Two world-renowned singing stars are this edition’s guests at the “Festive Advent Concert”, German TV’s most successful concert series: soprano Diana Damrau and tenor Mauro Peter. The young French conductor Marie Jacquot leads the Staatskapelle Dresden for the first time. With the 2024/25 season, Marie Jacquot will take over as Musical Director of the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen. In addition to the Staatskapelle Dresden, two choirs complete the cast of the 2022 “Advent Concert”: the Sächsischer Staatsopernchor Dresden and the Kammerchor der Frauenkirche. The choir’s director, the cantor of the Dresden Frauenkirche, Matthias Grünert, also appears as organist. “The Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and the Sächsischer Staatsoperchor once again proved their quality.“ (Online Merker)
Festive Advent Concert at the Frauenkirche Dresden 2021
The Festive Advent Concert has become a much loved tradition in Dresden and one of German TV’s biggest classical music success stories. In 2021, conductor Petr Popelka, the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Staatsopernchor join forces with soprano Katharina Konradi, tenor Jonathan Tetelman and organist Samuel Kummer to present a programme ranging from Bach to festive arias and works of Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saëns, Handel, Grieg, Humperdinck and Lili Boulanger.
Festive Advent Concert at the Frauenkirche Dresden 2018
The Festive Advent Concert has become a much loved tradition in Dresden and one of German TV’s biggest classical music success stories. In 2018, conductor Lorenzo Viotti, the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Staatsopernchor join forces with soprano Hanna-Elisabeth Müller and violinist Daniel Hope to present a programme ranging from Mozart’s Violin Concerto in G Major to excerpts from Rossini’s “Petite messe solennelle” and sacral works by Mendelssohn and Reger.
The Vienna Christmas Concert from the Stephansdom
The festive concert from St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna spreads pre-Christmas mood with four well-known vocal soloists, the Vienna Boys’ Choir and the Vienna Symphony
Orchestra. The program under the musical direction of David Afkham includes sacred and solemn music from all over Europe, from J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and Charles Gounod’s “Sanctus” to the grand finale with Engelbert Humperdinck’s Evening Blessing from “Hänsel und Gretel”. At the end of the concert, the Christmas carol “Adeste fideles” is sung together.
Grafenegg: Midsummer Night’s Gala 2021
Every year some of the world’s finest soloists meet at the Wolkenturm in Grafenegg. The Tonkünstler Orchestra, under the baton of Yutaka Sado, rolls out a scintillating carpet of sound in the Schlosspark. In 2021, soprano Rachel Willis-Sorensen, one of the most exsiting contemporary vocalists, takes charge of the Wolkenturm. Together with tenor Benjamin Bruns and the pianist and artistic director of Grafenegg, Rudolf Buchbinder, they delight the audience with masterpieces from Schumann to Lehár. The wonderful open-air setting is illuminated by a “light score” by light artist Marcus Neustetter.
Christmas Special: Christmas in the Erzgebirge
Christmas in the Erzgebirge is one of Saxony’s most treasurable cultural traditions. The region’s centuries old mining industry has produced a unique response to Christmas, which is celebrated by means of numerous customs in which music plays a decisive role. The Renaissance town of Marienberg at the very heart of the historic Erzgebirge is the setting for a concert of classical and seasonal works performed by Germany’s only classical orchestra made up exclusively of wind instruments, the Sächsische Bläserphilharmonie (Saxon Wind Philharmonic). They were joined by the Rundfunk Jugendchor Wernigerode (Wernigerode Radio Youth Choir) and German soprano Ruth Ziesak. —– Works by Felix MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY, Engelbert HUMPERDINCK, Pjotr Iljitsch TCHAIKOWSKY and Richard WAGNER.
Carnegie Christmas Hall Concert
The film features thirty musical pieces performed at Carnegie Hall on December 8, 1991. Soloists like Kathleen Battle, Frederica von Stade, and Wynton Marsalis perform on a tiered stage before Christmas-themed panels. The uninterrupted program blends sacred and secular works from various traditions, including jazz, spirituals, European carols, and songs by composers like Hugh Martin and Mel Tormé. Performers also include the Wynton Marsalis Septet, the American Boychoir, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s under André Previn.