Music Director Designate Sir Simon Rattle conducts the work of a composer who has always been close to his heart: Haydn. To begin, the “Prelude and Liebestod” from Wagner’s ground-breaking opera, Tristan and Isolde, leads to Bartók’s notorious technically demanding Piano Concerto No. 2, all racing scales, fistfuls of notes and frantically quick tempos. Rattle himself calls the final part of the programme ‘an eccentric journey through Haydn’. ‘I thought how wonderful it would be if all the most outlandish and particularly the most forward-looking pieces of his were all put together like a kind of ‘greatest hits’,’ he says. ‘The idea is to make a musical journey through all that is quirky and extraordinary, humorous and profound in Haydn. Hopefully this pasticcio will give a picture of the composer who most summed up all the ideals of the Enlightenment, of intelligence, respect, humour, wit and profound thought.’ Program WAGNER: “Prelude and Liebestod” from Tristan und Isolde; BARTÓK Piano Concerto No 2; HAYDN An imaginary orchestral journey – featuring excerpts from Symphonies Nos 6, 45, 46, 60, 64, 90 and 101; ‘The Creation’, ‘The Seasons’, ‘The Desert Island’ and ‘The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross’
The Bernstein Centennial Celebration at Tanglewood
The Bernstein Centennial Celebration at Tanglewood spotlights Bernstein’s wide-ranging talents as a composer, his many gifts as a great interpreter and champion of other composers, and his role as an inspirer of a new generation of musicians and music lovers across the country and around the globe. The gala concert features a kaleidoscopic array of artists from the worlds of classical music, film, and Broadway. The entire first half of the program is dedicated to selections from such brilliant Bernstein works as Candide, West Side Story, Mass, and Serenade. Music from the classical canon very dear to Bernstein’s heart-selections from Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn and music by Copland – plus a new work by John Williams, makes up a good portion of the program’s second half; the finale of Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony No. 2 brings the program to a dramatic close. 141 mins (including Bernstein at Tanglewood film + Video Greetings) /
127 mins (concert version only)
Kulturpalast Dresden: Festive Re-Opening 2017
One of Dresden’s most important concert halls was reopened with a concert performed by Festspielorchester Dresden after a three-and-a-half-year hiatus for the hall’s reconstruction. Following this reconstruction, the landmarked Kulturpalast, located in the heart of Dresden, offers optimal spatial and acoustic conditions for the first time in its nearly 150-year history. The concert of the Festspielorchester Dresden under the direction of Ivor Bolton featured works by Weber, Beethoven, and Schumann; the soloists were Nicola Benedetti, Alexander Melnikov, and Jan Vogler.
Andris Nelsons conducts Dvorak
When Nelsons steps up to the podium of the Gewandhausorchester in March 2018 as its new musical director, Leipzig will indeed undergo a makeover. Apart from Felix Mendelssohn, his famous predecessor, he is the youngest conductor in the history of the orchestra beingthen only 37 years old. In this program Nelsons focuses on Dvorák – the “Otello” overture is followed by extracts from his opera Rusalka. Nelsons’ spouse, Kristine Opolais, takes over the arias of the title role, which she has already performed at the New York Met and the Bavarian State Opera. The fact that Nelsons also selected Dvorák’s 9th “From The New World” can be seen as a programmatic omen: Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester now enter new territory, so to speak, on a joint musical journey.
Frédéric Chopin – The Anniversary Gala Concert
The internationally celebrated concert event from Warsaw on the occasion of Frédéric Chopin’s 200th birthday – two Russian piano stars in one program: Nikolai Demidenko with a marvelous performance of Chopin’s Concerto No. 1, Evgeny Kissin with a most thrilling interpretation of Concerto No. 2. The former wunderkind delights the audience, which still can not get enough even after three encores. A unique performance and truly a gift for Chopin lovers all over the world.
Claudio Abbado conducts the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra
The Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela was the orchestra in residence at the Lucerne Festival at Easter 2010. Under the baton of their strong supporter Claudio Abbado, the orchestra once again reaches out to the audience on this special evening, spreading its lively enthusiasm at highest musical level, it is both famous and loved for. After a brilliant performance of Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite Op. 20, the ensemble is accompanied by the young and talented Austrian soprano Anna Prohaska. The evening is concluded by a most emotional interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Pathétique’.
Claudio Abbado & Lucerne Festival Orchestra – Mahler 9
The Mahler cycle of Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra has long since become legendary. Now they’re nearing the conclusion of their project as they take up the Ninth – the final symphony Mahler was able to complete. ‘If music was heard in the earthly paradise, it could not have sounded more glorious than the performance of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony led by Claudio Abbado,’ (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 2009)
A Concert for New York – 9/11 Memorial Concert
The concert presents Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 featuring soprano Dorothea Röschmann, mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung and the New York Choral Artists. The New York Philharmonic will be conducted by its Music Director Alan Gilbert. Commemorating the tenth anniversary of the events of 9/11, the New York Philharmonic strives to truly give a concert to the city of New York. Programming Mahler’s 2nd the orchestra seeks to set a sign of hope, since this work is often referred to as the ‘Resurrection’ Symphony. ‘Mahler’s Second Symphony, ‘Resurrection’, powerfully and profoundly explores the range of emotions provoked by the memories of 9/11,’ said Music Director Alan Gilbert. ‘This great masterpiece has a very special place in the history and psyche of the New York Philharmonic, but its message of renewal and rebirth is universal. We offer it as a tribute to those lost ten years ago.
Lucerne Festival 2016: Inaugural Concert of Riccardo Chailly – Mahler 8
“To be responsible for this outstanding artistic project that Claudio Abbado has initiated is not only a privilege but it has touched me deeply.” These are the very words Riccardo Chailly uses to describe his new job in Lucerne. The conductor, who left his post as music director of the Gewandhaus Leipzig and became principal conductor at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan last year, follows in this new position Arturo Toscanini and Claudio Abbado, thus becoming the third chief conductor of this unique orchestra. On August 12, 2016, Riccardo Chailly premiered as conductor of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra with an opening concert: The orchestra and its principal conductor paid their respects to the late Abbado with Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8. An inaugural concert that with its superb cast of musicians became a memorable event!
Blomstedt conducts Beethoven
More than 200 years after its premiere at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the famous trio Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Martin Helmchen have congenially mastered the artistic challenge of Beethoven’s gemstone. Under Herbert Blomstedt’s sensitive direction, the soloists unite chamber music intimacy together with virtuoso sophistication – and prove once again that the Triple Concerto is an unduly underestimated, much too rarely programmed masterpiece. The composer’s fifth symphony – indeed, the hit of classical music – is better known. In Leipzig, however, Blomstedt succeeds in achieving an entirely new perspective of this work. In the culmination of his three-year, intensive reenactment of Beethoven’s cosmos, the impressive sound that characterizes the Swedish grand seigneur’s conducting is heralded by transparency rather than showmanship, relevance instead of pathos, and tenderness in place of sentimentality.