Daniel Harding and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra perform Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 that oscillates between carefree lightness and grueling darkness like no other in his symphonic canon, their joint interpretation being praised as “the best there is.” (LVZ)
Andris Nelsons conducts Mahler 2
At the Leipzig Mahler Festival 2023, the Gewandhausorchester under the baton of Music Director Andris Nelsons and together with soloists Nicola Hillebrand and Gerhild Romberger as well as the MDR-Rundfunkchor, present a rousing performance of Gustav Mahler’s Second (“Resurrection”), gauging the full rollercoaster of musical extremes between death and resurrection.
Tugan Sokhiev conducts Mahler 4
The Münchner Philharmoniker under Tugan Sokhiev and with Christiane Karg’s delicately intimate and clear soprano voice lead the audience through a rousing Mahler Fourth, drawing an arc from radiant blue skies to cracks in the firmament and from the hope of heavenly life to the end of everything earthly.
Nelsons conducts Bach & Saint-Saëns
Chinese superstar Lang Lang is the soloist in Saint-Saëns’s scintillating Piano Concerto No.2, joining the Gewandhausorchester and Gewandhauskapellmeister Andris Nelsons. One of the composer’s most popular works, the second concerto was written in just 17 days in the spring of 1868 and was once humorously described as “beginning like Bach and ending like Offenbach”. Its different styles certainly offer the virtuoso pianist the opportunity to display all sides of his or her technique – as Lang Lang does to scintillating effect here. The Bach-inspired first movement, meanwhile, provides the inspiration for the rest of the programme, which features rare and fascinating J.S. Bach orchestrations by Mahler, Elgar, Reger and Joachim Raff. PROGRAM Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No.2; Bach: orchestrations by Mahler, Elgar, Reger and Joachim Raff
Lang Lang & Gina Alice play Saint-Saëns
Husband-and-wife team Lang Lang and Gina Alice join Andris Nelsons and members of the Gewandhausorchester for a very special performance of Saint-Saëns’s ever-popular Carnival of the Animals. The humorous suite was composed with fun in mind, and Saint-Saëns wouldn’t allow it to be performed in public during his lifetime, lest it undermine his reputation as a serious composer. It went on, however, to become one of his best-loved works. Lang Lang is the soloist in Saint-Saëns’s scintillating Piano Concerto No.2, joining the Gewandhausorchester and Gewandhauskapellmeister Andris Nelsons. PROGRAM Saint-Saëns: Carnival of the Animals, Piano Concerto No.2
RCO: Christmas Matinee with Klaus Mäkelä
Klaus Mäkelä conducts the Concertgebouw Orchestra’s Christmas Matinee. This festive tradition has been a landmark of the Concertgebouw Orchestra’s season for almost fifty years. The Concertgebouw Orchestra’s future chief conductor conducts Beethoven’s magnificent ‘Eroica’ and works by no less than two Mendelssohns, Felix Mendelssohn and Fanny Hensel-Mendelssohn: PROGRAM Beethoven: Symphony No. 3; Felix Mendelssohn: The Hebrides, Infelice, Scherzo from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’; Fanny Hensel-Mendelssohn: Hero und Leander
Nelsons conducts Mendelssohn & Schumann
Andris Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester bring a programme rich in Leipzig’s unrivalled musical heritage to the Seoul Arts Center. Felix Mendelssohn, one of Nelsons’s celebrated predecessors as Gewandhauskapellmeister, is represented by his concert overture “Die schöne Melusine” and his atmospheric Symphony No. 3 “Scottish”, inspired by his travels in Britain in 1829 and premiered at the Gewandhaus in 1842. Three years later, Robert Schumann completed his piano concerto, one of the most popular concertos in the repertoire, and that work completes the programme here, performed by Seong-Jin Cho, one of the most celebrated pianists of his generation. PROGRAM Schumann:
Lise Davidsen: Christmas from Norway
Lise Davidsen, one of the most celebrated and sought-after sopranos on the world stage, presents a personal programme of seasonal favourites from the Folketeateret in Oslo. Mixing traditional carols and Christmas songs – from Norway and across Europe – with music by Bach, Humperdinck, Hugo Wolf, the programme provides the perfect selection to get into the seasonal spirit, all sung with the spectacular voice and artistry that have brought the Norwegian soprano accolades and acclaim from Bayreuth to New York
Daniel Hope – Dance!
Fleet of foot and with the whirling lightness of the waltz, the evening depicts the world of dance in all its variations, from the elegant courtly minuet to the fiery Argentine tango. Universal musician Hope will only be tripping the light fantastic metaphorically as his bow jumps across the violin strings. But who knows what surprises he may have in store? Daniel Hope has long been fascinated by the power of dance to move and inspire. Taking listeners on a journey through seven centuries of music history, DANCE celebrates the rhythms that have set bodies in motion and lifted hearts since time began. With everything from the anonymous 14th-century Lamento di Tristano to Wojciech Kilar’s 1986 work Orawa, via classics by Purcell, Handel, Mozart, Saint-Saëns.
Joana Mallwitz – The Inaugural Concert
Joana Mallwitz was welcomed as the new principal conductor of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin with a triumphant inaugural concert. The program included three first symphonies by Sergei Prokofiev, Kurt Weill, and Gustav Mahler. The audience gave enthusiastic standing ovations and critics labeled her inaugural concert “a triumph.” (Süddeutsche) PROGRAM Prokofiev: Symphony No.1; Weill: Symphony No.1; Mahler: Symphony No.1