Following the complete recordings of the symphonies of Brahms and Schumann, the Staatskapelle Dresden and Christian Thielemann are turning their attention to the work of Richard Strauss. While the Sächsische Zeitung wrote about Morley that she “indulged the songs with great delight and the finest feeling”, Der Standard wrote about Thielemann: “Great clarity, great class. The inner charge of the instrumental, this intensity palpable in every note, with which the Staatskapelle Dresden immediately stormed into Strauss’s Heldenleben, revealed Thielemann’s well-known strengths: he succeeds in uniting impulsivity and balance in the sound as well as expressive melodic surging and structural clarity.” PROGRAM: Strauss “An die Nacht“, “Ich wollt ein Sträußlein binden“, “Säusle, liebe Myrthe!“, “Als mir dein Lied erklang“, “Amor“ from Op. 68 “Muttertändelei“, “Ein Heldenleben“; Hennig: “Nacht“
Il signor Bruschino
“A wonderful, turbulent comedy about a girl willing to marry, but whose guardian causes problems, rivalties, financial debts, false identities and more. The directing duo – André Barbe and Renaud Doucet – made their debut with this production in Pesaro. They brought Rossini’s wit in music and plot to the point in a very entertaining manner.” This is how the Deutschlandfunk describes Rossini’s Il signor Bruschino at the Rossini Festival in Pesaro. Jack Swanson’s and Marina Monzó’s beautiful voices are particularly inspiring with technique and elegance in the colourful, pittoresque and lovingly designed set.
Krokus play Baloise Session
Since 1975, Krokus has stood for high-quality, honest-to-goodness, hand-made power rock. No other Swiss rock band sells albums and its back catalogue worldwide like Krokus. The band has already sold over 15 million records, toured the world, and received gold and platinum discs in the USA and Canada. The milestones in their rock career are dotted around the world: from Australia and the USA to Mexico, Russia, Japan, and China. Krokus was the first Swiss band to sell out the legendary Hallenstadion in Zurich and has received a Diamond Disc for selling one million albums in Switzerland alone. In the course of their legendary career, Krokus has rocked over 2,000 shows on five continents, countless cities, unique locations, crazy gigs, and loyal fans. The legendary English journalist Malcolm Dome quite rightly said: ‚If you look at the longterm output of this band, Krokus is clearly one of the best hard rock bands of the last 40 years.”
Beth Hart plays Baloise Session
Beth Hart is on fire. Right now, the Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter is riding a creative tidal wave, firing out acclaimed albums, hooking up with the biggest names in music and rocking the house each night with that celebrated burnt-honey voice. In 2016, the headline news is Beth’s latest album, Fire On The Floor, a release that even this fiercely self-critical artist describes as “pretty frickin’ good.” But let’s not forget the backstory that brought her here. The Blues Magazine once dubbed Beth Hart “the ultimate female rock star”, and there’s no doubt that her two-decade career is the ultimate thrill-ride. Born in Los Angeles, she released a fistful of hit albums through the ’90s, then reignited in the post-millennium as both a solo artist and the head-turning vocalist for guitar heroes like Joe Bonamassa, Jeff Beck and Slash. “Extraordinary,” wrote The Times of her once-a-generation voice box, while The Guardian praised her “daring, brooding and angry” performances.
Ein Deutsches Requiem
150 days later to the day, Johannes Brahms’s “Ein Deutsches Requiem” returns to the place of its triumphal premiere on 10th April 1868, the stunning Bremen Cathedral, thanks to Grammy Award winner Paavo Järvi. He conducts the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen & State Choir Latvija as well as acclaimed soloists Matthias Goerne and Valentina Farcas – “rarely you hear such an insightful performance!” (FAZ) Järvi shows the masterpiece in Brahms’s final version with all seven movements, using the same number of musicians as the composer himself, which is less than what is common practice today.
Le Corsaire
Magnificent scenic effects and dramatic choreography have ensured the popularity of Petipa’s exotic ballet Le Corsaire, a story of pirates and shipwreck, set on the Ionian coast.
This production features Altynai Asylmuratova and Faroukh Ruzimatov who give exuberant and extroverted performances.
Thielemann conducts Bruckner No. 3
Christian Thielemann and his Staatskapelle Dresden continue their Bruckner Cycle at the Philharmonie in Munich with a “radiant and majestic” (The Guardian) performance of Symphony No. 3, also known as “Wagner Symphony”. Thielemann, a more than experienced Bruckner interpreter, has once again proven himself as the top of his class with masterly control over a shining wind section, which “pushed the audience deeply into their seats”. With “moments of disruptive suspense and intense audio density he displays the full musical maelstrom of Bruckners Symphony No. 3” (Münchner Merkur).
La Fanciulla del West
Puccini’s penultimate opera, based on the play by David Belasco, and which marked a new stylish departure for him, is set at the height of the notorious Californian Gold Rush. The orchestration and musical colour of this opera represent a major advance on Puccini’s previous work, especially in the careful interweaving of Western elements into an altogether larger canvas than anything he had tackled before. In this recording Piero Faggioni’s highly detailed staging is matched by Ken Adam’s superbly atmospheric sets. Carol Neblett sings the role of Minnie – ‘The Girl of the Golden West’ – Placido Domingo is as ignitable as ever in the role of Dick Johnson, alias the bandit Ramirez, and Silvano Carroli is the sinister Sheriff, Jack Rance.
Dudamel conducts Berlioz’s Requiem
“If I was threatened with the destruction of all my works but one, I would save the Requiem,” wrote Berlioz shortly before his death. Berlioz composed it in 1837, a few years after what has surely remained his most popular work ever since its successful premiere, the Symphonie fantastique. Under Gustavo Dudamel’s direction, it was revealed as “a Requiem of the highest calibre” (El Pais). Both orchestras – “his” Simon Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France that supplemented it – and the two choirs “set the vault and columns of Notre-Dame de Paris vibrating” (Toute la Culture).
Hollywood in Vienna
In this edition of Hollywood in Vienna the Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna and Hollywood’s renowned conductor David Newman takes us to the mysterious world of crime, where we encounter exciting characters of great movie classics. Starting off with Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard, we experience the breathtaking suspense of Alfred Hitchcock (Spellbound, Psycho) and then witness the Third Man, hiding in the darkness of Vienna’s sewer system. Accompanied by Ennio Morricone’s music from The Untouchables, we meet Chicago’s great Al Capone and Nino Rota introduces us to the powerful Mafia boss of the Corleone family – The Godfather. After heading to America’s Wild West we are approached by a mysterious lone gunman in a desolate ghost town (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly). Later we experience erotic obsessive moments with Jerry Goldsmith’s soundtrack to Basic Instinct and Hans Zimmer’s music for Inception takes us to the mysterious world of unconsciousness and shared dreamings. And we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the James Bond series with the captivating Bond music by David Arnold.