Once again John Wilson and his orchestra, “combining swing authenticity with the poise of a deluxe concert Orchestra” (The Times), return to the Royal Albert Hall with a performance counted among “the star attractions” (Financial Times) of this year’s Proms. Their concert, accompanied by three of the “greatest West-End musical theatre stars” Louise Dearman, Matthew Ford and Julian Ovenden (also known from Downtown Abbey), pays tribute to George and Ira Gershwin, one of America’s most celebrated song-writing duos. Divided between film score theme tunes, dance numbers, and songs from musicals such as the favourites “Embraceable You”, “Love Walked In”, “Fascinatin’ Rhythm” and the ballet music from the 1951 film An American in Paris, “this glorious concert” (The Times) just “dazzled on every level.”
Bryn Terfel – Bad Boys
Bass-baritone Bryn Terfel is a towering figure in today’s musical world – both physically and artistically. Whether in the opera house or on the recital stage, he blends his powerful, versatile voice with commanding stage presence. Since bass-baritones are usually the “bad boys” in opera, the Welsh singer has put together a program that portrays a gallery of rogues and villains, the “demonic misfits and malcontents of this wonderful music” (Bryn Terfel). The concert features Terfel in a number of demonic roles, including two Satans (one by Gounod and one by Boito), a murderous barber (Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd), a swaggering drug dealer (Gershwin’s Sporting Life) and much more. He is accompanied in this program – recorded at Cardiff’s St. David’s Hall in his native Wales – by the Sinfonia Cymru under Gareth Jones.
Rolando Villazón – Handel Arias
It would be hard to imagine a more seductive hero, a more passionate performer, a more glorious interpreter of the great Romantic roles of Verdi and Puccini than Rolando Villazón. Yet the singer’s temporary withdrawal from the spotlight in 2007 opened up a wealth of new possibilities for the singer. Among the ‘new paths’ that Villazón envisioned for the future were ‘adventures’ such as Baroque music. Next to a recording of works by the early Baroque composer Claudio Monteverdi (available from UNITEL CLASSICA), he now offers a selection of arias by George Frideric Handel. This intimate concert featuring Villazón and the Gabrieli Players under Paul McCreesh was filmed in a setting that ideally suits the style of the music, St. Paul’s Church in Deptford, near London, one of Britain’s finest Baroque churches. It was built between 1712 and 1730, almost exactly when Handel was writing his most celebrated operas and oratorios.
Britten: War Requiem
Fifty years to the day after its premiere, Andris Nelsons celebrated with his orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (which also gave that first performance), Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem through a special anniversary performance given at Coventry Cathedral, the site of its first performance, starring Erin Wall, Mark Padmore and Hanno Müller-Brachmann.
Concert Monstre
Five hundred artists on stage is just what it takes to do justice to the grandeur and genius of Hector Berlioz. His Symphonie funèbre et triomphale, premiered at the Bastille, draws on this impressive cast of instrumental and vocal forces under the baton of François-Xavier Roth at the Philharmonie de Paris. Also to be heard are Berlioz’ works L’ impériale, Chant des chemins de fer and La Marseillaise in a breathtaking orchestration, sung with the participation of the audience. A gigantic and “outstanding concert” (ResMusica). PROGRAM: Grande Symphonie funèbre et triomphale; L’ impériale, Chant des chemins de fer, La Marseillaise
Stravaganza d’Amore!
Late sixteenth-century Florence was a theatre: first and foremost a political one, in the eyes of the dynasties that wished to use the arts to display their power. A humanist one too, as is shown by these intermedi (interludes) that sought to achieve the perfect blend between music and poetry. Inserted into plays these entertainments were presented with lavish visual and musical resources. After reaching an initial peak in 1589 with the intermedi composed for Baragli’s La Pellegrina, this tradition was prolonged in the burgeoning genre of opera by such composers as Peri, Caccini, and, very soon, Monteverdi and Gagliano. Rather than aiming for the impossible ideal of a reconstruction, Raphae¨l Pichon has devised a sort of imaginary intermedio by selecting the nest gems from this repertory, featuring the gures of Apollo, Orpheus and Eurydice, and above all Cupid: Love, Love, Love!
Il viaggio – A musical journey through Italian Renaissance
Vincent Dumestre and his ensemble Le Poeme Harmonique take us on a musical journey through the music of the Italian Renaissance to the beautiful Palazzo Farnese in Rome. On the occasion of its 20th anniversary, the baroque ensemble together with French mezzo-soprano Eva Zaicik pays homage to the unique musicality and sensitivity of Bellerofonte Castaldi and his contemporaries Monteverdi and Frescobaldi, as well as Rossi, Buonamente and Uccellini.
Raphaël Pichon conducts Handel & Bach
Bach and Handel, opera and oratorio, and extreme affects such as frenzy and deep suffering – Raphaël Pichon and his Ensemble Pygmalion at the Philharmonie de Paris. The phenomenal French coloratura soprano Sabine Devieilhe makes the colorful program shine as a vivid Baroque panorama. PROGRAM Handel: Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno: “Un pensiero nemico di pace”, Giulio Cesare in Egitto: “Che sento? O dio!…Se pietà”; Bach: Cantatas: Wir müssen durch viel Trübsal, BWV 146: Sinfonia, Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut, BWV 199, “Ich steh mit einem Fuß im Grabe”, BWV 156: Sinfonia, “Geist und Seele wird verwirret”, BWV 35: Concerto, “Ich habe genug”, BWV 82 (excerpts)
Christophe Rousset conducts Rameau
“Under the baton of Christophe Rousset, everything is perfectly executed, weighed, clean, the gestures are soft, everything is bathed in a precise but gentle delicacy” (forumopera.com) A true spearhead of French music, Jean-Philippe Rameau has always accompanied the Talens Lyriques and has quickly become an emblematic figure in their history. This is why they wanted to celebrate their 30th anniversary at the Châtelet with a programme dedicated to him. And what better work to do so than Les Fêtes d’Hébé ou Les Talens Lyriques? With Ambroisine Bré, Cyrille Dubois and Florian Sempey, they perform large excerpts from this opera-ballet composed in 1739 as well as from the lyrical tragedy Dardanus. PROGRAM Rameau: Les Fêtes d’Hébé ou Les Talens Lyriques? (extracts), Dardanus (extracts)
Donizetti: Messa da Requiem
From the Basilique de Saint Denis, the burial place of the French Kings since centuries and at the same time one of the first gothic churches in the world, comes the first ever audiovisual recording of a long lost masterpiece of Italian sacred music, full of romance and belcanto: Gaetano Donizetti’s luminous Messa da Requiem. The highly virtuosic and lyrical score, expressing the Christian vision of the passage from death to eternal life, combines the imposing polyphony of a choir with the operatic brilliance of soloist arias. The Argentine conductor Leonardo García Alarcón conducts his Orchestre Millenium, an orchestra dedicated to bring ancient music to a new generation, with “precise gestures and rich contrast” while the Choeur de Chambre de Namur impresses with “clarity and power” (Forum Opera).