The Swedish-born lyrical tenor Nicolai Gedda is considered one of the greatest tenors of the 20th Century. From the time of his debut in 1952 right through his unprecedented career for half a century, he took the world’s stages by storm and recorded more than 200 albums which made him the most recorded tenor in history.
800 Years St. Thomas Boys Choir: The Saint Matthew Passion
In 2012, one of the finest boys’ choirs in the world, the St. Thomas Boys Choir Leipzig, celebrated its 800th anniversary. An almost unbelievable period of time, if one considers that the choir outlasted all ups and downs of European history, maintaining its unbroken traditions over the centuries and holding onto established principles such as the inclusion of the elder boys in the education of the younger ones. A musical event of very particular significance during the anniversary celebration, is the traditional performance of one of Bach’s Passions in St. Thomas Church in the run-up to Easter.
Claudio Abbado conducts Beethoven’s Music to Egmont and Mozart’s Requiem at Lucerne Festival
The opening of the Lucerne Festival 2012, Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in the first part present a most powerful composition dedicated to Goethe’s hero Egmont, the Incidental Music to ‘Egmont’ by Beethoven. The second part of the program includes Mozart’s last composition, the Requiem in D Minor, which was left unfinished due to the early death of the composer.
Dudamel conducts the Verdi Requiem at the Hollywood Bowl
“Gustavo Dudamel puts an intimate flourish on Verdi’s Requiem”, the Los Angeles Times writes about Dudamel’s performance of Verdi’s Requiem at the Hollywood Bowl. “A page was turned and a new chapter begun in the maturation of a music director.” Dudamel is joined by a cast of high-class singers: Ildebrando D´Arcangelo, who regularly performs at La Scala, the Wiener Staatsoper, London’s Royal Opera or the Salzburg Festival, the upcoming star tenor Vittorio Grigolo, who regularly guests at La Scala, Covent Garden, the MET etc., Michelle DeYoung, who performs with leading orchestras like the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra etc., and Julianna Di Giacomo, who regularly guests at the MET, the LA Opera an other international opera houses. Also available: Making Of (18′).
Wagner in Switzerland
This concert is a celebration of Richard Wagner’s 200th anniversary in 2013, featuring famous soloists of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra who perform Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll at his home in Tribschen, Switzerland: The original place, where he composed and world premiered the piece on the staircase in 1870 as a birthday present to his wife Cosima. The program is rounded by the Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder in the original version for female voice and piano, performed by the exceptional mezzo-soprano Elisabeth Kulman and pianist Eduard Kutrowat on Wagner’s original grand piano. The performance-part is complemented by documentary features offering an insight into Richard Wagner’s life at Tribschen.
Joshua Bell plays Tchaikovsky
C Major is proud to present the young and brilliant world famous American violinist Joshua Bell, performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D major at the Nobel Prize Concert 2010, produced by Accentus Music. As part of the official Nobel Week, the world’s most renowned artists are gathering each year to pay tribute to the Nobel Laureates. The concert is a special highlight in the series. On the rostrum: Sakari Oramo the Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. The evening starts with Beethoven’s Leonore Ouverture and ends with Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5 in E flat major.
Rattle conducts Haydn and Mozart
At this summer’s Lucerne Festival, Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker presented a new Haydn symphony that never existed before: Rattle gathered together ten of the most original and avant-garde-like instrumental movements by Joseph Haydn to fashion a “Symphonie imaginaire,” a new Haydn symphony that never existed before. In addition to this astonishing Haydn Pasticcio, Rattle conducted Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante for violin, viola and orchestra, soloists were Daishin Kashimoto (violin) and Amihai Grosz (viola).
Beethoven: Violin Concerto – Znajder, Chailly
Muscular yet elegant, eloquent and charismatic – terms that flow from journalists’ pens when referring to Nikolaj Znaider. The Danish artist once again affirmed his reputation as one of the most distinguished violinists of our time with his performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s violin concerto with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig under the baton of its musical director Riccardo Chailly. Znaider himself speaks of Beethoven’s popular work as “the bible in a violinist’s concert repertoire.”
Barbara Hannigan – A Late Night Concert
There are pianists who also conduct, and concertmasters who lead their orchestra from the violin chair. But a star soprano who coordinates a large instrumental ensemble while at the same time negotiating the trickiest coloratura singing is something entirely new. That is, until Barbara Hannigan came along to reveal this remarkable skill. “It’s like walking on virgin snow,” says the Canadian “artiste étoile” who teamed up at Lucerne Festival in Summer with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Next to conducting works by Fauré, Mozart and Rossini she performed onstage, decked out in a daring S&M-style leather bodice, Ligeti’s “Mysteries of the Macabre.”
Lucerne Festival: Abbado conducts Mozart
For many music lovers, Christine Schäfer’s Mozart interpretations are a revelation. She has little in common with the routine conventions of her field and her artistry is enourmously powerful as this program featuring concert arias by Mozart, with Abbado conducting the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA, shows. This TV program is coupled with Mozart’s ‘Haffner’ Symphony, which was originally performed in Salzburg as a serenade to be played by torchlight. Program: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
‘Misera, dove son!’ – ‘Ah, non son io che parlo,’ K. 369; ‘Ah, lo previdi’ – ‘Ah, t’invola,’ K. 272; ‘Vorrei spiegarvi, oh Dio!,’ K. 418; Symphony in D major, K. 385 ‘Haffner’.