezzo Elina Garanca, whose crystal-clear voice and charismatic stage presence never fail to enthrall her audiences. She is a frequent guest of the Vienna State Opera and the Salzburg Festival, where she made her sensational debut as Annio in Mozart's La clemenza di Tito in 2003. Her international career has taken her to Covent Garden, the Met and other prestigious stages. She was awarded the European Cultural Prize in Dresden in 2006.
Replacing the indisposed Rolando Villazon is his fellow Mexican tenor Ramon Vargas, who began his career in Europe after winning the first prize in the Enrico Caruso Competition in Milan. His international breakthrough came in 1993 when he replaced Luciano Pavarotti as Edgardo in...
Requiring 38 soloists, chorus and large orchestra, Palestrina, Hans Pfitzner's (1869-1949) "most important work" (Süddeutsche Zeitung), is a challenging opera to stage. In Munich, the city in which it was given its world premiere in 1917, the Bavarian State Opera succeeded - director Christian Stückl, best known for his staging of the Oberammergau Passion Play and the Salzburg Festival's Jedermann, transformed the monumental work into an optical pop art event.
Stückl's production infuses such color and life into the serious work that even the German tabloid "Abendzeitung" delightedly wrote: "Who would have thought that Pfitzner could be such fun?" Written in a lush late-Romantic idiom, the masterpiece weaves a fictitious tale around Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, one of the most important Renaissance composers and renovators of sacred music, who fears losing his creative powers and his role in society.
Conductor Simone Young maintains a silky, organic orchestral texture and expertly holds the reins of the many vocal and instrumental parts. Heading the many outstanding soloists are the imposing Christopher Ventris as Palestrina, Bayreuth regular Falk Struckmann and baritone Michael Volle.
Stückl's production infuses such color and life into the serious work that even the German tabloid "Abendzeitung" delightedly wrote: "Who would have thought that Pfitzner could be such fun?" Written in a lush late-Romantic idiom, the masterpiece weaves a fictitious tale around Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, one of the most important Renaissance composers and renovators of sacred music, who fears losing his creative powers and his role in society.
Conductor Simone Young maintains a silky, organic orchestral texture and expertly holds the reins of the many vocal and instrumental parts. Heading the many outstanding soloists are the imposing Christopher Ventris as Palestrina, Bayreuth regular Falk Struckmann and baritone Michael Volle.
For the first time in over nine years, Arcadi Volodos has agreed to record an entire concert for TV again. Indeed, his recital at Vienna's Musikverein, for which he has chosen works by Scriabin, Ravel, Schumann and Liszt, features a line-up of Romantic to early 20th-century heavyweights, which Volodos renders with his inimitable blend of ethereal lightness and forceful vigor.
The recital begins with a selection of pieces by Alexander Scriabin, in which Volodos displays his phenomenal technique, culminating in the White Mass. Under Volodos' hands, Maurice Ravel's Valses nobles et sentimentales becomes "a kaleidoscope of transparent, gossamer colors" (Die Presse). While Volodos' account of Schumann's Waldscenen flashes with startling harmonic echoes of the Ravel piece, his rendition of Liszt's "Apres une lecture du Dante" from the Annees de pelerinage "radiates modernity" (Der Standard). The keyboard sensation provides a further example of his artistry in his encores, in which he demonstrates his talent for creating his own dazzling piano transcriptions of works by other composers. In an interview recorded on the occasion of the Vienna recital, Volodos discusses many aspects of his career, his playing, and his life.
Born in St. Petersburg in 1972, Arcadi Volodos burst...
The recital begins with a selection of pieces by Alexander Scriabin, in which Volodos displays his phenomenal technique, culminating in the White Mass. Under Volodos' hands, Maurice Ravel's Valses nobles et sentimentales becomes "a kaleidoscope of transparent, gossamer colors" (Die Presse). While Volodos' account of Schumann's Waldscenen flashes with startling harmonic echoes of the Ravel piece, his rendition of Liszt's "Apres une lecture du Dante" from the Annees de pelerinage "radiates modernity" (Der Standard). The keyboard sensation provides a further example of his artistry in his encores, in which he demonstrates his talent for creating his own dazzling piano transcriptions of works by other composers. In an interview recorded on the occasion of the Vienna recital, Volodos discusses many aspects of his career, his playing, and his life.
Born in St. Petersburg in 1972, Arcadi Volodos burst...
What more appropriate venue for Ildebrando Pizzetti's operatic masterwork of 1958 Assassinio nella Cattedrale than the austere, Romanic Basilica di San Nicola in the southern Italian port city of Bari. A striking coincidence: the action of T. S. Eliot's stage play "Murder in the Cathedral", on which the opera is based, takes place in December 1170; the Basilica di San Nicola also dates from the 12th century and was consecrated in 1197...
Pizzetti's religiosity also manifests itself in his choice of T.S. Eliot's modern-day miracle play about St. Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who returns from a seven-year-exile only to be confronted by various torments, including Four Temptations; he succumbs to the fourth, the temptation of martyrdom...
Internationally acclaimed bass-baritone Ruggero Raimondi, at home on all of the world's major stages and unforgotten as Don Giovanni in Joseph Losey's celebrated 1979 film, brings the firmness and authority of his vocal artistry to this role, elevating it to one of the most passionate and intriguing portrayals of a 20th-century operatic hero.
Pizzetti's religiosity also manifests itself in his choice of T.S. Eliot's modern-day miracle play about St. Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who returns from a seven-year-exile only to be confronted by various torments, including Four Temptations; he succumbs to the fourth, the temptation of martyrdom...
Internationally acclaimed bass-baritone Ruggero Raimondi, at home on all of the world's major stages and unforgotten as Don Giovanni in Joseph Losey's celebrated 1979 film, brings the firmness and authority of his vocal artistry to this role, elevating it to one of the most passionate and intriguing portrayals of a 20th-century operatic hero.
One of the world's most beloved operas, La Boheme is, along with Puccini's Tosca and Madama Butterfly , one of the pillars of the Italian repertory. When it premiered in Turin on 1 February 1896, it was dismissed as "a momentary error". It wasn't until its first performance in Palermo that year that the opera scored a definitive success. This production of La Boheme scored a trio of "firsts": it was the first opera film to be produced by Unitel, the first music film conducted by Herbert von Karajan, and the first major film production by Franco Zeffirelli.
Produced in 1965, it was based on Zeffirelli's acclaimed 1963 La Scala production and features Mirella Freni and Gianni Raimondi as the star-crossed lovers. Karajan conducts the chorus and orchestra of Milan's La Scala. The production is still considered today one of the finest treatments of opera on film and a classic of opera performance in the 20th century.
Produced in 1965, it was based on Zeffirelli's acclaimed 1963 La Scala production and features Mirella Freni and Gianni Raimondi as the star-crossed lovers. Karajan conducts the chorus and orchestra of Milan's La Scala. The production is still considered today one of the finest treatments of opera on film and a classic of opera performance in the 20th century.
It is an event that draws many thousands of music lovers to Verona every summer: the opera season at the ancient Roman Arena. One of the highlights of the 2006 season was the riveting production of Puccini's Tosca by Argentine director Hugo de Ana. Nearly 15,000 spectators regularly filled the amphitheater for the performances of the Puccini favorite with a stellar cast - Fiorenza Cedolins, Marcelo Alvarez and Ruggero Raimondi - under the baton of Daniel Oren.
This recording captures the magical atmosphere of Verona's Arena: the balmy night air, the starry sky, the grandiose pageant of sumptuous sets and costumes, the awe-inspiring effects of light and sound - including guns and cannons in this production marked by a stylized realism. At the center of De Ana's stage concept is a giant replica of the head of the "Angelo di Castello", an 18th-century bronze statue of the archangel Michael holding a sword. After being restored, it was recently returned to its place atop the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome, where the third act of the opera takes place. "An altogether perfect staging, with the director exploiting to the fullest the vast space of the amphitheater and designing grandiose scenes and magnificent costumes," wrote Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
Amidst the surreal...
This recording captures the magical atmosphere of Verona's Arena: the balmy night air, the starry sky, the grandiose pageant of sumptuous sets and costumes, the awe-inspiring effects of light and sound - including guns and cannons in this production marked by a stylized realism. At the center of De Ana's stage concept is a giant replica of the head of the "Angelo di Castello", an 18th-century bronze statue of the archangel Michael holding a sword. After being restored, it was recently returned to its place atop the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome, where the third act of the opera takes place. "An altogether perfect staging, with the director exploiting to the fullest the vast space of the amphitheater and designing grandiose scenes and magnificent costumes," wrote Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
Amidst the surreal...
Filmed in the authentic Roman locations specified in the score, this Tosca absolutely pulsates with tension and excitement. The first act was shot in the splendid Baroque church of Sant'Andrea della Valle. The second act was filmed in papal apartments in the Castel Sant'Angelo resembling those in the Palazzo Farnese, which is now the French Embassy and off limits to film teams. The final act was filmed on the banks of the Tiber and on the ramparts of the ancient Castel Sant'Angelo. Raina Kabaivanska is a memorable Tosca, restless, jealously provocative and powerfully determined. With Placido Domingo's heroically passionate portrayal of Cavaradossi and Sherrill Milnes' ruthless and eruptively sensual Scarpia, this Tosca is a winner.
