It‘s an event that draws many thousands of music lovers to Verona every summer: the opera season at the ancient Roman Arena. One of the highlights of the 2006 season was the riveting production of Puccini‘s “Tosca“ by Argentine director Hugo de Ana. Nearly 15,000 spectators regularly filled the amphitheater for the performances of the Puccini favorite with a stellar cast – Fiorenza Cedolins, Marcelo Álvarez and Ruggero Raimondi – under the baton of Daniel Oren. “An altogether perfect staging, with the director exploiting to the fullest the vast space of the amphitheater and designing grandiose scenes and magnificent costumes,“ wrote Italian daily Corriere della Sera
Ariadne auf Naxos
Hugo von Hofmannsthal called ‘Ariadne auf Naxos’, which he created in close collaboration with Richard Strauss, one of the ‘most delicate of structures’. Indeed, in its complexity, the work truly does represent something utterly unique. Emily Magee and Roberto Saccà are radiant in their role debuts as Ariadne and Bacchus, just as Elena Mosuc’s Zerbinetta is incomparably dazzling and Michelle Breedt’s Composer profoundly touching. Christoph von Dohnányi, one of the great Strauss interpreters of our time, probes the depths of the incredibly finely-spun score with an elegant feel for sound, and ensures a perfect balance between operetta-like lightness and a tragic operatic tone.
RCO: Mahler – Das Lied von der Erde
Concert on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Bernard Haitink’s collaboration with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Tosca
A superlative staging of Puccini’s Tosca by Italian opera producer Hugo de Ana brought to you from the world-famous Arena di Verona and complete with all the splendour that a Puccini opera demands! The popular tragedy is sung by a dream team cast of excellent singer-actors and conducted by long-established Arena di Verona conductor Daniel Oren.
The recording captures one of those special Verona summer evenings, when the audience fills the historic circle in expectation of the enjoyment of an open-air opera performance. Verona’s amphitheatre, known as the ‘arena’, provides an atmospheric setting for the summer festival. To view an opera in the former amphitheatre, the second largest of its kind after the Colosseum in Rome, can truly be regarded as an impressive experience. The TV transmission, however, provides a closer look at the stage and the singers and brings this dramatic opera directly to the home viewer.
Mozart, Sonata in A major, K.526
An important part of Anne-Sophie Mutter’s “Mozart Project” is to present the composer’s mature violin sonatas. Between 2005 and 2007, Ms. Mutter and pianist Lambert Orkis toured throughout Europe, North America and Asia with the Mozart sonatas. In major musical centers such as Paris, London, Vienna and New York, they offered the entire cycle over three consecutive evenings. This three-evening survey was recorded in Munich in February 2006. Mozart composed sonatas for violin and piano from his earliest youth until his final years. But while the early pieces are little more than piano sonatas with violin accompaniments, the more mature works of 1778 begin to integrate the violin and piano parts more closely, and to highlight the growing independence and virtuosity of the violin. Mozart composed several violin sonatas during his stay in Mannheim and on his voyage to Paris in 1778. These first mature sonatas reflect some of the “Sturm und Drang” atmosphere of the music at the court of Mannheim, which emboldened Mozart to write in a freer and more dramatic mode. The E minor Sonata K. 304, for instance, prefigures Romanticism, and K. 306 incorporates a written-out cadenza for both instruments, similarly to an operatic “scena”. Indeed, the sonatas’ closeness to the opera is an element that Anne-Sophie Mutter herself has often pointed out: “For me, these sonatas are like narratives. Mozart never left the operatic stage, not even in his chamber music.” Mozart published his second set of mature sonatas shortly after he moved to Vienna in 1781. Among the most outstanding works of this cycle is the F major Sonata K. 377, a restrained piece of brooding intensity and introspection. The last sonatas were written between 1784 and 1788 and include Ms. Mutter’s favorite, the B flat major Sonata K. 454, “a monumental achievement,” as she puts it. “In the famous Andante, the violin and piano are so elaborately intertwined that you simply don’t notice when the words are taken out of your mouth and put back again. … This work has a depth that’s unequalled.” (Anne-Sophie Mutter) Also available is a “making-of” documentary on “The Mozart Project” (45′), in which Anne-Sophie Mutter talks about her relationship to Mozart’s music and is joined by her colleagues André Previn, Lambert Orkis and Daniel Müller-Schott.
