The exceptional organist Cameron Carpenter has been a guest in many major venues worldwide. However, he has a particularly close friendship with the Konzerthaus Berlin, not least because in the 2017/18 season he was Artist in Residence with the Berliner Konzerthausorchester am Gendarmenmarkt, where he also performed with his specially built organ. This instrument was the fulfilment of a long-cherished dream. The International Touring Organ (ITO), which was made according to his plans, enables him to perform at almost any place in the world – a matter of course for most instrumentalists, but a revolution for Cameron Carpenter as an organist. Carpenter played with this huge instrument in a corona-empty concert hall. Works by J.S. Bach, François Couperin, G.F. Händel, Krzysztof Penderecki and Cameron Carpenter.
Handel in Concert – Patrizia Ciofi & Donna Leon
Fearless in the face of death, unflinching in their love, ruthless in their revenge: the women in Handel’s operas are anything but one-dimensional. Italian coloratura soprano Patrizia Ciofi and the Baroque ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro, led by Maxim Emelyanychev, perform the most powerful and moving arias from Handel’s operas. Together with bestselling author and Handel enthusiast Donna Leon they set out to discover the women’s stories. When Rodelinda becomes a veritable goddess of revenge, Ciofi interprets her great aria “Morrai, si” with dramatic ferocity. In Alcina (1735), the heroine has the power to bewitch the whole world around her, but none over her own heart. Ciofi emotionally commits to Alcina’s desperate arias, “Ah, Ruggero crudel… Ombre pallide” and “Ah, mio cor”, showcasing the tragedy of the narrative. “An original and electrifying spectacle!” (ForumOpera)
Festive Advent Concert at the Frauenkirche Dresden 2015
Since the first of these annual events in 2000, when the magnificent Frauenkirche was still a building site – destroyed during World War II, it was painstakingly reconstructed out of the ruins – the Advent Concert has become a new holiday tradition in Dresden, to be enjoyed by music lovers throughout the world. That appeal is reflected in the concert’s lineup of artists. This time they are headed by renowned Scottish maestro Donald Runnicles, featured “in the solid, German repertoire which is his chief glory” (Financial Times). His soloists are rising-star soprano Sonya Yoncheva, “charismatic” (New York Times) and bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni. Beginning in a blaze of glory with the opening chorus from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, the thoughtfully compiled programme features seasonally appropriate selections by Handel, Seidel, Weber, Mendelssohn, Humperdinck, Gounod and Reger. “A thrilling concert, festive, ambitious and impressively filmed.” (Sächsische Zeitung)
Salzburg Festival 2025: Giulio Cesare in Egitto
Handel’s gripping Baroque opera comes to life as a high-stakes drama of power, passion and intrigue. Dmitri Tcherniakov’s “powerful” (Kurier) production sets political rivalry against a fiery love story in the confines of an underground bunker. Christophe Dumaux is a thrilling Cesare, “with his mercurial countertenor and pointed acting” (Der Standard). At his side, Olga Kulchynska gives her Salzburg debut as a “lyrical” Cleopatra: “Bright high notes, precise filigree technique, youthful freshness: she has it all” (Salzburger Nachrichten). The rest of the cast is equally “superb” (Der Standard), above all Lucile Richardot as Cornelia “with her smouldering mezzo” (BR Klassik) and Federico Fiorio as her son Sesto. Baroque specialist Emmanuelle Haïm conducts her orchestra Le Concert d’Astrée from the harpsichord, “completely in her element” (Salzburger
Nachrichten). A scenic and musical collaboration full of intensity, imagination and electrifying theatre.
Salzburg Festival 2019: Alcina
At Salzburg Festival, Handel‘s Alcina is a true celebration of singing: Cecilia Bartoli shines in the title role of the sorceress Alcina as does Philippe Jaroussky in the role of Ruggiero.
At their side, Sandrine Piau as Morgana and Kristina Hammerström as Bradamante are “ravishing“ (Süddeutsche Zeitung). Director Damiano Michielietto stages his first baroque opera and creates a convincing mixture of psychological interpretation and associative imagery. Unlike the libretto, which is based on Ludovico Ariosto‘s epic “Orlando furioso”, the Venetian Michieletto moves the setting of Alcina’s magic island to a mysterious hotel with a mirror wall. The look in the mirror of an aging woman, who has an oppressive fear of no longer being desired, is the obvious core of the production. Gianluca Capuano conducts the Musiciens du Prince – Monaco prudently and with a slim orchestral sound, the Bachchor Salzburg is excellently rehearsed. Capuano “perfectly combines drama with precision and poetry“ raves Süddeutsche Zeitung. “An extraordinary show“ (The New York Times)
Der Messias
Known as a creator of astonishing images, stage director and visual artist Robert Wilson delivers a magnificent production of Mozart’s adaption of Handel’s Messias. Mozart was commissioned by Gottfried van Swieten to modernise the score fifty years after Handel’s popular composition (1742), mainly by arranging the wind parts and partially re-composing them. With Marc Minkowski a conductor has been engaged who understands perfectly how to combine baroque style with the tonal possibilities of an orchestra of the classical period like the Musiciens du Louvre. The excellent soloist quartet with Elena Tsallagova, Wiebke Lehmkuhl, Richard Croft and José Coca Loza merges perfectly into
Wilson’s enormous flood of images. “A complete artwork”, praises Opernglas. “stunningly beautiful” (BR Klassik); “A magic moment for the music” (orf.at)
Baroque Duet Battle & Marsalis
In this concert, the two superstars, long time admirers of each other´s work, come together to perform in a dramatically lit setting where the music of Bach, Scarlatti and Händel seems to stand outside of time.
Collegium 1704 play Handel
In the beautiful setting of famous castle Slavkov-Austerlitz, the two most-known works of George Frideric Handel, “Water Music” and “Music for the Royal Fireworks”, were filmed with Collegium 1704 under the musical direction of Va´clav Luks, one of the most fascinating ensembles specializing in historically informed performance. PROGRAM Handel: Water Music; Music for the Royal Fireworks