Written in 1955/56 in collaboration with famed author Lillian Hellman, the musical comedy “Candide” (based loosely on Voltaire’s story) consists of nearly two hours of music and more than thirty different numbers including solos, ensembles, choruses and purely orchestral music. While Bernstein described it as a “Valentine card to European music,” it struck others as derisive of European opera and operetta. After the premiere, Variety wrote: “It’s a spectacular, opulent and racy musical, verging on operetta. It’s replete with eye-filling costumes, lavish settings, a big cast and fine musical score.” It was with the New York Philharmonic that Bernstein first conducted a full orchestra version of his “Candide Overture” in late 1956/early 1957. The critic Harold Schonberg described it as “a smart, sophisticated little piece.” It soon became Bernstein’s most popular concert work. This performance with the New York Philharmonic under the maestro and composer was recorded at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1976.
Bernstein at 100: The Centennial Celebration At Tanglewood
The Bernstein Centennial Celebration at Tanglewood spotlights Bernstein’s wide-ranging talents as a composer, his many gifts as a great interpreter and champion of other composers, and his role as an inspirer of a new generation of musicians and music lovers across the country and around the globe. The gala concert features a kaleidoscopic array of artists and ensembles from the worlds of classical music, film, and Broadway. The entire first half of the program is dedicated to selections from such brilliant Bernstein works as Candide, West Side Story, Mass, and Serenade. Music from the classical canon very dear to Bernstein’s heart-selections includes from Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn, the finale of Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony and music by Aaron Copland, plus a new work by John Williams.
El Sistema at Salzburg Festival
Rarely has an orchestra enchanted and thrilled ist audience as did the National Children’s Orchestra of Venezuela at the Salzburg Festival! This astonishing group was founded in 2010 by José Antonio Abreu as part of El Sistema, and Sir Simon Rattle conducted ist first-ever concert in Caracas. At the Salzburg Festival, it was Rattle on the podium again, conducting the children’s orchestra at its international debut.
A choir for hard-of-hearing and deaf youths? Sounds like a contradiction in terms, but the one-of-a-kind White Hands Choir of Venezuela proves the opposite, and this 60-mins film documents the choir’s first tour abroad following an invitation from the Salzburg Festival. The programme features Latin-American folk songs and Piazzolla arrangements as well as choral works by Mozart and Rutter.
Tanglewood 75th Anniversary Celebration
Tanglewood is one of the world’s most beloved music festivals and serves as the summer home for the famed Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO). In a star-studded event featuring some of its most distinguished and longtime contributors, the prestigious Tanglewood Festival celebrated its 75th anniversary with an evening of sparkling music that will last in memory.
Opera Gala with Thomas Hampson and Luca Pisaroni
Two world-renowned baritones Thomas Hampson and Luca Pisaroni lead the audience through a gallery of opera characters which the “kings of high-Cs” cannot portray. They introduce themselves as devoted friends (Marquis Posa), rulers (Phillip II. and King Herod), devils (Mephistopheles) and the most famous operatic embodiment of evil (Iago) … . Most composers devoted the roles of lovers to tenors; yet, the most famous seducer of all times, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, is a baritone … . —— Works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Charles Gounod, Jules Massenet, Giuseppe Verdi, Vincenzo Bellini, Gioacchino Rossini, Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II, Leonard Bernstein, Gaetano Donizetti
MSO: Bernstein on Broadway
All his life Leonard Bernstein had a love affair with New York and in his many music theatre works he painted the most vivid picture of life in the ‘City That Never Sleeps’. This performance embraces Bernstein’s New York, offering a rare insight into the composer’s mind with Bernstein devotee Bramwell Tovey at the helm and on the keys. PROGRAM Music from Wonderful Town, On the Town, Candide, Peter Pan, Fancy Free and West Side Story
BPO: Dudamel conducts Bernstein & Mahler
Gustav Mahler described his Fifth Symphony as a “cursed work” that “no-one understands”. While the extreme variety of expression actually overwhelmed the audience at the time, the symphony enjoys the highest popularity today, especially thanks to ist gossamer-like Adagietto movement. Gustavo Dudamel, music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, also conducts Leonard Bernstein’s cheeky occasional piece, Divertimento, which – here in Europe at least – is far too rarely heard. PROGRAM Mahler: Symphony No. 5; Bernstein: Divertimento for Orchestra
BR: Pappano conducts Rachmaninoff and Bernstein
Only once has Sir Antonio Pappano been a guest of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks – time for a reunion with the British star conductor at the Philharmonie in Munich! Pappano has earned the highest reputation as long-standing music director at London’s Opera House Covent Garden and of the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome. In Munich, his extraordinary programme includes Sergei Rachmaninoff’s magnificent Second Symphony, which demonstrates the outstanding melodic qualities of the Russian composer, who is regarded as the “Last of the Romantics”. To celebrate the 100th birthday of Leonard Bernstein, Pappano presents the rarely heard Symphony No. 2, which shows the young American conductor and composer in search of meaning. With this work, dubbed “The Age of Anxiety”, the composer struck the nerve of the post-war generation who oscillated between loneliness and the craving for pleasure and longed for stability in faith. Kirill Gerstein, “who is emerging as one of the most respected pianists of his generation” (New York Times), gives his debut with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks in the dark, urban piece of Bernstein. As the symphony’s dazzling protagonist, he will bring his jazz experience to this highly topical piece.
From Berlin to New York – Works by Gershwin, Bernstein and Weill
“From Berlin to New York” is the motto of German Television’s traditional New Year’s Eve Concert in 2013. And true to the motto Maestro Christian Thielemann, the Staatskapelle Dresden and the two world stars Reneé Fleming and Klaus Florian Vogt celebrate the New Year’s Eve 2013 with great hits and works from Eduard Künneke, Paul Lincke, George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein and others.
Gala Concert from the Semperoper Highlights from ‘The Merry Widow‘
This gala evening in the beautiful Semperoper devoted to operetta melodies with classic superstars Renée Fleming and Christopher Maltman under the baton of Christian Thielemann was a tremendous success and, as Deutsche Grammophon put it, started ‘a new tradition’. Thielemann, heading the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and an ensemble of distinguished soloists and choral singers, presents the most beautiful highlights from Franz Lehár’s ‘The Merry Widow’ and succeeds in giving the famous and universally beloved melodies a perceptive new reading while still creating first-class entertainment. A short entr’acte performed in the foyer by members of the theater’s ballet ensemble allows the viewer a glimpse into the luxurious interior of the Semperoper. The New Year’s Eve gala concert ends with an homage to Dresden: the waltz ‘An der Elbe’, the last waltz written by Johann Strauss.