The soloists of The Philharmonics – an ensemble made up of musicians from the Vienna Philharmonic – performing Johann Strauß’s waltzes arranged by Arnold Schönberg, Anton Webern und Alban Berg in an original Viennese Coffeehouse. PROGRAMME: ROSEN AUS DEM SÜDEN arr. by Arnold Schoenberg / KAISERWALZER arr. by Arnold Schoenberg / LAGUNENWALZER arr. by Arnold Schoenberg (after Motives from the Opera ‘Eine Nacht in Venedig’) / WEIN, WEIB UND GESANG arr. by Alban Berg / SCHATZWALZER arr. by Anton Webern (from the Operetta ‘Der Zigeunerbaron’), ALT WIEN Godowski, MARCHE MINIATURE VIENNOIS Fritz Kreisler, SCHÖN ROSMARIN Fritz Kreisler, CAPRICE VIENNOIS Fritz Kreisler, YIDDISHE MAME arr. by Tibor Kovac.
Liszt Celebration Concert
For the very first time Daniel Barenboim tackled Franz Liszt’s two highly virtuosic piano concertos in a single concert. With Pierre Boulez, his friend and esteemed colleague of many years, conducting Barenboim’s own orchestra, the Staatskapelle Berlin, they were showered with praise on their tour across Europe. For both musicians, Liszt was one of the most important pioneers of modern music, as composer, conductor and pianist. He influenced revolutionary contemporaries such as Robert Schumann and Richard Wagner. Two examples of the latter’s magnificent orchestral work round off this concert programme celebrating Liszt’s bicentenary.
Lucerne Festival: Simon Rattle conducts Britten and Bruckner
Another late summer highlight at Lucerne Festival: Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker presenting works by Benjamin Britten and Anton Bruckner. Britten gethered eight musical-poetic night pieces together under the title ‘Nocturne’: Musical settings of English poets throughout the centuries perfomed by tenor Ian Bostridge. This cycle of orchestral songs is coupled with Bruckner’s ‘Swan Song,’ his last symphony, which was unfinished and which he dedicated to ‘Dear God’ – Symphony No. 9 in D minor.
Lucerne Festival: Abbado conducts Bruckner 5
‘Abbado’s approach to the music of Bruckner is soft and songlike, at times tense and urgent, but constantly filles with warmth of feeling (…)’ wrot critic Peter Hagmann in the ‘Neue Züricher Zeitung’. On 19 August 2011 Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra presented Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 5 and did credit to this review. The handpicked players of the orchestra filled the famous concert hall in the Culture and Convention Centre Lucerne with impressive and unforgettable sounds.
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’.
Krzysztof Penderecki – Concert in Celebration of his 80th Birthday
Grand Gala Concert with international classical music stars on occasion of the 80th birthday of Krzysztof Penderecki. Program: Threnody – To the Victims of Hiroshima, Conductor: Krzysztof Urbanski // Duo Concertante for Violin and Double Bass – Soloists: Anne-Sophie Mutter, Roman Patkoló // Concerto grosso for three Cellos and Orchestra – Soloists: Arto Noras, Ivan Monighetti, Daniel Müller-Schott, Conductor: Charles Dutoit // Credo – Soloists: Iwona Hossa, Ewa Vesin, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Krystian Krzeszowiak, Nikolay Didenko, Conductor: Valery Gergiev.
Mariss Jansons conducts Bruckner 4
In many ways, Haydn and Bruckner are polar opposites. Haydn was a natural talent, while Bruckner was a late bloomer; Haydn was a self-assured professional who wrote music for weddings and parties just as easily as he did for great noblemen, while Bruckner plodded along laboriously, often plagued by feelings of insecurity. Both produced outstanding music, however, as evidenced by Haydn’s energetic, sunny Cello Concerto, performed here by the leading Norwegian cellist Truls Mørk, and by Bruckner’s most well-balanced symphony, the ‘Romantic’. —— Program: Joseph HAYDN – Cello Concerto, Anton BRUCKNER – Symphony No.4 (‘Romantic’)
Dudamel & LA Phil: Inaugural Concert
Gustavo Dudamel, just twenty-seven years old, designated music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, is acknowledged to be one of the most
important conductors of his generation. At October 2009 he will conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at the Disney Concert Hall. On the programme: Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No 1 in D major (“Titan”) and the world premier of the latest work by Pulitzer Prize for Music winner John Adams, “City Noir”. The Los Angeles Philharmonic is widely regarded as the most contemporary minded, forward thinking, talked about and innovative, venturesome and admired orchestra in America. Dudamel made his U.S. conducting debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl on September 13, 2005. In April 2007, during a guest conducting engagement with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Dudamel was named the LAP’s next music director as of the 2009-2010 season, succeeding Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Chailly conducts Mahler – Symphony No. 2
The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and their Music Director Riccardo Chailly have acquired legendary status – glorious reviews and many awards for their recordings testifying to their continuing success. At Leipzig’s International Mahler Festival, to mark the centenary of Mahler’s death, they performed Mahler’s monumental Second Symphony in the Gewandhaus – together with two marvellous soloists and choral forces quite beyond compare.
Chailly conducts Mahler – Symphony No. 8
Mahler’s Eighth Symphony is agruably the grandest and most ambitious piece of symphonic music ever written. The composer himself regarded it as his ‘opus summum’, and an incredible number of partipicians at the hugely successful Munich premiere in 1910 earned it the nickname ‘Symphony of a Thousand’. At Leipzig’s International Mahler Festival 2011, Riccardo Chailly commanded almost 500 musicians. The perfomance celebrated overwhelming success by audience and critics.