West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in Salzburg – One Day with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra – Concert 1

The idea of uniting young musicians from Israel, Palestine and various Arab countries into a musical ensemble still seems incredible today. Yet such an orchestra has been flourishing since 1999, when Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. The project, says Barenboim, brings together these young people “not so that they forget or hide their differences, but so that they can understand them.” He adds that “making music together gives us the best opportunity to learn to live with one another.” The concerts presented here were recorded at the 2007 Salzburg Festival, during the orchestras residency. The ensemble “proved its status as a first-class orchestra that has no need to shy from comparisons with the philharmonic ‘top dogs’ from Vienna or Berlin” (Munich’s Abendzeitung). Among the highlights of the concerts are Mozart’s “Sinfonia concertante” K. 297b, which gives four young soloists a chance to dazzle, and Igor Stravinsky’s “L’histoire du soldat,” an airy piece with a demanding percussion part. Songs and chamber music, including Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet, showcase the individual talents of the young players. The major orchestral concert comprises a Beethoven overture, an intricate and multi-layered piece by Schoenberg, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, the “Pathétique,” in which Barenboim pulls out all the stops and coaxes rarely heard instrumental lines and accents from the depth of his ensemble. On three afternoons, Daniel Barenboim led a musical workshop called “The School of Listening.” In the first part, Barenboim explores the phenomenon of sound and the importance of the human ear. The second part features the fiery 24-year-old conductor Robin Ticciati in a rehearsal of Beethoven’s third Leonore Overture punctuated by the Maestro’s insightful comments and heated discussions with the young conductor. In the third part the great composer and conductor Pierre Boulez rehearses Béla Bartók’s rarely played “Four Orchestral Pieces,” answering questions from the audience and the musicians. Throughout, Barenboim’s enthusiasm, humor and directness make this three-part series an exceptionally informative and entertaining event. The orchestra’s residency at the 2007 Salzburg Festival will be rounded off with the documentary “Music Is Never The Same,” available in May 2008.

West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in Salzburg – Concert

The idea of uniting young musicians from Israel, Palestine and various Arab countries into a musical ensemble still seems incredible today. Yet such an orchestra has been flourishing since 1999, when Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. The project, says Barenboim, brings together these young people “not so that they forget or hide their differences, but so that they can understand them.” He adds that “making music together gives us the best opportunity to learn to live with one another.” The concerts presented here were recorded at the 2007 Salzburg Festival, during the orchestras residency. The ensemble “proved its status as a first-class orchestra that has no need to shy from comparisons with the philharmonic ‘top dogs’ from Vienna or Berlin” (Munich’s Abendzeitung). Among the highlights of the concerts are Mozart’s “Sinfonia concertante” K. 297b, which gives four young soloists a chance to dazzle, and Igor Stravinsky’s “L’histoire du soldat,” an airy piece with a demanding percussion part. Songs and chamber music, including Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet, showcase the individual talents of the young players. The major orchestral concert comprises a Beethoven overture, an intricate and multi-layered piece by Schoenberg, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, the “Pathétique,” in which Barenboim pulls out all the stops and coaxes rarely heard instrumental lines and accents from the depth of his ensemble.

West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in Salzburg – One day with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra – Concert 2

The idea of uniting young musicians from Israel, Palestine and various Arab countries into a musical ensemble still seems incredible today. Yet such an orchestra has been flourishing since 1999, when Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. The project, says Barenboim, brings together these young people “not so that they forget or hide their differences, but so that they can understand them.” He adds that “making music together gives us the best opportunity to learn to live with one another.” The concerts presented here were recorded at the 2007 Salzburg Festival, during the orchestras residency. The ensemble “proved its status as a first-class orchestra that has no need to shy from comparisons with the philharmonic ‘top dogs’ from Vienna or Berlin” (Munich’s Abendzeitung). Among the highlights of the concerts are Mozart’s “Sinfonia concertante” K. 297b, which gives four young soloists a chance to dazzle, and Igor Stravinsky’s “L’histoire du soldat,” an airy piece with a demanding percussion part. Songs and chamber music, including Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet, showcase the individual talents of the young players. The major orchestral concert comprises a Beethoven overture, an intricate and multi-layered piece by Schoenberg, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, the “Pathétique,” in which Barenboim pulls out all the stops and coaxes rarely heard instrumental lines and accents from the depth of his ensemble. On three afternoons, Daniel Barenboim led a musical workshop called “The School of Listening.” In the first part, Barenboim explores the phenomenon of sound and the importance of the human ear. The second part features the fiery 24-year-old conductor Robin Ticciati in a rehearsal of Beethoven’s third Leonore Overture punctuated by the Maestro’s insightful comments and heated discussions with the young conductor. In the third part the great composer and conductor Pierre Boulez rehearses Béla Bartók’s rarely played “Four Orchestral Pieces,” answering questions from the audience and the musicians. Throughout, Barenboim’s enthusiasm, humor and directness make this three-part series an exceptionally informative and entertaining event. The orchestra’s residency at the 2007 Salzburg Festival will be rounded off with the documentary “Music Is Never The Same,” available in May 2008.