Mozart, Sonata in E flat major, K.302
An important part of Anne-Sophie Mutter’s “Mozart Project” is to present the composer’s mature violin sonatas. Between 2005 and 2007, Ms. Mutter and pianist Lambert Orkis toured throughout Europe, North America and Asia with the Mozart sonatas. In major musical centers such as Paris, London, Vienna and New York, they offered the entire cycle over three consecutive evenings. This three-evening survey was recorded in Munich in February 2006. Mozart composed sonatas for violin and piano from his earliest youth until his final years. But while the early pieces are little more than piano sonatas with violin accompaniments, the more mature works of 1778 begin to integrate the violin and piano parts more closely, and to highlight the growing independence and virtuosity of the violin. Mozart composed several violin sonatas during his stay in Mannheim and on his voyage to Paris in 1778. These first mature sonatas reflect some of the “Sturm und Drang” atmosphere of the music at the court of Mannheim, which emboldened Mozart to write in a freer and more dramatic mode. The E minor Sonata K. 304, for instance, prefigures Romanticism, and K. 306 incorporates a written-out cadenza for both instruments, similarly to an operatic “scena”. Indeed, the sonatas’ closeness to the opera is an element that Anne-Sophie Mutter herself has often pointed out: “For me, these sonatas are like narratives. Mozart never left the operatic stage, not even in his chamber music.” Mozart published his second set of mature sonatas shortly after he moved to Vienna in 1781. Among the most outstanding works of this cycle is the F major Sonata K. 377, a restrained piece of brooding intensity and introspection. The last sonatas were written between 1784 and 1788 and include Ms. Mutter’s favorite, the B flat major Sonata K. 454, “a monumental achievement,” as she puts it. “In the famous Andante, the violin and piano are so elaborately intertwined that you simply don’t notice when the words are taken out of your mouth and put back again. … This work has a depth that’s unequalled.” (Anne-Sophie Mutter) Also available is a “making-of” documentary on “The Mozart Project” (45′), in which Anne-Sophie Mutter talks about her relationship to Mozart’s music and is joined by her colleagues André Previn, Lambert Orkis and Daniel Müller-Schott.
Mozart, Sonata in D major, K.306
An important part of Anne-Sophie Mutter’s “Mozart Project” is to present the composer’s mature violin sonatas. Between 2005 and 2007, Ms. Mutter and pianist Lambert Orkis toured throughout Europe, North America and Asia with the Mozart sonatas. In major musical centers such as Paris, London, Vienna and New York, they offered the entire cycle over three consecutive evenings. This three-evening survey was recorded in Munich in February 2006. Mozart composed sonatas for violin and piano from his earliest youth until his final years. But while the early pieces are little more than piano sonatas with violin accompaniments, the more mature works of 1778 begin to integrate the violin and piano parts more closely, and to highlight the growing independence and virtuosity of the violin. Mozart composed several violin sonatas during his stay in Mannheim and on his voyage to Paris in 1778. These first mature sonatas reflect some of the “Sturm und Drang” atmosphere of the music at the court of Mannheim, which emboldened Mozart to write in a freer and more dramatic mode. The E minor Sonata K. 304, for instance, prefigures Romanticism, and K. 306 incorporates a written-out cadenza for both instruments, similarly to an operatic “scena”. Indeed, the sonatas’ closeness to the opera is an element that Anne-Sophie Mutter herself has often pointed out: “For me, these sonatas are like narratives. Mozart never left the operatic stage, not even in his chamber music.” Mozart published his second set of mature sonatas shortly after he moved to Vienna in 1781. Among the most outstanding works of this cycle is the F major Sonata K. 377, a restrained piece of brooding intensity and introspection. The last sonatas were written between 1784 and 1788 and include Ms. Mutter’s favorite, the B flat major Sonata K. 454, “a monumental achievement,” as she puts it. “In the famous Andante, the violin and piano are so elaborately intertwined that you simply don’t notice when the words are taken out of your mouth and put back again. … This work has a depth that’s unequalled.” (Anne-Sophie Mutter) Also available is a “making-of” documentary on “The Mozart Project” (45′), in which Anne-Sophie Mutter talks about her relationship to Mozart’s music and is joined by her colleagues André Previn, Lambert Orkis and Daniel Müller-Schott.
Mozart, Sonata in F major, K.377
An important part of Anne-Sophie Mutter’s “Mozart Project” is to present the composer’s mature violin sonatas. Between 2005 and 2007, Ms. Mutter and pianist Lambert Orkis toured throughout Europe, North America and Asia with the Mozart sonatas. In major musical centers such as Paris, London, Vienna and New York, they offered the entire cycle over three consecutive evenings. This three-evening survey was recorded in Munich in February 2006. Mozart composed sonatas for violin and piano from his earliest youth until his final years. But while the early pieces are little more than piano sonatas with violin accompaniments, the more mature works of 1778 begin to integrate the violin and piano parts more closely, and to highlight the growing independence and virtuosity of the violin. Mozart composed several violin sonatas during his stay in Mannheim and on his voyage to Paris in 1778. These first mature sonatas reflect some of the “Sturm und Drang” atmosphere of the music at the court of Mannheim, which emboldened Mozart to write in a freer and more dramatic mode. The E minor Sonata K. 304, for instance, prefigures Romanticism, and K. 306 incorporates a written-out cadenza for both instruments, similarly to an operatic “scena”. Indeed, the sonatas’ closeness to the opera is an element that Anne-Sophie Mutter herself has often pointed out: “For me, these sonatas are like narratives. Mozart never left the operatic stage, not even in his chamber music.” Mozart published his second set of mature sonatas shortly after he moved to Vienna in 1781. Among the most outstanding works of this cycle is the F major Sonata K. 377, a restrained piece of brooding intensity and introspection. The last sonatas were written between 1784 and 1788 and include Ms. Mutter’s favorite, the B flat major Sonata K. 454, “a monumental achievement,” as she puts it. “In the famous Andante, the violin and piano are so elaborately intertwined that you simply don’t notice when the words are taken out of your mouth and put back again. … This work has a depth that’s unequalled.” (Anne-Sophie Mutter) Also available is a “making-of” documentary on “The Mozart Project” (45′), in which Anne-Sophie Mutter talks about her relationship to Mozart’s music and is joined by her colleagues André Previn, Lambert Orkis and Daniel Müller-Schott.
