Alan Gilbert marked his debut as Musical Director of the New York Philharmonic in 2009 with a performance of Gustav Mahler’s colossal Third Symphony. He has now also selected the work for his return to the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. The former first guest conductor of the orchestra is a renowned interpreter of Mahler. Since first encountering Mahler’s work at the age of nine, the composer’s grip on Gilbert has never loosened. With compelling performances around the world, Gilbert repeatedly demonstrates his unique understanding of Mahler’s powerful scores. Alan Gilbert’s debut “was a fulminant success” (Welt).
BR: Mariss Jansons conducts Mahler & Rachmaninov
The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of its musical director Mariss Jansons gives ist debut at the Philharmonie de Paris: With Vladimír Sommer’s Antigone, Gustav Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, the evening’s programme revolves around the subjects of death, transcendence and the afterlife. Renowned alto and Mahler expert Gerhild Romberger makes Mahler’s ballads a “special and flawless experience” (Wiener Zeitung). The praised Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra shines “bright under their chief conductor Mariss Jansons. Impressive.” (Kurier) PROGRAM Mahler: Kindertotenlieder; Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances; Sommer: Antigone
Paris: Harding conducts Schumann “Paradise and Peri”
Daniel Harding, the new music director of the prestigious Orchestre de Paris, pays homage to Schumann through one of his most radiant works: Das Paradies und die Peri (Paradise and the Peri), an adaptation for orchestra, choir and soloists of an oriental tale and a jewel of romanticism. Matthias Goerne, Christiane Karg, Andy Staples, Kate Royal, Gerhild Romberger and Allan Clayton join Harding and the Orchestre de Paris in a worldly Oratorio that exalts the heavenly purity of paradise in the shimmering and magical colours of Arabian Nights.
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.
W. F. Bach – Rediscovered Cantatas
2010 marked the 300th anniversary of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710 – 1784), the eldest son of Johann Sebastian Bach. While rather unknown today, Wilhelm Friedemann was one of the most outstanding headstrong composers of his time. However, after World War Two, many of his works went missing and, amazingly, were found again by the renowned Bach researcher Christoph Wolff (Harvard) in Kiev (Ukraine) in 1999. For the musical world, the rediscovery of these musically and technically highly sophisticated compositions was a sensation. The international TV audience will have the unique opportunity to take part in the world premiere of these four beautiful cantatas, performed in the impressive Augustiner-Church in Mainz. Cantatas: ‘Ach, dass du den Himmel zerrissest’, ‘Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen’, ‘Wohl dem, der den Herren fürchtet’, ’O Wunder, wer kann dieses fassen’.
Andris Nelsons conducts Mahler 2
At the Leipzig Mahler Festival 2023, the Gewandhausorchester under the baton of Music Director Andris Nelsons and together with soloists Nicola Hillebrand and Gerhild Romberger as well as the MDR-Rundfunkchor, present a rousing performance of Gustav Mahler’s Second (“Resurrection”), gauging the full rollercoaster of musical extremes between death and resurrection.