With the performance of all of Richard Strauss’s orchestral songs and all of Franz Liszt’s symphonic poems, Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Berlin are dedicating themselves to a rarely performed but artistically significant repertoire. The response to the first concert in this new series has been promising: “A moment of happiness that one would like to hold on to” (Die Presse). “Morley took the audience by storm” (Das Opernmagazin)
Lahav Shani conducts the 80 Years of Liberation – May 8 Concert
On the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, known as Liberation Day in Germany, conductor Lahav Shani unites musicians from the Israel Philharmonic and the Münchner Philharmoniker for “a highly emotional performance” (Münchner Merkur) in the Isarphilharmonie. The two orchestras start their first ever collaboration with the deeply moving Prayer, a piece by 97-yearold Israeli composer Tzvi Avni, who travelled to Munich to witness this historic occasion. Then, the musicians come together to shape Mahler’s monumental Sixth Symphony. Shani’s Mahler is “robust, dark, rough, seeking depth” and manages to “achieve the ultimate in tragic expression here – horror and emotion give way to catharsis, to spiritual cleansing” (Süddeutsche Zeitung). PROGRAM: Avni: Prayer; Mahler: Symphony No. 6
Vladimir Jurowski conducts The Seven Last Words of Christ
“Essentially all thinking” consisted of “relating things to each other”, Arnold Schönberg once said. Conductor Vladimir Jurowski, born in Moscow, with Russian-Ukrainian roots, who emigrated to Berlin at the age of 18, has now curated and conducted a concert that is a “thinking” concert in this sense: it sets musical present and history in vibration, 1787 and 2023, but at the same time also feelings and thoughts, sounds and words. The main work of the evening is Joseph Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross. But Haydn’s passion music isn’t performed as a complete whole. The seven movements are performed in alternation with six short orchestral pieces commissioned for this concert from composers based in countries where war or serious political crises are currently raging: Ukraine, Iran, but also Belarus and Russia. “Powerful, speaking music throughout” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)
Nathalie Stutzmann conducts the Münchner Philharmoniker
“Nathalie Stutzmann triumphed on her debut with the Münchner Philharmoniker as unpretentiously as precisely.” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) French conductor Nathalie Stutzmann, newly appointed music director in Atlanta, makes her debut with the Münchner Philharmoniker with a “fateful” program: Johannes Brahms’ Schicksalslied (Song of Fate), which was written close in time to his Requiem, is based on a poem by Hölderlin. In contrast to the poem, Brahms lets his musical Schicksalslied end in hopeful tones. Max Reger’s Requiem is a haunting lament in view of the senseless victims of the First World War. Wiebke Lehmkuhl through her singing underlines the appeal against indifference and forgetfulness. Tchaikovsky’s “Fifth” with its omnipresent “fate motif” concludes this concert. Programme: J. Brahms: “Schicksalslied” (Song of Destiny) for choir and orchestra, Op. 54; M. Reger: Requiem for alto, choir and orchestra, Op. 144/B; P. I. Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64
Filippo Gorini plays The Art of Fugue
There is no doubt that Filippo Gorini is one of the great thinkers of our time, and his performance of Bach’s Die Kunst der Fuge (The Art of Fugue) is not just a release: it is
a whole project. Bach’s unfinished masterpiece (BWV 1080) is of unspecified instrumentation, and there are many different attempts to realise it. It dates from Bach’s last decade, and comprises 14 Fugues and four Canons; the final Fugue, incomplete, is left hanging in the air, unforgettably. Gorini has spoken about letting that ending surprise him every time, even in the recording studio. Such a compositional exploration was unparalleled at the time. Bach’s writing in this piec is the absolute distillation of his contrapuntal thinking. Not a single note is wasted; the piece requires supreme concentration from its performer. Gorini is fascinated by the dialogue between the voices in contrapuntal music, a fascination that shines through every note. The performance is peaceful, and extremely profound; what Gorini himself refers to as a “timeless beauty”.
The Mendelssohn Family – Fanny Hensel and Felix Mendelssohn
Together with the Israeli soprano Chen Reiss, the JCOM, conducted by Daniel Grossmann, discovers works by the fascinating composer Fanny Hensel and her famous brother Felix Mendelssohn. The congenial siblings Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn took very different paths. While Fanny’s musical talent, according to her father, could only be “an adornment, never the basic bass of your being and doing”, Felix’s father, himself the son of the famous Jewish Enlightenment philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, paved the way for a career as a musician. Fanny was only allowed to compose and perform her works in private. Only in recent years have many of Fanny Hensel’s works been rediscovered. ” Soprano Chen Reiss agrees on this point, and brings her own beguiling brand of elegant, operatic flair to a new album.” (The Opera Queen)
Salzburg Festival 2025: Mozart – Mass in C minor
The Salzburg Festival brings Mozart’s monumental, unfinished Great Mass in C minor to St. Peter’s Abbey Church – the beautiful church for which the piece was composed and where it was probably also premiered. Gianluca Capuano conducts the orchestra Les Musiciens du Prince – Monaco and the vocal ensemble Il Canto di Orfeo. Mélissa Petit and Patricia Nolz are an “outstanding female duo” (Die Presse): Pétit’s coloraturas “sparkle like precious gems” and Nolz’s “darkly-shaded, slender soprano blends beautifully” (Salzburger Nachrichten)
Salzburg Festival 2025: Mozart Matinee with Gonzalez-Monjas
The program of this Mozart Matinee with Roberto González-Monjas highlights Mozart’s vocal music including arias and cantatas. On this regard, an highlight is the Die Maurerfreude — Cantata for tenor, male choir and orchestra K. 471 performed by Bogdan Volkov and the Bachchor Salzburg together with the attempted reconstruction of the original version of the Maurerische Trauermusik. Bass Manuel Winckhler joins Bogdan Volkov as a soloist are then performing arias from Don Giovanni, Die Zauberflöte and La clemenza di Tito. To conclude, the Mozarteum Orchestra delivers a splendid performance of Symphony in E-flat major K. 543.
Salzburg Festival 2025: Mozart Matinee with Kyohei Sorita
“It’s all there in this Mozart adventure” (Kronenzeitung): Making his debut at the Salzburg Festival, Japanese pianist and conductor Kyohei Sorita (“a breath of fresh air” – Drehpunktkultur) performs two important piano concertos by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart alongside the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg as part of the traditional Mozart
Matinees in the Great Hall of the Mozarteum Foundation. PROGRAM: Symphony in G major K. 318, Piano concerto in E-flat major K. 271 ‘Jeunehomme’, Overture from Le nozze di Figaro K. 492; Piano concerto in D major K. 537 ‘Coronation’; Alla Turca (Allegretto) from the Piano Sonata in A, K. 331 (encore)
Fazil Say at Mozartwoche
The singular pianist Fazil Say centers this recital during Salzburg’s Mozart Week around Bach’s monumental Goldberg Variations. Although the late Bach is cornerstone of piano music and a milestone for many pianists, Say’s unique performance manages to make even this well-known and often played work a journey of discovery for the audience: “Time and again, the listener has the sudden impression that Fazil Say has just joyfully discovered something completely new in the piece and is letting everyone share in it
with his smiling gaze” (Opera Online). Say follows up the Goldberg Variations wit Mozart’s Fantasy No. 3 and his own piano sonata “Yeni hayat” (New Life), which he composed in 2021 during the pandemic. PROGRAM Bach: Goldberg Variations; Mozart: Fantasy No. 3, K. 397, Piano Sonata No. 11; Say: Piano Sonata “Yeni hayat”