In a career spanning nearly six decades, legendary folk singer Joan Baez has been a pioneering figure in both music and social justice. Emerging from the ranks of groundbreaking male contemporaries like Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan, Baez brought a much needed feminist presence and perspective to the protest music of the 1960s, demonstrating a lifelong commitment to political and social activism in civil rights, human rights and the environment. On the occasion of Baez’s 75th birthday in January 2016, GREAT PERFORMANCES presents a star-studded concert from New York City’s Beacon Theater to celebrate Baez’s wide-ranging influence and impact, featuring performances by Paul Simon, David Crosby, Jackson Browne, Emmylou Harris, Indigo Girls, Mavis Staples, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Judy Collins, Damien Rice, David Bromberg, Nano Stern and Richard Thompson
Berlin Opera Night 2007
OPERA NIGHT 2007 for the German AIDS Foundation live from the Deutsche OperBerlin with world-renowned artists presented by Max Raabe PROGRAM: 1. Overture (from: L‘ITALIANA IN ALGERI) / 2. La calunnia è un venticello (from: IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA) / 3. Sempre libera (from: LA TRAVIATA) / 4. Pourquoi me réveiller (from: WERTHER) / 5. Nemico della patria (from: ANDREA CHENIER) / 6. La mamma morta (from: ANDREA CHENIER) / 7. O Fortuna (from: CARMINA BURANA) / 8. Fortuna plango vulnera (from: CARMINA BURANA) / 9. O mio babbino caro (from: GIANNI SCHICCHI) / 10. Cruda sorte (from: L’ITALIANA IN ALGERI) / 11. Una furtiva lagrima (from: L’ELISIR D’AMORE) / 12. Si mi chiamano Mimì (from: LA BOHÈME) / 13. Ah! Non credea mirarti … Ah! non giunge (from: LA SONNAMBULA) / 14. Lippen schweigen (from: DIE LUSTIGE WITWE) / 15. Freunde, das Leben ist lebenswert! (from: GIUDITTA) / 16. Dein ist mein ganzes Herz (from: DAS LAND DES LÄCHELNS)
Blomstedt conducts Reger and Beethoven
Max Reger’s Piano Concerto was created in the summer of 1910 in Leipzig and was there brought into the world by pianist Frieda Kwast-Hodapp and the Gewandhausorchester under Arthur Nikisch. To date, few other artists have dared to undertake this pianistic challenge: The American Peter Serkin, however, is one of those few whose repertoire includes this rare piece. In the second part of the concert, Herbert Blomstedt approached Beethoven’s evocative impressions of nature in the Symphony No 6, the “Pastoral”. PROGRAM: Reger: Piano Concerto in F minor; Beethoven: Symphony No. 6
Nelsons conducts Gewandhausorchester Leipzig: Webern, Wagner and Stravinsky
When Andris Nelsons made his debut with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig in 2011, the conductor and the orchestra are said to have felt a magical connection, which only a few years later resulted in his appointment as the 21st principal conductor of the world-renowned orchestra, beginning in 2018. In 2016, one of his concerts with the Gewandhausorchester featured three works by three composers, each of whom revolutionized the musical traditions of their times. Anton Webern, Richard Wagner and Igor Stravinsky. PROGRAM: Webern: Six Pieces for Orchestra; Wagner: Wesendonck Lieder; Stravinsky: Le Sacre du Printemps
Blomstedt conducts Beethoven and Nielsen
The Swedish conductor Herbert Blomstedt is a phenomenon – as he approaches his 88th birthday, he is one of the oldest conductors in the world. And yet: on the rostrum he embodies such a vitality and energy, that he at once enthralls his musicians as well as his audiences. Blomstedt directs the orchestra in two symphonies that could scarcely be less alike: The musicians play Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony and Symphony No. 5 by the Danish composer Carl Nielsen with concentrated intensity, honouring Nielsen in his 150th anniversary year.
Nelsons conducts Mahler No. 5
Almost no other orchestra has been so involved with Gustav Mahler and established such an outstanding Mahler sound as the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. This tradition was continued in the summer of 2015. In his concerts with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, the renowned 37-year-old Andris Nelsons conducted Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, a work whose emotional spectrum ranges from the opening movement’s funeral march, through the declaration of love in the famous Adagietto – which Nelsons interpreted as an “intense chamber music love song in the passionate dimensions of Tristan” (Neue Zürcher Zeitung) – to the jubilant hymn of the finale.
Chailly conducts Mahler No. 1
Gustav Mahler was 28 when he wrote his First Symphony in Leipzig in 1888. For a long time, he was uncertain whether the work was a symphonic poem or a symphony and finally abandoned the first version and later also the work’s subtitle, Titan. A few years later, Mahler went on to revise the symphony into the four-movement work we know today, which was premiered in 1896. Riccardo Chailly and the Gewandhausorchester continue their Leipzig Mahler cycle by bringing Mahler’s First Symphony to life in a riveting performance, paying homage to the composer.
Lucerne Festival 2016: Rattle conducts Berliner Philharmoniker
Even if the music world is often dominated by rivalry, examples of genuine friendships can certainly be found. Take Johannes Brahms and Antonín Dvorák: a pair whose friendship was free of self-interest. And sure enough, his first publication, the spirited Slavonic Dances, enjoyed a sensational success. The Berlin Philharmonic paid homage to this musical friendship by pairing Dvorák’s bravura Slavonic Dances with the Second Symphony of Brahms, also composed in 1877. And as an “appetizer” Sir Simon Rattle has commissioned a new work from his compatriot Julian Anderson. PROGRAM: Julian Anderson: Incantesimi for Orchestra; Dvorák: Slavonic Dances, Op. 46; Brahms: Symphony No. 2
3 Stars in Munich
The superstars of classical music are together for the first time at the Königsplatz, Munich for one night only. With this rare meeting of opera superstars, the square transforms into an opera house under the open sky, and creates an atmospheric setting for its 15 000 strong audience. Anna Netrebko joins Jonas Kaufmann and Thomas Hampson at the cultural heart of Munich for an open-air evening of celebrated arias, duets and opera scenes by Verdi, Puccini, Giordano, Leoncavallo, Bizet, Offenbach, Lehár, and more. Special guests: Elena Zhidkova and Ildar Abdrazakov.
The Three Tenors – The Birth of a Legend
Excitement after a spectacular open-air concert. At the 1990 Football World Cup, the three tenors, José Carreras, Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti met the first time together with the conductor Zubin Mehta for an extraordinary musical experience. Six thousand excited live viewers and one billion watching on television. The beginning of a new era of classical music. In the following years, the 3 Tenors held audiences around the world under their spell in over thirty performances. They helped to bring about an unexpected flourishing of classical music. The concert in the Caracalla Baths of Rome was the Birth of a Legend. The programme interweaves performance and background information, including previously unseen material.