Goethe’s Sturm und Drang drama is echoed in Massenet’s score by emotionally wide-ranging vocal parts written on a grand scale. The world star Juan Diego Flórez, who “iscurrently the best representative of his rare field” (NZZ), sings one of the most poetic and expressive tenor roles of the French repertoire. At his side, Anna Stéphany sang her critically acclaimed role début as Charlotte. Tatjana Gürbaca, known for her great narrative imagination, directed Zurich’s new production of Massenet’s drame lyrique: the one-room staging cleverly renders the social stranglehold of oppression. “This is how musical theater should be (..).” Neue Zürcher Zeitung
LSO: Nathalie Stutzmann conducts Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 and Te Deum
The obsessive Anton Bruckner worked on his Ninth Symphony for the last ten years of his life, but the concluding Adagio remained unfinished at his death in 1896. He is said to have suggested that his Te Deum be used in its place – and leaving aside the tonal shift from the D-minor symphony to a C-major hymn, it feels a fitting grand finale for the famously devout composer, who dedicated his last symphony to God. In a concert billed as A Blaze of Glory, the acclaimed Nathalie Stutzmann – who counts Bruckner among her three favorite composers to conduct – leads the London Symphony Orchestra and London Symphony Chorus, joined by soloists Lucy Crowe, Anna Stéphany, Robin Tritschler, and Alexander Tsymbalyuk, in a program that represents no less than the culmination of Bruckner’s life’s work, a mighty and magnificent call to heaven itself.