Husband-and-wife team Lang Lang and Gina Alice join Andris Nelsons and members of the Gewandhausorchester for a very special performance of Saint-Saëns’s ever-popular Carnival of the Animals. The humorous suite was composed with fun in mind, and Saint-Saëns wouldn’t allow it to be performed in public during his lifetime, lest it undermine his reputation as a serious composer. It went on, however, to become one of his best-loved works. Lang Lang is the soloist in Saint-Saëns’s scintillating Piano Concerto No.2, joining the Gewandhausorchester and Gewandhauskapellmeister Andris Nelsons. PROGRAM Saint-Saëns: Carnival of the Animals, Piano Concerto No.2
Daniel Hope – Dance!
Fleet of foot and with the whirling lightness of the waltz, the evening depicts the world of dance in all its variations, from the elegant courtly minuet to the fiery Argentine tango. Universal musician Hope will only be tripping the light fantastic metaphorically as his bow jumps across the violin strings. But who knows what surprises he may have in store? Daniel Hope has long been fascinated by the power of dance to move and inspire. Taking listeners on a journey through seven centuries of music history, DANCE celebrates the rhythms that have set bodies in motion and lifted hearts since time began. With everything from the anonymous 14th-century Lamento di Tristano to Wojciech Kilar’s 1986 work Orawa, via classics by Purcell, Handel, Mozart, Saint-Saëns.
BOVARY – A dance play by Christian Spuck
Christian Spuck’s first choreography as the new intendant of the Staatsballett Berlin is about the search for self-determination and showcases his choreographic signature: an interest in literary material, his love of darkly poetic imagery, as well as his ability to tell stories. “A triumph for the company, a brilliant moment of dance.” (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
HAUSER – Live in Zagreb
HAUSER performing his favorite classical music pieces recorded at the prestigious Lisinski Concert Hall Zagreb, with the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir Zvjevdice, conducted by Elizabeth Fuchs. The concert including HAUSER’s deeply moving performance of the Adagio by Albinoni.
Elina Garanca Recital
The new season of the Opernhaus Zürich opened with an extraordinary recital. The celebrated mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca and the new artistic director Matthias Schulz transported the audience into a world of songs and arias with works by Saint-Saëns, Berlioz, Brahms, Schumann, and other romantic and late romantic composers. The centerpiece of the evening was the aria “Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix” from Saint-Saëns’ opera “Samson et Dalila,” which Garanca, as “Dalila,” knows to masterfully and emotionally interpret on the world’s greatest operatic stages and with full orchestras. Matthias Schulz’s sensitive piano accompaniment left nothing to be desired in terms of this emotionality and artistry. The two musicians have a longstanding musical collaboration, and their recitals delight European audiences.