Based on Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's highly acclaimed Salzburg production, Il Barbiere di Siviglia was filmed in a Munich studio, while the voices and music were taped in Milan, using the Scala orchestra and chorus. The brilliant cast includes Teresa Berganza, Hermann Prey, Luigi Alva and Enzo Dara, all great names in the international operatic world.
"Catch Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Flórez in what may just be definitive performances in Rossini's enchanting rags-to-riches rendition," entreated James Sohre in his review of Rossini's beloved drama giocoso La Cenerentola in Opera Today. This recording from Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu captures all the vocal sparks and dazzle generated by these two phenomenal singers.
With his airy, effortless high notes and perfect command of rapid-fire Rossinian parlando, the charismatic Flórez once again proves that he was born to sing Rossini. American mezzo Joyce DiDonato is not only a beautiful Angelina and a stunning presence, but also a prodigiously gifted artist who moves with ease and grace from the most delicate pianissimi to the most heartrending outbursts of passion. A noted bel canto singer, Ms. DiDonato won the Metropolitan Opera's Beverly Sills Award in 2007.
Coproduced by the Houston Grand Opera, the Welsh National Opera Cardiff and Geneva's Grand Théâtre in addition to the Liceu, this international undertaking boasts a truly cosmopolitan flair. Conducting the Orchestra of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Patrick Summers leads "an effervescent reading" (Opera Today) that is fully supported by the rest of the top-notch cast. Director Joan Font and his set and costume...
With his airy, effortless high notes and perfect command of rapid-fire Rossinian parlando, the charismatic Flórez once again proves that he was born to sing Rossini. American mezzo Joyce DiDonato is not only a beautiful Angelina and a stunning presence, but also a prodigiously gifted artist who moves with ease and grace from the most delicate pianissimi to the most heartrending outbursts of passion. A noted bel canto singer, Ms. DiDonato won the Metropolitan Opera's Beverly Sills Award in 2007.
Coproduced by the Houston Grand Opera, the Welsh National Opera Cardiff and Geneva's Grand Théâtre in addition to the Liceu, this international undertaking boasts a truly cosmopolitan flair. Conducting the Orchestra of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Patrick Summers leads "an effervescent reading" (Opera Today) that is fully supported by the rest of the top-notch cast. Director Joan Font and his set and costume...
SALZBURG FESTIVAL 2008 OPENING CONCERT - RAVEL, M. / BARTOK, B. / STRAVINSKY, I. (Barenboim, Boulez)
Put one of the world's greatest orchestras in the hands of one of the foremost specialists of 20th-century music, add a soloist who is one of today's leading pianists and conductors, and you are assured of a concert of superlatives that pays glowing tribute to three major works of the past century. The official Salzburg Festival opening concert of the Wiener Philharmoniker is conducted by Pierre Boulez, once the "enfant terrible" of the musical world, now a sensitive, analytical conductor of works from the 19th and 20th centuries.
Combining Béla Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 1 - Daniel Barenboim is the soloist - with Maurice Ravel's Valses nobles et sentimentales and Igor Stravinsky's Firebird ballet in its full-length version of 1910, Boulez weaves a compelling musical texture that uncovers the links among the three works and the three composers. The concert begins with a shimmering rendition of the Valses nobles et sentimentales , an homage to Schubert and a farewell to the waltz itself. This work of bold dissonances, abrasive harmonies and colorful chromaticism is followed by Bartók's concerto of 1926, which seems to animate Ravel's tonal language with a percussive fury. The nearly 50-minute long Firebird , which a virtually unknown 28-year-old Stravinsky wrote for...
Combining Béla Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 1 - Daniel Barenboim is the soloist - with Maurice Ravel's Valses nobles et sentimentales and Igor Stravinsky's Firebird ballet in its full-length version of 1910, Boulez weaves a compelling musical texture that uncovers the links among the three works and the three composers. The concert begins with a shimmering rendition of the Valses nobles et sentimentales , an homage to Schubert and a farewell to the waltz itself. This work of bold dissonances, abrasive harmonies and colorful chromaticism is followed by Bartók's concerto of 1926, which seems to animate Ravel's tonal language with a percussive fury. The nearly 50-minute long Firebird , which a virtually unknown 28-year-old Stravinsky wrote for...
The opening of the Salzburg Festival, for many regarded as the world's most renowned music festival, is by tradition a high-profile event. In 2009, this first concert given by the Wiener Philharmoniker was conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt. The program is, in honor of the 80th birthday of the great Austrian conductor (6 Dec. 2009), purely Austrian.
Though it may seem unusual at first glance, under Harnoncourt's direction, the disparate works fuse into a moving, slightly melancholy portrait of the Viennese dance in the early 19th century. The concert opens with Anton Webern's delicate orchestration of Schubert’s Six German Dances , which segue into two polkas and a waltz by Josef Strauss, the younger – and bolder – composer brother of "Walzerkönig" Johann Strauss Jr. With this alternation of bittersweet and brassy dances, the stage is set for Harnoncourt's staggering reading of Schubert’s "Great" C major Symphony , in which the dance of death – so Viennese yet so universal – seems to have served as the composer's model.
Though it may seem unusual at first glance, under Harnoncourt's direction, the disparate works fuse into a moving, slightly melancholy portrait of the Viennese dance in the early 19th century. The concert opens with Anton Webern's delicate orchestration of Schubert’s Six German Dances , which segue into two polkas and a waltz by Josef Strauss, the younger – and bolder – composer brother of "Walzerkönig" Johann Strauss Jr. With this alternation of bittersweet and brassy dances, the stage is set for Harnoncourt's staggering reading of Schubert’s "Great" C major Symphony , in which the dance of death – so Viennese yet so universal – seems to have served as the composer's model.
In this light-hearted documentary portrait, Christine Schafer reveals how she has come to position herself in the top ranks of today's sopranos while still maintaining her artistic freedom. With razor-sharp wit and intelligence, she describes how she keeps herself grounded in a world that craves celebrities. Among the friends and colleagues who provide insights into her artistry as well as her refreshing normality are conductors Christian Thielemann and Sylvain Cambreling, stage director Christoph Marthaler, music journalist Jurgen Kesting, singer Jose van Dam and others.
Christine Schafer is the anti-diva of the vocal world, a no-nonsense,
down-to-earth singer who transforms her opera roles and lieder recitals into grippingly realistic scenes of universal human drama. When it comes to choosing her repertoire and her roles, she unwaveringly follows her own path and refuses to subject herself to marketing campaigns designed to stamp her as the new heroine of whatever is currently in demand. With a repertoire ranging from early music to contemporary works, Schafer does not need a specialty, and can even indulge in "light" music with Max Raabe's Palastorchester and hits of the 1920s. Excerpts from concert performances and rehearsals of works by Henry Purcell and George Crumb,...
Christine Schafer is the anti-diva of the vocal world, a no-nonsense,
down-to-earth singer who transforms her opera roles and lieder recitals into grippingly realistic scenes of universal human drama. When it comes to choosing her repertoire and her roles, she unwaveringly follows her own path and refuses to subject herself to marketing campaigns designed to stamp her as the new heroine of whatever is currently in demand. With a repertoire ranging from early music to contemporary works, Schafer does not need a specialty, and can even indulge in "light" music with Max Raabe's Palastorchester and hits of the 1920s. Excerpts from concert performances and rehearsals of works by Henry Purcell and George Crumb,...
The Irrfahrten (Odysseys) trilogy comprises three independent,
self-contained performances that are motivically interwoven into a
compelling whole through a great variety of references. Various artistic genres - music, theater, dance and video - are fused into an original form of music theater that could very well point to the future. The trilogy was conceived by Joachim Schlomer, a noted dancer, choreographer and director. He sees his project as the "odyssey of an artist from external control to self-determination." (Schlomer) This concerns not only Mozart himself, but also the artist in general, and, by extension, everyone who has overcome a crisis in their life to achieve their personal freedom.
At the beginning of the trilogy is the twelve-year-old Mozart's first opera buffa, La finta semplice (The Make-Believe Simpleton), a full-length opera with commedia dell'arte-style characters. "The music," says Schlomer, "tells of wanting something - even if the characters still don't really know what they want." The second Odyssey, Abendempfindung (Evening Sensation), a pasticcio of Mozart arias, songs, instrumental pieces (including some for the rare and evocative glass harmonica) and letters. The great Ann Murray is the featured performer here. The third Odyssey, "Rex...
self-contained performances that are motivically interwoven into a
compelling whole through a great variety of references. Various artistic genres - music, theater, dance and video - are fused into an original form of music theater that could very well point to the future. The trilogy was conceived by Joachim Schlomer, a noted dancer, choreographer and director. He sees his project as the "odyssey of an artist from external control to self-determination." (Schlomer) This concerns not only Mozart himself, but also the artist in general, and, by extension, everyone who has overcome a crisis in their life to achieve their personal freedom.
At the beginning of the trilogy is the twelve-year-old Mozart's first opera buffa, La finta semplice (The Make-Believe Simpleton), a full-length opera with commedia dell'arte-style characters. "The music," says Schlomer, "tells of wanting something - even if the characters still don't really know what they want." The second Odyssey, Abendempfindung (Evening Sensation), a pasticcio of Mozart arias, songs, instrumental pieces (including some for the rare and evocative glass harmonica) and letters. The great Ann Murray is the featured performer here. The third Odyssey, "Rex...
