When Chick Corea passed away at the beginning of 2021, the world lost one of its most imaginative and revered musical brains. Corea was utterly unrestricted on the piano, the instrument he began at age four when his trumpeter father introduced him to jazz and dixieland. His Akoustic Band, with bassist John Patitucci and drummer Dave Weckl, was one of the defining piano trios in jazz of the last three decades. The 2018 Malta Jazz Festival in La Valetta was headlined by the Chick Corea Trio and is one of the last taped concerts of Chick Corea.
RCO: Made in America
Don’t miss the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in an all-American extravaganza from their illustrious home venue in Amsterdam! Susanna Mälkki leads a program entitled “Made in America,” exploring American identity across three rare, well-chosen works. Opening the evening is A Short Piece for Orchestra by 20th-century African-American composer Julia Perry, a neoclassical work of complex and frenetic rhythms tempered by profound lyricism. Next up is the formidable Violin Concerto by John Adams, a revolutionary piece for the instrument whose exceptional melodic richness complements a marvelously original rhythmic frame. Ferociously difficult and rarely played, it is interpreted with brio and assurance by virtuoso violinist Leila Josefowicz. Finally, the concert closes with Charles Ives’s Symphony No. 2, an evocative blend of European influences and New England folklore. PROGRAM Perry: A Short Piece for Orchestra; Adams: Violin Concerto; Ives: Symphony No. 2
Beethoven: The Last Three Piano Sonatas
Large industrial complexes, built of solid brick tell the story of industrialization of 19th century Leipzig. Where spinning wheels once rattled, chimneys smoked and thousands of workers carried out their daily work, new life has moved in over the past few years. Today, former factories are home to artists’ studios, galleries and manufactories. The term “industrial culture” is taken literally here. The Kunstkraftwerk Leipzig is one of these buildings that tell the story of time and was now the chosen location for a very special production: the exceptional Korean pianist Sunwook Kim played Ludwig van Beethoven’s last three Piano Sonatas op. 109-111 in an industrial setting framed by light projections that filled the brick hall. Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas occupy a very special place within his oeuvre. Completely deaf by then, the composer puts three of his most intimate and personal works on paper, which at the same time radiate optimism and point musically into the future like hardly any other works.
Lucerne Festival 2021: Chailly conducts Mozart & Schubert
to the podium of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. Together, they opened the festival with two great masters of the Classic Romantic era: Mozart and Schubert. The overture to Don Giovanni was followed by a mesmerizing rendition of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 – one of only two he wrote in a minor key. In contrast, Schubert’s Symphony No. 6 focuses on the sunny side of life: C Major, Viennese nonchalance, pleasure put to sound with playful ideas that orchestra and conductor expertly demonstrated.
Gonzalo Rubalcaba & Aymee Nuviola at Bayfront Jazz Festival
The 2021 inaugural edition of the Bayfront Jazz Festival takes place in Miami’s Bayfront Park. The festival’s mission is to honor and celebrate the current and future giants of Jazz, Afro-Cuban, Latin and electronic music. This year’s unique line-up includes Gonzalo Rubalcaba & Aymée Nuviola, Roy Ayers, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Chucho Valdés and Mark Guiliana’s Beat Music. One highlight of Bay Front Jazz Festival was Gonzalo Rubalcaba ,— another Cuban pianist —, who left Cuba in the early 1990s and now resides in Coral Gables, near downtown Miami — appeared with singer Aymée Nuviola, with whom he made the Grammy-nominated album Viento y Tiempo – Live at Blue Note Tokyo.
Brian & Roger Eno Live at the Acropolis
Brian and Roger Eno have performed their first-ever live show together, taking place in August 2021 as part of the Athens Epidaurus Festival in Greece. The event see the brothers perform atmospheric musical landscapes from legendary productions that includes ambient records, television soundtracks and film scores, visualised images applied to the stones of the legendary Odeon of Herodes Atticus amphitheatre. It is also one of the very rare occasions that Brian Eno has ever performed live.
San Francisco Symphony – Season Opening Gala 2021
Feel the energy as the great San Francisco Symphony welcomes its new music director Esa-Pekka Salonen with its 110th season Reopening Night, filled with jazz and dance from special guests. To kick of the evening, Slonimsky’s Earbox is a virtuosic piece composed in 1995 by Bay Area composer John Adams, full of cascading phrases of minimalist patterns being played with remarkable precision and energy by the orchestra. Alonzo King’s choreography for the four movements of Alberto Ginastera’s Ballet Suite Estancia is a joyride. The dancers of the Alonzo King LINES Ballet excel themselves at athletic jumps and limber, airy movements within the explosive last dance of the suite, the ‘Malambo’. Gaia, a 27-minute opus by the jazz legend Wayne Shorter forms the centerpiece of the evening and features the extraordinary bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding. The evening evolves into a true night of enchantment with ‘Noche de incantamiento’ by Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas who wrote a percussion extravaganza with his music to the film La noche de los Mayas in 1939.
John Williams – The Berlin Concert
The history of film music would be different without him: John Williams. Cinema classics like Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Harry Potter are inextricably linked with his soundtracks. They have unforgettable, radiant themes, an impressive range of atmospheres and sounds and, at the same time, the always unmistakable style of the composer. John Williams makes his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker at these concerts. The programme includes several of his most famous scores – and of film music in general. Film music from Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, E.T., Jurassic Park, Far and Away and Star Wars.
Beatrice Rana plays Bach, Debussy and Chopin
Italian pianist Beatrice Rana has been captivating listeners worldwide with electrifying performances that marry exhilarating power and precision with a startling sensitivity to the poetry underlying a musical score. “Her startling technique remains among the most faultless of young pianists today, and it was displayed, in this recital, in some dazzling repertoire.” — The Washington Post The Oratorio del Gonfalone in Rome is a former church of the 16th century. It is a jewel of the Roman Renaissence, with frescoes showing “The Stories of the Passion of Christ”, made by prominent artists such as Federico Zuccari, Cesare Nebbia and Livio Agresti between 1569 and 1576. The building is now profaned and and the site is used for many of the concerts by the Coro Polifonico Romano. PROGRAM Bach: French Suite No. 2; Debussy: Études, Book 1; Chopin: Scherzo Nos. 1-4
Lucerne Festival 2020: Blomstedt conducts Beethoven
In 1949, at only seven years old, Martha Argerich made her debut with Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto and the piece has accompanied her throughout her career. Naturally, Argerich has discovered new facets of this work over the decades. And she surely did so when she performed this signature piece with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and Herbert Blomstedt who gave his debut with the orchestra thanks to a very special festival edition in August 2020. Beethoven’s music plays a very important role in Blomstedt’s career and thus the concert featured another work of the composer: his Symphony No. 2. PROGRAM Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1, Symphony No. 2