Sir Simon Rattle starts his tenure as the London Symphony Orchestra’s new Music Director with a concert at the prestigious BBC Proms – 40 years after his first appearance with the LSO, in October 1977 at the age of 22. The Royal Albert Hall’s cavernous space provides the perfect surroundings for this supersize scale performance of Arnold Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder. The force of over five hundred voices from the London Symphony Chorus, the CBSO Chorus, and Orfeó Català meet the LSO and a superb lineup of soloists, led by Rattle, putting on “a brilliantly blazing show” (The Daily Telegraph). Their BBC Proms performance is “an intoxicating embrace of the gigantic ebb and flow of Schoenberg’s score … an ecstatic celebration!” (The Guardian)
BBC Proms 2017: András Schiff – The Well-Tempered Clavier (Part I)
Bach specialist Sir András Schiff returns to the BBC Proms in a Piano recital performing Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier (Part I). Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier represents one of Western music’s greatest achievements. Described as the ‘Old Testament’ of the keyboard repertoire, it represents a wealth of musical invention, ingenuity and delight. A supreme technical challenge for any performer, they also offer an astonishing experience for every listener – especially when they are played with the mastery and sensitivity of András Schiff. His recital of the first volume at the BBC Proms is “one of those unforgettable revelations” (Observer).
BBC Proms 2018: András Schiff – The Well-Tempered Clavier (Part II)
Often heralded as one of the finest Bach interpreters today, Sir András Schiff embarks on Book II of Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier at the prestigious BBC Proms – a supreme technical challenge for any performer and an astonishing experience for every listener, especially when they are played with the mastery and “gracious lucidity” (ArtsDesk) of Sir András Schiff. Schiff, “travelling deeper into the inexplicable mysteries of Bach’s music” (Observer), provides “masterly interpretations” (Bachtrack). His recital of the first volume at the BBC Proms was “one of those unforgettable revelations” (Observer).
Mozart: Don Giovanni
Filmed at the 1954 Salzburg Festival, this restored and technically enhanced recording of “Don Giovanni” is more than simply a superb performance of one of the world’s most lastingly popular operas with an exquisite cast led by Cesare Siepi, Elisabeth Grümmer and Lisa della Casa. It is the last visual document of Wilhelm Furtwängler’s art, the legacy of a great conductor. A giant among 20th-century conductors, Wilhelm Furtwängler was associated for many years with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. After the war, he discovered a new, exceptionally rewarding venue for his artistry at the Salzburg Festival. Beginning with “Fidelio” in 1948, Furtwängler ushered in a golden age of memorable performances in Salzburg.
The Best of the Bolshoi Ballet
Britten: War Requiem
Fifty years to the day after its premiere, Andris Nelsons celebrated with his orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (which also gave that first performance), Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem through a special anniversary performance given at Coventry Cathedral, the site of its first performance, starring Erin Wall, Mark Padmore and Hanno Müller-Brachmann.
Rachmaninoff – The Piano Concertos Nos. 3 & 4
Performing all four piano concertos by Sergei Rachmaninoff in just two days – a challenge for the Orchestre de Paris on the Rachmaninoff Weekend at the Philharmonie de Paris. Together with three different pianists young conductor Stanislav Kochanovsky who is considered one of the most outstanding talents in his homeland Russia, performs the concert. For the first concert of the cycle, Russian Rachmaninoff specialist Denis Matsuev takes on the titanic Concerto No. 3 with all his distinctive enthusiasm, before exploring the more modern outline of the less-known Concerto No. 4. A performance which was hailed by the French press as superlative.
Rachmaninoff – The Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2
Performing all four piano concertos by Sergei Rachmaninoff in just two days – a challenge for the Orchestre de Paris on the Rachmaninoff Weekend at the Philharmonie de Paris. Together with three different pianists young conductor Stanislav Kochanovsky who is considered one of the most outstanding talents in his homeland Russia, performs the concert. In the second concert Nikolai Lugansky opens with the Piano Concerto No. 1, a work started when the composer was a student at the Moscow Conservatoire. The highlight of the evening is the Piano Concerto No. 2, the most popular of Rachmaninoff‘s four piano concertos, performed by the young Uzbek pianist Behzod Abduraimov “who gave a superb account, ardent but never stretching the musical line too far” (Bachtrack).
Stravaganza d’Amore!
Late sixteenth-century Florence was a theatre: first and foremost a political one, in the eyes of the dynasties that wished to use the arts to display their power. A humanist one too, as is shown by these intermedi (interludes) that sought to achieve the perfect blend between music and poetry. Inserted into plays these entertainments were presented with lavish visual and musical resources. After reaching an initial peak in 1589 with the intermedi composed for Baragli’s La Pellegrina, this tradition was prolonged in the burgeoning genre of opera by such composers as Peri, Caccini, and, very soon, Monteverdi and Gagliano. Rather than aiming for the impossible ideal of a reconstruction, Raphae¨l Pichon has devised a sort of imaginary intermedio by selecting the nest gems from this repertory, featuring the gures of Apollo, Orpheus and Eurydice, and above all Cupid: Love, Love, Love!
Christophe Rousset conducts Rameau
“Under the baton of Christophe Rousset, everything is perfectly executed, weighed, clean, the gestures are soft, everything is bathed in a precise but gentle delicacy” (forumopera.com) A true spearhead of French music, Jean-Philippe Rameau has always accompanied the Talens Lyriques and has quickly become an emblematic figure in their history. This is why they wanted to celebrate their 30th anniversary at the Châtelet with a programme dedicated to him. And what better work to do so than Les Fêtes d’Hébé ou Les Talens Lyriques? With Ambroisine Bré, Cyrille Dubois and Florian Sempey, they perform large excerpts from this opera-ballet composed in 1739 as well as from the lyrical tragedy Dardanus. PROGRAM Rameau: Les Fêtes d’Hébé ou Les Talens Lyriques? (extracts), Dardanus (extracts)