The promise of a Strauss double-bill with the Wiener Philharmoniker would be enough to have most concertgoers swooning – add in audience favourite Asmik Grigorian and Maestro Gustavo Dudamel, and the Salzburg audience could not be more ecstatic. Grigorian interpreted Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder with “penetrating intensity” (VN), capturing the fleeting emotions of each song: “She effortlessly savours Strauss’s soaring flights of fancy and lavishes herself on his wide-ranging cantilenas” (BR Klassik). After this moving performance, Dudamel and the orchestra take the audience on a musical hike with Strauss’ tone poem Eine Alpensinfonie. “Gustavo Dudamel’s interpretation…is so vividly real. The orchestra once again delivers a brilliant performance of expressive, joyfully committed playing” (Opera Online).
Salzburg Festival 2024: Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducts Berlioz
Canadian maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin, a regular collaborator with the esteemed Vienna Philharmonic since 2010, is making a comeback to the world-famous Salzburg Festival in 2024 to conduct a spectacular performance of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique with them! This symphony, composed by a 26-year-old Berlioz who was captivated by actress Harriet Smithson, his future wife, depicts an artist haunted by an all-consuming love that evolves from innocence to horror, including opium-induced dreams and a sinister witches’ sabbath.
The Vienna Christmas Concert
The Wiener Symphoniker perform a grand Advent concert at Vienna’s St. Stephen’s Cathedral featuring a diverse program conducted by Marie Jacquot. The concert includes works from various composers, such as Michael Praetorius, Leopold Mozart, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Albert Malotte, and Adolphe Adam. Soprano Fatma Said, tenor Jonathan Tetelman, and the Singverein will explore global Christmas traditions, with classics like Bach’s “Jesus bleibet meine Freude” and “O du fröhliche” concluding the event.
Gonzales-Monjas, Villazon & Mozarteum Orchestra
New Mozarteumorchester Salzburg chief conductor Roberto González-Monjas and his orchestra are a pair that has “sought and found” (APA) each other, perform Salieri’s rarely heard Sinfonia “Il giorno onomastico”. The concert is bookended by Mozart’s first and last symphonies, for which González-Monjas “presented a striking interpretative calling card” (Salzburger Nachrichten). Rolando Villazón completes the evening with three of Mozart’s arias, utilizing his full range as a performer: “The arch-comedian […] plays all his trump cards of dramatic and gestural, but also vocal expressiveness” (Salzburger Nachrichten). Mozart: Symphony in E flat major, K. 16; “Va’ dal furor portata”, K. 21, Aria for tenor and orchestra; From La clemenza di Tito, K. 621: Aria of Tito “Se all’impero, amici dèi”; “Con ossequio, con rispetto”, K. 210, Aria for tenor and orchestra; Symphony in C major, K. 551 “Jupiter”; Salieri: Symphony in D major “Il giorno onomastico” (arr. Pietro Spada)
Philippe Jordan conducts Britten and Debussy
The Australian soprano Nicole Car was most recently seen in Francis Poulenc’s dark opera “Dialogues des Carmélites” at the Vienna State Opera. Now she makes her Konzerthaus debut with Philippe Jordan and sings in Ernest Chausson’s orchestral song cycle “Poème de l’amour et de la mer”. Everything revolves around “la mer”, the sea: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s overture “Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt” ís on the program with Benjamin Britten’s “Four sea interludes” and Claude Debussy’s three symphonic sketches “La mer”.
Franz Welser-Möst conducts Schönberg, Strauss and Ravel
In this subscription concert, Franz Welser-Möst and the Wiener Philharmoniker whisk the audience away to the early 20th century and its variety of styles, from preserving tradition to embracing modernity. Starting with Hindemith’s Konzertmusik for wind orchestra, the superb wind section shows what they are made of: “From the very first fanfare sounds of the opening movement you could feel the fun they had” (Die Presse). With the rarely performed Strauss fantasy on Die Frau ohne Schatten, Ravel’s La Valse and Schönberg’s Variations for orchestra, Welser-Möst shows top form at the podium: “It’s impressive how Welser-Möst gives each piece its own aura. How he leads the perfectly studied musicians to snappy steps and artfully stylised dance forms, or how he revels in the splendour of sound in Strauss and Ravel” (Kronenzeitung).
Lorenzo Viotti conducts the Wiener Philharmoniker
“The Wiener Philharmoniker are phenomenal anyway. Under Lorenzo Viotti they were intoxicating: the strings sizzled, the audience raved” (Hamburger Abendblatt) Lorenzo Viotti makes a striking debut with the Wiener Philharmoniker, starting with Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio espagnol, which captivates the audience with its dynamic contrasts. He then shifts to Rachmaninoff’s Isle of the Dead, transforming it into a “theater of sound.” Finally, with Dvorák’s Symphony No. 7, Viotti showcases his temperament, balancing powerful fortissimo and soft, clear accents. PROGRAM: Rimsky-Korsakov – Capriccio espagnol; Rachmaninoff – Isle of the Dead; Dvorak – Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Op. 70
Vienna Boys Choir – 525th Anniversary Concert
Boys have been singing at Vienna’s “Hofburgkapelle” since 1296. In 1498, the future Emperor Maximilian I moved his court and court music from various residences to Vienna. In doing so, he had laid the foundation for the Wiener Hofmusikkapelle and eventually also for the Wiener Sängerknaben (The Vienna Boys Choir). In this festive jubilee concert at Vienna’s Musikverein celebrating the 525th anniversary of the choir, the Wiener Sängerknaben and all choirs associated to it, the Chorus Primus, the Wiener Chormädchen, the Chorus Juventus and the “alumni” forming the Chorus Viennensis, are singing works that are all especially related to the choir – by Ludwig Senfl and Josquin Desprez, the Strauss dynasty or also by Mozart, Haydn and Bruckner, some of them recorded for the very first time.
Grafenegg: Midsummer Night’s Gala 2023
For a decade and a half, the Midsummer Night’s Gala has ushered-in the summer season at the Wolkenturm. It is also Grafenegg’s flagship media event, televised around the world. The best artists take centre stage, casting their spell over the audience amidst the idyllic scenery of the Castle grounds. For the cast of this edition – Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian, American tenor Eric Cutler and French cellist Gautier Capuçon – Yutaka Sado, principal conductor of the Tonkünstler-Orchester, has put together a dramatic gala programme, with works by Verdi, Wagner, Puccini, Prokofiev, Leoncavallo and Dvorák. “Eric Cutler’s tenor was soaring, Gautier Capuçon’s cello melting, the Tonkünstler Orchestra sovereign. And simply stunning the soprano of Lithuania’s opera superstar Asmik Grigorian” (Niederösterreichische Nachrichten)
Salzburg Festival 2023: Matinee with Antonello Manacorda & Golda Schultz
The Mozart Matinees, concerts given at the Great Hall of the Mozarteum Foundation at the weekends during the Salzburg Festival, were established in 1921 and have in the meantime assumed legendary status. In this Mozart Matinee, Italian conductor Antonello Manacorda at the podium of the Mozarteumorchester and South African soprano Golda Schultz present a fine selection of arias that Mozart composed to texts by Lorenzo Da Ponte. The arias are framed by Mozart’s First Symphony and the “Jupiter” Symphony, his very last.