The opening of the Salzburg Festival, for many regarded as the world’s most renowned music festival, is by tradition a high-profile event. In 2009,this first concert given by the Wiener Philharmoniker was conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt. The program is, in honor of the 80th birthday of the great Austrian conductor (6 Dec. 2009), a purely Austrian. Though it may seem unusual at first glance, under Harnoncourt’s direction, the disparate works fuse into a moving, slightly melancholy portrait of the Viennese dance in the early 19th century. The concert opens with Anton Webern’s delicate orchestration of Schubert’s “Six German Dances,” which segue into two polkas and a waltz by Josef Strauß, the younger – and bolder – composer brother of “Walzerkönig” Johann Strauß Jr. With this alternation of bittersweet and brassy dances, the stage is set for Harnoncourt’s staggering reading of Schubert’s “Great” C major Symphony, in which the dance of death – so Viennese yet so universal – seems to have served as the composer’s model. This concert adds a new milestone to UNITEL CLASSICA’s longtime partnership with the Salzburg Festival, as well as with Harnoncourt and the Wiener Philharmoniker.
Salzburg Festival: Opening Concert 2010
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Salzburg’s Grosses Festspielhaus, the 2010 Salzburg Festival put together a truly one-of-a-kind program for the Wiener Philharmoniker’s traditional opening concert. Conducted by Daniel Barenboim, the concert opens with Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto, whose solo part is also played by the conductor. This is followed by the scintillating “Notations” by Pierre Boulez, who celebrated his 85th birthday in 2010. Concluding the concert is Anton Bruckner’s mighty “Te Deum” featuring soloists Dorothea Röschmann, El?na Garan?a, Klaus Florian Vogt and René Pape.
The Beethoven Piano Concertos
No other pianist plays Beethoven in such a supremely classic manner and at such a high level’, writes Vienna’s Kurier about Rudolf Buchbinder’s performance of all five Beethoven piano concertos with the Wiener Philharmoniker. Buchbinder, who has given many cyclical performances of these works all over the world, performs here both as soloist and conductor.
Salzburg Festival: Opening Concert 2011
In the Mahler year 2011, the eminent Pierre Boulez conducted the traditional opening concert of the Wiener Philharmoniker at the Salzburg Festival. The concert begins with the “Lulu Suite” by Mahler’s pupil Alban Berg. The music for the tragic temptress is sung here by the “dazzling” (Der Standard) young soprano Anna Prohaska. In Berg’s concert aria “Der Wein”, Dorothea Röschmann delivers a “masterful interpretation” (Die Presse). The main work of the concert is Gustav Mahler’s large-scale cantata “Das klagende Lied” of 1898/99 – a “great spectral opera for the mind’s eye” (Wiener Zeitung). Scored for massive orchestral and choral forces, the work also calls for three soloists, who are sung here with power and intensity by Dorothea Röschmann, Elisabeth Kulman and Johan Botha.
BEETHOVEN 9 – Symphony No.9 in D minor, op.125 “Choral”
In the monumental project BEETHOVEN 9, Christian Thielemann, one of the most widely recognized conductors of our time, joins forces with the prestigious Wiener Philharmoniker for their first-ever highdefinition recording of all nine symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven.
Also available:
Overture ‘Coriolan’, Op. 62 (11’ – A045005410010),
Overture ‘Egmont’, Op. 84 (11’ – A045005410011)
BEETHOVEN 9 – Overture “Coriolan”, Op.62
A one-of-a-kind musical event is in the making! Christian Thielemann, one of the most recognized conductors of our time, joins forces with the prestigious Wiener Philharmoniker and UNITEL, the world’s leading audiovisual production company for classical music, in a monumental project: BEETHOVEN 9, the recording of all nine symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven for TV, DVD and New Media: the “Beethoven cycle of the 21st century”! Using the newest technology of our century, UNITEL and Austrian Television (ORF) produce this “super-cycle” in the Golden Hall of Vienna’s Musikverein in HD and 5.0 Surround Sound. BEETHOVEN 9 kicked off in December 2008 with the recording of the First and Second Symphonies. At the rate of two recordings per year, the cycle will be completed by April 2010. The genesis and unfolding of this project will be accompanied by a documentary filmed in HD. Between 2010 and 2013 the orchestra will crown the venture with special event performances of the complete cycle in major cities around the world. These concert cycles will rank among the musical highlights of these years. They will be accompanied by the recordings, which will be released prior to the start of the world tour, when international attention is at its peak. Music lovers can enjoy Beethoven’s symphonies either live in the host cities or on television, Internet or DVD. Live transmission from the Golden Hall is possible already during the recording stage. BEETHOVEN 9 brings to a new climax the longstanding collaboration between Thielemann, who enjoys a sterling reputation as an interpreter of Beethoven and the German Romantics, and the Wiener Philharmoniker, which has been cultivating the music of Beethoven since its founding nearly 170 years ago and is one of the few great orchestras to have preserved its unique sound. UNITEL CLASSICA can look back on more than 40 years of collaboration with the Wiener Philharmoniker and on its pioneering cycles of Beethoven’s symphonic works with Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein.
