Norwegian violin virtuoso Vilde Frang joins Sir Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra to perform the thrillingly cinematic and sweepingly romantic Violin Concerto by Korngold, which premiered to ecstatic audiences in the hands of Jascha Heifetz in 1947. By the time Korngold had begun his 1945 Violin Concerto, the Austrian composer had scored the soundtracks for fifteen Hollywood films. You’ll hear that cinematic sheen in his wonderful concerto, from its sweeping opening to the helter-skelter hoe-down of the finale. In his Fifth Symphony, Shostakovich proved his music could achieve mass appeal, as Stalin demanded. But beneath its brilliant tunes lies a darker, more sardonic work … The concert begins with Imogen Holst’s, the daughter of Gustav (The Planets), Persephone, a beautifully orchestrated depiction of the mythical character, with hints of Debussy and Ravel in the music. PROGRAM Imogen Holst: Persephone; Korngold: Violin Concerto; Shostakovich: Symphony No 5
Don Carlos
Set in 16th-century France and Spain, Don Carlos tells of the political and amorous rivalry between King Philip II and his son, Don Carlos, over Elisabeth de Valois. Boasting an international cast in one of Verdi’s most popular operas, Luc Bondy’s moving production is the original French version restored to five acts.
RCO: Prinsengracht Concert
It’s that time of the year again when the Prinsengracht canal is glutted with boats, and crowds gather along the quay with their picnic baskets and rosé wine. Everyone enjoys the music performed at the traditional Prinsengracht Concert. Adding even more sparkle to its 125th anniversary celebrations, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is the main attraction at this popular open-air event for the first time. Teaming up with the orchestra is the Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja, who enraptures audiences with a number of well-loved arias, including the celebrated ‘Nessun dorma’ from Puccini’s Turandot. The orchestra is also performing Tchaikovsky’s always spectacular 1812 Overture. —– PROGRAM: Verdi: Overture to La forza del destino – Massenet: Werther / Pourquoi me réveiller – Puccini: Tosca / E lucevan le stelle – Manon Lescaut / Intermezzo (Act III) – Verdi: Rigoletto / La donna è mobile – Puccini: Turandot / Nessun dorma – Agustin Lara: Granada (arr. Steven Mercurio) – Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture (‘Solennelle’) – Pieter Goemans: Aan de Amsterdamse Grachten (encore) (Cat. No. UNITEL A865500130000)
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.
Rossini, Stabat Mater
Four superb soloists – Anna Netrebko, Marianna Pizzolato, Matthew Polenzani and Ildebrando d’Arcangelo – transform Rossini’s ‘Stabat mater’ into a feast of ‘italianità’, uniting their voices in a warm, mellow whole. After several successful performances of this rarely played sacred work in various cities, the Chorus and Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia of Rome wind up their Rossini project with a performance at the Salzburg Festival, their first-ever guest appearance there. Anna Netrebko, whose aria ‘Inflammatus’ was for many the concert’s ‘unspoken high point’ (Die Presse), succeeded in ‘blending her voice beautifully into the soloist ensemble – one voice among equals in an excellent, well-balanced quartet’ (Salzburger Nachrichten).
Salzburg Festival: Verdi, Don Carlo
The Salzburg Festival hosts a new production of Verdi’s “Don Carlo”, directed by Peter Stein and embodied by Jonas Kaufmann. The production is based on the original version of the opera, which includes those passages that were cut shortly before the first performance in 1867. Verdi’s masterpiece demands world-class singers at the peak of their powers, such as Jonas Kaufmann, “who combines absolute technical stability with the highest musical intelligence”, and soprano Anja Harteros, who’s “Elisabetta is quite simply sublime: majestically phrased, rich in nuance, clear of diction and moving easily from immaculately floated pianissimo to sterling fortissimo”. (The Telegraph)
Salzburg Festival 2013: Britten, War Requiem
“Intensive, touching… a deeply moving plea for peace” (News) – Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem marks the composer’s 100th birthday with a stellar Salzburg Festival cast: Anna Netrebko, Ian Bostridge and Thomas Hampson in the solo parts, accompanied by the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under the baton of Antonio Pappano. A “truly moving” performance, according to La Stampa newspaper.
La Voix Humaine
“This innovative hour-long reimagining… is at once an operatic vignette and an acting showcase — well worth your time.” (The Times) La Voix Humaine, as visualised by Emmy and Bafta winning director James Kent offers an unprecedented cinematic interpretation of Poulenc’s masterpiece. As an hour long dramatic one-off, it features only one performer, the character known only as Elle. It was premiered in Paris in 193 as a play by Jean Cocteau and subsequently turned into music drama by his friend Francis Poulenc in 1959. Written originally in 1928, Cocteau was examining change that the technology of the telephone was to bring to humans and how they conducted their relationships. “In spite of it all, we are connected by this telephone… this line is the last thing tying me to us”. The viewer is skilfully placed as a silent observer of Elle’s desperate conversation, captured in the intimate and claustrophobic setting of a single apartment. Her hopes, her longings, her nostalgia, and her final acceptance, all illuminated by a powerful score conducted by Antonio Pappano. We feel her pain as she grapples with love and loss over the course of one late afternoon via a single, suspenseful, often interrupted, telephone call with her departing lover.
LSO: Pappano conducts Tchaikovsky and Vaughan Williams
Led by its superb chief conductor Sir Antonio Pappano, the London Symphony Orchestra invites a trio of soloists – violist Antoine Tamestit, soprano Julia Sitkovetsky, and bass-baritone Ashley Riches – to join them in an emotional and original program that pairs Tchaikovsky’s sweeping Romanticism with Vaughan Williams’s pastoral grandeur. Opening the program is the Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony. Two unjustly lesser-heard works by Vaughan Williams follow: first, Tamestit takes the solo role in Flos Campi, inspired by the Song of Solomon and written for the unusual combination of viola, small orchestra, and wordless chorus. Finally, Sitkovetsky, Riches, and the London Symphony Chorus perform the impassioned Dona nobis pacem, a fervent call for peace by a composer who had witnessed the senselessness of violence firsthand as a stretcher bearer in World War I and despaired to see the clouds of war gather anew in 1936. PROGRAM Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 4; Vaughan Williams: Flos Campi, Dona nobis pacem
LSO: Pappano conducts Ravel, Say & Rachmaninoff
A Dance to the Music of Time – Ravel, Say and Rachmaninoff. Spellbinding storytellers, dancing ghosts and melodies that will stay with you forever.The fairy-tale heroine Scheherazade must keep her audience entertained on pain of death in the One Thousand and One Nights. In Fazil Say’s concerto, the violin plays the part of the endlessly fascinating tale-teller. The piece is paired with impassioned music originally written for the ballet: Ravel’s haunting waltz and Rachmaninoff’s mysterious Symphonic Dances. Ravel imagined whirling couples in a Viennese concert hall in music that seems haunted by World War I. Rachmaninoff also conjures up a ghostly waltz, amid the expressive melodies of the last music he ever wrote. PROGRAM Ravel: La valse; Fazil Say: Violin Concerto (1001 Nights in the Harem); Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances