The Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela was the orchestra in residence at the Lucerne Festival at Easter 2010. Under the baton of their strong supporter Claudio Abbado, the orchestra once again reaches out to the audience on this special evening, spreading its lively enthusiasm at highest musical level, it is both famous and loved for. After a brilliant performance of Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite Op. 20, the ensemble is accompanied by the young and talented Austrian soprano Anna Prohaska. The evening is concluded by a most emotional interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Pathétique’.
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’.