Together with photographer Mat Hennek, French star pianist Hélène Grimaud, comes up with a multimedia concert project at the Grand Hall of Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie. Grimaud’s virtuous piano performance is accompanied by Hennek’s highly praised photo series “Woodlands”, which depicts genuine portraits of trees, Grimaud’s piano recital includes works by romantic and impressionistic composers. They are connected by seven “Transitions”, written exclusively for Grimaud by British composer and DJ Nitin Sawhney.
The motives of Hennek’s Woodlands series create an extraordinary visual backdrop, which in combination with Grimaud´s pianistic “impeccable clarity and articulation” (Hamburger Abendblatt) and the Elbphilharmonie’s splendid acoustics grants a concert experience of a special kind.
This film is a journey with the famous pianist Yuja Wang. With more than 120 performances a year, she lives a nomadic lifestyle. The exploration of Yuja’s wanderings is a travelogue of exciting venues, glitzy cities and encounters with extraordinary artists, such as Gustavo Dudamel, Gauthier Capuçon and Leonidas Kavakos and personalities of other professional horizons but there is also a downside: fatigue, jet lag, pressure, doubts, hostilities, disorientation, and loneliness. With a bittersweet reference to the transience of life, the film reveals the invisible that complements the visible and shows us this artist in a very personal way. “Pianists have to be alone all the time, and it’s hard, it’s lonely. Being a musician is almost like a very isolated life, and the only time you actually get to communicate is on stage with music. It’s not a bad thing. I think being solitary, it really allows us to think about life and to think about why people write this music. […] It makes you start to wonder about things that are beneath the surface.” Yuja Wang
With Pierre Boulez, Daniel Barenboim and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra you are assured of a
concert of superlatives.
“Unsurpassable in terms of the delicacy of its sonorities.” – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
„An ideal combination“ Kronenzeitung
“Boulez at his most responsive and insightful in all three works. And a grandiose orchestra – the Wiener
Philharmoniker in top form” (Kurier).
Take super-tenor Rolando Villazón, baritone legend Thomas Hampson and the fast-rising baton star Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Add one of the world’s greatest orchestras, a summer’s night on Munich’s magnificent Odeonsplatz and a bouquet of famous opera arias, duets, overtures and choruses performed in celebration of Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner. The result: a scintillating opera gala offering you the chance to experience and revisit the Odeonsplatz Concert 2013 in all ist glory and grandezza!
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.
Piano virtuoso Cyprien Katsaris plays Debussy’s Clair de lune from the Suite bergamasque, Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défunte, Saint-Saëns’ The Swan (arranged by Godowsky), Brahms’ Sonata No. 3 in F minor Op. 5 and his own composition to celebrate European unity, Fantasie sur des hymnes. Each performance is introduced by Katsaris, who illustrates his insights into the music at the keyboard.
Jiri Kylián’s fantasy ballet about a naughty boy is set to an opera by Maurice Ravel, which the composer based on a libretto by Colette. Angry because he does not want to learn his lessons, the boy destroys his books and vandalises the room he is in. But his surroundings come to life, seeking revenge, and he finds himself in some tricky situations before the restoratio of normality. Lorin Maazel conducts the Orchestre National de Paris and a fine cast of young singers, and the enchanting scenery and costumes are by award-winning designer John MacFarlane. A short introduction by Kylián is included in this studio recording.
This live recording of the celebrated American string quartet comes from the library of the monastery at Polling, near Munich, which boasts an exquisite baroque interior. They play Ravel’s String Quartet in F.
Piano virtuoso Ivo Pogorelich stepped into the limelight when he was dropped from the finals of the 1980 Warsaw Chopin Competition amid a controversy about his unsuitable dress and unconventional interpretation. Pogorelich has remained in demand on the concert platform and fuelled his reputation as an enfant terrible by marrying his teacher, Alice Kezeradse – twenty years his senior. This programme shows them together, working on Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit and talking in interview.
This live recording, from London’s Royal Festival Hall, of a performance of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G features two legendary artists – pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920-95) and conductor Sergiu Celibidache (1912-96). They perform with the London Symphony Orchestra. An introduction to the programme includes an interview with Celibidache about Michelangeli’s flawless, yet seemingly effortless, technique.
