If you wander “through the woods, through the pastures” musically, you soon come into romantic hunting grounds. These words from Weber’s opera Der Freischütz are the guiding idea for the traditional Salzburg New Year’s Concert of the Bläserphilharmonie Mozarteum Salzburg, led by Hansjörg Angerer. The Bläserphilharmonie, which is composed of top-class musicians from leading symphony orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Münchner Philharmoniker, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, roams through the most beautiful hunting, nature and forest music of the 19th century.
Salzburg Festival 2018: Nelsons conducts Mahler and Zimmermann
The notion of passion, in music, initially referred to accounts of the suffering and death of Jesus. But would any form of art be conceivable without ardent passion and that kind of suffering which mobilizes creative forces as starting point for new artistic endeavours? Andris Nelsons presents a concert night which concentrates every conceivable passion: Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Trumpet Concerto, entitled “Nobody knows the trouble I see” – a protest against racism – and Mahler’s Second, ‘Resurrection’ Symphony. PROGRAM Zimmermann: Nobody knows de trouble I see – Concerto for trumpet and orchestra; Mahler: Symphony No.2 (Resurrection). A passionate rendition of Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony, “oscillating between dream and grotesque, between idyll and Hellmouth” (Wiener Zeitung).
Salzburg Festival 2018: Barenboim conducts Tchaikovsky and Debussy
Special experiences await you at this concert: “It was like a bath of ice, cocaine, and rainbows,” remarked the American writer Henry Miller of the effect made on him by Alexander Scriabin’s orgiastic orchestral fantasy Le Poème de l’extase. No wonder, when it comes to a composer regarded as a visionary who touched on the very limits of madness. Scriabin even saw himself as a kind of Prometheus and declared: “The world lives in my consciousness, as my act of creation.” Claude Debussy also experienced a mystical moment when he conceived his impressionist tone poem La Mer. With this music, he wished not to create a musical depiction of the roaring waves and sparkling water but rather to reflect the impression that the play of the waves awakened within him. Impressive in any case is how Lisa Batiashvili performs the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. According to the Guardian, she is a gifted storyteller, while the Wiener Standard praised her bright violin sound, comparing it to “a ray of light.” PROGRAM Tchaikovsky: Polonaise from Eugene Onegin; Violin Concerto in D major op. 35; Debussy: La Mer; Skrjabin: Le Poème de l’extase op. 54
Hollywood in Vienna – The World of Hans Zimmer
In 2018, the glamourous film music gala “Hollywood in Vienna” at the Wiener Konzerthaus has been dedicated to Academy Award winner Hans Zimmer. His greatest hits from more than 30 successful years of film score composing are brought to life by the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and a wide range of soloists from all over the world! Featuring music from “INCEPTION”, “ THE DARK KNIGHT”, “GLADIATOR”, “THE LION KING” and many more.
Salzburg Wind Orchestra Gala with Martin Grubinger
A century after its collapse, the Danube Monarchy lives on – in the Waltz, the March, the Csárdás and the Polka. In a splendid gala concert the Bläserphilharmonie Mozarteum Salzburg, led by Hansjörg Angerer, brings the glamour of the world empire to life. The masterpieces of the leading composers who worked during the last hundred years of the Habsburg Monarchy are lively and triumphant, soulful and melancholic. Percussion superstar Martin Grubinger shines with a rousing performance of a specially arranged percussion suite. For the grand finale there is but one choice: The Blue Danube, the posthumous “national anthem” of the Danube Monarchy.
