The “German Requiem” made Johannes Brahms one of the most famous composers of his time. He himself later said of his work, “I have now found consolation.” Under the direction of Gianandrea Noseda, who presented himself with this extraordinary concert as the new General Music Director of the Zurich Opera House, the choir and orchestra performed in an empty hall – the orchestra on the stage, the choir facing it in the parquet and the tiers of the auditorium. Distanced, yet united in consolation. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
Beyond the Music: Barenboim-Said Akademie
After the founding of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in 1999, another project of intercultural understanding is derived from the friendship between Barenboim and the Palestinian humanist Edward Said. The inauguration of the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin marked a new phase within the political and educational engagement of musician and pedagogue Daniel Barenboim. After a successful world career as a pianist, conductor and musical teacher with political aspirations, the creation of this place is perhaps Barenboim’s most enduring work and at the same time a project of the heart. “Beyond the Music” portrays this innovative academy whose mission is committed to the humanistic ideals of its founders and ultimately a clear message of peace: music creates understanding.
Beyond Perfection – The pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli – a name that provokes almost a sense of awe and intimidation, even among his piano-playing peers. It is a name that represents the highest degree of perfection, a quest for beauty that surpasses that of any other piano virtuoso. However Michelangeli also had a reputation for cancelling concerts at short notice and was consequently portrayed in the media as a somewhat neurotic artist. “Beyond Perfection – Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli“ is the result of a 30-year search that has resulted in unusual interviews with those who knew him, and has also uncovered a wealth of new archive material: We get to experience Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli as he has never been seen before – and more importantly, as he has never been heard before. We also witness the maestro’s struggle back to his former perfection after suffering a devastating heart attack. This homage to Michelangeli provides the first comprehensive and in-depth portrait of a brilliant pianist who achieved mythical status.
Bregenz Festival 2019: Rigoletto
Bregenz Festival staged for the first time Giuseppe Verdi’s masterpiece Rigoletto – compelling, blood-curdling and beautiful. The stage and film director Philipp Stölzl (Medicus & Goethe), known for his successful productions in Salzburg as well as for his music videos for Madonna or for the German band Rammstein, created a spectacular setting on the world’s largest stage on a lake, praised by critics as a unique technological masterpiece. The staggering show has attracted not only 200,000 visitors to 20 sold out performances but also close to 2 million TV-viewers in Germany, Austria and Swiss alone. “This Rigoletto on Lake Constance becomes a Hollywood spectacle.” (Handelsblatt); “The performance of the three main characters has been outstanding.” (Der Standard)
Bregenz Festival 2017: Carmen
Georges Bizet‘s captivating music with its Spanish sounds took the world by storm: Carmen‘s Habanera and Seguidilla, like Escamillo‘s Toreador‘s Song, are known to one and all. The French composer‘s most successful opera is staged on the world’s largest, spectacular floating stage of Lake Constance in Bregenz, with a set designed by British artist Es Devlin. She has designed sets for pop stars like Adele, U2, Take That, the Pet Shop Boys and Kanye West. In collaboration with the stage director Kasper Holten, Director of Opera at the Royal Opera House in London, she has also worked at opera houses in Helsinki and Copenhagen, at the Theater an der Wien and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. For the Danish stage director, this “opera about destiny and obsession” centres on “two people who are treated as outsiders, whose paths cross and who cling to each other in a passionate but unhealthy relationship”.
Bregenz Festival 2015: Turandot
Mention Giacomo Puccini’s name and opera-lovers all over the world will think of grand opera and passionate love stories. One of the world’s most famous arias comes from the composer’s final opera, Turandot: “Nessun dorma” – none shall sleep because by morning the Chinese princess is determined to have discovered the name of the unknown prince. The work is remarkable for its Chinese local colour, its opulent crowd scenes, its powerful choruses and its characters overwhelmed by their emotions. Enthusiastically acclaimed by its audiences, the present production combines spectacular and touching scenes on the Bregenz Festival’s vast lakeside stage. “Melodies for millions, impressively staged” bringing “a bit of Hollywood to Bregenz” (ZDF heute journal TV news programme).
Sound of Freedom
The Soundtrack to Liberty – From the French Revolution to fall of the Iron Curtain. Music can move, comfort and encourage like no other medium. Social upheaval and political songs have marched hand in hand since the French Revolution, probably even before then. Music is a tool for mobilisation. It is the embodiment of the ideals and the hope for a better life. It galvanises the oppressed, spurs on the resistance and fires on the revolutionaries. The two part documentary Sound of Freedom goes back to the roots of this music of hope, rebellion, of the mavericks and the oppressed. This is the first time the sound of freedom and protest is being considered in its full historical context; not just within the microcosm of the Sixties and the civil rights movement, but with the narrative arc stretching from the 18th century to the present day. Part I: From the chansons of the French Revolution to the labour movement and the resistance against the Nazi Regime / Part II: From the hymns of the civil rights movement and the fight against apartheid to the call for sexual freedom and equality
Lucerne Festival 2018: Chailly conducts Ravel
A breathtaking all-Ravel program with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and Riccardo Chailly to celebrate the orchestra’s 15th anniversary. Founded in 2003 by Claudio Abbado, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra quickly grew into much more than “just” another festival orchestra. The incredible clarity and intensity of this orchestra, the wonderful timbres that make it so extraordinary – there is no program more suitable for experiencing and showcasing its uniqueness than the concert with works by Maurice Ravel. “That ballet music is a precursor of film music is seldom heard as directly as in the long camera shots through wide and whirling soundscapes.” Luzerner Zeitung PROGRAM Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales; La Valse; Daphnis et Chloé – Suites Nos. 1 & 2; Boléro
Messa da Requiem – Verdi’s Requiem Choreographed by Christian Spuck
With the Messa da Requiem, Christian Spuck brought one of Verdi’s key works on performing stage in his first audiovisual recording since taking his position as Ballet Director at Opernhaus Zurich. In a large-scale co-production by the Ballet and Opera Zurich, Spuck ventured to portray a profound interpretation of Verdi’s funeral mass. He focuses on people who, in their vulnerability and helplessness, are in the search for comfort. Spuck is not at all concerned with a purely dance-like illustration of Verdi’s music, but instead in the contentual-scenic link of the dancers with the soloists and choristers. They act on stage together and take part in ritualized movements and sequences. With Fabio Luisi leading the Philharmonia Zurich, the Opera Choir, and the soloists Krassimira Stoyanova, Veronica Simeoni, Francesco Meli and Georg Zeppenfeld, there is a musical interpretation of some of the most acknowledged artists of our times.
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.