The Irrfahrten (Odysseys) trilogy comprises three independent, self-contained performances that are motivically interwoven into a compelling whole through a great variety of references. Various artistic genres - music, theater, dance and video - are fused into an original form of music theater that could very well point to the future. The trilogy was conceived by Joachim Schlömer, a noted dancer, choreographer and director. He sees his project as the "odyssey of an artist from external control to self-determination." (Schlömer) This concerns not only Mozart himself, but also the artist in general, and, by extension, everyone who has overcome a crisis in their life to achieve their personal freedom.
At the beginning of the trilogy is the twelve-year-old Mozart's first opera buffa, La finta semplice (The Make-Believe Simpleton) , a full-length opera with commedia dell'arte-style characters. "The music," says Schlömer, "tells of wanting something - even if the characters still don't really know what they want." The second Odyssey, Abendempfindung" (Evening Sensation) , a pasticcio of Mozart arias, songs, instrumental pieces (including some for the rare and evocative glass harmonica) and letters. The great Ann Murray is the featured performer here. The third Odyssey, Rex...
At the beginning of the trilogy is the twelve-year-old Mozart's first opera buffa, La finta semplice (The Make-Believe Simpleton) , a full-length opera with commedia dell'arte-style characters. "The music," says Schlömer, "tells of wanting something - even if the characters still don't really know what they want." The second Odyssey, Abendempfindung" (Evening Sensation) , a pasticcio of Mozart arias, songs, instrumental pieces (including some for the rare and evocative glass harmonica) and letters. The great Ann Murray is the featured performer here. The third Odyssey, Rex...
Little is known about the origin of the Mass No. 6 other than that Schubert wrote it in 1828, just a few months before his death. He does not seem to have had a specific performance in mind, and the work was only premiered in November 1829, a year after his death. Critics have since given the Mass an honored place among the composer's great works, many ranking it as his finest church composition. Although Schubert calls for five soloists (soprano, alto, two tenors and bass), the Mass is essentially a choral Mass. The composer calls for a large orchestra, including three trombones, but he omits the flutes and keeps the violins in their lower register, thereby giving the piece a dark, shaded tone.
Schubert's E flat major Mass was recorded at the Court Music Chapel (Hofmusikkapelle) in Vienna in June 1976. The eminent conductor Karl Böhm leads the Vienna Philharmonic and the male choir of the Hofmusikkapelle. The upper registers are provided by the world-renowned Vienna Boys' Choir. The distinguished soloists are Walter Berry, Peter Schreier and Hans Krenn.
Schubert's E flat major Mass was recorded at the Court Music Chapel (Hofmusikkapelle) in Vienna in June 1976. The eminent conductor Karl Böhm leads the Vienna Philharmonic and the male choir of the Hofmusikkapelle. The upper registers are provided by the world-renowned Vienna Boys' Choir. The distinguished soloists are Walter Berry, Peter Schreier and Hans Krenn.
Within just a few years, the Hugo Wolf Quartet has transformed itself from an insider's tip to one of the most sought-after ensembles of the younger generation. "New stars in the quartet firmament" was the headline of a review of the quartet's debut in the Vienna Musikverein in 1995. Tours have taken the ensemble to the most important concert halls of the world: Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Philharmonie in Cologne, Megaron in Athens, Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Symphony Hall in Birmingham and Carnegie Hall in New York. Moreover, the Hugo Wolf Quartet has also guested at the Edinburgh Festival, the Schubertiade Feldkirch, the Carinthian Summer, the Salzburg Mozarteum, the Herkules-Saal in Munich and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. The basis for this international success was laid by four students who got together in 1993 in Vienna and devoted themselves to a joint training with the Alban Berg Quartet, members of the Amadeus Quartet and Walter Levin (LaSalle Quartet). They then won the first prize at the String Quartet Competition in Cremona and made their highly acclaimed debut at the Vienna Konzerthaus. Further awards have confirmed their exceptional artistic status. Today, the Hugo Wolf Quartet consists of the founding members Jehi Bahk (Violin I), Régis Bringolf (Violin II),...
Born in Riga in 1947, Gidon Kremer is not only one of the leading violinists in the world, but also – thanks to his unquenchable curiosity and search for new impulses – one of the most fascinating musical personalities of our time. His repertoire ranges from Bach to the present, whereby a number of contemporary composers have achieved international recognition through his commitment. Since 1997 Kremer has devoted a large part of his activities to the chamber orchestra Kremerata Baltica, which he founded. The ensemble consists of young musicians from the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The average age is 25. The debut of the chamber orchestra in February 1997 corresponded with the 50th birthday of its founder Gidon Kremer. With this orchestral project, Kremer wants to pass on his artistic experiences to young musicians of his native country and to draw international attention to the outstanding musical situation of the Baltic nations. The Kremerata Baltica performs in all of the world's major musical venues.
In the throes of his mortal illness, Franz Schubert (1797-1828) heroically succeeded in putting to paper his splendid last symphony, whose "divine lengths" are truly unique. Composed in 1825/26, Schubert's largest symphonic work was first discovered after his death by Robert Schumann and first performed one year later, in 1839, by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in the Leipzig Gewandhaus. In marked contrast to the equally beloved Unfinished Symphony , Schubert devises a labyrinth of harmonies in a piece full of artless directness and joyful dance-like rhythms. Echoes of the visionary secrets of Romanticism surface from the depths of the work, only to be washed away by the inexorable current of the melodies. Never did Schubert write with such a lavish and impetuous hand than in his Ninth Symphony : "...it bears the eternal seed of youth within it." (Robert Schumann)
Karl Böhm conducts the Wiener Symphoniker in this recording made in the mid 1960s.
Karl Böhm conducts the Wiener Symphoniker in this recording made in the mid 1960s.
If there is one genre of music which baritone Thomas Hampson is exceptionally passionate about, it is the lied. To Hampson, song and singing are "the diary of our existence" and he has invested a great amount of time, work and love to luring this genre out of the shadow of the more spectacular opera. One composer he particularly cherishes is Robert Schumann. Hampson begins this Schumann recital, recorded at Munich's Prinzregententheater with Wolfram Rieger at the piano, with the cycle Zwolf Gedichte op. 35 on poems by Justinus Kerner. The second part of the recital is devoted to the original version of the popular Dichterliebe op. 48 . While Hampson was preparing his first performance of the cycle based on poems by Heinrich Heine, he consulted the composer's manuscript, only to find that the original cycle of 1840 was a completely distinctive work containing many musical and textual differences. Among the most notable differences was the presence of four songs that were omitted from the later cycle. These works – "Dein Angesicht so lieb und schon," "Lehn deine Wang an meine Wang," "Es leuchtet meine Liebe" and "Mein Wagen rollet langsam" – are featured here as first-ever recordings of these rediscovered works. Today's baritone landscape would be barren without...
Robert Schumann wrote his Cello Concerto in Düsseldorf in only two weeks. He himself did not play the cello, a fact which is immediately apparent from his treatment of the solo part. Passages of sweeping lyricism contrast sharply with excruciatingly difficult technical passages quite unsuited to the instrument. They make the concerto one of the most fearsome in all of cello literature. Schumann never heard the concerto played in public: the first performance did not take place until four years after his death. Recorded in 1985/86 at the "Grosser Musikvereinssaal" in Vienna, this recording features world-renowned cellist Mischa Maisky as the soloist accompanied by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Leonard Bernstein.
Following the cycles of orchestral works by Mahler, Beethoven and Brahms, Unitel chose to honor Robert Schumann in 1984/85 with this cycle performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein. Schumann's orchestral works are firmly established in the repertoire of the Vienna Philharmonic. The glowing, romantic sound of this orchestra and Leonard Bernstein's expressive interpretation complement each other in an ideal way to produce a perfect rendering of Schumann's symphonic oeuvre. Schumann's Four Symphonies , his Piano Concerto , the Violoncello Concerto and the Manfred Overture have been filmed and recorded in the "Golden Hall" of the Vienna Musikverein, held to rank acoustically among the world's best halls. The soloists are Justus Frantz, piano, and the cellist Misha Maisky.
The great Russian pianist Emil Gilels was universally acclaimed for his breathtaking performances of the most demanding concertos and most challenging piano pieces of piano literature. But he was also a master of the miniature form, and his interpretations of the Songs Without Words and other little pieces by Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chopin, Grieg and others were nothing short of mesmerizing. A specialist of the German repertoire, Gilels gave an all German-Austrian program at the 1971 Carinthian Summer Festival in Austria, where Schumann's Nachtstück was recorded.
Following the cycles of orchestral works by Mahler, Beethoven and Brahms, Unitel chose to honor Robert Schumann in 1984/85 with this cycle performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein. Schumann's orchestral works are firmly established in the repertoire of the Vienna Philharmonic. The glowing, romantic sound of this orchestra and Leonard Bernstein's expressive interpretation complement each other in an ideal way to produce a perfect rendering of Schumann's symphonic oeuvre. Schumann's Four Symphonies , his Piano Concerto , the Violoncello Concerto and the Manfred Overture have been filmed and recorded in the "Golden Hall" of the Vienna Musikverein, held to rank acoustically among the world's best halls. The soloists are Justus Frantz, piano, and the cellist Misha Maisky.
