Almost twenty years ago, Hélène Grimaud recorded Gershwin’s Piano Concerto on CD in Baltimore under the direction of our Honorary President David Zinman. Now she is bringing it to the Tonhalle Zurich – together with Paavo Järvi, who, as a jazz lover, also has a special relationship with this work. He will also conduct a suite from Janácek’s opera “The Cunning Little Vixen” and Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5: the latter is a work for connoisseurs, says Paavo Järvi, “but perhaps that is precisely why it is also one for everyone”. What is certain is that this music has found its way into pop in very different ways: the swan call motif in particular has been quoted by bands such as The Murmaids, The First Class and Play People.
Tosca
French film and stage director Christophe Honoré presents Puccini’s verismo masterpiece as an opera about opera and brings the legendary prima donna Catherine Malfitano back on stage. Young soprano Angel Blue gives a highly acclaimed debut as Floria Tosca with a “warm and golden yet immensly powerful voice” (New York Times). At her side as Cavaradossi sings Joseph Calleja, one of the top tenors of his generation. “Puccini’s opera triumphed in Aix-en-Provence under the baton of Daniele Rustioni” (Le Monde).
Verdi, Messa da Requiem
In time for the Verdi Year 2013 the Teatro alla Scala has come up with a special project: Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with an exquisite quartet of soloists – Anja Harteros, Elina Garanca, Jonas Kaufmann and René Pape – conducted by Daniel Barenboim, the Teatro’s Maestro scaligero. This first performance in Milan is followed by performances at the Lucerne and the Salzburg Festival and in the Berlin Philharmonie in 2013.
The Mozart Requiem Project
Mozart’s legendary Requiem is certainly one of the composer’s most famous and frequently performed works. Raphaël Pichon and the ensemble “Pygmalion” – one of the leading music ensembles (a choir and orchestra) following historical criteria and playing on period instruments, now present the work in a unique version: divided into four blocks, it is interspersed with various vocal works, specially chosen to provide an overarching theme and sweeping vision within the context of the genius’ musical oeuvre. Performed in the Palau de la Música Catalana, UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most beautiful concert halls in the world, the performance becomes “an aesthetic experience full of sensitivity, a performance close to the sublime and a refreshing reading of one of the most performed and programmed works of the sacred repertoire” (Platea Magazine).
Le lacrime di Eros
“A panopticon of emotions” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) This one-of-a-kind production explores “the dark sides of love” with a pasticcio of Renaissance pieces centered around Claudio Monteverdi, his predecessors and contemporaries. Dreamed up by director Romeo Castelucci and conductor Raphaël Pichon, Le lacrime di Eros occupies a space between opera and performance art, marrying a mosaic of Renaissance compositions with electronic music by Scott Gibbons and presenting it in a series of scenes that are visually stunning, yet disturbing: “There is not a second of this show that is not perfectly beautiful: composition, colours, choice of costumes, lighting…” (Classique News) and Pichon “conjures the most beautiful colours from his orchestra” (Trouw). Pichon’s ensemble Pygmalion and the excellent soloists leave nothing to be desired: “Pygmalion has a sound that you must hear at least one: it bursts with lust for life” (nrw).
Hélène Grimaud – “Woodlands and beyond…”
Together with her creative and life partner, photographer Mat Hennek, French star pianist Helene Grimaud comes up with a multimedia concert project at the Grand Hall of Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie. Grimaud’s virtuoso piano performance is accompanied by Hennek’s highly praised photo series Woodlands, which depicts genuine portraits of trees, the results of numerous hikes through various forests in Europe and the USA. With works by romantic and impressionist composers, such as Luciano Berio, Nitin Sawhney, Toru Takemitsu, Franz Liszt and Claude Debussy, Grimaud leads her audience into the enchanting world of those various Woodlands and even beyond … “Grimaud is completely at ease, showing flawless clarity in her interpretations” (Die Welt).
Salzburg Festival 2025: Zaide or The Path of Light
Raphaël Pichon, Pygmalion and an “outstanding” (Kurier) cast of singers pull off “a Mozart miracle” (Kronenzeitung) with their new project at the Salzburg Festival. The unfinished singspiel Zaide, excerpts from Davide penitente and Thamos, and concert arias merge into a semi-staged evening that highlights the themes of humanity and freedom in Mozart’s work: “What Raphaël Pichon conjured up from his two excellent ensembles is almost impossible to describe; you simply have to experience it for yourself” (Die Presse). “One of the most powerful experiences of the past decades” (Kurier) “A magnificent quintet of soloists led by the divine Sabine Devieilhe” (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
Salzburg Festival 2023: Le nozze di Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro is Lorenzo Da Ponte’s and Mozart‘s first of their three jointly created operas about attempts at interpersonal relationships: a turbulent comedy with erotic entanglements, which was not a harmless comedy even in Mozart’s day. Director Martin Kušej moves the drama of love and jealousy to a mafia-like urban milieu where conflicts are fought out with pistols. Young French conductor Raphaël Pichon, “original sound expert” (Der Tagesspiegel) and for the first time on the podium of the Wiener Philharmoniker, leads a young ensemble of singers around clan boss Almaviva (“vocally flawlessly brilliant: Andrè Schuen”, Hamburger Abendblatt). “Kušej’s staging is musical, Pichon’s conducting theatrical; the two work together to a degree that is far more rare than it should be. Every detail has been carefully thought through, and the symbiosis is breathtaking.” (Financial Times)
Concert Monstre
Five hundred artists on stage is just what it takes to do justice to the grandeur and genius of Hector Berlioz. His Symphonie funèbre et triomphale, premiered at the Bastille, draws on this impressive cast of instrumental and vocal forces under the baton of François-Xavier Roth at the Philharmonie de Paris. Also to be heard are Berlioz’ works L’ impériale, Chant des chemins de fer and La Marseillaise in a breathtaking orchestration, sung with the participation of the audience. A gigantic and “outstanding concert” (ResMusica). PROGRAM: Grande Symphonie funèbre et triomphale; L’ impériale, Chant des chemins de fer, La Marseillaise
Salonen conducts Mahler No. 2
Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony is undoubtedly the most popular of all his symphonies. The composer stages a gradual victory over his doubts and asserts his creative vocation and his newfound faith in the cosmos. The audience is immediately struck by the opening chaos orchestrating a magniicent funeral. The sublime final chorus enraptures listeners as it celebrates the Last Judgement and the divine love that is spread everywhere. Resurrection takes up in a spectacular way the question of a hypothetical renewal: the Stadium de Vitrolles near Aix has been preserved in a state of beauty ravaged by twenty-five years of abandonment and clandestine occupations. Inside this iconic building Romeo Castellucci tackles the enigma of a mysterious rebirth. “It became big, very big, beyond huge, beyond gigantic.” (Opera Today)