“Hollywood in Vienna” is an annual symphonic gala concert celebrating classic and current masterpieces of film music and honouring each year one of today’s leading film music composer. In the first part of this edition of the concert, the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Keith Lockhart takes you away on a magical mystery tour, full of eerily-beauty and musical delight. From the eccentric Addams Family in their Victorian Mansion, to the fabulous world of Alice in Wonderland the program, true to ist motto “Tales of mystery”, sets out for mysterious places and wondrous tales. The second part of the concert is dedicated to James Newton Howard, multi-award winning composer of film scores such as “Batman Begins”, “Pretty Woman”, and “The Hunger Games”. The Press raved: “Goosebumps, tears and standing ovations!” (Kurier)
Golden Times – Thomas Hampson & The Philharmonics
“Golden Times” in Vienna: “When Hampson and the fabulous Philharmonics make music together, it’s a joy to behold” (Kurier). “Absolute virtuosity. Consummate vocalism” (Kronen Zeitung). “Breathtaking. The audience went wild” (Österreich). Star baritone Thomas Hampson is partnered by a “sensational ensemble” (Kronen Zeitung) – four virtuosos from the Vienna Philharmonic, one from the Berlin Philharmonic plus two gifted brothers – in brilliantly arranged favourites from Viennese operetta, Broadway and Hollywood musicals and much more – a deliciously entertaining evening at the Vienna Konzerthaus.
Grafenegg: Anniversary Gala 2016: Beethoven No. 9
The Grafenegg Festival celebrates its 10 years’ anniversary! On this occasion, the Tonkünstler Orchestra, under the baton of Yutaka Sado, is joined by 22 alumni of the European Union Youth Orchestra and accompanied by top soloists Klaus Florian Vogt, René Pape, Camilla Nylund and Elena Zhidkova. The jubilee includes this year’s Composer in Residence Christian Jost’s two commissioned works Fanfare and An die Hoffnung as well as Beethoven’s Overture Coriolan. With Beethoven’s 9th Symphony the evening reaches ist climax. Due to the performance of “the excellent bass René Pape, the fabulous soprano Camilla Nylund and the great mezzo-soprano Elena Zhidkova along with the Wiener Singverein, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony turned out to be simply sensational. Jubilation!” (Kurier)
Salzburg Festival 2016: Missa Salisburgensis
One of the supreme masterworks of Baroque polyphony, the Missa Salisburgensis by composer-violinist Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber is performed in the Salzburg Cathedral – the very building where it was first heard. Biber’s Mass was specifically designed to exploit the acoustics and architecture of the Cathedral and is here presented in authentic 360° surround sound, bringing into play all four of the Cathedral’s organs. Performed by the renowned Prague-based period ensembles Collegium 1704 and Collegium Vocale 1704 under their founder-director Václav Luks, Biber’s Mass is prefaced by a selection of sacred choral works by Monteverdi, masterpieces that are equally suited to the Italianate splendor of Salzburg’s Cathedral. “An extravagant but joyous enterprise, a real festival event. Long will this spectacular Mass continue to resound in my memory” (Salzburger Nachrichten).
Salzburg Festival: Dudamel conducts Strauss
Richard Strauss year 2014 at Salzburg Festival: Gustavo Dudamel, winner of the Leonard Bernstein Award 2014, conducts the Vienna Philharmonic. On the program Strauss’ tone poems “Tod & Verklärung” and “Also sprach Zarathustra”. The evening is rounded up with a work by René Staar, who is also one of the Philharmonic’s violinists.
Beethoven – The complete Sonatas for Piano
Beethoven’s opus of 32 piano sonatas, known as “the New Testament of piano music”, is a landmark in piano literature. Spanning Beethoven’s entire life, the sonatas reflect his whole development as a human being and a musician, moving from one century into the next, from one epoch in music in to another. Now, for the first time in its history the complete cycle was performed at the Salzburg Festival. For this challenge the Festival asked no less than the world-renowned and influential Beethoven expert and pianist Rudolf Buchbinder. Buchbinder’s performance is “that of a real master, effortless changing between lightning fast, technically challenging moments and tender lyrical passages. Where others can pride themselves in getting through without any accidents, Buchbinder is a poet, precise in every arpeggio touching in every keystroke” (Kurier).
András Schiff conducts Beethoven, Schubert and Mozart
The programme opens with Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto: “Sensitively supported by the rich and supple tone of the strings, Schiff’s pianistic virtuosity explores the length and breadth of Beethoven’s early work”, was the admiring verdict of the Salzburg press. Schiff again succeeds in Schubert’s Symphony No. 5 “from the first note to the last in creating a sound world that flooded the mind’s eye with images” (Drehpunkt Kultur). The climax of the concert is the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 23. “Schiff here demonstrates his skill in pianistic interpretation and in conducting, nuanced, passionate, a sensitive revelation”, enthused the press.
Rudolf Buchbinder and the Wiener Philharmoniker play Brahms Piano Concerts
“It is not every day that Brahms sounds as perfect as this,” enthuses the Kurier newspaper, describing Buchbinder’s performance with the Wiener Philharmoniker. The “phenomenal piano virtuoso” (Kurier) plays the First and Second Piano Concertos of Johannes Brahms in the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein. On the rostrum is maestro Zubin Mehta, no less, who has long been intensively associated both with the orchestra and with soloist Rudolf Buchbinder. “What Rudolf Buchbinder, the Wiener Philharmoniker and conductor Zubin Mehta delivered at the Musikverein easily deserves the accolade ‘milestone’.” (Kurier)
Salzburg Festival 2013: NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo
The NHK Symphony Orchestra first performance at the Salzburg Festival. —– PROGRAM: Toru Takemitsu: November Steps for Biwa, Shakuhachi and Orchestra (Soloists: Kaoru Kakizakai, Shakuhachi; Kakujo Nakamura, Biwa) / Toshio Hosokawa: Lamentation for Soprano and Orchestra after poems by Georg Trakl (world premiere, work commissioned by the Salzburg Festival; Soloist: Anna Prohaska) / Hector Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique op. 14
Salzburg Festival 2013: Simon Rattle conducts Mahler 1
“When I first conducted the Infantil Orchestra three years ago in Caracas, I could not believe that children as young as nine and never older than 14 could not only play all the notes, but also could make such wonderful music. It is exhilarating and life-enhancing. This is, quite simply, the future of music. Those of you lucky enough to hear the concerts will see why.” Simon Rattle —– PROGRAM: Gershwin: Cuban Overture; Ginastera: Danzas de Estancia; Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 1