For years, Anne-Sophie Mutter has been performing together with various scholarship students of her foundation – in order to familiarize them with the life of a professional musician and to introduce them to a broader audience. In spring 2011 she also launched the project Mutter’s Virtuosi: This ensemble under the musical direction of the violinist consists of current and former scholarship holders of the of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation as well as several other young musicians. This concert at Vienna’s Musikverein includes works by J. S. Bach, his Violin Concerto No. 1 and the Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, Vivaldi’s concert for three violins in F major, the Violin Concerto in A major by Joseph Bologne as well as the Nonet by André Previn, a commission for Mutter’s Virtuosi.
Salzburg Festival 2023: Matinee with Antonello Manacorda & Golda Schultz
The Mozart Matinees, concerts given at the Great Hall of the Mozarteum Foundation at the weekends during the Salzburg Festival, were established in 1921 and have in the meantime assumed legendary status. In this Mozart Matinee, Italian conductor Antonello Manacorda at the podium of the Mozarteumorchester and South African soprano Golda Schultz present a fine selection of arias that Mozart composed to texts by Lorenzo Da Ponte. The arias are framed by Mozart’s First Symphony and the “Jupiter” Symphony, his very last.
Salzburg Festival 2023: Roberto González-Monjas conducts the Mozarteum Orchestra
Roberto González-Monjas, designated principal conductor of the Mozarteum Orchestra, “put an interpretive exclamation mark on his Festival premiere with a purely sacred programme”: Mozart’s Coronation Mass, the main work of the evening, is combined with two church sonatas, the famous motet “Exsultate, jubilate” for soprano and orchestra and the equally famous choral work “Ave verum corpus”. Together with a young quartet of singers led by soprano Nikola Hillebrand (in her “Exsultate” she is “crystal-clear in sound, technically precise and sensitive in interpretation”), González-Monjas provides “youthful and cheeky pathos and a breath of fresh air” (Salzburger Nachrichten)
Vienna Prater Picnic Concert
With their Prater Picnic, the Wiener Symphoniker offer a very special open-air concert to their audience: visitors are invited to pack their picnic basket and enjoy a colourful concert on the Kaiserwiese in the Vienna Prater in front of the spectacular backdrop of the Vienna Giant Ferris Wheel. This year, under the musical direction of Dirk Kaftan, the Wiener Symphoniker, together with soprano Vera-Lotte Boecker and baritone Rafael Fingerlos, embark on a musical journey around the world to mark the 150th anniversary of the Vienna World’s Fair of 1873 – with works by composers of this era from Robert Stolz and George Enescu to George Gershwin, Cole Porter and John Lennon.
Salzburg Festival 2023: Daniil Trifonov
Grammy Award-winning pianist Daniil Trifonov has made a spectac ular ascent of the classical music world. Combining consummate technique with rare sensitivity and depth, his performances are a perpetual source of awe. “He has everything and more, […] tender ness and also the demonic element. I never heard anything like that,” marveled pianist Martha Argerich. In this Salzburg recital, the “keyboard magician” (Salzburger Nachrichten) spans the spectrum between classical and early modern. Works from Mozart, Schumann and Tchaikovsky to Skriabin, Ravel and Rachmaninoff are performed – a “witch’s work of pianistic virtuosity”. (Standard)
Salzburg Festival 2023: Renaud Capuçon & Alexandre Kantorow
French violinist Renaud Capuçon and French pianist Alexandre Kantorow, each of them a star in his own right and winners of many international awards, teamed up to play all three sonatas of Johannes Brahms for violin and piano. In the Great Hall of the Mozarteum Foundation, ideally suited for the performance of chamber music, “Kantorow and Capuçon unfold this music in a joyful and in every moment attentive liveliness, finding a symbiosis of listening and playing individuals, each with the peculiarity of his instrument.” (Salzburger Nachrichten). With this concert, Alexandre Kantorow is giving his debut at the Salzburg Festival.
Thielemann conducts Brahms
“There is no clearer plea for a Brahms cycle with this conductor and this pianist” (Kurier) said the press about this concert by the Wiener Philharmoniker under the direction of Christian Thielemann. It is the continuation of their Brahms cycle, the performance of all of the composer’s symphonies and instrumental concertos. This part of the cycle includes Brahms’ Third Symphony and his Second Piano Concerto, which is considered one of the most difficult concertos in the piano literature. The exceptional pianist Igor Levit takes up this challenge and “seemingly took the heaviness out of the solo parts, […] his wondrous Brahms feeling enchanted in moments of floating tempi as well as in the midst of fine mists of sound that arose from rapid whispers. A summit of delicacy” (Der Standard). Together with the Wiener Philharmoniker and Christian Thielemann, it’s “a combination that one cannot imagine can be surpassed today” (Kurier) PRORAM Brahms: Symphony No. 3, Piano Concerto No. 2
“Haydn, the Shakespeare of Music” – Paavo Jäarvi & Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
Haydn was composer in residence in London twice: in the 1791/92 season and in the 1794/95 season. At that time, the city was in the throes of music fever, to which Haydn had contributed significantly. Today, one of his London symphonies often merely stands at the beginning of a concert in which a musical heavyweight by another – later – composer follows. The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, on the other hand, devotes itself entirely to the “Shakespeare of Music”, as Haydn was called by the press. The program includes an overture by his London composer friend William Shield and three of his London symphonies, for which Haydn reached into his great compositional bag of tricks.
“Haydn in particular has to be played as vividly as possible, and deliberately sometimes quite unconventionally, so that the hidden wit of his symphonies comes to the fore. And Paavo Järvi, Artistic Director of the Kammerphilharmonie Bremen for almost two decades, and his orchestra are true masters at this.” (Hamburger Abendblatt)
Jordi Savall conducts Mozart’s Requiem
The Catalan old master, conductor, gambist and musicologist Jordi Savall, one of the greatest interpreters of historically informed performance practice, joins the Mozart Music Week with his orchestra “Le Concert des Nations” and his “Capella de Catalunya” choir. Playing exclusively on original instruments or instruments built according to historical specifications, Savall juxtaposes two of Mozart’s most famous and popular works: his Serenade No. 13, K. 525, better known by its nickname “Eine kleine Nachtmusik”, and his Requiem, which remained unfinished and has since been the subject of wildest speculation and mysterious conspiracy theories. “The performers succeed in making the well-known piece sound fresh and by no means banal. […] Despite the many excellent perfor mances available on record, Savall’s interpretation sounded unique.” (Das Opernmagazin)
Paavo Järvi & Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich
“When a conductor who is always in search of the ideal sound meets an orchestra that follows him with devotion at every stage and a virtuoso who transports us to other worlds with the truthfulness of his playing, extraordinary things can happen. This is what happened when Paavo Järvi and “his” Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich gave a guest performance with violist Antoine Tamestit at the Vienna Musikverein” (Kurier). The concert opens with Berlioz’s Harold en Italie, a dreamy, melancholy work in which Berlioz processed his wanderings in the Abruzzi. French violist Antoine Tamestit likes to experiment with new formats and seeks his way off the interpretive beaten track. Harold en Italie therefore seems tailor-made for him: as a symphony with solo viola, it was a highly innovative work in its time. The work is followed by Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 1, in the version for orchestra by Arnold Schönberg. Brahms composed the piece in 1861 and it is known for its sweeping melodies and complex counterpoint.