“Lang Lang makes the garlands of sound sparkle with crystal clarity” (Wiener Zeitung) Ever since its first performances in 2007, the concerts of Daniel Barenboim’s West- Eastern Divan Orchestra have been among the first to be sold out at the Salzburg Festival. In 2022, the orchestra presents a Spanish night with Lang Lang as soloist. PROGRAM Ravel: Rapsodie espagnole for Orchestra, Boléro; de Falla: Noches en los jardines de España for piano and orchestra; Debussy: “Ibéria“ from Images pour orchestre
Salzburg Festival 2016: Yuja Wang and the Camerata Salzburg
The Camerata Salzburg, a musical mainstay in the city of Mozart’s birth, joins forces with French conductor Lionel Bringuier, one of the most promising young conductors of his generation, and Yuja Wang, who has established herself as an international sensation and a fixture among the world’s leading orchestras since her debut in 2007, for a concert featuring music of the early 20th century at Salzburg’s Haus für Mozart. PROGRAM: Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major; Gershwin: “Rhapsody in Blue”; Zoltan Kodaly: “Dances of Galanta”; Ravel: “Ma Mere l’oye”
Recital Arcadi Volodos
For the first time in over nine years, Arcadi Volodos has agreed to record an entire concert for TV again. Indeed, his recital at Vienna’s Musikverein, for which he has chosen works by Skryabin, Ravel, Schumann and Liszt, features a line-up of Romantic to early 20th-century heavyweights, which Volodos renders with his inimitable blend of ethereal lightness and forceful vigor. The recital begins with a selection of pieces by Alexander Skryabin, in which Volodos displays his phenomenal technique, culminating in the White Mass. Under Volodos’ hands, Maurice Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales becomes “a kaleidoscope of transparent, gossamer colors” (Die Presse). While Volodos’ account of Schumann’s Waldszenen flashes with startling harmonic echoes of the Ravel piece, his rendition of Liszt’s Après une lecture du Dante from the Années de pèlerinage “radiates modernity” (Der Standard). The keyboard sensation provides a further example of his artistry in his encores, in which he demonstrates his talent for creating his own dazzling piano transcriptions of works by other composers.
Salzburg Festival: Opening Concert 2008
Put one of the world’s greatest orchestras in the hands of one of the foremost specialists of 20th century music, add a soloist who is one of today’s leading pianists and conductors, and you are assured of a concert of superlatives that pays glowing tribute to three major works of the past century. The official Salzburg Festival opening concert of the Wiener Philharmoniker is conducted by Pierre Boulez, once the ‘enfant terrible’ of the musical world, now a sensitive, analytical conductor of works from the 19th and 20th centuries. Combining Béla Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 1 – Daniel Barenboim is the soloist – with Maurice Ravel’s ‘Valses nobles et sentimentales’ and Igor Stravinsky’s ‘Firebird’ ballet in its full-length version of 1910, Boulez weaves a compelling musical texture that uncovers the links among the three works and the three composers.
Ravel, Boléro
Ravel, La Valse
Ravel, Tzigane
Ravel, Piano Concerto in G major
Ravel, Shéhérazade
Ravel, Alborada del Gracioso
The works presented in this concert are among Ravel’s most celebrated orchestral pieces. The “Alborada del Gracioso” or “Jester’s Morning Song” was originally part of the piano collection “Miroirs”. Ravel himself arranged the scintillating piece for orchestra in 1918. Written in 1903, the orchestral song cycle “Shéhérazade” is based on texts by the painter Tristan Klingsor. Of his Piano Concerto in G major, Ravel said that it was “written in the spirit of Mozart and Saint-Saens.” But while the influence of Mozart is clearly felt in the Adagio, it is American jazz that permeates the dazzling Presto finale. The concert rhapsody “Tzigane” was apparently inspired by the playing of violinist Jelly d’Arányi. Premiered on 12 December 1920, Ravel’s “La Valse” was originally called “Wien” (Vienna) – a title not considered appropriate in France so soon after World War I. Though conceived as a ballet, it was not performed as such until 1928, when Ida Rubinstein staged it at the Paris Opéra. Perhaps Ravel’s most well-known work is “Bolero”, which was a sensational success at its premiere at the Paris Opéra on 22 November 1928 and has remained unquenchably popular ever since. The year 1975 marked the centennial of Maurice Ravel’s birth (7 March 1875), an event celebrated with particular brilliance in France. One of the special concerts given to commemorate the great French composer was held at Paris’s Théâtre des Champs Elysées on 19 September 1975 and featured the Orchestre National de France led by Leonard Bernstein. The all Ravel concert also featured the soloists Marilyn Horne in the song cycle “Shéhérazade” and the violinist Boris Belkin in “Tzigane”. Bernstein himself played the solo part in the G major Piano Concerto. The concert was such a dazzling success that the critic of Le Figaro was stirred to proclaim about Bernstein: “He IS Ravel”.