When Anna Netrebko sings one of the most beautiful sacred works of the 18th century, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s “Stabat mater”, many music lovers will see this as the highlight of the “Pergolesi year”. Her appearance together with contralto Marianna Pizzolato and with Bertrand de Billy at the head of the Sächsische Staatskapelle in Dresden’s exuberantly Baroque Frauenkirche radiates “nothing less than bewitching depth and beauty” (Morgenpost). In addition to the Pergolesi, the concert features an excerpt from Joseph Haydn’s “Sieben letzte Worte des Erlösers am Kreuze” as well as Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Erbarme Dich”.
Stars of Tomorrow presented by Rolando Villazón – Episode 1
PROGRAM: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Overture from Die Entführung aus dem Serail // Johannes Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 1 // Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky: Souvenir d’un lieu cher – Mélodie (Soloist: Valery Sokolov) // Gioachino Rossini: “Non si da follia maggiore” from Il Turco in Italia (Soloist: Olga Peretyatko) // Spanish Romance (Soloist: Miloš Karadaglic) // Isaac Albéniz: Asturias (Soloist: Miloš Karadaglic) // Johann Nepomuk Hummel: Trumpet Concerto – Rondo (Soloist: Francisco Pacho Flores) // Jorge del Moral: Besos robados (Soloists: Rolando Villazón & Francisco Pacho Flores) // Johannes Brahms: Guten Abend, gute Nacht
Stars of Tomorrow presented by Rolando Villazón – Episode 3
PROGRAM: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Overture from Die Entführung aus dem Serail // Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Intermezzo from A Midsummer Night’s Dream // Charles Gounod: “Je veux vivre” from Roméo et Juliette (Soloist: Nino Machaidze) // Astor Piazzolla: Tango Etude No. 3 (Soloist: Eva-Nina Kozmus) // Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Flute Concerto No. 1 – Allegro maestoso (Soloist: Eva-Nina Kozmus) // Léo Delibes: Les filles de Cadix (Soloist: Nino Machaidze) // David Orlowsky: Juli (Orlowsky Trio) // Jens-Uwe Popp: Satin (Orlowsky Trio) // Édouard Lalo: Symphonie espagnole – Intermezzo (Soloist: Vilde Frang) // Charles Dumont, Michel Vaucaire: Non, je ne regrette rien
Festive Advent Concert at the Frauenkirche Dresden 2010
Italian tenor Vittorio Grigolo, hailed as “opera hero of the year” (Sächsische Zeitung), and Carolina Ullrich are the stars of this festive Advent concert from the Frauenkirche in Dresden. Conductor Bertrand de Billy heads this particularly lavish program with the Staatskapelle Dresden in the famous Baroque Frauenkirche. Together with the Chor der Sächsischen Staatsoper and the Kammerchor der Frauenkirche, and in a setting of resplendent beauty, they perform inspiring and festive works.
Russian Songs
When world-class soprano Anna Netrebko gives a recital of exquisite, rarely heard Russian songs, you can be sure that she will pour her entire Russian soul into her interpretation, and draw out every last drop of expressiveness from these songs. Indeed, what she and her accompanist, the all-round musical phenomenon Daniel Barenboim, presented in Berlin was a truly one-of-a-kind concert: a rare occasion to enjoy these Russian songs sung from and by the heart. And despite the vast dimensions of the Philharmonie, the two artists succeeded in creating an incredibly intimate atmosphere.
Bernard Haitink conducts Beethoven Missa Solemnis
“Bernard Haitink found great nuances and nice timbres of the orchestra effectively and impressively underlining the bombastic passages of the piece” (Münchner Merkur). Teaming up with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir, the grandseigneur of the stars of the podium devoted himself to the “Missa Solemnis” of Ludwig van
Beethoven.
Wiener Philharmoniker: Jakub Hrusa conducts Kodaly, Bartok, Dvorak
This edition of the exclusive Vienna Phil subscription concerts, conducted by young conducting superstar Jakub Hrusa, features a carefully and beautifully selected programme of Czech and Hungarian music: Hrusa seizes every opportunity to derive additional bursts of energy from the rhythm and tension of the music, savours melodic developments and spurs the Philharmonic on to soloistic high-wire acts. Kodaly’s brilliance, Bartok’s fascinating motor skills, Dvorak’s picturesque fairy-tale sounds, Janacek’s austere grandeur: an opulent and haunting combination” (Die Presse). PROGRAM Kodaly: Dances Of Galanta; Bartok: The Miraculous Mandarin; Dvorak: The Wild Dove; Janacek: Taras Bulba (Rhapsody)
Wiener Philharmoniker: Thielemann conducts Brahms
Continuing their ongoing Brahms cycle, Thielemann and the Wiener Philharmoniker bring a “combination of magnificent sound and deep meaning” (Kurier) to their interpretation of the Fourth Symphony. Gautier Capuçon and Augustin Hadelich “enchanted” (Der Standard) with the Double Concerto for violin and cello. “Thieleman, Capuçon, Hadelich – the very best for Brahms” (Kurier) Program: Brahms: Concerto for Violin and Violoncello in A Minor, op. 102, Hungarian Dance No. 5, arranged for Cello and Violin, Symphony No. 4
Wiener Philharmoniker: Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducts Beethoven & Strauss
Yannick Nézet-Séguin gives his successful debut at the renowned, highly exclusive subscription concerts of the Wiener Philharmoniker. Joining him is piano legend Yefim Bronfman, who lives up to his reputation: “It was gratifying to hear how, in Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto, a relaxed, silky-smooth beauty of sound repeatedly gave way to wiry accents of tension” (Der Standard). Bronfman proved an “ideal partner” (Kronenzeitung) for Nézet-Séguin and the Philharmoniker, who were “entirely in harmony with the soloist” (Die Presse). In the second half of the concert, “Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben was given a refreshingly invigorating shake-up” (Der Standard). Program: Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3; Strauss: Ein Heldenleben; Debussy: Images II, III. Poissons d’or
Salzburg Festival 2023: Roberto González-Monjas conducts the Mozarteum Orchestra
Roberto González-Monjas, designated principal conductor of the Mozarteum Orchestra, “put an interpretive exclamation mark on his Festival premiere with a purely sacred programme”: Mozart’s Coronation Mass, the main work of the evening, is combined with two church sonatas, the famous motet “Exsultate, jubilate” for soprano and orchestra and the equally famous choral work “Ave verum corpus”. Together with a young quartet of singers led by soprano Nikola Hillebrand (in her “Exsultate” she is “crystal-clear in sound, technically precise and sensitive in interpretation”), González-Monjas provides “youthful and cheeky pathos and a breath of fresh air” (Salzburger Nachrichten)