The Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg has been the orchestra of the city and Land of Salzburg since 1958 and regularly concertizes at the Salzburg Festival and the Mozartwoche. The principal conductor is the Dutch-born Hubert Soudant, who led the Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique de France in Paris from 1981 to 1983 and the Utrecht Symphony Orchestra from 1983 to 1986. In addition to his activities in Salzburg, Soudant is also the principal conductor of the Orchestra and Opéra des Pays de Loire in Nantes and Angers, France.
Mozart, Symphony No.25 in G minor, K. 183 (Mozartwoche 1998)
The Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg was originally founded in 1841 as the “Dom-Musik-Verein und Mozarteum.” Since 1958 it has been Salzburg’s municipal and state orchestra, and concertizes regularly at both the Salzburg Festival and the Mozartwoche. The principal conductor of the orchestra as well as the conductor of this recording is the Dutch maestro Hubert Soudant. He led the Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique de France in Paris from 1981 to 1983 and the Utrecht Symphony Orchestra in Holland from 1983 to 1986.
Mozart, Piano Concerto No.23 in A major, K. 488 (Mozartwoche 1998)
The Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg was originally founded in 1841 as the “Dom-Musik-Verein und Mozarteum.” Since 1958 it has been Salzburg’s municipal and state orchestra, and concertizes regularly at both the Salzburg Festival and the Mozartwoche. The principal conductor of the orchestra as well as the conductor of this recording is the Dutch maestro Hubert Soudant. He led the Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique de France in Paris from 1981 to 1983 and the Utrecht Symphony Orchestra in Holland from 1983 to 1986. The pianist Till Fellner was born in Vienna and studied with Alfred Brendel and Oleg Maisenberg, among others.
Mullenbach, “An die Königin der Nacht” for Orchestra (Mozartwoche 1998)
“An die Königin der Nacht” was commissioned by the International Mozarteum Foundation and written in 1997. It was given its world premiere on 23 January 1998 at the opening concert of the 1998 Salzburg “Mozartwoche” by the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg under Hubert Soudant. Alexander Mullenbach was born in Luxembourg in 1949. As with so many composers of today, the composer’s work catalogue mirrors a strong interest in the music of earlier eras. The relationship to the past is clearly evoked in the titles of pieces such as the violin works “Für Orlando di Lasso” (1993) and “Capriccio per Niccolò Paganini” (1994), for example. In other pieces, one notices a strong affinity to Johann Sebastian Bach, Romantic music and the French impressionists.
Mozart, Maurerische Trauermusik in C Major, K. 477 (479b) (Mozartwoche 1998)
The “Masonic Funeral Music” was performed at the opening concert of the 1998 Salzburg “Mozartwoche” Festival on 23 January 1998. The Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg played under Hubert Soudant. The Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg became the state and municipal orchestra of the province of Salzburg in 1958 and has been regularly concertizing at the Salzburg Festival and the Mozartwoche. The principal conductor is the Dutch conductor Hubert Soudant, who headed the Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique de France in Paris from 1981 to 1983 and the Utrecht Symphony Orchestra in Holland from 1983 to 1986. Next to his work in Salzburg, Soudant is also principal conductor of the Orchestra and Opera of the “Pays de Loire” in Nantes and Angers, France.
Mozart, Serenade in D major, K.250 “Haffner” (with March K.249) (Mozartwoche 1999)
The Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg has been the orchestra of the city and Land of Salzburg since 1958 and regularly concertizes at the Salzburg Festival and the Mozartwoche. The principal conductor is the Dutch-born Hubert Soudant, who led the Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique de France in Paris from 1981 to 1983 and the Utrecht Symphony Orchestra from 1983 to 1986. In addition to his activities in Salzburg, Soudant is also the principal conductor of the Orchestra and Opéra des Pays de Loire in Nantes and Angers, France. This work was commissioned by Siegmund Haffner Jr., whose father had been a respected Salzburg businessman and public figure, to celebrate the marriage of one of his sisters. The wedding took place on 22 July 1776, and the serenade played the previous evening. It was performed on many occasions in subsequent years, also in a shortened version as a symphony.
Young Singers Project at Salzburg Festival
In 2008, an exciting new international opera-singer project was launched in the framework of the Salzburg Festival, the Young Singers Project, sponsored by Montblanc International. Led by world-renowned tenor Michael Schade and soprano Barbara Bonney, a small number of selected young talents from around the world were invited to train their vocal and acting skills for several weeks during the festival season. The “stars of tomorrow” live together, attend master classes with great singers, take part in rehearsals, learn roles from operas being given at the festival – in short, they are invited by the most prestigious music festival in the world to prepare for their future musical career. This documentary records the first edition of the “Young Singers Project,” an artistic endeavor that reflects the Salzburg Festival’s growing experience and success in providing the stage for the breakthrough of such renowned artists like Anna Netrebko. In this program, the students are briefly introduced by Schade and Bonney, and are shown working with their mentors, including such distinguished master class guest professors as Christa Ludwig and Jürgen Flimm. Their spontaneity and dynamism draw us into their lives; their talent and ambition make us hope that they will soon conquer the world’s great stages, such as the Salzburg Festival itself. As the crowning point of the documentary, the program also features excerpts from the final concert in which all eleven young singers perform with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg under the direction of Ivor Bolton. Here the festival public was able to admire the artists at the threshold of their international career. One of them, Joel Prieto, won the first prize in Plácido Domingo’s Operalia Competition in 2008, and is thus already on his way to fulfilling his dream.
