A special Grafenegg soirée – the festival’s artistic director, pianist Rudolf Buchbinder meets various voice leaders of the Tonkünstler orchestra in the middle of the impressive park for a musical get together. Well-known works by Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Haydn and Beethoven can be heard at various locations on the festival site, for example the Wolkenturm, outside the castle, the auditorium, the garden pavilion and the park’s idyllic biotope.
150th Anniversary Wiener Staatsoper – Open Air Gala
The Vienna State Opera celebrates its 150th birthday with a glamorous open-air gala, gathering an extraordinary summit of operatic superstars like Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva, Swedish soprano Nina Stemme, French tenor Roberto Alagna, Uruguayan baritone Erwin Schrott or Italian bass Feruccio Furlanetto to name only a few. Together with soloists of the new generation of the house like sopranos Valentina Nafornita or Olga Bezsmertna – “a triumph for the ensemble” (Die Presse) – they present a firework of famous opera arias, accompanied by the Orchestra and Choir of the Wiener Staatsoper under the rousing baton of Maestro Marco Armiliato, a regular and appreciated guest at the Vienna State Opera. Nestled in the beautiful city centre, the State Opera is one of the most prestigous opera houses in the world with a long and significant history, a Mecca for international opera fans. Praised by critics as “mega event”, about 10,000 spectators came to witness this jubilee concert and celebrate musical passion in a fantastic atmosphere,
a feast for the ears and for the eyes.
Grafenegg: Midsummer Night’s Gala 2017
It is the season’s sparkling highlight: the Midsummer Night’s Gala at the Wolkenturm with international stars in the open air! 2017 sees Russian vocalists Aida Garifullina and Dmitri Hvorostovsky adding Grafenegg to the roll-call of leading operatic venues around the world where their great voices have been heard. The young soprano Garifullina is in the ensemble of the Vienna State Opera and baritone Hvorostovsky sang at the Red Square concert in Moscow in 2013.
Red Ribbon Celebration Concert 2016 – Orpheus and Eurydice
On the occasion of the Red Ribbon Celebration Concert, Vienna’s famous charity concert for the benefit of HIV and AIDS aid projects, some of the world’s greatest opera stars made their appearance at the venerable Burgtheater. Anna Netrebko, Piotr Bezcala, Juan Diego Flórez and Thomas Hampson took part in this festive concert evening which revolved around the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. With excerpts from corresponding operas by Claudio Monteverdi and Christoph Willibald Gluck, works by W. A. Mozart and Franz Liszt, the audience is taken on Orpheus’ journey to the underworld, from where he desperately tries to take his love Eurydice back to the world of the living by the help of his singing.
Minkowski conducts Mozart and Schubert
The Salzburg Mozart Week – arranged by the Mozarteum foundation, the trustees of Mozart’s musical legacy – is always offering something unique: under the direction of the principal conductor and artistic director of the Salzburg Mozart Week, Mark Minkowski, the Musiciens du Louvre perform on not one but two of Mozart’s original instruments! Mozart’s Violin Concerto and his Piano Concerto in A major are played on instruments that were once in the composer’s possession. In Franz Schubert’s Great C major Symphony, the culmination of this wonderful evening, ”Minkowski and the Musiciens du Louvre are entirely in their element” (Wiener Zeitung).
András Schiff conducts Beethoven, Schubert and Mozart
The programme opens with Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto: “Sensitively supported by the rich and supple tone of the strings, Schiff’s pianistic virtuosity explores the length and breadth of Beethoven’s early work”, was the admiring verdict of the Salzburg press. Schiff again succeeds in Schubert’s Symphony No. 5 “from the first note to the last in creating a sound world that flooded the mind’s eye with images” (Drehpunkt Kultur). The climax of the concert is the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 23. “Schiff here demonstrates his skill in pianistic interpretation and in conducting, nuanced, passionate, a sensitive revelation”, enthused the press.
Red Ribbon Celebration Concert
Red Ribbon Gala Concert from the stunning Burgtheater Vienna presented by a unique cast of world-famous singers. —– PROGRAM: Johann Strauss: Intermezzo from Tausend und eine Nacht / Arrigo Boito: “Ave Signor” from Mefistofele / Camille Saint-Saëns: “Mon coeur s´ouvre à ta voix” from Samson et Dalila / Antonín Dvorák: “Beda, Beda!” from Rusalka / Pjotr Iljitsch Tschaikowski: Arabischer Tanz aus: Nussknacker-Suite op. 71a / Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakow: Song of the Indian Merchant from Sadko; “Plenivšis’ rozoy, solovey” (The Nightingale and the Rose); Romanze op.2/2 / Georges Bizet: Intermezzo from Carmen Suite No. 1 / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Overture from Don Giovanni; “Deh, vieni alla finestra” from Don Giovanni / Georges Bizet: “Seguidilla” from Carmen / Charles Gounod: “Le veau d´or” from Faust / Astor Piazzolla (arr. Pablo Ziegler): Oblivion (Rojotango) / Franz Lehár “Lippen schweigen” from Die lustige Witwe / Aram Khachaturian: Dance of the Young Kurds from Gayane // Pablo Ziegler: Rojotango
The Solti Centenary Concert
The renowned World Orchestra for Peace honors with this very special concert the 100th birthday of ist founder Sir Georg Solti – celebrating the story of Solti‘s musical life with works that were of special significance, such as MOZART’s Figaro overture STRAUSS’ tone poem Don Juan, the Adagietto from MAHLER’s Symphony No. 5, Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra and select arias and ensembles from operas by MOZART and VERDI. It is presented and linked from the stage by his widow, Lady Valerie Solti. The concert features Valery Gergiev as conductor of the World Orchestra for Peace and worldclass soloists Angela Gheorghiu and René Pape together with outstanding young alumni of the Solti Foundation and the Solti Accademia di Bel Canto established after his death.
BBC Proms 2021: Vikingur Olafsson plays Bach and Mozart
Award-winning Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson makes his much-anticipated Proms debut, as soloist in both Bach’s Keyboard Concerto in F minor, whose energised outer movements frame a ravishing central Adagio, and Mozart’s pioneering Piano Concerto K491, a rare minor-key work whose stormy, richly orchestrated music climaxes in a relentless dance. The Philharmonia Orchestra under the baton of Paavo Järvi frame the concert with two symphonies: Prokofiev’s playful ‘Classical’ Symphony, with its clever juxtaposition of traditional forms and contemporary colours, and the more loaded irony of Shostakovich’s compact Symphony No. 9. PROGRAM Prokofiev: Symphony No.1; Bach: Keyboard Concerto; Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 24; Shostakovich: Symphony No. 9
BBC Proms 2014: West-Eastern Divan Orchestra
Program: Mozart, Figaro Overture / Kareem Roustom, World premiere / Ayal Adler, World premiere / Ravel, Rapsodie espagnole, Alborada del gracioso, Pavane pour une infante défunte, Boléro