Beethoven 9 – Ouverture “Egmont”, op.84
A one-of-a-kind musical event is in the making! Christian Thielemann, one of the most recognized conductors of our time, joins forces with the prestigious Wiener Philharmoniker and UNITEL, the world’s leading audiovisual production company for classical music, in a monumental project: BEETHOVEN 9, the recording of all nine symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven for TV, DVD and New Media: the “Beethoven cycle of the 21st century”! Using the newest technology of our century, UNITEL and Austrian Television (ORF) produce this “super-cycle” in the Golden Hall of Vienna’s Musikverein in HD and 5.0 Surround Sound. BEETHOVEN 9 kicked off in December 2008 with the recording of the First and Second Symphonies. At the rate of two recordings per year, the cycle will be completed by April 2010. The genesis and unfolding of this project will be accompanied by a documentary filmed in HD. Between 2010 and 2013 the orchestra will crown the venture with special event performances of the complete cycle in major cities around the world. These concert cycles will rank among the musical highlights of these years. They will be accompanied by the recordings, which will be released prior to the start of the world tour, when international attention is at its peak. Music lovers can enjoy Beethoven’s symphonies either live in the host cities or on television, Internet or DVD. Live transmission from the Golden Hall is possible already during the recording stage. BEETHOVEN 9 brings to a new climax the longstanding collaboration between Thielemann, who enjoys a sterling reputation as an interpreter of Beethoven and the German Romantics, and the Wiener Philharmoniker, which has been cultivating the music of Beethoven since its founding nearly 170 years ago and is one of the few great orchestras to have preserved its unique sound. UNITEL CLASSICA can look back on more than 40 years of collaboration with the Wiener Philharmoniker and on its pioneering cycles of Beethoven’s symphonic works with Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein.
Lang Lang at Schönbrunn
Lang Lang, Zubin Mehta, the Wiener Philharmoniker – the only thing that could make an outdoor orchestral concert more attractive would be a spectacular venue, such as a majestic Baroque palace. And here it is: Vienna’s Schönbrunn Palace, with its brightly lit facade on a resplendent summer evening! Held the day before the final match of the Euro 2008 football championship, this concert rallied both football fans and music lovers to Vienna’s most beautiful imperial palace. At 26, Lang Lang is already considered as one of the top pianists in the world. He made his international breakthrough at the age of 17, and has since been performing with all major orchestras and leading conductors. In this concert, the young Chinese artist – the “pop star” of the international piano elite – dazzled his way into the hearts of the audience with his rendition of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2. “His mighty, lightning-fast finger acrobatics were virtuoso and technically perfect – amazing to the eyes and ears.” (Wiener Zeitung) Conductor Zubin Mehta, who had warmed up the Wiener Philharmoniker with Weber’s Oberon Overture before tackling the Chopin, led his musicians in a rousing performance of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony after the intermission. Now crisply outlined against the dark-blue sky, Schönbrunn Palace transformed itself into an expressive backdrop for Beethoven’s dramatic symphonic masterpiece. The excitement was not over with the last chord, however, as Lang Lang returned to give several encores, including Chopin’s A-flat major Polonaise, which “roused the audience to rapturous standing ovations.” (Wiener Zeitung)
BEETHOVEN 9
In the monumental project BEETHOVEN 9, Christian Thielemann, one of the most widely recognized conductors of our time, joins forces with the prestigious Wiener Philharmoniker for their first-ever highdefinition recording of all nine symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven.
Also available:
Overture ‘Coriolan’, Op. 62 (11’ – A045005410010),
Overture ‘Egmont’, Op. 84 (11’ – A045005410011)
BEETHOVEN 9 – Symphony No.1 in C major, op.21
In the monumental project BEETHOVEN 9, Christian Thielemann, one of the most widely recognized conductors of our time, joins forces with the prestigious Wiener Philharmoniker for their first-ever highdefinition recording of all nine symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven.
Also available:
Overture ‘Coriolan’, Op. 62 (11’ – A045005410010),
Overture ‘Egmont’, Op. 84 (11’ – A045005410011)