150 days later to the day, Johannes Brahms’s “Ein Deutsches Requiem” returns to the place of its triumphal premiere on 10th April 1868, the stunning Bremen Cathedral, thanks to Grammy Award winner Paavo Järvi. He conducts the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen & State Choir Latvija as well as acclaimed soloists Matthias Goerne and Valentina Farcas – “rarely you hear such an insightful performance!” (FAZ) Järvi shows the masterpiece in Brahms’s final version with all seven movements, using the same number of musicians as the composer himself, which is less than what is common practice today.
Ein deutsches Requiem
“A powerful moment of musical history recreated” says Classic FM about the Brahms Requiem interpretation by Paavo Järvi, the Grammy Award-winning Estonian-American conductor, and his orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. The performance corresponds with Brahms’ final version including all seven movements and using the same number of musicians as the composer himself. The premiere of the German Requiem took place on April 10, 1868, in Bremen Cathedral under the direction of the composer himself, although the fifth movement, which was created later, was still missing. On April 10, 2018, for its 150th anniversary, the work is back to the exact place of its premiere in Bremen Cathedral. “Valentina Farcas was the perfect female counterpart to Goerne, which was not easy. She convinced with impeccable phrasing, diction, and legato, she never got shrill and she was not afraid to take risks in the high notes.” (El Pais), “rarely you hear such an insightful performance!” (FAZ)
Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)
W.A. Mozart’s timeless masterpiece at the Salzburg Festival is always an event! Especially when Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) receives such a “spectacular and virtuosic staging” (Le Figaro) by director Lydia Steier. Steier introduces the role of the grandfather, a narrator reading the opera like a fairy tale to his three grandchildren, performed by the famous actor Klaus Maria Brandauer (Out of Africa, James Bond). This ‘trick’ in combination with the gigantic moveable sets by stage designer Katharina Schlipf, allows new views on Mozart’s magical opera, with its different worlds. Thanks to conductor Constantinos Carydis, who “seems to breath with the music” (Tagesspiegel), there is a new Mozart to be heard too: Carydis draws “precise phrasing and plenty and of crisp articulation” (Financial Times) from “the musicians of the great Vienna Philharmonic” (New York Times).
Franz Schubert: Winterreise – visualized by William Kentridge
Franz Schubert´s “Winterreise” engages with its audience in a new and unexpected form: in a creative encounter with Schubert’s masterpiece. Matthias Goerne, ”the voice of perfection” (Le Figaro), pianist Markus Hinterhäuser and South African director, set designer and theatre artist William Kentridge joined forces on stage and traced newly imagined, deeply moving
images. In short animated films, Kentridge visualises Goerne’s and Hinterhäuser’s sonic contribution. A memorable meeting “of melancholy and magic.” (La Marseillaise). “Mr. Kentridge’s 24 stop-action films – made up of animated ink drawings and collages – offer a visually mesmerizing and thought-provoking commentary on Schubert’s song cycle.” (New York Times);
“There is an unusual robustness to his (Matthias Goerne´s) wanderer, infused by the virile beauty of his powerful baritone.” (New York Times)
Salzburg Festival 2017: Wozzeck
With a triumphant staging of Berg’s monumental opera Wozzeck, universal artist William Kentridge, who already made headlines with his productions of The Nose and Lulu, makes his appearance at the Salzburg Festival. In a “breathtaking reassessment” (Financial Times), he puts Berg’s tragical portrait of a simple soldier harassed by a merciless society in an extraordinary, multilayered set design, in which various projections of movie scenes and drawings intertwine with the action on stage. “Mr. Kentridge has given Wozzeck his most elegant and powerful operatic treatment yet.” (New York Times)
Salzburg Festival 2018: Die Zauberflöte
Mozart’s timeless masterpiece at the Salzburg Festival – it doesn’t get much better than this! Especially when “The Magic Flute” receives such a “spectacular and virtuosic staging” (Le Figaro) by American director Lydia Steier. Her colourful, fairy-tale production conjures up magical scenes and revolves around Hollywood star Klaus Maria Brandauer as grandfather, who reads the fantastical story of Tamino’s quest to his three grandchildren. The Three Boys are sung “technically flawlessly and expressively by three members of the Wiener Sängerknaben, a pure joy” (Spiegel Online). Constantinos Carydis leads a young ensemble of world class singers and draws “precise phrasing and plenty of crisp articulation from the Wiener Philharmoniker” (Financial Times). A delight already enjoyed by over one million TV viewers in Germany alone!
A Trio For Schubert: Voyage d’hiver
Schubert’s masterpiece is seen through the eyes and heard through the voice of baritone Matthias Goerne in this documentary about the making of Schubert’s song-cycle for the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, as visualized by William Kentridge.
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.
Franz Schubert – Winterreise
“Winterreise” by Franz Schubert – unquestionably one of the best known works in the lieder repertoire – engages with its audience in a new and unexpected form: in a creative encounter with Schubert’s masterpiece, the celebrated lieder specialist Matthias Goerne, pianist Markus Hinterhäuser and South African director, set designer and
theatre artist William Kentridge joined forces on stage and traced newly imagined, deeply moving images. In short animated films, Kentridge visualises Goerne’s and Hinterhäuser’s sonic contribution. A memorable meeting “of melancholy and magic” (La Marseillaise).
Le Concert de Paris 2018
«Le Concert de Paris» is an exceptional event held each year on Bastille Day at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, as a prelude to the traditional July 14th fireworks display. Two of Radio France’s most prestigious musical institutions, the Orchestre National de France and the Radio France Chorus, under the baton of maestro François-Xavier Roth, propose a top-quality programme, giving pride of place to the voice and brings together some of the world’s greatest soloists, including Aida Garifullina, Joyce DiDonato, Philippe Jaroussky, Matthias Goerne, Patricia Petibon, Katia Buniatishvili and Renaud Capuçon.