The world premiere of Hans Werner Henze’s opera, recorded live at the Salzburg Festival in 2003. The libretto is based on an old Syrian fairy tale concerning three rulers, three sons and three treasures. Matthias Goerne leads an international cast including Laura Aikin, John Mark Ainsley, Alfred Muff and Hanna Schwarz. Markus Stenz conducts the Wiener Philharmoniker.
Nelsons conducts Mahler – Des Knaben Wunderhorn
With Gustav Mahler, laughter and tears are often closely connected. As performed by Matthias Goerne, Andris Nelsons, and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, the songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn showed this at the Lucerne Summer Festival in 2015. The gaiety of Rheinlegendchen is placed here with the tale of starvation in Das irdische Leben, and the satirical Fischpredigt of St. Anthony is juxtaposed with the march of the fallen soldiers in Revelge. Baritone Goerne shapes these songs with “introspection and narrative clarity”, while Nelsons “proves to be a sensitive accompanist”, according to Neue Zürcher Zeitung.