A balmy summer night, musical highlights and the picturesque scenery of Munich’s Feldherrnhalle – The Odeonsplatz Concert grants experiences of classical music on its highest level in a unique atmosphere. The Münchner Philharmoniker open their open air concert with Bach’s Air from Suite No. 3 and Tchaikovsky’s ballet-suite Swan Lake. Chief Conductor Valery Gergiev conducts this piece with “dance-like elegance and a slightly melancholic levity, tackling the frontiers of the feasible in the rapid movements” (Süddeutsche Zeitung). The programme goes on with Richard Strauss’s Suite from Rosenkavalier, “euphonious, fresh, sensual, with plenty of power exactly when it is needed” (TZ), and with Maurice Ravel’s Boléro.
Thielemann conducts Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Liszt
Lisa Batiashvili, Gautier Capuçon, Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden present a sophisticated programme about love and death from the perspective of three 19th century composers: The stages of life can be viewed as preludes to the melody of death, as Liszt proposed in Les Préludes. It is only at the very end that the inadequacies of life are resolved – the tragedy behind the love of Romeo and Juliet in Tchaikovsky’s Fantasy Overture. In the jaws of death, Eros enjoys his strongest impulse, one that transcends time. What results is the desire for the epic and heroic, which in Brahms’ final orchestral work, the Double Concerto, achieves a certain consummation. The Double Concerto forms part of Thielemann’s extensive Brahms cycle, containing symphonies and solo concertos performed to frenetic acclaim in Dresden and Tokyo.
BPO: Rattle Conducts The Beethoven Symphonies
“A Beethoven symphony cycle is a kind of Mount Everest for all of us to climb” Sir Simon Rattle said about his first cycle of all nine symphonies with his Berliner Philharmoniker. The expectations were incredibly high, not only due to the work itself, which is known to be extremely demanding, but also due to the existing legendary recordings of the Beethoven symphonies with Rattle’s predecessors like Herbert von Karajan and latest Claudio Abbado. The concerts in which the Berliner Philharmoniker and their maestro present the symphonies at the Philharmonie are overwhelming indeed. “This is the greatest performance of the Beethoven symphonies as a cycle that I have ever seen and heard” (BBC Music Magazine). “Impressive“ (The New York Times).
In dulci jubilo – Alison Balsom & The Balsom Ensemble
The trumpets’ carolling sound and the festive baroque repertoire associated with it are the key ingredients for this most atmospheric of Christmas concerts. Award-winning British musician Alison Balsom explores dazzling original compositions by Bach, Bendinelli, Biber, Zamboni, and Handel. The trumpet’s lyrical voice is also present in her transcriptions and arrangements of songs by Dowland and Arcangelo Corelli’s Concerto grosso in G minor, known commonly as the “Christmas Concerto”. The Balsom Ensemble, accompanying the “Queen of trumpet” (Hamburger Abendblatt), consists of “splendid musicians of historical performance practice” (Die Welt), all hand-picked by Balsom.
New Year’s Eve Concert 2016 from Dresden
The festive gala concerts at the Semperoper Dresden count among the most splendid classical music events and constitute a highlight programme of German television. Once again, Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden grant big entertainment presenting a “romantic feast” (Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten) for which no expense has been spared. It contains cheerful melodies outside the standard symphonic repertoire, among them violin-miniatures by Fritz Kreisler, Tchaikovsky’s fantasy overture Romeo and Juliet and the overture of Rossinis’s Guillaume Tell. The concert’s centrepiece is Max Bruch’s radiant Violin Concerto No. 1, played by soloist Nikolaj Znaider “with high virtuosity, but in a delicate and sensitive manner, with endless soul and emotion.”
Simon Rattle conducts Poulenc, Koechlin, Kurtág and Ravel
What all the works in this concert have in common is an unmistakable French freedom of form and sound, whether in Poulenc’s twelve-part vocal work or the large-scale but always transparent, almost pointillist orchestral compositions. There are no rules to be followed, but rather a freedom of expression that only results from the “uncertainty of the moment”. The critics are delighted: “an arresting evening” (Financal Times) PROGRAM Francis Poulenc: Figure humaine; Charles Koechlin: Les Bandar-log; György Kurtág: Petite Musique solennelle en hommage à Pierre Boulez 90; Maurice Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé
Hampson and Grubinger at Heidelberger Frühling
Works by George Crumb, Sting, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Kurt Weill and others
Buchbinder plays Mozart
The Austrian piano virtuoso Rudolf Buchbinder, widely acclaimed for his technical perfection, is also a known expert for Mozart. Together with the Staatskapelle Dresden, where he was the first pianist to hold the title of “Capell-Virtous”, he plays and conducts three of Mozarts most beloved Piano Concertos, the concertos Nos 20, 21 and 27. The concert was recorded in Dresden in an unique setting, which matched not only the musical perfection, but also the first ultra-high definition recording of this work: right inside the Gläserne Manufaktur, a luxury car manufactory in the heart of Dresden, a stage was set up next to the assembly line with glass walls and oak floors.
Thielemann conducts Bruckner No. 4
Conductor Christian Thielemann lives up to his name yet again as a “Bruckner specialist” (Klassik Akzente). The Fourth Symphony is given in the presumed original version recovered by Robert Haas. This version differs considerably from the first, effectively published score, which Bruckner had only accepted as a stopgap so that the work could easily be performed. Thielemann brings out the tone painting very vividly in Baden-Baden: “These are tone paintings of the finest quality”, wrote one reviewer enthusiastically.
Thielemann conducts Bruckner No. 9
Bruckner’s Ninth – presented in the unfinished version in three movements – calls for no fewer than four “Wagner tubas” at the beginning and end of the Adagio, an instrument which Richard Wagner had specially made for his Ring of the Nibelung. As an avowed fan of Wagner, Bruckner included them in several of his works. Thielemann now lets them sound at full volume. The press verdict: “a musical and spiritual event”.