150th Anniversary Wiener Staatsoper – Open Air Gala
The Vienna State Opera celebrates its 150th birthday with a glamorous open-air gala, gathering an extraordinary summit of operatic superstars like Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva, Swedish soprano Nina Stemme, French tenor Roberto Alagna, Uruguayan baritone Erwin Schrott or Italian bass Feruccio Furlanetto to name only a few. Together with soloists of the new generation of the house like sopranos Valentina Nafornita or Olga Bezsmertna – “a triumph for the ensemble” (Die Presse) – they present a firework of famous opera arias, accompanied by the Orchestra and Choir of the Wiener Staatsoper under the rousing baton of Maestro Marco Armiliato, a regular and appreciated guest at the Vienna State Opera. Nestled in the beautiful city centre, the State Opera is one of the most prestigous opera houses in the world with a long and significant history, a Mecca for international opera fans. Praised by critics as “mega event”, about 10,000 spectators came to witness this jubilee concert and celebrate musical passion in a fantastic atmosphere,
a feast for the ears and for the eyes.
Hollywood in Vienna – A Tribute to Alexandre Desplat
In 2016, Hollywood in Vienna invited to an unforgettable musical journey through space and time and honoured the Hollywood composer, Oscar-, Golden Globe and Grammy Award winner Alexandre Desplat. First, A Space Odyssey leads us to outer space. We enter the infamous, global Star Wars and are rescued by Star Trek’s spaceship “Enterprise” before Gravity pulls us back to earth and, finally, we fulfill E.T.’s wish, to phone home. In the second part, Desplat’s atmospheric melodies for Harry Potter, Twilight, The King’s Speech and The Grand Budapest Hotel let us virtually float through the universe. Featuring star singers from various musical genres – Verdi soprano Kristin Lewis, singersongwriter Katerine Ellis and pop star Grace Capristo – “standing ovations were preprogrammed” (Kronenzeitung).
Salzburg Festival 2017: Lorenzo Viotti conducts Beethoven and Schumann
Hailed as one of the most talented conductors of his generation, Lorenzo Viotti returns to the Salzburg Festival, which proved to be a stepping stone for the young Swiss: After he won the festival’s “Young Conductors Award”, leading the renowned Camerata Salzburg, he took the classical world by storm. Reunited with the Camerata, Viotti is joined by Sergey Khachatryan in the picturesque Großer Saal of the Stiftung Mozarteum. In their “debut of the young and wild” (ARD), they rise to the challenge that is Beethoven’s Violin Concerto: After all, Beethoven’s work was deemed too difficult whilst not being virtuosic enough when it premiered in 1806. Khachatryan demonstrates his extensive skills, producing “celestially delicate sounds” (drehpunktkultur.at). Viotti’s treatment of the “Renish”, Robert Schumann’s Third Symphony, is “youthful and brisk” (Kronenzeitung). PROGRAM Beethoven: Violin Concerto; Schumann: Symphony No. 3
Hollywood in Vienna – A Tribute to Danny Elfman
Hollywood in Vienna enters the realm of mythical creatures and fairy tales and honours Hollywood composer, Grammy Award Winner and four-time-Oscar-nominee Danny Elfman. The ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of James Shearman discover with Beauty that there’s an enchanted prince hiding within the fearsome Beast, explore the mysterious world to which the wardrobe in “The Chronicles of Narnia” leads to and accompany the brave “Mulan” on her adventurous journey through medieval China. Star singers Nathan Trent and Louise Dearman shine in “La La Land”, while Insingizi & Friends sweep the audience in the Vienna Concert hall away with their “Lion King” medley. In the second part, conductor John Mauceri and the orchestra perform the highlights from Danny Elfman’s impressive back catalogue such as “The Nightmare before Christmas”, “The Simpsons” and “Batman”.
Muti conducts Brahms and Tchaikovsky – with Anne-Sophie Mutter
One thing you can rely on is the Salzburg Festival always offering compelling couplings of artistic personalities: in this case star violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and Maestro Riccardo Muti. Exactly 30 years to the day since Mutter first performed Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto at the festival, Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece is back on the programme. Mutter’s playing is stupendous, she succeeds in a way that draws astonishment. In Brahms’s Symphony No. 2, the veteran conductor Muti “lets the string and wind groups demonstrate in exemplary manner how it can sound when all the musicians are in perfect harmony with one another.” (Salzburger Nachrichten)