Bright as a bell is the attribute that one must associate with the voice of Regula Mühlemann. Her “Exsultate jubilate” scales the shimmering heights without any trace of effort, with a natural elegance that is second to none. After her stunning performance, the concert continues with Renaud Capuçon and Gérard Caussé performing Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante K. 364 under the intense baton of Lithuanian conductor Giedre Šlekyte on the podium of the Camerata Salzburg. PROGRAM Symphony No. 31, “Exsultate, jubilate” K. 165, “Nehmt meinen Dank, ihr holden Gönner” K. 383, Sinfonia concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra K. 364
A Musical Journey through Grafenegg
A special Grafenegg soirée – the festival’s artistic director, pianist Rudolf Buchbinder meets various voice leaders of the Tonkünstler orchestra in the middle of the impressive park for a musical get together. Well-known works by Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Haydn and Beethoven can be heard at various locations on the festival site, for example the Wolkenturm, outside the castle, the auditorium, the garden pavilion and the park’s idyllic biotope.
An evening with Lehár
Franz Lehár, the founder of the Silver Operetta Era and creator of unforgettable melodies, would have turned 150 in 2020. He has been a central artistic companion of the Wiener Symphoniker who initiated a fabulous concert with renowned artists including Finnish soprano Camilla Nylund and tenors Piotr Beczala and Michael Schade. Manfred Honeck conducts. The concert at the beautiful Theater an der Wien features Lehár’s most popular pieces from The Merry Widow, The Land Of Smiles, Zarewitsch, The Count Of Luxembourg and Giuditta including the hits Meine Lippen, Sie Küssen So Heiß and Dein Ist Mein Ganzes Herz.
Salzburg Festival 2018: Nelsons conducts Mahler and Zimmermann
The notion of passion, in music, initially referred to accounts of the suffering and death of Jesus. But would any form of art be conceivable without ardent passion and that kind of suffering which mobilizes creative forces as starting point for new artistic endeavours? Andris Nelsons presents a concert night which concentrates every conceivable passion: Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Trumpet Concerto, entitled “Nobody knows the trouble I see” – a protest against racism – and Mahler’s Second, ‘Resurrection’ Symphony. PROGRAM Zimmermann: Nobody knows de trouble I see – Concerto for trumpet and orchestra; Mahler: Symphony No.2 (Resurrection). A passionate rendition of Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony, “oscillating between dream and grotesque, between idyll and Hellmouth” (Wiener Zeitung).
Salzburg Festival 2018: Barenboim conducts Tchaikovsky and Debussy
Special experiences await you at this concert: “It was like a bath of ice, cocaine, and rainbows,” remarked the American writer Henry Miller of the effect made on him by Alexander Scriabin’s orgiastic orchestral fantasy Le Poème de l’extase. No wonder, when it comes to a composer regarded as a visionary who touched on the very limits of madness. Scriabin even saw himself as a kind of Prometheus and declared: “The world lives in my consciousness, as my act of creation.” Claude Debussy also experienced a mystical moment when he conceived his impressionist tone poem La Mer. With this music, he wished not to create a musical depiction of the roaring waves and sparkling water but rather to reflect the impression that the play of the waves awakened within him. Impressive in any case is how Lisa Batiashvili performs the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. According to the Guardian, she is a gifted storyteller, while the Wiener Standard praised her bright violin sound, comparing it to “a ray of light.” PROGRAM Tchaikovsky: Polonaise from Eugene Onegin; Violin Concerto in D major op. 35; Debussy: La Mer; Skrjabin: Le Poème de l’extase op. 54
Thielemann conducts Bruckner No. 2
Christian Thielemann’s brilliant interpretation of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 2 is superbly performed by the Staatskapelle Dresden and concludes its critically acclaimed Bruckner Cycle with a concert at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. The orchestra makes skilled use of the new hall’s clear acoustics, filling the space with its warm sound: simply phenomenal! A concert that “will go down in the annals of the Elbphilharmonie” (Die Welt).
Grafenegg: Midsummer Night’s Gala 2016
For the Summer Nights Gala world stars assemble under the night sky on Grafenegg’s “Wolkenturm” (“cloud-tower”) stage, the futuristic stage design that has become a symbol of the Festival. Bass-baritone Bryn Terfel and soprano Olga Peretyatko present works by Gounod, Bizet, Verdi, Donizetti and Lehár, pianist Rudolf Buchbinder plays Weber’s Concert Piece in F minor. The gala conclude with a firework display to Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance in front of the beautiful backdrop of the idyllic castle grounds. “A triumph for Peretyatko, Terfel and Buchbinder!” (Kronenzeitung) “A feast of great voices and uppermost piano-art.” (Kurier)
Grafenegg: Anniversary Gala 2016: Beethoven No. 9
The Grafenegg Festival celebrates its 10 years’ anniversary! On this occasion, the Tonkünstler Orchestra, under the baton of Yutaka Sado, is joined by 22 alumni of the European Union Youth Orchestra and accompanied by top soloists Klaus Florian Vogt, René Pape, Camilla Nylund and Elena Zhidkova. The jubilee includes this year’s Composer in Residence Christian Jost’s two commissioned works Fanfare and An die Hoffnung as well as Beethoven’s Overture Coriolan. With Beethoven’s 9th Symphony the evening reaches ist climax. Due to the performance of “the excellent bass René Pape, the fabulous soprano Camilla Nylund and the great mezzo-soprano Elena Zhidkova along with the Wiener Singverein, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony turned out to be simply sensational. Jubilation!” (Kurier)
Red Ribbon Celebration Concert 2016 – Orpheus and Eurydice
On the occasion of the Red Ribbon Celebration Concert, Vienna’s famous charity concert for the benefit of HIV and AIDS aid projects, some of the world’s greatest opera stars made their appearance at the venerable Burgtheater. Anna Netrebko, Piotr Bezcala, Juan Diego Flórez and Thomas Hampson took part in this festive concert evening which revolved around the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. With excerpts from corresponding operas by Claudio Monteverdi and Christoph Willibald Gluck, works by W. A. Mozart and Franz Liszt, the audience is taken on Orpheus’ journey to the underworld, from where he desperately tries to take his love Eurydice back to the world of the living by the help of his singing.
Salzburg Festival: Dudamel conducts Strauss
Richard Strauss year 2014 at Salzburg Festival: Gustavo Dudamel, winner of the Leonard Bernstein Award 2014, conducts the Vienna Philharmonic. On the program Strauss’ tone poems “Tod & Verklärung” and “Also sprach Zarathustra”. The evening is rounded up with a work by René Staar, who is also one of the Philharmonic’s violinists.