In 2012, one of the finest boys’ choirs in the world, the St. Thomas Boys Choir Leipzig, celebrated its 800th anniversary. An almost unbelievable period of time, if one considers that the choir outlasted all ups and downs of European history, maintaining its unbroken traditions over the centuries and holding onto established principles such as the inclusion of the elder boys in the education of the younger ones. A musical event of very particular significance during the anniversary celebration, is the traditional performance of one of Bach’s Passions in St. Thomas Church in the run-up to Easter.
Riccardo Chailly and Helene Grimaud perform works by Ravel and Mahler
The Gewandhaus Orchestra and Music Director Riccardo Chailly have acquired legendary status. Acclaimed concert tours and glorious reviews testifying to their continuing success. 2012 Riccardo Chailly continued his Mahler cycle with the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig with the performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. together with Ravel’s piano concerto played by the outstanding pianist Helene Grimaud. —— PROGRAM: MAURICE RAVEL Piano Concerto in G Major; GUSTAV MAHLER: Symphony No. 4 in G Major
Chailly conducts Mahler – Symphony No. 7
Riccardo Chailly and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig performing Gustav Mahler’s Seventh Symphony.
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2
“Gerstein’s blistering technique is matched only by his deeply soulful connection to standard repertoire,” the Time out New York says about the Russian pianist. With the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig under the baton of Semyon Bychkov, Kirill Gerstein testified to these qualities: He put emphasis on expression and effect in Sergei Rachmaninov‘s Second Piano Concerto. Thus, the concerto gained a new life in music, whose impact can sometimes be blunted by its own popularity: Finely balancing constructive rigor and thoughtfulness this performance becomes a fresh, fruitful artistic joint venture.
Beethoven: Violin Concerto – Znajder, Chailly
Muscular yet elegant, eloquent and charismatic – terms that flow from journalists’ pens when referring to Nikolaj Znaider. The Danish artist once again affirmed his reputation as one of the most distinguished violinists of our time with his performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s violin concerto with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig under the baton of its musical director Riccardo Chailly. Znaider himself speaks of Beethoven’s popular work as “the bible in a violinist’s concert repertoire.”
Chailly conducts Mahler – Symphony No. 8
Mahler’s Eighth Symphony is agruably the grandest and most ambitious piece of symphonic music ever written. The composer himself regarded it as his ‘opus summum’, and an incredible number of partipicians at the hugely successful Munich premiere in 1910 earned it the nickname ‘Symphony of a Thousand’. At Leipzig’s International Mahler Festival 2011, Riccardo Chailly commanded almost 500 musicians. The perfomance celebrated overwhelming success by audience and critics.
Chailly conducts Mahler – Symphony No. 2
The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and their Music Director Riccardo Chailly have acquired legendary status – glorious reviews and many awards for their recordings testifying to their continuing success. At Leipzig’s International Mahler Festival, to mark the centenary of Mahler’s death, they performed Mahler’s monumental Second Symphony in the Gewandhaus – together with two marvellous soloists and choral forces quite beyond compare.
Nelsons conducts Bruckner and Widman
The Gewandhaus season 2017/18 celebrates two momentous occasions: the investiture of Andris Nelsons to the position of the 21st Gewandhauskapellmeister and the 275th anniversary of the Gewandhausorchester’s founding. This festive concert with Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 and a World Premiere of Jörg Widmann’s Partita promises to become one of the emotional highlights of the festival. PROGRAM Bruckner: Symphony No. 7; Widman: Partita
Nelsons conducts Mozart and Tchaikovsky
This concert is devoted to Andris Nelsons’ assumption of the position of Gewandhauskapellmeister. It marks the beginning of the highly promising Tchaikovsky cycle by Andris Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester. Andris Nelsons: “Being appointed as the next Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester is a completely overwhelming honour. This extraordinary orchestra and its wonderful musicians are unique in so many respects, and particularly in their creation of an exceptional sound world based on outstanding tradition that is, at its heart, inspirational.” PROGRAM Mozart: Symphony K. 550; Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.6
Andris Nelsons’ Inaugural Concert – Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
A new era in Leipzig has just begun: Andris Nelsons started his tenure as the 21st Gewandhaus conductor. The inaugural concert combined the world premiere of Relief, a new piece by composer Steffen Schleiermacher, with one of the most important premieres in the history of the orchestra. In March 1842, the Gewandhausorchester performed the famous Scottish Symphony by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy under the direction of the composer himself for the first time. In choosing this repertoire, Andris Nelsons pays tribute to the grand history of the city of Leipzig and its Gewandhausorchester. Alban Berg’s violin concerto, performed by Latvian Baiba Skride, works as a link between the decades. After Andris Nelsons’ first concert as the 21st Gewandhaus Kapellmeister, the Financial Times states: “the new partnership brims with artistic promise.” PROGRAM Schleiermacher: Relief for Orchestra; Berg: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra; Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Symphony No.3