Amor, vida de mi vida – The Zarzuela Concert
A typically Spanish musical genre, the zarzuela is a Spanish-language opera with spoken dialogues and filled with pleasant-sounding, often folkloric tunes cast in arias, duets, four-part choruses and dances. While zarzuelas never really made it into the repertoires of theaters outside the Spanish-speaking countries, the many passionate, fiery, or lyrical vocal pieces have continued to thrive in concerts and recitals all over the world. One of the most renowned and ardent supporters of zarzuela melodies is Plácido Domingo, who is featured here in a concert given at the 2007 Salzburg Festival. Belying his 66 years, the world-famous tenor sings these rousing, seductive melodies with the beguiling sweetness of a much younger man. Delicately painted character studies enhanced with occasional harmonic slides, sighing motifs and castanet laughter – Domingo transports the enraptured listener to the calles and plazas of Madrid and Seville.
Zaide & Adama (Mozart 22)
An abducted beauty in a harem, a noble rescuer from Europe, a merciless Muslim ruler – aren’t these the ingredients for Mozart’s “Die Entführung aus dem Serail”? Yes, but not only. They are also found in the fragment of a “Turkish” opera that Mozart wrote shortly before the “Entführung,” a work that was later given the title “Zaide.” The fragmentary nature and splendid music of “Zaide” have long stimulated enterprising artists to attempt completions or collages to make the work performable. For the Mozart 22 project, Salzburg Festival director Peter Ruzicka commissioned the Israeli composer Chaya Czernowin to produce a new work that stage director Claus Guth would then interweave with the “Zaide” fragment. In “Zaide” we have two lovers, Zaide and Gomatz, held prisoner in a harem in an imaginary past, somewhere in the Middle East… In “Adama” we have two lovers, a Woman and a Man, caught in the irreconcilable religious and political conflicts of today’s Middle East. Mozart’s themes are imprisonment, doomed love, culture clash and despotism; Czernowin’s are the same, but transported into our time. She tells of the love between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man, a partnership doomed to fail in a world torn by violence. Czernowin approached her task with great reverence for Mozart’s work. ” Adama establishes a counterpoint to Zaide’s plot,” she says. “My contributions to this new ‘complete work’ are not traditional arias, but often fragments, musical pieces that are cut in the middle. […] Mozart’s excerpts alternate with elements from Adama and sometimes overlap as well: then the two scores are almost synchronized. In that sense, Adama is a mirror of Mozart’s Zaide.” While Ivor Bolton entices a fresh and spirited rendition of the Mozart score from the Mozarteum Orchestra in the pit, Johannes Kalitzke and the Österreichisches Ensemble für Neue Musik give a sharp and precise reading of “Adama” at the back of the stage. An outstanding cast gives performances of equal dramatic and vocal strength. Commenting on this experiment’s place in the Mozart 22 project, the Financial Times’ Shirley Apthorp declared that “Zaide – Adama stands out for its bold originality.”
La Finta Giardiniera (Mozart 22)
“My opera … was such a success that it is impossible for me to describe the applause to Mamma,” wrote Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to his mother from Munich on 14 January 1775, the day after the premiere of his new opera buffa, “La finta giardiniera” (The Make-Believe Gardener) K. 196. Written for the Munich carnival season, it is not only the first example of a combination of buffa and seria roles in Mozart’s music, but it also carries its plot of pretense, disguise and surprising revelations to the brink of catastrophe. Belfiore believes he has killed his betrothed, Violante, in a fit of jealousy. He flees in panic – which does not prevent him from falling for Arminda, who then spurns her admirer Ramiro in favor of Belfiore. Violante, meanwhile, searches for her lover with her servant Roberto. Under a false name, she takes a post as gardener on the estate of Don Anchise; her servant passes himself off as her cousin. While Anchise pursues Violante, Roberto romances the maid. The labyrinth of pursuit and deception becomes completely entangled when Belfiore, his new conquest Arminda and her persistent admirer Ramiro turn up on the estate… The Mozart 22 production of “La finta giardiniera” was placed in the hands of Doris Dörrie, a noted filmmaker (“Men”) and, more recently, director of controversial opera productions (“Rigoletto” in Munich). Asked why she set the work in a garden center, Dörrie replied: “It’s a market of emotions! The plants represent feelings, the garden is our little paradise. […] We all have the same dream …, which is why we buy so much equipment, chemicals, even weapons to keep our garden under control. It must be kept in its boundaries, for just as an uncontrolled garden can mutate into a wild jungle, so can uncontrolled emotions, proliferating like wild plants, become dangerous to us.” The rousing musical underpinnings of this irreverent production are provided by the Mozarteum Orchestra under its principal conductor Ivor Bolton, who has made a name for himself as champion of authentic and spirited interpretations of Handel, Monteverdi, Gluck and, of course, Mozart. In this performance of “La finta giardiniera,” Bolton makes it clear that the real dramatic development in this early work is to be found in Mozart’s music.