Following the cycles of orchestral works by Mahler, Beethoven and Brahms, Unitel chose to honor Robert Schumann in 1984/85 with this cycle performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein. Schumann's orchestral works are firmly established in the repertoire of the Vienna Philharmonic. The glowing, romantic sound of this orchestra and Leonard Bernstein's expressive interpretation complement each other in an ideal way to produce a perfect rendering of Schumann's symphonic oeuvre. Schumann's Four Symphonies , his Piano Concerto , the Violoncello Concerto and the Manfred Overture have been filmed and recorded in the "Golden Hall" of the Vienna Musikverein, held to rank acoustically among the world's best halls. The soloists are Justus Frantz, piano, and the cellist Misha Maisky.
Following the cycles of orchestral works by Mahler, Beethoven and Brahms, Unitel chose to honor Robert Schumann in 1984/85 with this cycle performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein. Schumann's orchestral works are firmly established in the repertoire of the Vienna Philharmonic. The glowing, romantic sound of this orchestra and Leonard Bernstein's expressive interpretation complement each other in an ideal way to produce a perfect rendering of Schumann's symphonic oeuvre. Schumann's Four Symphonies , his Piano Concerto , the Violoncello Concerto and the Manfred Overture have been filmed and recorded in the "Golden Hall" of the Vienna Musikverein, held to rank acoustically among the world's best halls. The soloists are Justus Frantz, piano, and the cellist Misha Maisky.
Anton Schweitzer's Alceste (1773) has gone down in music history as the first German-language opera. Though it is practically unknown today, it offers music lovers a wealth of passionate arias and ariosos, lyrical scenes and jaunty ensembles, all in a pre-classical style that occasionally foreshadows Mozart. Written by Anton Schweitzer (1735-1787), one of the leading composers of his time, the work boasts impressive credentials: its libretto was written by C. M. Wieland, one of the great authors of the German Enlightenment, and it was premiered at Weimar's Ducal Residence, one of the most important artistic and cultural centers of the late 18th century, where this recording was also made.
Performed on the occasion of the official reopening of the Anna Amalia Library in Weimar in 2007, the sparing production by Hendrik Müller concentrates on the chamber-like interplay of the four lead roles. Alceste's demanding, coloratura-filled parts are mastered with grace and seemingly effortless ease by all singers. In the lead role as the wife who sacrifices herself to save her beloved husband, Simone Schneider combines delicacy with dazzling technique, and harmonizes superbly with internationally acclaimed Cyndia Sieden as Parthenia. Tenor Christoph Genz offers a moving account of...
Performed on the occasion of the official reopening of the Anna Amalia Library in Weimar in 2007, the sparing production by Hendrik Müller concentrates on the chamber-like interplay of the four lead roles. Alceste's demanding, coloratura-filled parts are mastered with grace and seemingly effortless ease by all singers. In the lead role as the wife who sacrifices herself to save her beloved husband, Simone Schneider combines delicacy with dazzling technique, and harmonizes superbly with internationally acclaimed Cyndia Sieden as Parthenia. Tenor Christoph Genz offers a moving account of...
In early October 1986, Leonard Bernstein conducted a benefit concert
for the restoration of Vienna's Musikvereinssaal. In this program he led
the Vienna Philharmonic in Shostakovich's Sixth Symphony and Sibelius's Second Symphony .
for the restoration of Vienna's Musikvereinssaal. In this program he led
the Vienna Philharmonic in Shostakovich's Sixth Symphony and Sibelius's Second Symphony .
In the mid 1980s, Unitel began recording a complete cycle of Sibelius symphonies with Leonard Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic. Bernstein's death in 1990 unfortunately cut short this project after the release of Symphonies Nos. 1, 2, 5 and 7 . They were recorded live at Vienna's Musikvereinssaal and were the object of stellar reviews. Bernstein, in the words of a leading Austrian daily, "painted a canvas of late-romantic splendor with the Philharmonic's sound – the incomparable brilliancy of the strings, the glowing intensity of the brass – in a way that only the greatest conductors can." ( Symphony No. 1 ) And in its review of the Second Symphony, a major Viennese newspaper wrote: "For the sake of Jean Sibelius, Leonard Bernstein leaps with fanatical zeal into the heaving waves of late romantic emotions." It is not surprising that Leonard Bernstein felt so passionately about Sibelius's music. In many respects, it strikingly parallels that of Gustav Mahler. In fact, Sibelius's ouvre is seen along with Gustav Mahler's as the most important symphonic legacy between late romanticism and modernity. And as Mahler's glowing advocate, Bernstein was suited like none other to disseminate the music of his great colleague Jean Sibelius.
"The best of the best assembled on stage," wrote Germany's leading newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung after the premiere of Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. Indeed, it would be hard to find a more ideal cast for this late-Romantic Rococo pastiche anywhere in the world. As the Marschallin, stellar soprano Renée Fleming uses her velvety tones and autumnal shadings to complement the youthfully lyrical and dynamic voice of Sophie Koch as her young lover Octavian. Diana Damrau's Sophie enhances the trio's sparkle with her ethereal high notes. Next to Franz Hawlata as a swaggering Baron Ochs and the always impressive Franz Grundheber as Faninal, the Baden-Baden production rounds off its male leads with international tenor star Jonas Kaufmann as the "Italian Singer."
Leading his Münchner Philharmoniker, acclaimed Romantic specialist Christian Thielemann revels in Strauss's lustrous melancholy and obtains a rarely heard transparency from the brass and woodwinds. Bolstered by these solid orchestral underpinnings, Herbert Wernicke's Salzburg Festival production - which also scored a great success at Paris' Opéra de la Bastille - has been polished and trimmed here by Alejandro Stadler. It places the cast of fabulous singers in a sumptuous...
Leading his Münchner Philharmoniker, acclaimed Romantic specialist Christian Thielemann revels in Strauss's lustrous melancholy and obtains a rarely heard transparency from the brass and woodwinds. Bolstered by these solid orchestral underpinnings, Herbert Wernicke's Salzburg Festival production - which also scored a great success at Paris' Opéra de la Bastille - has been polished and trimmed here by Alejandro Stadler. It places the cast of fabulous singers in a sumptuous...
Tchaikovsky is best known for his symphonic scores and ballets such as the Nutcracker , Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty . Yet his operas also occupy a place of honor in his oeuvre, and two of them, Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades , both based on novels by Pushkin, are among his very finest works.
The plot of Onegin is quickly told: on a Russian country estate, awkward, inexperienced young Tatyana is seized by a sudden passion for the handsome, blase new neighbor Eugene Onegin. She writes him a love letter, but he makes it clear to her that he is not interested. Later, when Tatyana's sister flirts with Onegin, her fiancé challenges him to a duel and is killed. Years later, Onegin returns, finds that Tatyana has married an aged prince, and tries to win her back but fails. Tchaikovsky called his opera a sequence of "lyric scenes." Its structure prefigures narrative techniques that later came into use in cinema, such as abrupt cuts and chronological leaps, intimate close-ups, and atmospheric interjections. Bearing this practically cinematic structure in mind, director Andrea Breth has produced an intimate chamber play that mines the depths of veracity, precision and charisma of her singer-actors. The stage suggests both the concrete location of the action as well as...
The plot of Onegin is quickly told: on a Russian country estate, awkward, inexperienced young Tatyana is seized by a sudden passion for the handsome, blase new neighbor Eugene Onegin. She writes him a love letter, but he makes it clear to her that he is not interested. Later, when Tatyana's sister flirts with Onegin, her fiancé challenges him to a duel and is killed. Years later, Onegin returns, finds that Tatyana has married an aged prince, and tries to win her back but fails. Tchaikovsky called his opera a sequence of "lyric scenes." Its structure prefigures narrative techniques that later came into use in cinema, such as abrupt cuts and chronological leaps, intimate close-ups, and atmospheric interjections. Bearing this practically cinematic structure in mind, director Andrea Breth has produced an intimate chamber play that mines the depths of veracity, precision and charisma of her singer-actors. The stage suggests both the concrete location of the action as well as...
Perhaps the most popular ballet in the world, Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake has been given a compelling new interpretation by Rudolf Nureyev. The Russian dancer, a towering figure in 20th-century ballet, placed greater emphasis on the character of Prince Siegfried. First produced in Vienna in 1964, Nureyev's choreography has been hailed as one of the most fascinating ever. Nureyev and his partner Dame Margot Fonteyn perfectly embodied the noble and more volatile style of classical ballet performance featured here.
Commanding the podium with his slender figure, theatrical shock of hair and penetrating blue eyes, Herbert von Karajan projected the hieratic image of the conductor as officiant of some quasi-mystic rite. And anyone who ever saw him conduct live or on his many audiovisual recordings will agree that in his performances, music did indeed become a religion and Karajan its high-priest. Karajan (1908-1989) embodied classical music in the general consciousness as an epoch-making conductor, media star, opera producer, festival director and festival founder. But in spite of his Promethean and widely varied activities, he remained a superb conductor, with a grasp of the standard orchestral and operatic repertory from Mozart to Schoenberg that was unsurpassed among his peers. The Pathétique was recorded live at the Berlin Philharmonie in 1973.
