This new production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival was the opera event of the 2022 Festival summer. Young director Valentin Schwarz reimagines the mythical story in the present day and tells a gripping family saga in the world of the rich and powerful. The musical direction is in the hands of Cornelius Meister. In Das Rheingold, the antagonists Wotan and Alberich are hostile twin brothers and it is not the gold from the Rhine that is stolen at the outset, but a child, emphasizing the fact that dynasties are always overshadowed by the question of who will one day inherit power.
Der Freischütz
The Catalan theatre company La Fura dels Baus is acclaimed worldwide for its avant-garde opera productions. In their production of “Der Freischütz,” created to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the opera’s premiere at the Konzerthaus Berlin as well as the 200th anniversary of the concert hall itself, La Fura dels Baus created a virtual forest in which the cast of amazing soloists as well as the choir performed with the Konzerthausorchester under music director Christoph Eschenbach. Without any audience present, the Great Hall of the Konzerthaus was thus transformed into a myth-filled installation – a 360-degree experience for all the senses.
Lucia di Lammermoor
Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor is by no means a private love tragedy, but rather an eminently political story that demonstrates how a system of power deforms and ultimately corrodes human relationships. Donizetti provided his most haunting music for the rebellion and extinction of betrayed love; the revenge is bloody, the madness deadly. In this new production of the Opernhaus Zürich, soprano Irina Lungu sings the title role of Lucia. Piotr Beczala appears as her lover and Massimo Cavalletti as her brother. Tatjana Gürbaca, renowned for her precise direction, staged the visually powerful production under the musical direction of Speranza Scappucci.
Paavo Järvi conducts Mahler 3 – Tonhalle Zürich Reopening
After four years of restoration work, the Tonhalle Zürich, one of the most impressive concert halls in Europe, reopened its doors on September 15, 2021. The Tonhalle-Orchester returned to its historic home with a captivating performance of Mahler’s Third Symphony under the direction of its Music Director Paavo Järvi, one of the great Mahler interpreters of our time. Hardly any work is as suitable for pushing the freshly renovated hall to its limits as Gustav Mahler’s longest symphony with an overwhelming orchestral cast, the alto Wiebke Lehmkuhl, the women of the Sing-Akademie Zürich and the Zurich Boys’ Choir.
Bach: The Brandenburg Concertos
Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos rank among the most popular works of Baroque music, just like Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. To mark their 300th anniversary in 2021, Accentus Music recorded six Brandenburg Concertos in Köthen Castle’s restored Hall of Mirrors with Collegium 1704 on historical instruments. Founded by Václav Luks in 2005, the orchestra is one of the most renowned ensembles of our time specializing in baroque music. Given the great stylistic and structural diversity of these concertos, Collegium 1704 was the perfect choice to record this UHD HDR production at this historic location.
Nelsons conducts Weinberg, Schnittke & Tchaikovsky
Many composers dedicate their works to important people or quite often to the musicians premiering them. In his Violin Concerto No° 4, Alfred Schnittke not only prefaced the piece with the dedication to the premiering soloist Gidon Kremer. He also put this dedication into music and placed it at the very beginning of the concerto, known as the “Kremer theme”. Kremer, who turns 75 in February 2022, performed this concerto for the first time at the Leipzig Gewandhaus under the baton of fellow Latvian Andris Nelsons. Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester also performed Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 1, Winter Dreams. PROGRAM: Weinberg: Jüdische Rhapsodie; Schnittke: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 4; Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1
David Garrett – Alive
For the first time, David Garrett performs with his band in the ancient baths of Caracalla in July 2022, presenting his outstanding new program Alive. David Garrett plays the greatest soundtracks from the world of movies and games, with numerous world hits such as Happy, Stayin’ Alive, Let it Go, Shallow, Bella Ciao, or Thriller, among others. David Garrett – Alive at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome is an event that promises excellent entertainment and world-class musicianship in a historic venue full of atmosphere.
Hélène Grimaud plays Mozart and Schumann at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg
Mozart did not write many works in minor tonalities, but those that he did were particularly impactful. They are also the ones that French pianist Hélène Grimaud most enjoys spending time with because they “provide a glimpse behind the mask of jollity that surrounds many of his famous works.” Selecting pieces that are all in minor keys yet composed during intensely creative periods in both Mozart’s and Schumann’s careers, Grimaud takes an insightful look at the composers and their popularity at the time. Grimaud’s performance in the beautiful hall of Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie is a symbolic representation of an encounter with fate, where drama and tragedy meet, and an apt reminder that not all is as it seems. PROGRAM Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20, K. 466; Symphony No. 40, K. 550; Schumann: Piano Concerto, Op. 54; Silvestrov: The Messenger (For Piano solo)
Tanglewood Festival 2021 – A.S. Mutter & John Williams
C Major is delighted to present the world premiere performance of John Williams’ Violin Concerto No.2 from the Tanglewood Festival. Williams himself conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the soloist is the work’s dedicatee, Anne-Sophie Mutter. The legendary composer and superstar violinist are old friends and have enjoyed worldwide success together in recent years. Providing an explosive opening to the concert is American composer-violinist Jessie Montgomery’s Starburst (2012) for string orchestra, full of fiery colours and energy and conducted by the BSO’s Music Director Andris Nelsons. He returns to the stage after the Violin Concerto for Copland’s Quiet City, a score that began life as incidental music for a play of the same name, but found fame as a standalone concert piece. With haunting solo parts for trumpet and English horn, this reflective work paints an atmospheric portrait of a city by night. The programme ends with the suite Stravinsky put together in 1919 from his ballet The Firebird, triumphantly premiered in Paris in 1910. PROGRAM Williams: Violin Concerto No. 2 & Across the Stars; Montgomery: Starburst; Copland: Quiet City; Stravinsky: Suite from The Firebird
RCO Opening Night 2021: Daniel Harding & Leonidas Kavakos
The Royal Concertgebouworkest is celebrating the new season with a grand gift to the city, the country and the world. On Friday 10 September, the Concertgebouworkest opens the 2021/2022 season with a festive concert open-air in the heart of Amsterdam – that evening, music sounds through the streets from Dam Square. In this way, the musicians and the public bring the city back to life, ringing in the new season with you in this spectacular way! Daniel Harding is not only a conductor but also a pilot for Air France. Tonight, he leads us on a musical journey through Europe, ending in Paris. PROGRAM Roukens: CHASE; Strauss: DON JUAN; Paganini: LA CAMPANELLA; Verdi: LA FORZA DEL DESTINO; Boulanger: D´UN MATIN DE PRINTEMPS; Ravel: TZIGAN; Gershwin: AN AMERICAN IN PARIS + encores