Two key works of the Romantic era are performed at the Vienna Konzerthaus: Johannes Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 and Franz Schubert’s ‘Great’ Symphony in C major. On stage are the Vienna Symphony Orchestra with their principal conductor, Petr Popelka. Both works combine grand forms, inner dignity and musical expressiveness. Johannes Brahms, who made Vienna his home, also engaged deeply with the musical legacy of Franz Schubert. Brahms spent the last 25 years of his life in Vienna, living on Karlsgasse, not far from the Vienna Konzerthaus. It is here that Yulianna Avdeeva, winner of the 2010 International Chopin Competition, now shines in Brahms’s First Piano Concerto in D minor.
Hélène Grimaud at Ruhr Piano Festival
With Hélène Grimaud at the piano, the audience is always in for more than just a concert. They get to experience an artist who never stands still, who never simply reproduces but always creates something new. Those who get to hear her will immediately sense they are in the presence of someone who does not regard music as mere decoration but rather as an existential adventure. She is a sound seeker, a cross-over artist, which is what makes every evening with her so thrilling. PROGRAM: BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Sonata No. 30 in E major, op. 109 (1820); BRAHMS (1833–1897) Three Intermezzi, op. 117 (1892), Fantasies, op. 116 (1892); BACH (1685–1750) Chaconne from the Partita for Violin No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004 (arr. Ferruccio Busoni)
New Year‘s Concert – Teatro la Fenice 2024
The Teatro La Fenice opened in 1792 and is one of the most renowned and most beautiful theaters in the world. First performed in 2004, the New Year’s Concert at Venice’s Teatro La Fenice celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2024 with an extravagant program. Conducted by Maestro Fabio Luisi, this prestigious event features an exquisite blend of symphonic works and operatic masterpieces, including arias from operas such as Tosca, La traviata, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot. Accompanied by beautiful ballet interludes and a lively tribute to the 70th anniversary of Italian television, soprano Eleonora Buratto and tenor Fabio Sartori shine on stage and ring in the New Year with a burst of joyous brilliance.
Yuja Wang – The Vienna Recital
Pianist Yuja Wang has become an integral part of the world‘s major stages, inspiring young and old alike. Her playing displays technical brilliance and a seemingly endless range of emotions. The Piano Recital from the Wiener Konzerthaus allows her to display her fiery virtuosity as well as her mature musicality and imagination with an eclectic, personally chosen program. It combines masterpieces from famous works by Ludwig van Beethoven and Alexander Scriabin to lesser-known compositions by György Ligeti and Nikolai Kapustin, including also sublime musical miniatures by Christoph Willibald Gluck and Philip Glass. A historical milestone that is not to be missed! „The hall went wild!“ (Der Standard)
Diana Damrau & Jonas Kaufmann – Love Songs
“They languish until the last encore” Wiener Zeitung, “A deeply felt, rapturous performance” (The Guardian) A radiant concert at the Great Golden Hall of the Wiener Musikverein: Diana Damrau and Jonas Kaufmann, luminaries of the classical realm and celebrated interpreters of Lieder, breathe life into love songs of two titans of romanticism, Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms. They explore love’s myriad dimensions through soul-stirring solos and mesmerizing duets in a journey through a kaleidoscope of emotions, from reverie and yearning to the bliss of fulfillment, tempered by moments of heartache, resignation, and sacrifice, charming and moving. Adding to the magic is their esteemed collaborator at the piano, the incomparable Helmut Deutsch, whose artistry enhances every note and infuses the music with an undeniable depth of expression.
Thomas Dausgaard, Danish National Symphony Orchestra 4 Symphonies
4 great symphonies that have all played a special role in the close collaboration between Danish National Symphony Orchestra and conductor Thomas Dausgaard. The symphonies are recorded in the beautiful concert hall Koncerthuset in Copenhagen, designed by architect Jean Nouvel and acoustician Toyota Yasuhisa. Bonus material In a series of exclusive interviews Thomas Dausgaard explains about his close collaboration with the orchestra, the concerts and about the four great yet altogether very different master pieces by Brahms, Dvorák, Sibelius and Nielsen.
Helene Grimaud in Berlin
“She doesn’t only play the piano,” wrote a critic who was present at this December 2000 recital by the French pianist Hélène Grimaud. “She feels it and she lives it. Every single note proves her devotion to perfection”. Grimaud was still a rising star when she gave this performance at the Kammermusiksaal of the Berlin Philharmonie, but her very personal brand of artistry – her spontaneity, her sense of colour, her technical perfection – was already fully formed. Bach and Rachmaninoff frame sonatas by Brahms and Beethoven: a typically wide-ranging programme from a pianist whose technique is matched only by her imagination.
Andris Nelsons conducts Shostakovich – Symphony No. 4 & Strauss, Flothuis
Andris Nelsons continues his Shostakovich series with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with the Fourth Symphony. This complex symphony of gigantic proportions was written during the period when Dmitry Shostakovich had been relegated from the status of a national hero to that of a potential enemy of the state by Stalin. When rehearsals for the Fourth proved disastrous, Shostakovich decided to withdraw the work. Even today, though, the Fourth Symphony is performed relatively rarely, perhaps because of the great challenge it poses to both conductor and orchestra. Before the interval, the RCO’s very own principal violinist Liviu Prunaru and its principal cellist Gregor Horsch excelled in Brahms’s Double Concerto, his final orchestral work.
Christian Thielemann – Brahms Cycle: Symphonies No. 1 and 3
Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden open their Brahms Cycle with a performance at the stunning NHK Hall in Tokyo, Japan. The program includes Brahms’ Symphonies No. 1 in C minor and No. 3 in F major.
BR: Festive Gala with Lang Lang and Mariss Jansons
Feel like taking a world tour? Let Mariss Jansons and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks take you to Europe, America and Asia in their festive gala programme. They are joined by super star Lang Lang, who performs the dreamy Andante from Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C major as well as an excerpt from the Yellow River Concerto, a popular piece from his native China. To end the concert maestro Jansons unleashes a musical firework display with an Hungarian Dance by Brahms and Rumanian folk music by Ligeti.