Ballet of Difference – ON BODY

The choreographer Richard Siegal, “sought-after worldwide as the most innovative, the most exciting dance-maker of his generation” (Süddeutsche Zeitung), sets out to cross boundaries with his new company Ballet of Difference, founded in 2016. With drive and virtuosity, exceptional settings and energetic sounds, the diverse troupe merges classical ballet tradition, contemporary dance and pop culture in an extraordinary dance event and forges a unique vision of ballet’s present and future. On Body is spectacularly opened by BoD, a work that celebrates dancing on pointe and the individual’s joy to dance. In Made for Walking pale colours and austere forms dominate the stage and robust boots replace the pointe shoes. It is followed by UNITXT, a trailblazing piece of contemporary dance, in which “Richard Siegal perfects seemingly impossible movements – you can hardly believe your eyes!” (BR Klassik). Also available the Documentary Draw a Line about Richard Siegal and his Ballet of Difference A05050606

Claude Debussy – Commemorating the 100th Anniversary

Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the death of Claude Debussy, a group of acclaimed international artists, led by Daniel Barenboim, presents a selection of the French composer’s chamber music and songs. Along with duo and trio sonatas, the program includes the evocative “Syrinx for solo flute” played by Emmanuel Pahud and the “Chansons de Bilitis”, featuring French mezzo-soprano Marianne Crebassa. A celebration of an exceptional composer who is widely considered one of the fathers of modern music.

The Odeonsplatz Concert: Macelaru & Damrau

Leonard Bernstein: Candide – Overture; Jules Massenet: “Suis je gentille ainsi? Allons, il le faut…” from the opera “Manon”; Jules Massenet: Thaïs: Méditation; Erik Satie: Gymnopédies 1 and 3 (orchestrated by Debussy); Charles Gounod: “Un bouquet..Ah, je ris de..” from the opera “Faust”; Antonín Dvorák: Symphony No 9 E minor, op 95 – “From the New World”

The Belcea Quartet performs Haydn, Ligeti & Dvorák

The Belcea Quartet, one of the world’s leading chamber music ensembles, lights up the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin with their exciting programme consisting of three string quartets from three different centuries. The hall with its perfect acoustics specifically caters to the needs of performers of chamber music and provides an intimate setting for the multinational quartet, here beautifully captured on film. Haydn’s 18th century masterpiece is followed by Ligeti’s String Quartet No. 1 and an atmospheric rendition of Dvorák’s so-called “American Quartet”. The musicians’ journey through the history of string quartets is rounded off by the encore “O Albion”, the sixth movement of contemporary English composer Thomas Adès’s String Quartet Op. 12 “Arcadiana”. “The Belcea Quartet searches and finds the essence of this music” (Der Tagesspiegel).

Handel in Concert – Patrizia Ciofi & Donna Leon

Fearless in the face of death, unflinching in their love, ruthless in their revenge: the women in Handel’s operas are anything but one-dimensional. Italian coloratura soprano Patrizia Ciofi and the Baroque ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro, led by Maxim Emelyanychev, perform the most powerful and moving arias from Handel’s operas. Together with bestselling author and Handel enthusiast Donna Leon they set out to discover the women’s stories. When Rodelinda becomes a veritable goddess of revenge, Ciofi interprets her great aria “Morrai, si” with dramatic ferocity. In Alcina (1735), the heroine has the power to bewitch the whole world around her, but none over her own heart. Ciofi emotionally commits to Alcina’s desperate arias, “Ah, Ruggero crudel… Ombre pallide” and “Ah, mio cor”, showcasing the tragedy of the narrative. “An original and electrifying spectacle!” (ForumOpera)

The Odeonsplatz Concert: Münchner Philharmoniker and Valery Gergiev

A balmy summer night, musical highlights and the picturesque scenery of Munich’s Feldherrnhalle – The Odeonsplatz Concert grants experiences of classical music on its highest level in a unique atmosphere. The Münchner Philharmoniker open their open air concert with Bach’s Air from Suite No. 3 and Tchaikovsky’s ballet-suite Swan Lake. Chief Conductor Valery Gergiev conducts this piece with “dance-like elegance and a slightly melancholic levity, tackling the frontiers of the feasible in the rapid movements” (Süddeutsche Zeitung). The programme goes on with Richard Strauss’s Suite from Rosenkavalier, “euphonious, fresh, sensual, with plenty of power exactly when it is needed” (TZ), and with Maurice Ravel’s Boléro.

Festive Advent Concert at the Frauenkirche Dresden 2016

The Advent Concert has become a much loved tradition in Dresden, enjoyed by music lovers throughout the world. In this edition the Staatskapelle Dresden performs under the baton of the renowned Columbian maestro Andrés Orozco-Estrada. Bulgarian star soprano Sonya Yoncheva returns to the Frauenkirche and excels with “volume and sonority and a rich vibrato”. She is accompanied by another rising star: Swiss soprano Regula Mühlemann, impressing by her “clear, bright, almost girlish soprano, full of ease” (Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten). Two top-class choirs, Dresdner Kreuzchor – celebrating its 800th anniversary and Dresdner Kammerchor, provide for choral church music at its best. The thoughtfully compiled program features seasonally appropriate selections by Handel, Schubert, Mozart, Mendelssohn as well as traditionals.

Thielemann conducts Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Liszt

Lisa Batiashvili, Gautier Capuçon, Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden present a sophisticated programme about love and death from the perspective of three 19th century composers: The stages of life can be viewed as preludes to the melody of death, as Liszt proposed in Les Préludes. It is only at the very end that the inadequacies of life are resolved – the tragedy behind the love of Romeo and Juliet in Tchaikovsky’s Fantasy Overture. In the jaws of death, Eros enjoys his strongest impulse, one that transcends time. What results is the desire for the epic and heroic, which in Brahms’ final orchestral work, the Double Concerto, achieves a certain consummation. The Double Concerto forms part of Thielemann’s extensive Brahms cycle, containing symphonies and solo concertos performed to frenetic acclaim in Dresden and Tokyo.

Helmuth Rilling: The Weimar Bach Cantata Academy – Lecture and Concert I

For this edition of the Weimar Bach Cantata Academy, which forms part of the Thuringia Bach Festival, the great Bach interpreter and promoter, Helmuth Rilling, invited young musicians from across the world to come to Germany to study and perform Bach’s cantatas in their authentic location in Weimar. 63 musicians from 18 countries were chosen from countless applicants who evolved in the shortest time into an excellent choir and orchestra with immense enthusiasm and great musical talent. This documentation by director Tilo Krause shows impressions of the Academy as well as of concerts in the historic Bach places in Muehlhausen, Arnstadt and Eisenach. With the Bach Cantata Academy Ensemble and selected soloists Helmuth Rilling performs and explains two cantatas in lecture concerts – an intensive course on the cantatas with one of the leading specialists of our time. PROGRAM Bach: Cantata “Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir”, BWV 131