Bathed in the warm light of the setting sun, Vienna's imperial Schönbrunn Palace provides a romantic setting for this open-air concert held shortly before the final match of the Euro 2008 football championship. And shining even more brightly than the palace are the stars of the evening, Anna Netrebko, Rolando Villazon and Placido Domingo.
The trio's first joint concert, given at Berlin's Waldbühne for the 2006 football World Cup, was awarded the Platinum DVD for sales of over 50,000 DVDs in Germany and over 100,000 worldwide. The Schonbrunn concert also broke records with 3.3 million viewers watching the concert live or deferred in Germany and Austria.
Netrebko "beguiles the audience" (Neue Kronen-Zeitung) with a heady rendition of a number from the operetta Csárdásfürstin and lets herself be swept off her feet in a waltz with her duet partner Placido Domingo. The great tenor himself regales the audience with his "golden tones" (Die Presse) and "vocal youthfulness" (Süddeutsche Zeitung) in excerpts from Massenet and Wagner. Villazon "dazzles with bravura arias," (Wiener Zeitung), duets and a fiery zarzuela encore. In an emotional homage to Vienna, the trio performs the immortal Wien, Wien nur du allein . Other gems include Rimsky-Korsakov's The Rose and the Nightingale,...
The trio's first joint concert, given at Berlin's Waldbühne for the 2006 football World Cup, was awarded the Platinum DVD for sales of over 50,000 DVDs in Germany and over 100,000 worldwide. The Schonbrunn concert also broke records with 3.3 million viewers watching the concert live or deferred in Germany and Austria.
Netrebko "beguiles the audience" (Neue Kronen-Zeitung) with a heady rendition of a number from the operetta Csárdásfürstin and lets herself be swept off her feet in a waltz with her duet partner Placido Domingo. The great tenor himself regales the audience with his "golden tones" (Die Presse) and "vocal youthfulness" (Süddeutsche Zeitung) in excerpts from Massenet and Wagner. Villazon "dazzles with bravura arias," (Wiener Zeitung), duets and a fiery zarzuela encore. In an emotional homage to Vienna, the trio performs the immortal Wien, Wien nur du allein . Other gems include Rimsky-Korsakov's The Rose and the Nightingale,...
In the tradition of the original The Three Tenors , world-class singers Placido Domingo, Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon join forces to entertain a live audience of 20,000 spectators on location and millions more around the world on TV. They will sing the most famous arias and duets from the world of opera, accompanied by the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and its conductor Marco Armiliato. The event will take place at Berlin's legendary Waldbühne on Friday, 7 July 2006 at 8 pm.
Less than 48 hours before the football world celebrates its new champion, three top international opera stars – Placido Domingo, Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon – will join forces for a unique musical event in front of a live audience. As one-of-a-kind interpreters of classical music and high-caliber entertainers, they will thrill their public with the most famous arias and duets from the world of opera. Looking back on an extraordinary career that has been honored with 11 Grammys, Plácido Domingo has become the very epitome of the operatic tenor, even among people who have no particular interest in classical music. He is a star who beguiles every audience with his virile charisma. Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon unleashed a worldwide media frenzy in summer 2005 with...
Less than 48 hours before the football world celebrates its new champion, three top international opera stars – Placido Domingo, Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon – will join forces for a unique musical event in front of a live audience. As one-of-a-kind interpreters of classical music and high-caliber entertainers, they will thrill their public with the most famous arias and duets from the world of opera. Looking back on an extraordinary career that has been honored with 11 Grammys, Plácido Domingo has become the very epitome of the operatic tenor, even among people who have no particular interest in classical music. He is a star who beguiles every audience with his virile charisma. Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon unleashed a worldwide media frenzy in summer 2005 with...
Set against the magnificent backdrop of Lake Constance, every production at the Bregenz Festival faces strong natural competitors. But with this first-ever production of Verdi's Aida (in an abridged version) on the lakeside stage, it is easy to overlook the beauty of the surrounding nature. Stage director Graham Vick and set designer Paul Brown conjure up an "open-air spectacle of superlatives" (Die Zeit) that throws a bridge between ancient Egypt and today's U.S.
The stage effects are stunning: ruins of the Statue of Liberty pieced
together with the help of giant cranes, boats carrying priestesses and
prisoners – parts of the opera even take place in the lake itself! And in the Grand March – one of the most famous marches in opera – a golden elephant comes sailing into view on a barge.
Under Carlo Rizzi, the Wiener Symphoniker brilliantly support the chorus and soloists, among whom Iano Tamar (Amneris) and Tatiana Serjan (Aida) stand out. Drawing capacity crowds of over 200,000 spectators in just one season, Aida is the festival's most successful opera to date, even more successful than the Tosca production, which has been immortalized in the James Bond film "Quantum of Solace".
The stage effects are stunning: ruins of the Statue of Liberty pieced
together with the help of giant cranes, boats carrying priestesses and
prisoners – parts of the opera even take place in the lake itself! And in the Grand March – one of the most famous marches in opera – a golden elephant comes sailing into view on a barge.
Under Carlo Rizzi, the Wiener Symphoniker brilliantly support the chorus and soloists, among whom Iano Tamar (Amneris) and Tatiana Serjan (Aida) stand out. Drawing capacity crowds of over 200,000 spectators in just one season, Aida is the festival's most successful opera to date, even more successful than the Tosca production, which has been immortalized in the James Bond film "Quantum of Solace".
After an unparalleled succession of tragic operas, Verdi finished his operatic career with a comedy. It has a thread of intriguing musical cross-references and a great richness of musical resource, as well as subtle delineation of character. It has enchanting love music, too, but it is the depiction of Falstaff himself and the web of conspiracy around him that gives the opera its chief celebrity. Verdi's congenial librettist Arrigo Boito created a sparkling adaptation of Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor" and "Henry IV." Falstaff was premiered in Milan in 1893.
Hailed as his first mature masterpiece, Verdi's 1849 opera Luisa Miller leaves the world of Bellini and Donizetti behind and opens the door to the realism of the three following operas, Rigoletto , La Traviata and Il Trovatore. Even though it has not become a repertoire work like its successors, the work's ensemble scenes and fluid dramaturgy have an electrifying impact on all Verdi lovers. This drama, based on Schiller's Kabale und Liebe, treats the conflicts between the two fathers and their children and between two very different social classes with a forward-looking psychological refinement. "It is a melodrama hovering between two worlds and depicts a society in transition from one to the other," says director Denis Krief. The story of the star-crossed lovers Luisa and Rodolfo fully occupies center stage in this production from the 2007 Festival Verdi in Parma, with a minimalist decor highlighted by a simple wooden table for the heroine's home and an elegant sofa for the home of the noble Walter family. As in his 2007 Nabucco from the Arena di Verona, Franco-Italian director Denis Krief pares down the production to focus on the music and, above all, the outstanding singers.
Fiorenza Cedolins heads the roster of great Verdi artists in this production. The famed...
Fiorenza Cedolins heads the roster of great Verdi artists in this production. The famed...
Celebrated conductor Lorin Maazel, a young orchestra of outstanding musicians, four high-caliber soloists and one of the great choral works of musical literature – this alone would make this live recording of Verdi's Requiem a stand-out document of filmed music. But there is more: the venue of this grandiose performance, the Basilica of San Marco in Venice, with its shimmering golden Byzantine mosaics framed by mighty pillars and arches. Modeled on Constantine the Great's Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, the 11th-century basilica has been the workplace of many a great musician in the past, such as Claudio Monteverdi, Adrian Willaert and Giovanni Gabrieli.
Lorin Maazel, Music Director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, is also the Music Director of the Symphonica Toscanini, a young orchestra founded in May 2006 that has performed under Zubin Mehta, Georges Prêtre and Kurt Masur. "In recent tours of Europe and the U.S., the musicians expressed their unique musical potential by playing so harmoniously and compellingly as a group that they conquered every audience," said Maazel. The recording also features distinguished soloists Norma Fantini, soprano; the young Anna Smirnova, mezzo-soprano; Francesco Meli, tenor; Rafal Siwek, bass. The Chorus of the...
Lorin Maazel, Music Director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, is also the Music Director of the Symphonica Toscanini, a young orchestra founded in May 2006 that has performed under Zubin Mehta, Georges Prêtre and Kurt Masur. "In recent tours of Europe and the U.S., the musicians expressed their unique musical potential by playing so harmoniously and compellingly as a group that they conquered every audience," said Maazel. The recording also features distinguished soloists Norma Fantini, soprano; the young Anna Smirnova, mezzo-soprano; Francesco Meli, tenor; Rafal Siwek, bass. The Chorus of the...
After his first two operas Oberto and Un giorno di regno , Verdi fell into a depression that dissipated only when he was shown the libretto to Nabucco and discovered the chorus Va, pensiero . The words sung by the Hebrew exiles made an indelible impression on the composer, who also saw the political potential within them: an echo of the Italians' longing for freedom and a unified nation.
