Live from the Rossini Festival in Pesaro: Alberto Zedda conducts Rossini’s late masterwork, with an excellent singers quartet and the Coro and Orchestra of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna.
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.
Bruckner, Symphony No.5 in B flat major
The performance of all six of Anton Bruckner’s mature symphonies on six nearly consecutive evenings is an accomplishment that can truly be called “superhuman” (Der Tagesspiegel). Daniel Barenboim – conductor, pianist, all round musical genius – set himself this task in June 2010 with the Staatskapelle Berlin at the Berlin Philharmonie. What Barenboim and his orchestra – he has been its principal conductor since 1992 – achieve in this marathon is a new view of the Bruckner opus that opts for grandeur and the mighty theatrical gesture. Bruckner’s symphonies as “operas without words” (Der Tagesspiegel).
Bruckner, Symphony No.8 in C minor (Edition Robert Haas)
The performance of all six of Anton Bruckner’s mature symphonies on six nearly consecutive evenings is an accomplishment that can truly be called “superhuman” (Der Tagesspiegel). Daniel Barenboim – conductor, pianist, all-round musical genius – set himself this task in June 2010 with the Staatskapelle Berlin at the Berlin Philharmonie. What Barenboim and his orchestra – he has been its principal conductor since 1992 – achieve in this marathon is a new view of the Bruckner opus that opts for grandeur and the mighty theatrical gesture. Bruckner’s symphonies as “operas without words” (Der Tagesspiegel).
Brahms, Sonatas for Violin and Piano
As Anne-Sophie Mutter herself puts it, ‘the apple was ripe and simply had to be picked.’ The ‘apple’ is the complete cycle of Brahms’ sonatas for violin and piano. Mutter, perhaps the best-known and most widely respected violinist of our time, has been fascinated by the Brahms sonatas since her youth. Several early recordings testify to her love for these works which, in her words, reflect Brahms’ understanding of ‘the singing quality’ of the violin. Over the years, she and her longtime piano partner Lambert Orkis have ‘ripened’ their interpretation of these works. Now, with the sonatas ‘under their skin’, the multiple award-winning violinist and her partner felt the time was right for their first audiovisual recording of the complete set.
Young Stars of Classical Music – Johannes Moser and Juraj Valcuha
Johannes Moser is the name to watch among today’s young violoncello virtuosos. Born in 1979, he has already performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras, such as the New York Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with which he made his U.S. debut under Pierre Boulez. His agenda is packed with appearances ranging from concerto soloist to chamber-music partner to interpreter of avant-garde music on an electric cello… In this concert of late-Romantic music with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, the “Echo Classic Award Winner” 2008 boldly infuses Hans Pfitzner’s Cello Concerto in A minor with a jolt of adrenaline that could very well boost this rarely heard work – which was long thought to be lost – into the concert repertoire. Written in 1883, Richard Strauss’ Romance in F major for cello and orchestra is an early work from the pen of this orchestral master, and another showcase for the talent of Johannes Moser. The concert also features another rising star of the classical music scene, the young Slovak conductor Juraj Valcuha, the principal conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Doing full justice to the refined atmosphere of the German late-Romantic works on the program, which also includes a Wagner overture, excerpts from Pfitzner’s opera Palestrina and Strauss’ Rosenkavalier Suite, conductor Juraj Valcuha soon makes it clear that elegance and transparency are his specialty.
The most beautiful song – A search for singers with Thomas Quasthoff (Concert)
Thomas Quasthoff founded international song competition for young singers, ‘Das Lied,’ to ensure that the Lied, which the baritone calls ‘the most beautiful form of music making,’ continues to hold its place in the concert repertoire of the future. According to Quasthoff, the goal of this project is to find the successors to the greatest singers of today and to discover new voices. In addition to Thomas Quasthoff, one of the top baritones and Lied singers of our day, the jury includes such distinguished vocalists as Brigitte Fassbaender and Annette Dasch, as well as the famed accompanists Helmut Deutsch and Charles Spencer. Among the prizewinners who perform at the gala concert are German baritone Tobias Berndt and Austrian baritone Daniel Schmutzhard.
Recital Diana Damrau
One of the warmest personalities on the opera and concert stage today, soprano Diana Damrau has put together a beguiling program for her recital at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. The selection of Romantic to fin-de-siècle pieces not only underscores her own vocal artistry, but also pays tribute to her accompanist Xavier de Maistre and, in particular, to the diaphanous delicacy of his instrument, the harp. The use of the harp to replace the piano in a voice recital is a truly unique and unexpected musical treat. De Maistre does more than simply transpose the piano part to his instrument; under the fingers of the Wiener Philharmoniker’s solo harpist, the ethereal sound of this instrument melds consummately with the soprano’s finely honed vocal part, so that the masterpieces by composers such as Schumann, Fauré and Debussy sound as if they had been conceived for voice and harp.
Beethoven Cycle Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
In 2006, conductor and Grammy Award-winner Paavo Järvi and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen set off on a major adventure: to master all nine Beethoven symphonies in a radical new reading. Järvi’s sensational new approach to these familiar works has won great renown for the orchestra. Their success led to a worldwide tour which included the U.S. and Japan (where the ensemble was ranked among the world’s top ten orchestras), and such prestigious venues as the Salzburg Festival. Wherever they performed, they were acclaimed by the press, who called them ‘the authoritative Beethoven orchestra of our day’. Many consider the Beethoven cycle as ‘without a doubt the best Beethoven in the world’ (Yomiuri Shimbun).
Thomas Hampson sings Schumann
If there is one genre of music which baritone Thomas Hampson is exceptionally passionate about, it is the lied. To Hampson, song and singing are ‘the diary of our existence’ and he has invested a great amount of time, work and love to luring this genre out of the shadow of the more spectacular opera. One composer he particularly cherishes is Robert Schumann. Hampson begins this Schumann recital, recorded at Munich’s Prinzregententheater with Wolfram Rieger at the piano, with the cycle Zwölf Gedichte op. 35 on poems by Justinus Kerner. The second part of the recital is devoted to the original version of the popular Dichterliebe op. 48. While Hampson was preparing his first performance of the cycle based on poems by Heinrich Heine, he consulted the composer’s manuscript, only to find that the original cycle of 1840 was a completely distinctive work containing many musical and textual differences. Among the most notable differences was the presence of four songs that were omitted from the later cycle. These works – ‘Dein Angesicht so lieb und schön,’ ‘Lehn deine Wang an meine Wang,’ ‘Es leuchtet meine Liebe’ and ‘Mein Wagen rollet langsam’ – are featured here as first-ever recordings of these rediscovered works.