Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra at the Festival International de Piano de la Roque d’Anthéron in Marseille. The performance is part of the celebration of Marseille-Provence as the 2013 European Capital of Culture. On the programworks Giuseppe Verdi and Hector Berlioz. —– PROGRAM: Verdi: La Traviata, Preludes to act 1 and 3; Overture to Les Vêpres siciliennes; Overture to La forza del destino / Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique op. 14.
Salonen conducts Bartók
Live from the awe-inspiring new Philharmonie de Paris, the French capital’s elite orchestra performs a programme devoted to the endlessly fascinating music of Béla Bartók. On the podium is Esa-Pekka Salonen, one of the composer’s truly authoritative interpreters. This concert was hailed as “revelatory” by the leading French journal Diapason, “a unique expressive and sensory voyage (…) with precise phrasing and incredible flexibility (…) an irresistible feeling for timbre, tightropewalking accents, acoustic spaces, instrumental breathing (…) rhythmic agility, range of sensitive colours, humour and irony, brilliance, luminosity, moments of astonishing sweetness. The Orchestre de Paris soared and surpassed itself. Salonen is clearly a unique artist.” PROGRAM Bartok: Dance Suite; Concerto for two Pianos, Percussion and Orchestra; Concerto for Orchestra
Salonen conducts Mahler No. 2
Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony is undoubtedly the most popular of all his symphonies. The composer stages a gradual victory over his doubts and asserts his creative vocation and his newfound faith in the cosmos. The audience is immediately struck by the opening chaos orchestrating a magniicent funeral. The sublime final chorus enraptures listeners as it celebrates the Last Judgement and the divine love that is spread everywhere. Resurrection takes up in a spectacular way the question of a hypothetical renewal: the Stadium de Vitrolles near Aix has been preserved in a state of beauty ravaged by twenty-five years of abandonment and clandestine occupations. Inside this iconic building Romeo Castellucci tackles the enigma of a mysterious rebirth. “It became big, very big, beyond huge, beyond gigantic.” (Opera Today)
Ravel, Alborada del Gracioso
The works presented in this concert are among Ravel’s most celebrated orchestral pieces. The “Alborada del Gracioso” or “Jester’s Morning Song” was originally part of the piano collection “Miroirs”. Ravel himself arranged the scintillating piece for orchestra in 1918. Written in 1903, the orchestral song cycle “Shéhérazade” is based on texts by the painter Tristan Klingsor. Of his Piano Concerto in G major, Ravel said that it was “written in the spirit of Mozart and Saint-Saens.” But while the influence of Mozart is clearly felt in the Adagio, it is American jazz that permeates the dazzling Presto finale. The concert rhapsody “Tzigane” was apparently inspired by the playing of violinist Jelly d’Arányi. Premiered on 12 December 1920, Ravel’s “La Valse” was originally called “Wien” (Vienna) – a title not considered appropriate in France so soon after World War I. Though conceived as a ballet, it was not performed as such until 1928, when Ida Rubinstein staged it at the Paris Opéra. Perhaps Ravel’s most well-known work is “Bolero”, which was a sensational success at its premiere at the Paris Opéra on 22 November 1928 and has remained unquenchably popular ever since. The year 1975 marked the centennial of Maurice Ravel’s birth (7 March 1875), an event celebrated with particular brilliance in France. One of the special concerts given to commemorate the great French composer was held at Paris’s Théâtre des Champs Elysées on 19 September 1975 and featured the Orchestre National de France led by Leonard Bernstein. The all Ravel concert also featured the soloists Marilyn Horne in the song cycle “Shéhérazade” and the violinist Boris Belkin in “Tzigane”. Bernstein himself played the solo part in the G major Piano Concerto. The concert was such a dazzling success that the critic of Le Figaro was stirred to proclaim about Bernstein: “He IS Ravel”.
Ravel, Piano Concerto in G major
Ravel, Tzigane
Ravel, La Valse
Flórez 20 Years at Rossini Opera Festival
Juan Diego Florez will headline the 2018 Rossini Opera Festival with a new production of “Ricciardo e Zoraide.” The production will mark the tenor’s return to the festival and will mark yet another Rossini role debut. Florez will be joined by Pretty Yende and will be conducted by Giacomo Sagripanti. Marshall Pynkoski will direct the new production.Florez has performed at the Pesaro Festival for the past 20 years where he has sung such opera’s as “William Tell,” “Matilde di Shabran,” “Le Comte Ory,” and “La Donna del Lago.”
A Johann Strauss Celebration – The Wiener Symphoniker in Trieste
For decades, the Wiener Symphoniker has welcomed spring with a bouquet of lively melodies. This edition goes international as the orchestra and chief conductor Petr Popelka ring in the season in Trieste with works by Johann Strauss, the composer of the year, but also pieces by Franz Lehár, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Erich Korngold.
The Vatican Concert 2005 – In Honor of Pope Benedikt XVI
Recorded live in the presence of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI in Vatican City, this profoundly moving and inspiring concert is a true musical landmark. While the music ranges from the grand to the sublime, the atmosphere retains the warmth and intimacy of a “family reunion”: both the Munich Philharmonic and the boys’ chorus “Regensburger Domspatzen” are world-renowned institutions from the Pope’s native Germany and from cities closely connected with the former Cardinal Ratzinger. Among the works performed is a Sanctus from a mass written by Georg Ratzinger, the Pope’s brother and one-time director of the “Regensburger Domspatzen”. Under the direction of its distinguished young principal conductor Christian Thielemann, the Munich Philharmonic is joined by the boys’ chorus (which also sings a cappella works led by Georg Büchner) in music by Liszt, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Palestrina, Pfitzner, Verdi, Wagner and Georg Ratzinger. The musical event is rounded off with an address to the listeners and performers by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.