Wiener Philharmoniker & Welser-Möst: Mahler 9

An event – and not only for the listeners, but also for the orchestra as Philharmonic board member Daniel Froschauer emphasizes “This is an incredible work – really written for us. Mahler really pushes the limits in this piece!” Gustav Mahler and the Wiener Philharmoniker have indeed a very special relationship. Not only did the great composer, who was conductor and head of the Vienna State Opera, conduct the Wiener Philharmoniker regularly and – from 1898 to 1901 – even the famed Subscription Concert Series. The orchestra also premiered Mahler’s 9th Symphony in June 1912 – one year after the composer’s death. Bruno Walter conducted the world premiere, for this concert it is Austrian conductor Franz Welser-Möst, someone whom knows the orchestra better than most other conductors.

Salzburg Festival 2022: Die Zauberflöte

Salzburg stands for Mozart and hardly any work stands for Mozart as much as his Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), the most famous opera of all. Therefore, a staging of Die Zauberflöte at the Salzburg Festival is always something special. Director Lydia Steier in her revised version of her Salzburg production, now placed at the Haus für Mozart, introduces a grandfather as a narrator to read Die Zauberflöte as a bedtime story to his three grandchildren. In this way, the rich fantasy of the work breaks into the strict household of an upper middle-class family, in which reverie has little place, and takes the three boys right into the middle of the action. As the Three Boys, they plunge into a fairy-tale and dream world in whose surreal enlargements the boys’ everyday lives appear again and again. With a childlike gaze, they accompany and guide the protagonists through their destinies. “Regula Mühlemann is a beautiful-sounding Pamina, Michael Nagl a charming, creamy Papageno, and Tareq Nazmi as bass-strong Sarastro turns out to be a stroke of luck.” (Oberösterreichische Nachrichten)

Salzburg Festival 2022: Gianni Schicchi

In Gianni Schicchi, with its playful levity, peals of unbounded, strident laughter ring out – albeit of the kind that can only be heard in hell. We are in Florence, in the house of Buoso Donati, who has just died. Once the will has been found, his assembled kinsfolk – degenerate aristocrats – discover they have been deprived of their inheritance. After initial reluctance they bring themselves to seek assistance from an unpopular newcomer, the cunning Gianni Schicchi. He sets to work, ruthlessly turning the situation to his own advantage – not for nothing does he rage through Dante’s Inferno as a kind of sinister poltergeist. “Great opera cinema!”

Kronenzeitung

Salzburg Festival 2021: Nelsons conducts Mahler No. 3

Praised as an “exuberant, intoxicating conductor” (Boston Globe), Grammy Award-winning Andris Nelsons is one of the most renowned and innovative conductors on the international scene today and his connection with the Vienna Philharmonic is something special: he has developed a physical language with the players whose musical partner he has been since 2010. At the 2021 Salzburg Festival edition, Andris Nelsons and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra continue their acclaimed Mahler cycle with the Third Symphony. PROGRAM Mahler: Symphony No. 3

Salzburg Festival 2021: Intolleranza 1960

Luigi Nono caused a riot at the premiere of his “scenic action” Intolleranza in 1961. The opulent work that collages singing, orchestra, film projections, dance and light has lost none of its actuality, neither in its form nor in its content: the odyssey of a nameless emigrant who is persecuted and tortured ends fatally in the floods of the river that separates him from his homeland. Jan Lauwers’ production in the impressive Felsenreitschule reflects his intense study of the meaning of political art. For Nono expert, conductor Ingo Metzmacher, Nono’s work and legacy are like a guideline that he still follows today. The performers and dancers of the NEEDCOMPANY, the BODHI PROJECT und SEAD – Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance create images of oppressive intensity in teeming tableaux. “The cast is superb, from Sean Panikkar’s eloquent, impassioned immigrant to Musa Ngqungwana’s harrowing torture victim.” Financial Times

Salzburg Festival 2021: Muti conducts Missa solemnis

Since the death of Herbert von Karajan in 1989, the prestigious Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra’s concerts around Ascension Day (15 August) have firmly been in the hands of Riccardo Muti. Always sold out, they are among the highlights of every festival summer. For this year’s concert and on occasion of his 80th birthday, the maestro was acclaimed for his interpretation of Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, a piece he has never conducted before. “Muti is a master in conveying extremes: monumentality, where it is compositionally intended, and highest internalization alternate with each other in a dense interplay.” FAZ

Thielemann conducts Bruckner No. 3

For the very first time in the orchestra’s history, the Wiener Philharmoniker have engaged themselves to a complete Bruckner Cycle and chose the renowned Bruckner expert Christian Thielemann as conductor. The first recordings met with great enthusiasm and approval. “Only the highest musical perfection sounds like this” (Kurier). Bruckner’s program is greatness, pathos, sublimity. “With their warm string and beautiful brass sound, the Wiener Philharmoniker are ideal partners for him” (BR Klassik). The large-scale Bruckner Cycle extends to the composer’s 200th birthday in 2024. The Wiener Philharmoniker, who premiered four of the nine Bruckner Symphonies, are more familiar with this music than any other orchestra.

Thielemann conducts Bruckner No. 1

For the first time in the orchestra’s history, the Wiener Philharmoniker have engaged themselves to a complete Bruckner cycle and have invited worldwide renowned Bruckner expert Christian Thielemann to take the podium. The performance of Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 1 is part of this large-scale Bruckner cycle, which extends to the composer’s 200th birthday in 2024. “Unheard-of luxury” Wiener Zeitung

Thielemann conducts Bruckner No. 5

To mark Anton Bruckner’s bicentenary in 2024, Christian Thielemann, the Wiener Philharmoniker and Unitel are recording the first Bruckner cycle with a single conductor in the orchestra’s history. Under Christian Thielemann’s baton the sound is resonant and glowing, the buildup of tension and release perceptively handled and each solo is impeccably played by some of the world’s best musicians. “The interpretation of the Fifth may also be considered a milestone. The way the musicians realized this work was simply magnificent.” Kurier