This video production vividly captures this unique experience and provides the viewer with fascinating details that escape many of the Arena's spectators. Stage director Denis Krief casts the work in a sparse modern setting, providing a highly effective showcase for the true heroes of the evening, the singers under conductor Daniel Oren. The chorus of the Hebrew captives is so perfect that it is probably impossible to find it sung anywhere else more beautifully than in Verona.
As so often in the Arena, the chorus presents itself as protagonist and perfectly homogeneous ensemble in this acoustically delicate theater. But with Leo Nucci as an aging Nabucco reminiscent of Lear, Fabio Sartori as his antagonist Ismaele and Maria Guleghina as a power-hungry Abigaille, the stage was dominated by three brilliantly disposed soloists who rousingly did justice to the drama of their...
This video production vividly captures this unique experience and provides the viewer with fascinating details that escape many of the Arena's spectators. Stage director Denis Krief casts the work in a sparse modern setting, providing a highly effective showcase for the true heroes of the evening, the singers under conductor Daniel Oren. The chorus of the Hebrew captives is so perfect that it is probably impossible to find it sung anywhere else more beautifully than in Verona.
As so often in the Arena, the chorus presents itself as protagonist and perfectly homogeneous ensemble in this acoustically delicate theater. But with Leo Nucci as an aging Nabucco reminiscent of Lear, Fabio Sartori as his antagonist Ismaele and Maria Guleghina as a power-hungry Abigaille, the stage was dominated by three brilliantly disposed soloists who rousingly did justice to the drama of their...
Herbert von Karajan, a master painter of aural and visual panoramas, has created a medley of Mediterranean moods, extending from the violent storm of the Overture to the golden hues of the palace scenes. Jon Vickers, in one of his greatest roles as the brooding Moor Otello, displays the full brilliancy of his legendary voice; Mirella Freni, as Otello's tormented wife Desdemona, secures our compassion with singing of serene vocal beauty; Peter Glossop is as evil an Iago as one can imagine. Three definitive portrayals of some of Verdi's most powerful characters. With the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chorus of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Herbert von Karajan's Salzburg Festival production is assured of an electrifying impact.
"An amazing range, with fresh young lows and girlish highs, full, glowing middle and high registers, a timbre of silk, champagne and sandpaper, a great lyrical-dramatic soprano," wrote Berlin's Tagesspiegel about Marina Poplavskaya. The Moscow native was clearly "the queen of this operatic performance," as the eminent critic Joachim Kaiser put it in the Suddeutsche Zeitung, and perhaps the most dazzling discovery of this Salzburg Festival production of Verdi's Otello .
Poplavskaya's Desdemona shares the limelight on the stage of Salzburg's Grosses Festspielhaus with her partner Aleksandrs Antonenko, an up-and-coming Latvian tenor with an impressive stage presence and a light, heady timbre that gives his Otello a youthful note.
Particularly noteworthy are Carlos Alvarez, a powerful, charismatic baritone who infuses his manipulating Iago with criminal energy and threatening darkness; and Stephen Costello, whose sensitive, elegant Cassio reminds us that this young American tenor is already singing Donizetti at the Metropolitan Opera. Leading the vocal ensemble and the Wiener Philharmoniker with commanding presence is the great Riccardo Muti, whose conducting is "the motor of this Verdi opera" (Wiener Zeitung).
With its "enlightened realism" (Die Welt), Stephen Langridge's...
Poplavskaya's Desdemona shares the limelight on the stage of Salzburg's Grosses Festspielhaus with her partner Aleksandrs Antonenko, an up-and-coming Latvian tenor with an impressive stage presence and a light, heady timbre that gives his Otello a youthful note.
Particularly noteworthy are Carlos Alvarez, a powerful, charismatic baritone who infuses his manipulating Iago with criminal energy and threatening darkness; and Stephen Costello, whose sensitive, elegant Cassio reminds us that this young American tenor is already singing Donizetti at the Metropolitan Opera. Leading the vocal ensemble and the Wiener Philharmoniker with commanding presence is the great Riccardo Muti, whose conducting is "the motor of this Verdi opera" (Wiener Zeitung).
With its "enlightened realism" (Die Welt), Stephen Langridge's...
Renaissance Italy has never been portrayed more opulently and more realistically than in Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's film of Verdi's Rigoletto , the composer's first true masterwork for the stage. Towering over the production is Luciano Pavarotti as the cynical, dissolute Duke of Mantua, one of the famed tenor's greatest vocal and dramatic roles. Rigoletto is magnificently portrayed by the Swedish baritone Ingvar Wixell. His beautiful daughter Gilda is interpreted by Edita Gruberova, one of the leading coloratura sopranos of our time. Director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, "whose stage and television work has brought a new and grandly colorful vitality to opera interpretation" (The New York Times), acclaimed Italian cameraman Pasqualino de Santis (Death in Venice) and architect Gianni Quaranta have created a spellbindingly unique atmosphere.
The drama unfolds with a powerful authenticity highlighted by the historic locations in which it was filmed: Parma's Teatro Farnese of 1628, Mantua's Palazzo Te, famed for its frescoes by Giulio Romano, and the Palladian-style Teatro Olimpico in Sabbioneta. Riccardo Chailly's vibrant interpretation of Verdi's score, with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra responding magnificently to his conducting, is a perfect complement to Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's...
The drama unfolds with a powerful authenticity highlighted by the historic locations in which it was filmed: Parma's Teatro Farnese of 1628, Mantua's Palazzo Te, famed for its frescoes by Giulio Romano, and the Palladian-style Teatro Olimpico in Sabbioneta. Riccardo Chailly's vibrant interpretation of Verdi's score, with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra responding magnificently to his conducting, is a perfect complement to Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's...
Within only a few years, Anna Netrebko has become one of the most acclaimed performers of our time, whose popularity transcends by far the boundaries of classical music. With her CDs garnering phenomenal sales and her stage appearances causing worldwide box-office stampedes, Anna Netrebko is on her way to becoming the new diva assoluta.
This recording of Verdi's La Traviata from the 2005 Salzburg Festival – the uncontested and hopelessly sold-out highlight of the festival season – captures the triumphal performance not only of Anna Netrebko as Violetta Valery, but also of Rolando Villazon as her lover Alfredo. The glamorous Russian soprano and the heartthrob Mexican tenor have become the new dream team of the opera world.
The international press was unanimous in praising the singers' phenomenal range, heavenly timbre, musical finesse and powerful, charismatic stage presence. Portraying Alfredo's father is one of the leading baritones of our time, Thomas Hampson. The Austrian Broadcasting Corporation's (ORF) simultaneous telecast of the premiere scored a phenomenal 29% market share. Willy Decker's stark, elegantly stylish stage production makes Anna Netrebko the center of attention at all times. The sets and costumes are by Wolfgang Gussmann. La Traviata...
This recording of Verdi's La Traviata from the 2005 Salzburg Festival – the uncontested and hopelessly sold-out highlight of the festival season – captures the triumphal performance not only of Anna Netrebko as Violetta Valery, but also of Rolando Villazon as her lover Alfredo. The glamorous Russian soprano and the heartthrob Mexican tenor have become the new dream team of the opera world.
The international press was unanimous in praising the singers' phenomenal range, heavenly timbre, musical finesse and powerful, charismatic stage presence. Portraying Alfredo's father is one of the leading baritones of our time, Thomas Hampson. The Austrian Broadcasting Corporation's (ORF) simultaneous telecast of the premiere scored a phenomenal 29% market share. Willy Decker's stark, elegantly stylish stage production makes Anna Netrebko the center of attention at all times. The sets and costumes are by Wolfgang Gussmann. La Traviata...
In a career now spanning more than a quarter of a century, Gidon Kremer has confirmed his reputation as an artist of international stature and as a markedly individual personality. Kremer was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1947. At the age of 18, he auditioned for David Oistrach and was one of the few pupils chosen by the maestro to study under him at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1967 Kremer won his first international prize at the Reine Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. This was followed by further awards in Montreal and Genoa, and culminated in the first prize at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1970. In 1981 Kremer founded the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival, where he gathers around him a varying, but always dynamic group of chiefly young musicians to discover new pieces and rediscover the standard works through new interpretations. Kremer is also actively committed to contemporary composers from Russia and Eastern Europe, such as Schnittke, Denisov, Gubaidulina and Pärt. In this recording, Kremer not only plays the solo part, but also leads the renowned English Chamber Orchestra. The recording was made in April 1981 in the splendid Baroque library of the monastery in Polling near Munich.
One of the warmest personalities on the opera and concert stage today, soprano Diana Damrau has put together a beguiling program for her recital at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. The selection of Romantic to fin-de-siècle pieces not only underscores her own vocal artistry, but also pays tribute to her accompanist Xavier de Maistre and, in particular, to the diaphanous delicacy of his instrument, the harp.
The use of the harp to replace the piano in a voice recital is a truly unique and unexpected musical treat. De Maistre does more than simply transpose the piano part to his instrument; under the fingers of the Wiener Philharmoniker's solo harpist, the ethereal sound of this instrument melds consummately with the soprano's finely honed vocal part, so that the masterpieces by composers such as Schumann, Faure and Debussy sound as if they had been conceived for voice and harp.
The unrivalled intimacy of a chamber concert is conveyed by the placing of the soloists and public within touching distance on the stage of the Festspielhaus. This distinctly informal atmosphere is captured by Emmy Award winning director Brian Large. Discreetly highlighting the interpretative subtleties and spontaneous personality of Diana Damrau, he helps confirm her status as one of the most exciting,...