Mozart, Sonata in C major, K.296
An important part of Anne-Sophie Mutter’s “Mozart Project” is to present the composer’s mature violin sonatas. Between 2005 and 2007, Ms. Mutter and pianist Lambert Orkis toured throughout Europe, North America and Asia with the Mozart sonatas. In major musical centers such as Paris, London, Vienna and New York, they offered the entire cycle over three consecutive evenings. This three-evening survey was recorded in Munich in February 2006. Mozart composed sonatas for violin and piano from his earliest youth until his final years. But while the early pieces are little more than piano sonatas with violin accompaniments, the more mature works of 1778 begin to integrate the violin and piano parts more closely, and to highlight the growing independence and virtuosity of the violin. Mozart composed several violin sonatas during his stay in Mannheim and on his voyage to Paris in 1778. These first mature sonatas reflect some of the “Sturm und Drang” atmosphere of the music at the court of Mannheim, which emboldened Mozart to write in a freer and more dramatic mode. The E minor Sonata K. 304, for instance, prefigures Romanticism, and K. 306 incorporates a written-out cadenza for both instruments, similarly to an operatic “scena”. Indeed, the sonatas’ closeness to the opera is an element that Anne-Sophie Mutter herself has often pointed out: “For me, these sonatas are like narratives. Mozart never left the operatic stage, not even in his chamber music.” Mozart published his second set of mature sonatas shortly after he moved to Vienna in 1781. Among the most outstanding works of this cycle is the F major Sonata K. 377, a restrained piece of brooding intensity and introspection. The last sonatas were written between 1784 and 1788 and include Ms. Mutter’s favorite, the B flat major Sonata K. 454, “a monumental achievement,” as she puts it. “In the famous Andante, the violin and piano are so elaborately intertwined that you simply don’t notice when the words are taken out of your mouth and put back again. … This work has a depth that’s unequalled.” (Anne-Sophie Mutter) Also available is a “making-of” documentary on “The Mozart Project” (45′), in which Anne-Sophie Mutter talks about her relationship to Mozart’s music and is joined by her colleagues André Previn, Lambert Orkis and Daniel Müller-Schott.
Mozart, Sonata in E minor, K.304
An important part of Anne-Sophie Mutter’s “Mozart Project” is to present the composer’s mature violin sonatas. Between 2005 and 2007, Ms. Mutter and pianist Lambert Orkis toured throughout Europe, North America and Asia with the Mozart sonatas. In major musical centers such as Paris, London, Vienna and New York, they offered the entire cycle over three consecutive evenings. This three-evening survey was recorded in Munich in February 2006. Mozart composed sonatas for violin and piano from his earliest youth until his final years. But while the early pieces are little more than piano sonatas with violin accompaniments, the more mature works of 1778 begin to integrate the violin and piano parts more closely, and to highlight the growing independence and virtuosity of the violin. Mozart composed several violin sonatas during his stay in Mannheim and on his voyage to Paris in 1778. These first mature sonatas reflect some of the “Sturm und Drang” atmosphere of the music at the court of Mannheim, which emboldened Mozart to write in a freer and more dramatic mode. The E minor Sonata K. 304, for instance, prefigures Romanticism, and K. 306 incorporates a written-out cadenza for both instruments, similarly to an operatic “scena”. Indeed, the sonatas’ closeness to the opera is an element that Anne-Sophie Mutter herself has often pointed out: “For me, these sonatas are like narratives. Mozart never left the operatic stage, not even in his chamber music.” Mozart published his second set of mature sonatas shortly after he moved to Vienna in 1781. Among the most outstanding works of this cycle is the F major Sonata K. 377, a restrained piece of brooding intensity and introspection. The last sonatas were written between 1784 and 1788 and include Ms. Mutter’s favorite, the B flat major Sonata K. 454, “a monumental achievement,” as she puts it. “In the famous Andante, the violin and piano are so elaborately intertwined that you simply don’t notice when the words are taken out of your mouth and put back again. … This work has a depth that’s unequalled.” (Anne-Sophie Mutter) Also available is a “making-of” documentary on “The Mozart Project” (45′), in which Anne-Sophie Mutter talks about her relationship to Mozart’s music and is joined by her colleagues André Previn, Lambert Orkis and Daniel Müller-Schott.