Contemporary Opera Director Claus Guth and celebrated Set Designer Michael Levine transform PARK AVENUE ARMORY Hall for a spectacular reimagining of Schubert’s Schwanengesang. The cycle forms a series of masterful snapshots of all that life has to offer, and features a performance that transcends genre: Jonas Kaufmann and his longtime accompanist, pianist Helmut Deutsch, interpret the collection of songs, augmented by additional Schubert repertoire an atmospheric soundscape and transformative light and video projections to create a production that is part performance, part installation. “a rare treat … the theatrical ingenuity and visceral force was so strong that the audience let out an audible gasp of shock” (The New York Times), “a remarkable theatrical coup … Kaufmann’s burnished tenor remains potent, unleashing powerful torrents of sound.” (The Financial Times), “Doppelganger is awesome experimental theater on a grand scale … There’s really nothing like it in New York right now.” (Theatermania)
Lucerne Festival 2021: Chailly conducts Mozart & Schubert
to the podium of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. Together, they opened the festival with two great masters of the Classic Romantic era: Mozart and Schubert. The overture to Don Giovanni was followed by a mesmerizing rendition of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 – one of only two he wrote in a minor key. In contrast, Schubert’s Symphony No. 6 focuses on the sunny side of life: C Major, Viennese nonchalance, pleasure put to sound with playful ideas that orchestra and conductor expertly demonstrated.
Winterreise: Ballet by Christian Spuck
Franz Schubert’s “Winterreise” is not only regarded as the zenith of Schubert’s song composition, but as the pinnacle of German art song in its entirety. German composer Hans Zender arranged the cycle in 1993 with the title “Schuberts Winterreise – a composed interpretation”. Zender’s version for tenor and chamber orchestra reveals the cycle’s potential to disturb, and approaches Wilhelm Müller’s poems in its own way. Like Hans Zender, Christian Spuck’s production, which was awarded the renowned «Prix Benois de la Danse» in 2019, undertakes a journey into the innermost self.
Moment Musical – Seong-Jin Cho
As concert halls are silent and theatres dark during the COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic, bringing performers and audiences together demands creative solutions. C Major Entertainment, in collaboration with Arte Concert and DG, is set to launch a series of professional live relays of concerts given by artists at Berlin’s legendary Meistersaal. The programmes focus on solo or duo works. This approach limit the number of artists, technicians and backstage staff involved, in compliance with government regulations, while drawing on the endlessly rich repertoire of chamber pieces past and present. Using remote cameras, members of the audio and video crew are safely dispersed in different rooms. The fifth episode featuring Berlin-based Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho.
Ivor Bolton conducts the Dresden Festival Orchestra
This glamerous concert opened the prestigious Dresden Music Festival 2019. Together with Dresden-born singer René Pape the Dresden Festival Orchestra under the baton of Ivor Bolton dived deeply into the romantic repertoire. Highlight of the evening was the world premiere of songs by Franz Schubert arranged for bass and orchestra, including “Prometheus“ D 674 as well as songs from the cycle “Schwanengesang“: Das Fischermädchen, Am Meer, Die Stadt, Der Doppelgänger, Ihr Bild, Der Atlas and An die Musik. Preceeding is Carl Maria von Weber’s overture to his opera “Euryanthe”, which during his lifetime had no easy lot: the music was greatly praised, the libretto however was laughed at. The spring-like first symphony by Robert Schumann was drafted in only four days and written out in three weeks – in a blissful stage of his life shortly after his marriage to Clara Wieck.