Irrfahrten III: Rex Tremendus (Mozart 22)

The Irrfahrten (Odysseys) trilogy comprises three independent, self-contained performances that are motivically interwoven into a compelling whole through a great variety of references. Various artistic genres – music, theater, dance and video – are fused into an original form of music theater that could very well point to the future. The trilogy was conceived by Joachim Schlömer, a noted dancer, choreographer and director. He sees his project as the “odyssey of an artist from external control to self-determination.” (Schlömer) This concerns not only Mozart himself, but also the artist in general, and, by extension, everyone who has overcome a crisis in their life to achieve their personal freedom. At the beginning of the trilogy is the twelve-year-old Mozart’s first opera buffa, “La finta semplice” (The Make-Believe Simpleton), a full-length opera with commedia dell’arte-style characters. “The music,” says Schlömer, “tells of wanting something – even if the characters still don’t really know what they want.” The second Odyssey, “Abendempfindung” (Evening Sensation), a pasticcio of Mozart arias, songs, instrumental pieces (including some for the rare and evocative glass harmonica) and letters. The great Ann Murray is the featured performer here. The third Odyssey, “Rex tremendus” presents a thought-provoking combination of two opera buffa fragments, “Lo sposo deluso” and “L’oca del Cairo,” along with various unfinished pieces and fragments from Mozart’s last work, the Requiem. It represents the artist’s ultimate liberation from the restrictions and conventions of society, his farewell from the world, in total darkness… Schlömer on his Odysseys: “It is about the path the artist follows from his entrance into adult life to a period of artistic crisis, comparable to the midlife crisis we all go through, and on to a fragmentation and liberation from all interpretation of the artist’s activity.” Irrfahrten / Odysseys is one of the most illuminating productions of the Mozart 22 cycle, one that makes Mozart’s genius shine in all of its facets.

Gala Matinee – Mozart Arias

The most spectacular homage to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on his 250th birthday in 2006 was incontestably the presentation of all of his operas and operatic fragments at the Salzburg Festival, ‘Mozart22.’ Recorded on film, this monumental project has been preserved for posterity as a benchmark of Mozart interpretation in the early 21st century. The ‘Mozart Gala’ held at the Felsenreitschule on 30 July 2006, in the first days of the 2006 Salzburg Festival, presents a kind of microcosm of the Mozart festivities, with a selection of arias and orchestral music performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under Daniel Harding and featuring some of the top vocalists of the 2006 Salzburg Festival.

Wiener Blut

Shortly after Strauss’ death, Adolf Müller Jr. compiled one of the most famous Strauss operettas from motifs from the waltz Wiener Blut (1873) and other works, which continues to carry the magic of Vienna out into the world. Nikolaus Habjan stages the piece at the magical and intimate Schönbrunn Palace Theatre as an imaginative, fast-paced romp. “Staged with charming verve and plenty of wit” (Kleine Zeitung) “By taking the emotions depicted seriously, director Habjan gets everything right when it comes to the eternally difficult subject of operetta. Love, jealousy, vanity and hurt feelings are always relevant” (Die Presse). “Staged with charming verve and plenty of wit”

(Kleine Zeitung)

Die Fledermaus

On 5 April 1874, at what is now Linke Wienzeile, a world premiere took place that changed the genre of operetta and the history of the Theater an der Wien for good. To mark Johann Strauss’ 200th birthday, artistic director Stefan Herheim surprises with a fresh new production of the “queen of operettas”: Musical references that tie back to the Theater an der Wien, political warnings and precise character work make for a truly unique spin on an old classic. “Alina Wunderlin is a delightful grumpy Adele with coloratura qualities, Hulkar Sabirova throws herself wholeheartedly into the role of Rosalinde and Thomas Blondelle is a pompous, sleazy Eisenstein, just as one could wish for” (APA). Chief conductor Petr Popelka “achieves success with the confident and supple orchestra and the enthusiastic and splendid Schoenberg Choir” (Die Presse). “A brilliant performance by conductor and orchestra!” (FAZ)

Salzburg Festival 2025: Hotel Metamorphosis

A panopticon of human emotions”: Barrie Kosky combines episodes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses with music by Antonio Vivaldi for the Salzburg Festival, reflecting the full spectrum of Ovid’s narrative art and Vivaldi’s musical work. Cecilia Bartoli has assembled a “world-class” (Kleine Zeitung) cast, and Gianluca Capuano and Les Musiciens du Prince deliver a “highly precise, colourful and exciting performance” (APA). “What a brilliant evening of theatre” (BR Klassik)

Salzburg Festival 2025: Zaide or The Path of Light

Raphaël Pichon, Pygmalion and an “outstanding” (Kurier) cast of singers pull off “a Mozart miracle” (Kronenzeitung) with their new project at the Salzburg Festival. The unfinished singspiel Zaide, excerpts from Davide penitente and Thamos, and concert arias merge into a semi-staged evening that highlights the themes of humanity and freedom in Mozart’s work: “What Raphaël Pichon conjured up from his two excellent ensembles is almost impossible to describe; you simply have to experience it for yourself” (Die Presse). “One of the most powerful experiences of the past decades” (Kurier) “A magnificent quintet of soloists led by the divine Sabine Devieilhe” (Süddeutsche Zeitung)