Legendary pianist Maurizio Pollini and star conductor Christian Thielemann team up with the Staatskapelle Dresden for an exceptional concert of late-romantic music. For his first concert with the Staatskapelle in nearly 25 years, Pollini plays Brahms’ mighty First Piano Concerto. Thielemann harnesses the orchestra’s dynamic power and melds it with Pollini’s vitality. Also on the program are Brahms’ ‘Tragic Overture’ and Reger’s ‘Romantic Suite’. Reger’s charming, colorfully orchestrated work, premiered with the Staatskapelle in 1912, is a valuable addition to the romantic repertoire.
New Year‘s Eve Concert 2011 Gala Concert from the Semperoper
German Television’s traditional and most successful New Year’s Eve Concert from the stunning Semperoper will feature this year Angela Denoke, Ana Maria Labin and Piotr Beczala. Maestro Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden will celebrate the New Year’s Eve with the most beautiful melodies from operettas by Franz Lehár. A short entr’acte performed in the foyer by members of the theater’s ballet ensemble allows the viewer a glimpse into the luxurious interior of the Semperoper.
Thielemann conducts Faust
Under the direction of romantic-music specialist Christian Thielemann, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden performs a special Franz Liszt memorial concert at the Semperoper in Dresden to commemorate the 200th anniversary year of one of the 19th century’s greatest composers. The “Faust”-themed concert opens with the Overture to “Faust” in D minor by Richard Wagner, who was Liszt’s son-in-law, before leading into Franz Liszt’s symphonic masterpiece “A Faust Symphony”. “A top orchestra and a top conductor have found one another” (Die Welt).
Gala Concert from the Semperoper Highlights from ‘The Merry Widow‘
This gala evening in the beautiful Semperoper devoted to operetta melodies with classic superstars Renée Fleming and Christopher Maltman under the baton of Christian Thielemann was a tremendous success and, as Deutsche Grammophon put it, started ‘a new tradition’. Thielemann, heading the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and an ensemble of distinguished soloists and choral singers, presents the most beautiful highlights from Franz Lehár’s ‘The Merry Widow’ and succeeds in giving the famous and universally beloved melodies a perceptive new reading while still creating first-class entertainment. A short entr’acte performed in the foyer by members of the theater’s ballet ensemble allows the viewer a glimpse into the luxurious interior of the Semperoper. The New Year’s Eve gala concert ends with an homage to Dresden: the waltz ‘An der Elbe’, the last waltz written by Johann Strauss.
Making of “Der Rosenkavalier”
Bruckner, Symphony No.4 in E flat major
Bruckner originally wrote the Fourth Symphony in 1874, but revised it thoroughly in 1880 before its premiere in Vienna in 1881, which was a resounding success. Although he continued to revise it in later years,the version most often played today is the first revised version of 1880. This is also the version featured on this recording of a concert held at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, which was greeted with storms of applause. Leading the Münchner Philharmoniker in this concert is ist principal conductor Christian Thielemann, a maestro internationally known and admired above all as a specialist of Romantic music.
There’s a time for Bruckner – Interview Christian Thielemann
Portrait Christian Thielemann
Bruckner, Symphony No.7
“Grandiose, unaffected, expansive, majestic, immovable…” – Christian Thielemann’s description of Anton Bruckner’s music vividly captures its essence and uniqueness. And he himself captures the soul of the great romantic composer in his interpretation of Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony with the Munich Philharmonic. Recorded live at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden on 14 November 2006, the concert also features three orchestral preludes from the opera “Palestrina” by another late-romantic composer, Hans Pfitzner (A05512085 / Length: 25′)
Pfitzner, Three Preludes to “Palestrina”
“Grandiose, unaffected, expansive, majestic, immovable…” – Christian Thielemann’s description of Anton Bruckner’s music vividly captures its essence and uniqueness. And he himself captures the soul of the great romantic composer in his interpretation of Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony with the Munich Philharmonic. Recorded live at the Festspielhaus Baden- Baden on 14 November 2006, the concert also features three orchestral preludes from the opera “Palestrina” by another late-romantic composer, Hans Pfitzner. The preludes from Pfitzner’s “Palestrina”, the composer’s most well-known work, evoke the events about to transpire in the acts that follow them. While the subtle, refined nuances of the first prelude suggests the creative crisis of the opera’s hero, the Renaissance composer Palestrina, the second reflects the turbulent atmosphere of the Council of Trent and the third the inner peace found at long last by Palestrina beneath the cupola of St. Peter’s. Completed in September 1883, several months after the death of Richard Wagner, Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 in E major is a stunning homage to the composer of the “Ring”. A passionate admirer of Wagner, Bruckner claimed that he had the master’s death in mind while writing the Adagio of this symphony. With its particularly soaring and melodious themes, the Seventh is Bruckner’s most popular and accessible symphony. It would be difficult to find a better team to interpret Bruckner’s music today than Christian Thielemann and the Munich Philharmonic. Thielemann, the General Music Director of the Munich ensemble, is a universally recognized Bruckner and Wagner expert, who inaugurated his tenure at the head of the Philharmonic by conducting Bruckner’s Fifth. The Munich orchestra has a long-standing tradition of performing Bruckner’s music and boasts a particular attachment to the Seventh: it was the second orchestra to play the work, and the success it obtained with it in 1885 helped establish Bruckner as a major contemporary composer. Thielemann also led the Munich Philharmonic and the Regensburg Boys’ Choir in the first concert given in honor of Pope Benedict XVI in Vatican City in October 2005, which was also recorded by Unitel/Classica.