Salzburg Festival 2019: Barenboim conducts the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra

Acclaimed by critics as an evening of superlative, Martha Argerich – arguably the greatest living pianist – joins Daniel Barenboim and his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra for an unforgettable interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto. Argerich’s playing is full of astonishing virtuosity and uncompromising, alternating with breakneck passages and tender tones: “Martha Argerich is and remains unique” (Die Presse). In addition to Tchaikovsky’s brilliant piece, Schubert’s Symphony “Unfinished” is played, a work that has never been performed during the composer’s lifetime, as well as Lutoslawski’s Concerto for Orchestra, completed in 1945 – a highly demanding technical piece that challenges orchestra members as virtuosos. PROGRAM Schubert: Symphony No 7; Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No 1; Lutoslawski: Concerto for Orchestra

Salzburg Festival 2012: Ouverture Spirituelle – Claudio Abbado

After a gap of ten years, Claudio Abbado takes to the rostrum again to conduct a new special facet of the Salzburg Festival of Sacred Music, the Ouverture Spirituelle. The Italian maestro conducts the Orchestra Mozart of Bologna, an ensemble specially dedicated to performing the work of Mozart.

Salzburg Festival 2012: Zurich Ballet and the Hagen Quartet

A singular project is staged at the Salzburg Festival with the famous Felsenreitschule as a backdrop: for the first time the renowned Hagen Quartet appears at the festival accompanied by a dance company. The Swiss grand master of dance Heinz Spoerli presents three works he choreographed for his Zurich Ballet set to three of the great works of the quartet literature: Leos Janácek’s string quartet “Intimate Letters”, Antonín Dvorák’s “American Quartet” and Franz Schubert’s string quartet “The Death and the Maiden”.

Salzburg Festival: Opening Concert 2009

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), a 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. This concert adds a new milestone to UNITEL CLASSICA’s longtime partnership with the Salzburg Festival, as well as with Harnoncourt and the Wiener Philharmoniker.

West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in Salzburg – One day with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra – Concert 2

The idea of uniting young musicians from Israel, Palestine and various Arab countries into a musical ensemble still seems incredible today. Yet such an orchestra has been flourishing since 1999, when Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. The project, says Barenboim, brings together these young people “not so that they forget or hide their differences, but so that they can understand them.” He adds that “making music together gives us the best opportunity to learn to live with one another.” The concerts presented here were recorded at the 2007 Salzburg Festival, during the orchestras residency. The ensemble “proved its status as a first-class orchestra that has no need to shy from comparisons with the philharmonic ‘top dogs’ from Vienna or Berlin” (Munich’s Abendzeitung). Among the highlights of the concerts are Mozart’s “Sinfonia concertante” K. 297b, which gives four young soloists a chance to dazzle, and Igor Stravinsky’s “L’histoire du soldat,” an airy piece with a demanding percussion part. Songs and chamber music, including Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet, showcase the individual talents of the young players. The major orchestral concert comprises a Beethoven overture, an intricate and multi-layered piece by Schoenberg, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, the “Pathétique,” in which Barenboim pulls out all the stops and coaxes rarely heard instrumental lines and accents from the depth of his ensemble. On three afternoons, Daniel Barenboim led a musical workshop called “The School of Listening.” In the first part, Barenboim explores the phenomenon of sound and the importance of the human ear. The second part features the fiery 24-year-old conductor Robin Ticciati in a rehearsal of Beethoven’s third Leonore Overture punctuated by the Maestro’s insightful comments and heated discussions with the young conductor. In the third part the great composer and conductor Pierre Boulez rehearses Béla Bartók’s rarely played “Four Orchestral Pieces,” answering questions from the audience and the musicians. Throughout, Barenboim’s enthusiasm, humor and directness make this three-part series an exceptionally informative and entertaining event. The orchestra’s residency at the 2007 Salzburg Festival will be rounded off with the documentary “Music Is Never The Same,” available in May 2008.

BBC Proms 2016: WEDO and Barenboim perform Widmann, Liszt, Wagner

Proms don’t come more stellar than this!”, raved The Independent about the WEDO’s performance at the BBC Proms. The concert opens with a rendition of Jörg Widmann’s overture Con brio. Martha Argerich continues with an “unforgettable performance” of Franz Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1, dazzling with her “frighteningly precise” playing (The Guardian). As encore the two childhood friends join forces at the piano for a four handed rendition of Schubert’s Rondo in A “that for 12 minutes provides a glimpse of paradise” (The Standart) holding “6000 people spellbound” (The Times). Further repertoire includes Wagner’s Overtures to Tannhäuser and Meistersinger; Dawn, Siegfried’s Rhine Journey and Funeral March from Götterdämmerung et al.

Franz Schubert – Winterreise

“Winterreise” by Franz Schubert – unquestionably one of the best known works in the lieder repertoire – engages with its audience in a new and unexpected form: in a creative encounter with Schubert’s masterpiece, the celebrated lieder specialist Matthias Goerne, pianist Markus Hinterhäuser and South African director, set designer and

theatre artist William Kentridge joined forces on stage and traced newly imagined, deeply moving images. In short animated films, Kentridge visualises Goerne’s and Hinterhäuser’s sonic contribution. A memorable meeting “of melancholy and magic” (La Marseillaise).

The Weimar Recital – Franz Schubert: Songs & Ballads

Konstantin Krimmel, the rising star of song interpreters and the renowned pianist Daniel Heide perform Franz Schubert’s settings of ballads and poems from the German classics. It was filmed in the “Book Cube” of the venerable Anna Amalia Library in the heart of Weimar. Wonderful pictures of the city of classics complement the impressive setting.