Loriot, alias Vicco von Bülow, is one of Germany’s most popular and beloved humorists. He delights in unmasking the foibles of everyday life in many animated shorts, cartoons and stories. With the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin conducted by Marcello Viotti, Loriot gives a as memorable performance as an avuncular narrator. Moreover, Loriot has slightly revised the original text to make it even more appealing to children of today.
Mozart, Piano Sonata in A major, K. 331
Ivo Pogorelich is perhaps the only great pianist who became an instant celebrity for the prize he didn’t win. It was in 1980, when he was eliminated in the third round of the Warsaw Chopin Competition. An argument ensued among the jurors, and Martha Argerich, a member of the jury, resigned in protest, claiming “Pogorelich is a genius!” The scandal provoked by Argerich’s reaction made him famous overnight. The eyes of the musical world were soon upon young Ivo Pogorelich, and they have yet to be disappointed. Ivo Pogorelich was born in Belgrade in 1958 and began playing the piano at the age of seven. After his classical training at the Moscow Conservatory, he took master classes from Aliza Kezeradze, who passed on to him the tradition of the Liszt-Siloti school. In an interview with the German weekly newspaper “Die Zeit”, Pogorelich once listed the four most important things he learned from Kezeradze: “First, technical perfection as something natural. Second, an insight into the development of the piano sound, as perfected by the pianist-composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, composers who understood the piano both as a human voice … and as an orchestra with which they could produce a variety of colors. Third, the need to learn how to use every aspect of our new instruments, which are richer in sound. Fourth, the importance of differentiation.” Pogorelich won the Casagrande Competition in 1978 and the first prize of the International Music Competition in Montreal in 1980. Since the Warsaw scandal, Pogorelich has been pursuing a brilliant international career. His debuts in London, Paris, New York, Madrid, Brussels, Amsterdam, Rome, Milan and Tel Aviv were triumphs. He has performed with practically all the major orchestras in the world, and his recitals are almost always sold out. Comparing him with Horowitz, the New York Times once wrote: “He was an entire orchestra.” His often controversial and always stunning interpretations confirm the originality of his talent and intellect. In 1986 and 1987, when Pogorelich was in his late 20s, Unitel recorded a series of six recitals with the artist in venues of particularly striking beauty. The fact that the young pianist chose several pieces that are not among the most spectacular or frequently performed of the piano repertoire already hints at the unique and uncompromising character of this young pianist.
Rubinstein at 90 – An Interview with Artur Rubinstein filmed at his home in Paris in 1976
Quotes from Artur Rubinstein’s interview with Robert MacNeil: “There isn’t such a thing as the greatest pianist, not anytime, or anyone, or anything. Nothing in art can be the best. it is only different.” “… I’ve thought about the reason for any success I have had in my life… There is a certain antenna: there is a certain secret thing…which goes out, emanates from me, from my emotion, from the feeling. This…projects something which I do feel. It suddenly puts the audience into my hands. I can do anything. That is a great, great moment.” “I do think that we have reached the point of too much technique and perfection and there will be a reaction… Make music instead of having too much technique.” “The piano must be played with a feeling, to get the legato, to turn it into an instrument of singing.”
Beethoven, Symphony No.1 in C major, op.21
When, in the mid 1960s, Herbert von Karajan decided to record on film all nine Beethoven symphonies with the Berlin Philharmonic, he began with the “Fifth” and asked the famous French movie director Henri-Georges Clouzot (Quai des Orfèvres) to direct. Recognizing in the music-loving director a kindred soul and master of the symbolic image, Karajan found an inspired partner. In another of Karajan’s first efforts, he asked six directors to “stage” one movement each of a Beethoven symphony. For a full week, the directors had the Berlin Philharmonic and Herbert von Karajan – all in full dress – at their disposal, with all the 35mm film, cameras, lighting and technical assistance they needed. Karajan’s most controversial production was Hugo Niebeling’s highly personal interpretation of the “Pastorale”, with its abstract shots of instruments, rapid rhythms, fade-ins and symbolically arranged colors. s.
