Husband-and-wife team Lang Lang and Gina Alice join Andris Nelsons and members of the Gewandhausorchester for a very special performance of Saint-Saëns’s ever-popular Carnival of the Animals. The humorous suite was composed with fun in mind, and Saint-Saëns wouldn’t allow it to be performed in public during his lifetime, lest it undermine his reputation as a serious composer. It went on, however, to become one of his best-loved works. Lang Lang is the soloist in Saint-Saëns’s scintillating Piano Concerto No.2, joining the Gewandhausorchester and Gewandhauskapellmeister Andris Nelsons. PROGRAM Saint-Saëns: Carnival of the Animals, Piano Concerto No.2
Nelsons conducts Bach & Saint-Saëns
Chinese superstar Lang Lang is the soloist in Saint-Saëns’s scintillating Piano Concerto No.2, joining the Gewandhausorchester and Gewandhauskapellmeister Andris Nelsons. One of the composer’s most popular works, the second concerto was written in just 17 days in the spring of 1868 and was once humorously described as “beginning like Bach and ending like Offenbach”. Its different styles certainly offer the virtuoso pianist the opportunity to display all sides of his or her technique – as Lang Lang does to scintillating effect here. The Bach-inspired first movement, meanwhile, provides the inspiration for the rest of the programme, which features rare and fascinating J.S. Bach orchestrations by Mahler, Elgar, Reger and Joachim Raff. PROGRAM Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No.2; Bach: orchestrations by Mahler, Elgar, Reger and Joachim Raff
RCO: Gardiner conducts Brahms Symphony No. 4
Who was Johannes Brahms? In a new cycle of four concerts, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, is investigating Brahms’s œuvre through the lens of the four symphonies performed over two seasons and accompanied by other works by the composer. The Fourth Symphony is juxtaposed with the Second Piano Concerto with soloist Stephen Hough. Under the baton of Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Brahms is instilled with a new radiance and vitality. PROGRAM Brahms: Symphony No. 4, Piano Concerto No. 2
RCO: Gardiner conducts Brahms Symphony No. 3
Who was Johannes Brahms? In a new cycle of four concerts, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, is investigating Brahms’s œuvre through the lens of the four symphonies performed over two seasons and accompanied by other works by the composer. The Third Symphony is juxtaposed with choral works sang by the Monteverdi Choir. Under the baton of Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Brahms is instilled with a new radiance and vitality. PROGRAM Brahms: Symphony No. 1, Choral Works
Bayreuth Festival 2022: Siegfried
This new production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival was the opera event of the 2022 festival season. Young director Valentin Schwarz reimagines the mythical story in the present day and tells a gripping family saga in the world of the rich and powerful. The musical direction is in the hands of Cornelius Meister. In Siegfried, Schwarz underlines the tragicomic elements in the relationship between the title hero and his foster father, Mime. The production also finds original and novel images for Siegfried’s encounter with the dragon and Brünnhilde’s liberation from the circle of fire. As Siegfried, Andreas Schager makes light of the role’s legendary challenges.
Bayreuth Festival 2022: Götterdämmerung
This new production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival was the opera event of the 2022 festival season. Young director Valentin Schwarz reimagines the mythical story in the present day and tells a gripping family saga in the world of the rich and powerful. The musical direction is in the hands of Cornelius Meister. The final part of the tetralogy sees Siegfried abandon his beloved Brünnhilde, allowing himself to be taken in by the Gibichungen and the unscrupulous Hagen and succumbing to the advances of Gutrune. Schwarz once more features the powerful symbol of a child and turns the horse Grane into a human companion of Brünnhilde, who also plays a central role in the shocking final image.
Bayreuth Festival 2022: Die Walküre
This new production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival was the opera event of the 2022 festival season. Young director Valentin Schwarz reimagines the mythical story in the present day and tells a gripping family saga in the world of the rich and powerful. The musical direction is in the hands of Cornelius Meister. In the second part of the tetralogy, Schwarz delves in particular into the relationship between Wotan, the father of the gods, and his “favorite daughter” Brünnhilde, showing it as especially unhappy and traumatic. Lise Davidsen and Klaus Florian Vogt prove themselves audience favourites for their portrayal of the siblings and lovers Sieglinde and Siegmund.
Bayreuth Festival 2022: Das Rheingold
This new production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival was the opera event of the 2022 Festival summer. Young director Valentin Schwarz reimagines the mythical story in the present day and tells a gripping family saga in the world of the rich and powerful. The musical direction is in the hands of Cornelius Meister. In Das Rheingold, the antagonists Wotan and Alberich are hostile twin brothers and it is not the gold from the Rhine that is stolen at the outset, but a child, emphasizing the fact that dynasties are always overshadowed by the question of who will one day inherit power.
RCO: Gardiner conducts Brahms Symphony No. 2
Who was Johannes Brahms? In a new cycle of four concerts, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, is investigating Brahms’s œuvre through the lens of the four symphonies performed over two seasons and accompanied by other works by the composer. The Second Symphony is juxtaposed with the First Piano Concerto with soloist Stephen Hough. Under the baton of Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Brahms is instilled with a new radiance and vitality. PROGRAM Brahms: Symphony No. 2, Piano Concerto No. 1
Daniil Trifonov – Bach: The Art of Life
Captivating the audience from the very first moment, Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov brings deep insight into the music-making of J.S. Bach at the Philharmonie in Berlin. Traversing the entirety of the keyboard with just his left hand, he performs a stunning rendition of Bach’s Chaconne in D Minor, before moving seamlessly into the monumental Art of Fugue. Trifonov navigates the 14 fugues and four canons with technical prowess, intimate understanding, careful detail, and exquisite touch and offers a self-composed conclusion of the final contrapunctus worthy of Bach’s genius, a performance of Dame Myra Hess’s moving transcription of “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” and three encores by three of Bach’s sons, performed between bursts of thunderous applause. PROGRAM Bach: Chaconne in D Minor, Art of Fugue and encores