Red Ribbon Celebration Concert – Building Bridges for Peace

Now, in its fourth year, the Red Ribbon Celebration Concert has become an integral part of the world famous Vienna Life Ball Weekend, one of the biggest fund-raising events to further the cause of those living with HIV or AIDS. Staged in the legendary Burgtheater, the concert assembles a line-up of stars which reads like the who is who of classical music. Anna Netrebko, Juan Diego Florez, Piotr Beczala, Elena Maximova, Thomas Quasthoff, Yusif Eyvazov and Kristine Opolais as well as the jazz singer Gregory Porter perform an extraordinary concert according to the motto “Building Bridges for Peace”. From Porter’s hit “Water under Bridges” to a humorous interpretation of Franz Lehar’s “Dein ist mein ganzes Herz” by Anna Netrebko and Yusif Eyvazov, the stars where celebrated with “only bravos” (Salzburger Nachrichten).

Red Ribbon Celebration Concert

Red Ribbon Gala Concert from the stunning Burgtheater Vienna presented by a unique cast of world-famous singers. —– PROGRAM: Johann Strauss: Intermezzo from Tausend und eine Nacht / Arrigo Boito: “Ave Signor” from Mefistofele / Camille Saint-Saëns: “Mon coeur s´ouvre à ta voix” from Samson et Dalila / Antonín Dvorák: “Beda, Beda!” from Rusalka / Pjotr Iljitsch Tschaikowski: Arabischer Tanz aus: Nussknacker-Suite op. 71a / Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakow: Song of the Indian Merchant from Sadko; “Plenivšis’ rozoy, solovey” (The Nightingale and the Rose); Romanze op.2/2 / Georges Bizet: Intermezzo from Carmen Suite No. 1 / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Overture from Don Giovanni; “Deh, vieni alla finestra” from Don Giovanni / Georges Bizet: “Seguidilla” from Carmen / Charles Gounod: “Le veau d´or” from Faust / Astor Piazzolla (arr. Pablo Ziegler): Oblivion (Rojotango) / Franz Lehár “Lippen schweigen” from Die lustige Witwe / Aram Khachaturian: Dance of the Young Kurds from Gayane // Pablo Ziegler: Rojotango

Salzburg Festival 2013: White Hands Choir Venezuela

As part of the 2013 Salzburg Festival, the visionary and exemplary project El Sistema – The Miracle is presented for the first time in a larger context and in its full diversity outside of Venezuela. Salzburg Festival has invited not only the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra – the orchestral training programme’s flagship, but also five of El Sistema’s other ensembles. The selection of ensembles, especially the invitation of the White Hands Choir (which unites children and teenagers with various disabilities), makes it clear that El Sistema is primarily a social project, which does its utmost to integrate as many social groups as possible, instead of excluding anyone.

Red Ribbon Celebration Concert 2014

In 2012, the Red Ribbon Celebration Concert presented by successfully premièred at the Burgtheater Vienna, Austria. By its third edition, the gala concert has established itself and has become the fixed beginning of the charitable Life Ball weekend.On May 30, 2014 a number of world-famous artists embraced the good cause once again at the Red Ribbon Celebration Concert 2014: Piotr Beczala, Thomas Hampson, Yusif Eyvazov, Luca Pisaroni, Ildar Abdrazakov, Vesselina Kasarova and Jennifer O’Loughlin lent their unique voices to the motto “United in difference”.

Vienna at the Turn of the 20th Century – A Recital with Renée Fleming

Renée Fleming has always been willing to expand her repertoire into new territory. This recital is a foray into musical jugendstil as embodied in works by composers active in Vienna at the turn of the 20th century – a natural progression from her long association with music by Richard Strauss: Familiar cycles from WOLF and MAHLER morph into the more progressive textures of ZEMLINSKY and SCHOENBERG, with KORNGOLD (and echoes of Johann Strauss II) supplying the necessary dose of kitschy gemütlichkeit. Renée Fleming and her piano partner Maciej Pikulski succeed in creating the “ideal combination of emotion and interpretation” (Der Kurier).

Joseph Calleja: “Nessun Doma” – Tribute to Mario Lanza

With his “Tribute to Mario Lanza” Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja bows to the great Mario Lanza. Born in 1921 as the son of Italian immigrants in Philadelphia, Mario Lanza is a legend up until today. He was once the most famous tenor in the world, although he was hardly performing on any opera stage. In Hollywood, Lanza started a career that seeks its equal – and much too soon came to an end: Mario Lanza died at the age of 38 in 1959. For Joseph Calleja Mario Lanza is one of his big idols, whom he has admired since he was a child. At the Vienna Konzerthaus, he dedicates a whole concert to him singing the most beautiful melodies, arias and popular songs that made Lanza unforgettable … .

Salzburg Festival 2012: Ouverture Spirituelle – Nikolaus Harnoncourt

Nikolaus Harnoncourt places the emphasis on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the Ouverture Spirituelle, featuring sacred music within the Salzburg Festival, by choosing two seldom heard works by the Salzburg-born composer. Together with the Arnold Schoenberg Choir and his Concentus Musicus Wien ensemble, the Mozart specialist conducts the Litaniae de venerabili altaris sacramento K. 243 and the Missa longa in C major K. 262 in the unique venue that is Salzburg Cathedral, a jewel of Baroque architecture. These two highly expressive works, written by the virtuoso composer when he was a mere twenty years old, were first performed in that very building. “Harnoncourt revealed the historic richness of Mozart’s Litanei … in the finest colours and dynamic shading”, wrote Die Kleine Zeitung. The Austrian baritone Florian Boesch and mezzosoprano Elisabeth von Magnus delivered their parts in especially sensitive manner. Jeremy Ovenden’s vocal line is truly elegant coupled with that of the ambitious Spanish soprano Sylvia Schwatz. “Ovenden’s attractive, bright tenor … his rhythm, diction and easy flexibility of voice are exemplary”, according to The Sunday Times. Rarely revealed tapestries from the prince-archbishop’s treasury were hung in the cathedral especially for this concert, in order to give a better impression of how the works might have sounded in Mozart’s day.

Thielemann conducts Strauss

A magical evening at the Salzburg Festival: soprano Renée Fleming, conductor Christian Thielemann and the Wiener Philharmoniker perform works by Richard Strauss – ‘one of those musical events that prove that excellence truly is possible’ (El País). In her interpretation of four songs for voice and orchestra by Richard Strauss, along with a scene from ‘Arabella’, Fleming wanders along the summits of vocal artistry as a diva who dares to project the innermost emotions of the music she sings. Without a trace of bombast or heaviness, Thielemann and the Philharmoniker elaborate, as Der Standard writes, ‘a new vision of the Alpine Symphony’ that is characterized by a ‘chamber-musiclike transparency’.

Rossini, Stabat Mater

Four superb soloists – Anna Netrebko, Marianna Pizzolato, Matthew Polenzani and Ildebrando d’Arcangelo – transform Rossini’s ‘Stabat mater’ into a feast of ‘italianità’, uniting their voices in a warm, mellow whole. After several successful performances of this rarely played sacred work in various cities, the Chorus and Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia of Rome wind up their Rossini project with a performance at the Salzburg Festival, their first-ever guest appearance there. Anna Netrebko, whose aria ‘Inflammatus’ was for many the concert’s ‘unspoken high point’ (Die Presse), succeeded in ‘blending her voice beautifully into the soloist ensemble – one voice among equals in an excellent, well-balanced quartet’ (Salzburger Nachrichten).