“Virtuosic sparks” (klassik.com) As Artistic Partner of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, piano virtuoso Yuja Wang not only dazzles at the grand piano, but also gives her conducting debut. After an amuse-bouche of Mozart’s “precisely articulated and dynamically shaded” Serenade in E flat major, Wang takes the stage with Stravinsky’s Concerto for piano and wind orchestra and concludes the concert with a striking rendition of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue: “With dreamlike chord accuracy and flawlessly rapid repetitions, she presents the rhythmic finesse of Gershwin’s music and demonstrates an unerring sense of jazzy impetus” (klassik.com). Mozart: Serenade for wind instruments, K. 375; Stravinsky: Concerto for piano and wind instruments; Dvorak: Serenade for wind instruments, cello and double bass in D minor, Op. 44; Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue (arr. Ferde Grofé); Marquez: Danzón No. 2 (arr. Gómez-Tagle)
Salzburg Festival 2023: Matinee with Antonello Manacorda & Golda Schultz
The Mozart Matinees, concerts given at the Great Hall of the Mozarteum Foundation at the weekends during the Salzburg Festival, were established in 1921 and have in the meantime assumed legendary status. In this Mozart Matinee, Italian conductor Antonello Manacorda at the podium of the Mozarteumorchester and South African soprano Golda Schultz present a fine selection of arias that Mozart composed to texts by Lorenzo Da Ponte. The arias are framed by Mozart’s First Symphony and the “Jupiter” Symphony, his very last.
Karajan or Beauty As I See It
Who was Herbert von Karajan? What lurks behind the enigmatic face of this man, on whom more has been written than on any other member of his profession? For many, he was the epitome of classical music, for others the embodiment of the music market. He was the last dictator among orchestral conductors, and the first successful large-scale music entrepreneur. And in everything he did, he was ahead of his time. This documentary is the first to truly penetrate behind Karajan’s regal façade. The program is structured along the personal recollections and interviews, the rehearsals and concerts of the maestro. Much of the material has been drawn from the archives of Unitel, the firm that produced his music films for 12 years. This footage is supplemented by many candid and revealing comments by some of the men and women who accompanied him on his path to legendary status. The result is a multi-faceted, multi-layered portrait of the artist – a portrait that ultimately deepens the mystery of one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century.
Andris Nelsons conducts Mahler
Mahler’s unusually extended five-movement Symphony No. 7 is one of his most ambiguous and enigmatic and is therefore considered by many performers to be the most difficult. This recording is part of a Mahler cycle that Andris Nelsons, “one of the most celebrated conductors of our time” (Salzburger Nachrichten), and the Wiener Philharmoniker, the orchestra that Gustav Mahler himself conducted many times, have already been working on for a few years now and that will be continued for the next few years. Under Nelsons’ direction, the orchestra “performed magic in the Golden Hall. […] Magnificent strings, fabulous winds, accomplished melodic dialogues were heard in all five movements of the symphony. […] Rarely has one heard this work so finely chiselled, so dynamically balanced. An event.” (Kurier)