The use of the harp to replace the piano in a voice recital is a truly unique and unexpected musical treat. De Maistre does more than simply transpose the piano part to his instrument; under the fingers of the Wiener Philharmoniker's solo harpist, the ethereal sound of this instrument melds consummately with the soprano's finely honed vocal part, so that the masterpieces by composers such as Schumann, Faure and Debussy sound as if they had been conceived for voice and harp.
The unrivalled intimacy of a chamber concert is conveyed by the placing of the soloists and public within touching distance on the stage of the Festspielhaus. This distinctly informal atmosphere is captured by Emmy Award winning director Brian Large. Discreetly highlighting the interpretative subtleties and spontaneous personality of Diana Damrau, he helps confirm her status as one of the most exciting,...
Thirty years at La Scala: this is what Leo Nucci's recital commemorated, an event celebrated by the fact that it was sold out only a few days after the booking opened.
It was in 1977, and it was naturally the Barbiere by Rossini that opened in style the career at La Scala of a singer amongst the dearest in the heart of opera audiences, in particular in Milan.
From then onwards, Nucci has performed in the greatest theatres in the world. He has sung with the most famous opera singers and has worked with conductors such as Karajan, Solti, Giulini, Muti, Abbado, Maazel, Mehta, Levine and has participated in two "opera-films": Macbeth and Il barbiere di Siviglia , in addition to numerous videos of live opera performances. During the last couple of years Leo Nucci has added to his opera repertoire the repertoire defined as "popular", and has performed many concerts in Italy and abroad, accompanied by the musical ensemble "Salotto '800".
But for the recital at La Scala on Monday 15 January, Nucci did not neglect his "duty" as a great opera performer: he didn't sing any parlour romances nor surrogates, but only and exclusively arias from the highest and most renowned repertoire – precisely that for which he is universally appreciated and awaited.
It was in 1977, and it was naturally the Barbiere by Rossini that opened in style the career at La Scala of a singer amongst the dearest in the heart of opera audiences, in particular in Milan.
From then onwards, Nucci has performed in the greatest theatres in the world. He has sung with the most famous opera singers and has worked with conductors such as Karajan, Solti, Giulini, Muti, Abbado, Maazel, Mehta, Levine and has participated in two "opera-films": Macbeth and Il barbiere di Siviglia , in addition to numerous videos of live opera performances. During the last couple of years Leo Nucci has added to his opera repertoire the repertoire defined as "popular", and has performed many concerts in Italy and abroad, accompanied by the musical ensemble "Salotto '800".
But for the recital at La Scala on Monday 15 January, Nucci did not neglect his "duty" as a great opera performer: he didn't sing any parlour romances nor surrogates, but only and exclusively arias from the highest and most renowned repertoire – precisely that for which he is universally appreciated and awaited.
For his production of The Flying Dutchman , premiered in 1978, Harry Kupfer chose the original Dresden version of 1843, which has a rougher, more muscular texture than the subsequent editions. When The Flying Dutchman was performed in Zurich and Munich, Wagner himself revised the work, softening the instrumentation and appending the "redemption" conclusions to the overture and the third act. What was the reason for the heated disputes which took place between the conservative Bayreuth Wagnerians and the more progressive lovers of the composer's music? Harry Kupfer's production presents the entire story of the Flying Dutchman as a hallucination, a figment of Senta's disturbed imagination. She is seen by the director as a highly neurotic, even schizophrenic young girl, whose yearning for the eternally wandering Dutchman puts her into a trance-like state, in which her own internal drama is acted out in the form of a vision. By having the character leap through the window to her death at the end of the opera, Harry Kupfer has placed a highly personal interpretation on Wagner's notion of "redemption".
"This production quite possibly shows us the path that musical theater will be taking in the future" (Die Zeit). Indeed, the Catalan city of Valencia is setting new accents in 21st-century opera not only with its spectacular, futuristic opera house, the Palau de les Arts "Reina Sofía" designed by Santiago Calatrava, but also with the visually transfixing production of Wagner's Ring staged there by Carlus Padrissa and his theater group La Fura dels Baus. The Barcelona-based Fura became known internationally when it designed and carried out the opening ceremonies of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and made its breakthrough in the classical world with its production of Berlioz's La damnation de Faust at the 1999 Salzburg Festival.
The Fura's trademark is its spellbinding fusion of movement, sound, music, dance, acrobatics and technology into unforgettable stage events of sometimes raw but always captivating power. In the world of opera, the ensemble has defined its personal style through its exploitation of large-screen projections, the extraordinary mobility of the performers, and the magical use of human beings to create organic structures that evoke objects such as Valhalla (in this Ring production). Indeed, La Fura was predestined for Wagner's visionary world: his dream...
The Fura's trademark is its spellbinding fusion of movement, sound, music, dance, acrobatics and technology into unforgettable stage events of sometimes raw but always captivating power. In the world of opera, the ensemble has defined its personal style through its exploitation of large-screen projections, the extraordinary mobility of the performers, and the magical use of human beings to create organic structures that evoke objects such as Valhalla (in this Ring production). Indeed, La Fura was predestined for Wagner's visionary world: his dream...
"[Munich's] National Theater was filled with pure, exquisite Wagnerian vocal bliss; the Bavarian State Opera was a Valhalla on earth" (Die Welt). With Jonas Kaufmann's long-awaited role debut as Lohengrin and Anja Harteros as Elsa, Wagner's epic of love and loss was not only the opening premiere of the Munich Opera Festival, but its uncontested highlight as well. Which is why the performance was followed not only by a long-sold-out house, but also by tens of thousands of spectators at a live public viewing event in Munich and Vienna.
Under General Music Director Kent Nagano, the ensemble of the Munich Opera triumphantly confirmed that, with this production at the latest, it belongs in the pantheon of the great Wagner houses of our time. Commanding the public's attention with every note, especially in the incredible pianissimi of the Grail Narrative, tenor Jonas Kaufmann gave eloquent proof of his reputation as "one of the most important, and versatile, singers of our age" (The Times). Fully matching Kaufmann's consummate artistry is Anja Harteros, an imposing, charismatic beauty who has been at home on the world's largest stages since her spectacular Met debut. Renowned director Richard Jones "gives each character the required psychological depth" (La Libre Belgique).
Under General Music Director Kent Nagano, the ensemble of the Munich Opera triumphantly confirmed that, with this production at the latest, it belongs in the pantheon of the great Wagner houses of our time. Commanding the public's attention with every note, especially in the incredible pianissimi of the Grail Narrative, tenor Jonas Kaufmann gave eloquent proof of his reputation as "one of the most important, and versatile, singers of our age" (The Times). Fully matching Kaufmann's consummate artistry is Anja Harteros, an imposing, charismatic beauty who has been at home on the world's largest stages since her spectacular Met debut. Renowned director Richard Jones "gives each character the required psychological depth" (La Libre Belgique).
Wagner's Meistersinger is a festive opera in its own right, but at the reprise of the work at the Vienna State Opera in January 2008, the festive spirit literally leapt out into the audience as well. Vienna's dailies exploded with praise such as "A feast of singers" (Der Standard), "A feast ... grandiose" (Die Presse) and "Nearly six hours of pure enjoyment" (Kurier). The plaudits applied to all the singers, from Hans Sachs to the night watchman, as well as to the chorus and orchestra.
Conductor Christian Thielemann deserves a great deal of the credit for fashioning a multi-faceted drama that is anything but black-and-white in its musical depiction of the characters. Innate in Thielemann is both the grand gesture, the broad arch and sweep of a scene, as well as a meticulous attention to subtle details. Since his Bayreuth Festival debut in 2000 with this very work, Thielemann has established himself as one of the world's leading Wagner conductors. Among the vocal surprises of this live recording is Adrian Erod as Beckmesser, a fully fleshed-out character whose every gesture and every note reflects a well-rounded concept of the usually unsympathetic role of the critic. Erod is on a par with the great Wagner baritone Falk Struckmann as Hans Sachs, who injects earthy humor into...
Conductor Christian Thielemann deserves a great deal of the credit for fashioning a multi-faceted drama that is anything but black-and-white in its musical depiction of the characters. Innate in Thielemann is both the grand gesture, the broad arch and sweep of a scene, as well as a meticulous attention to subtle details. Since his Bayreuth Festival debut in 2000 with this very work, Thielemann has established himself as one of the world's leading Wagner conductors. Among the vocal surprises of this live recording is Adrian Erod as Beckmesser, a fully fleshed-out character whose every gesture and every note reflects a well-rounded concept of the usually unsympathetic role of the critic. Erod is on a par with the great Wagner baritone Falk Struckmann as Hans Sachs, who injects earthy humor into...
"This production quite possibly shows us the path that musical theater will be taking in the future" (Die Zeit). Indeed, the Catalan city of Valencia is setting new accents in 21st-century opera not only with its spectacular, futuristic opera house, the Palau de les Arts "Reina Sofía" designed by Santiago Calatrava, but also with the visually transfixing production of Wagner's Ring staged there by Carlus Padrissa and his theater group La Fura dels Baus. The Barcelona-based Fura became known internationally when it designed and carried out the opening ceremonies of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and made its breakthrough in the classical world with its production of Berlioz's La damnation de Faust at the 1999 Salzburg Festival.