Mozart, Symphony No.38 in D major, K. 504 “Prague”
Rafael Kubelik (1914-1996) was the son of the well-known Bohemian violinist Jan Kubelik. He studied music in Prague and made his conducting debut at 20 at the head of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Later he became the principal conductor of this famous orchestra and founded the “Prague Spring” Festival. After the Communist takeover of the government, Kubelik emigrated to the West and returned to his native land only after the end of the Communist regime. From 1950 to 1953 he headed the Chicago Symphony, from 1955 to 1958 he was music director of the Covent Garden Opera in London. A period of great artistic successes began in 1961, when he was appointed principal conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Many recordings document Kubelik’s mastery and sense of artistry, his enjoyment of music and his temperament. His connection with the Munich orchestra lasted 18 years; in between, he also briefly served as music director of New York’s Metropolitan Opera. Kubelik retired from the concert staged in 1985. But on the occasion of the first Prague Spring Festival after the fall of Communism in 1990, he returned to the podium of the Czech Philharmonic after more than 40 years in exile and conducted Smetana’s “My Fatherland” cycle. His profound bonds with his native land and its composers were always clearly visible. Rafael Kubelik was a full-blooded musician. Every performance of his radiated a feeling of spontaneity, impulsiveness and joy. Kubelik died in Lucerne in August 1996 at the age of 82 after a long illness. A symphony for connoisseurs, K. 504 reflects the taste and discernment of the audience it was intended for: the musical public of Prague. Since his “Marriage of Figaro” was the hit of the town in late 1786, Mozart decided to travel to Prague; in his luggage was the D major symphony, premiered on 19 January 1787. Written between “Figaro” and “The Magic Flute,” it shares unmistakable affinities with these two works and even quotes a theme from “Figaro” in the finale. And it is also a work in which Mozart could be completely himself. He thus indulged in a dramatic slow introduction, and in some austere contrapuntal writing in the first movement. Since the wind players in the Bohemian capital were rightly praised for their excellence, Mozart also rewarded them with some truly beautiful pages.
Bloch, Schelomo – Hebrew Rhapsody for Violoncello and Orchestra
Salzburg Festival 2022: Christian Thielemann & Elina Garanca
“What a sound pleasure, what a playing culture! […] Bruckner’s ‘Ninth’ without burdens, without any heaviness. Symphony in Schubert’s sense, seductive, apollonian.” (Kronenzeitung) To mark the bicentenary of Anton Bruckner’s birth in 2024, Christian Thielemann, the Wiener Philharmoniker and Unitel record the first Bruckner cycle with a single conductor in the orchestra’s history. After a truly magnificent performance of the Seventh Symphony in 2021, the stellar conductor returns to the Salzburg Festival with the Ninth to finish the cycle. In the first part of the concert, Christian Thielemann joins forces with Latvian star mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca and the Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor for Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody. PROGRAM: Brahms: Alto Rhapsody for voice, male chorus and orchestra, Op. 53; Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 in D minor
Madama Butterfly – Hope and longing at Bregenz Festival
Rigoletto on the Lake – The creation of a spectacle
The open-air floating stage in Bregenz is one of the most spectacular opera venues in the world requiring a long and careful planning. Three years of preparation and ten months of construction, a scenery with a weight of 140 metric tons and a massive head of almost 14 metres: In Philipp Stölzl’s Rigoletto the stage design becomes the protagonist. The documentary gives an insight into the formation process of his ground-breaking production – so far the most lavish opera of Bregenz Festival, heralding “a new era in matter of stage technique.” (APA)
Making of “Die Jahreszeiten”
“Jubilation!” (Kronen Zeitung) in the Great Festival Hall in Salzburg for Joseph Haydn’s oratorio The Seasons with Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting the Vienna Philharmonic. The conductor tunes his “Wiener” to peak performance and shows as few others can how “to coax the tenderest expressive pianissimo shiver from the violins and violas into the almost inaudible”, enthuses the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.