The Fura's trademark is its spellbinding fusion of movement, sound, music, dance, acrobatics and technology into unforgettable stage events of sometimes raw but always captivating power. In the world of opera, the ensemble has defined its personal style through its exploitation of large-screen projections, the extraordinary mobility of the performers, and the magical use of human beings to create organic structures that evoke objects such as Valhalla (in this Ring production). Indeed, La Fura was predestined for Wagner's visionary world: his dream...
The Fura's trademark is its spellbinding fusion of movement, sound, music, dance, acrobatics and technology into unforgettable stage events of sometimes raw but always captivating power. In the world of opera, the ensemble has defined its personal style through its exploitation of large-screen projections, the extraordinary mobility of the performers, and the magical use of human beings to create organic structures that evoke objects such as Valhalla (in this Ring production). Indeed, La Fura was predestined for Wagner's visionary world: his dream...
"This production quite possibly shows us the path that musical theater will be taking in the future" (Die Zeit). Indeed, the Catalan city of Valencia is setting new accents in 21st-century opera not only with its spectacular, futuristic opera house, the Palau de les Arts "Reina Sofía" designed by Santiago Calatrava, but also with the visually transfixing production of Wagner's Ring staged there by Carlus Padrissa and his theater group La Fura dels Baus. The Barcelona-based Fura became known internationally when it designed and carried out the opening ceremonies of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and made its breakthrough in the classical world with its production of Berlioz's La damnation de Faust at the 1999 Salzburg Festival.
The Fura's trademark is its spellbinding fusion of movement, sound, music, dance, acrobatics and technology into unforgettable stage events of sometimes raw but always captivating power. In the world of opera, the ensemble has defined its personal style through its exploitation of large-screen projections, the extraordinary mobility of the performers, and the magical use of human beings to create organic structures that evoke objects such as Valhalla (in this Ring production). Indeed, La Fura was predestined for Wagner's visionary world: his dream...
The Fura's trademark is its spellbinding fusion of movement, sound, music, dance, acrobatics and technology into unforgettable stage events of sometimes raw but always captivating power. In the world of opera, the ensemble has defined its personal style through its exploitation of large-screen projections, the extraordinary mobility of the performers, and the magical use of human beings to create organic structures that evoke objects such as Valhalla (in this Ring production). Indeed, La Fura was predestined for Wagner's visionary world: his dream...
This is the first complete television production recorded at the annual Wagner Festival in Bayreuth. Director Gotz Friedrich sees the minstrel Tannhauser as a rugged artistic individualist, much as Wagner was himself, misunderstood by his contemporaries who seek to throttle his inalienable right of expression. He turns his back on a regulated, stifling society and retreats into the world of his own impossible dreams. Whereas other productions of Tannhäuser show the minstrel acutally biding time in the court of Venus, in Friedrich's version Tannhauser's harp triggers an imaginary Venusberg, in which the strings become a tangled web of pure sensuality. Tannhauser discovers that a completely anything-goes society is just as restrictive in the end, and he returns to the real world. But Tannhauser can't go home again. Once again he lashes out at his hypocritical associates, who condemn him. His only defender is the saintly Elisabeth, who in this production is played by the same soprano who sings Venus – two sides of the coin in the eternal feminine. She prays for her own death, so that thereby Tannhauser's soul leaves this restrictive world for a better one in which his genius is appreciated.
"This production quite possibly shows us the path that musical theater will be taking in the future" (Die Zeit). Indeed, the Catalan city of Valencia is setting new accents in 21st-century opera not only with its spectacular, futuristic opera house, the Palau de les Arts "Reina Sofía" designed by Santiago Calatrava, but also with the visually transfixing production of Wagner's Ring staged there by Carlus Padrissa and his theater group La Fura dels Baus. The Barcelona-based Fura became known internationally when it designed and carried out the opening ceremonies of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and made its breakthrough in the classical world with its production of Berlioz's La damnation de Faust at the 1999 Salzburg Festival.
The Fura's trademark is its spellbinding fusion of movement, sound, music, dance, acrobatics and technology into unforgettable stage events of sometimes raw but always captivating power. In the world of opera, the ensemble has defined its personal style through its exploitation of large-screen projections, the extraordinary mobility of the performers, and the magical use of human beings to create organic structures that evoke objects such as Valhalla (in this Ring production). Indeed, La Fura was predestined for Wagner's visionary world: his dream...
The Fura's trademark is its spellbinding fusion of movement, sound, music, dance, acrobatics and technology into unforgettable stage events of sometimes raw but always captivating power. In the world of opera, the ensemble has defined its personal style through its exploitation of large-screen projections, the extraordinary mobility of the performers, and the magical use of human beings to create organic structures that evoke objects such as Valhalla (in this Ring production). Indeed, La Fura was predestined for Wagner's visionary world: his dream...
First performed in Berlin in 1821, Weber's Der Freischutz quickly became one of the most celebrated German operas, and its Overture one of the most popular in all of music literature. The overture follows a symphonic form that determines the thematic unity of the work. Surprisingly innovative for its time, it announces the programmatic works of Berlioz and Liszt, as well as Wagner's first overtures . The fresh and limpid music evokes the fairy-tale setting of the opera, with its ghosts, evil spirits, seven charmed bullets, loving couple, friendly hermit and happy ending. This recording of the Freischutz Overture dates from 1975 and is part of a special overture special directed by Herbert von Karajan and produced with the Berlin Philharmonic for Unitel.
Among the operas composed by Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826), only Der Freischutz still enjoys unbroken popularity on the world's stages today. Other operas, such as Euryanthe , which he worked on for about two years in the early 1820s, were popular in their day but did not establish themselves in the repertoires of major opera houses. Although the opera Euryanthe contains many musical gems, it is its overture that is most often played today, a rousing work with gallant tunes, lyrical melodies and even some early-Romantic ghost music. Leonard Bernstein conducts the Vienna Philharmonic in this recording produced at the Grosser Musikvereinssaal in Vienna in 1983.
For the first time we have received the unique and wonderful opportunity to give a close-up and detailed account on the insides of this institution. For one whole season, we received the permission to be part of every decision-making process, all the way to the actual performance. You have the chance to dive into the working world of this world famous and renowned orchestra.
What does it take to become a Vienna Philharmonic? What are the motivations to become a Vienna Philharmonic? What are the emotions an individual philharmonic feels when he looks back at over 40 years of music? What is the Vienna Philharmonic secret to success? Interviews with all the musicians, conductors and the people in the background will give us answers to these questions and much more. How does a tour organization work? What are the necessary preparations and how does one make sure that everything has been taken care of?
Experience the full range, starting with the rehearsals all the way to the international concerts. Tokyo to New York, from the Salzburg pageants to the Wiener Staatsoper, you will receive complete accounts from behind the scenes in unseen detail. This film- documentary will provide insider information of the exciting, emotional and unique world, the world of Wiener Philharmoniker.
What does it take to become a Vienna Philharmonic? What are the motivations to become a Vienna Philharmonic? What are the emotions an individual philharmonic feels when he looks back at over 40 years of music? What is the Vienna Philharmonic secret to success? Interviews with all the musicians, conductors and the people in the background will give us answers to these questions and much more. How does a tour organization work? What are the necessary preparations and how does one make sure that everything has been taken care of?
Experience the full range, starting with the rehearsals all the way to the international concerts. Tokyo to New York, from the Salzburg pageants to the Wiener Staatsoper, you will receive complete accounts from behind the scenes in unseen detail. This film- documentary will provide insider information of the exciting, emotional and unique world, the world of Wiener Philharmoniker.
Johannes Moser is the name to watch among today's young violoncello virtuosos. Born in 1979, he has already performed with many of the world's leading orchestras, such as the New York Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with which he made his U.S. debut under Pierre Boulez. His agenda is packed with appearances ranging from concerto soloist to chamber-music partner to interpreter of avant-garde music on an electric cello...
In this concert of late-Romantic music with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, the "Echo Classic Award Winner" 2008 boldly infuses Hans Pfitzner's Cello Concerto in A minor with a jolt of adrenaline that could very well boost this rarely heard work – which was long thought to be lost – into the concert repertoire. Written in 1883, Richard Strauss' Romance in F major for cello and orchestra is an early work from the pen of this orchestral master, and another showcase for the talent of Johannes Moser.
The concert also features another rising star of the classical music scene, the young Slovak conductor Juraj Valcuha, the principal conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Doing full justice to the refined atmosphere of the German late-Romantic works on the program, which also includes a...
In this concert of late-Romantic music with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, the "Echo Classic Award Winner" 2008 boldly infuses Hans Pfitzner's Cello Concerto in A minor with a jolt of adrenaline that could very well boost this rarely heard work – which was long thought to be lost – into the concert repertoire. Written in 1883, Richard Strauss' Romance in F major for cello and orchestra is an early work from the pen of this orchestral master, and another showcase for the talent of Johannes Moser.
The concert also features another rising star of the classical music scene, the young Slovak conductor Juraj Valcuha, the principal conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Doing full justice to the refined atmosphere of the German late-Romantic works on the program, which also includes a...