Leonard Bernstein was America’s ambassador to the world of music. He was one of the most influential musicians of the last century and inspired an entire generation with his music ensembles and symphony orchestras. An influential teacher, a brilliant conductor, a fine composer and an accomplished pianist. A man, who lived five lives and who exuded passion from every pore. This portrait by Georg Wübbolt, director of the awardwinning documentaries on Herbert von Karajan and Sir Georg Solti, covers the whole spectrum of Bernstein’s life: From his world famous TV series Young People’s Concerts to the recording of his Mahler cycle and from the West Side Story to his Chichester Psalms. The film includes interviews with Bernstein’s children as well as with friends and companions such as Stephen Sondheim, Kent Nagano and Christoph Eschenbach.
Yanni at the Pyramids
Yanni and his world renowned orchestra bring a new show to the Great Pyramids in Giza Egypt, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The program represents a career journey for Yanni, from alpha to omega, Live at the Acropolis to Live at the Great Pyramids and features a career spanning selection of fan favorites, along with never before performed songs and new arrangements of his classic compositions.
Khatia Buniatishvili in Kiev: Mussorgsky – Pictures at an Exhibition
Khatia Buniatishvili is making a guest appearance at the International Center of Culture and Arts in Kiev. The programme is the piano suite PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION, that was written by Mussorgsky in honour of his deceased friend, the architect Victor Hartmann. Originally composed by Modest Mussorgsky for solo piano, the suite comprises 10 pictures by Hartmann illustrated in separated movements and connected by the Promenade theme that depicts an imaginary tour of an art collection. The final movement depicts an architectural design for Kiev, The Bogatyr Gates. Buniatishvilis musical promenade reveals an extraordinary thrilling interpretation, accompanied by impressions of Kiev’s cultural life including visits at artists friends and the current mayor of Kiev, the former heavyweight champion, Vitali Klitschko.
I Capuleti e i Montecchi
A Romeo and Juliet opera without the poetic balcony scene and with a woman singing the role of Romeo: Vincenzo Bellini’s reworking of Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy is in many respects remarkable. Not least because the young composer presents in his opera “I Capuleti e i Montecchi” perhaps the most moving final scene of opera repertoire to date: Romeo and Juliet are both alive and conscious, allowing them to sing a duet before dying together. The Zurich Opera House has enlisted extraordinary and vivacious voices for the world’s most famous lovers: In the new Bellini production, American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato – in a class of her own – performs the role of Romeo. At her side as Romeo’s beloved Giulietta is the young Ukrainian soprano Olga Kulchynska with an incredible acting and singing performance, making the audience hold ist breath during her subtle arias. Musical Director Fabio Luisi with the Philharmonia Zurich and Stage Director Christof Loy brought this poignant bel canto opera to stage in Zurich resulting in an utmost impressive TV experience.
Wozzeck
Berg’s “Wozzeck” is an indispensable work in the repertoire of any opera house. In Zurich, critics and audience celebrated director Andreas Homoki, General Music Director Fabio Luisi and baritone Christian Gerhaher for their intriguing interpretation of this masterpiece of operatic history. “It is an astonishing debut…: For the first time, Christian Gerhaher sings one of the most important operatic roles of the 20th century. That in itself is a great experience. But this evening is fantastic even beyond Gerhaher’s brilliant performance as a singer and actor thanks to the striking and truly exceptional interacting of music, scene, and singing. This Zurich ‘Wozzeck’ is phenomenal.” Süddeutsche Zeitung
Blomstedt conducts Beethoven and Nielsen
The Swedish conductor Herbert Blomstedt is a phenomenon – as he approaches his 88th birthday, he is one of the oldest conductors in the world. And yet: on the rostrum he embodies such a vitality and energy, that he at once enthralls his musicians as well as his audiences. Blomstedt directs the orchestra in two symphonies that could scarcely be less alike: The musicians play Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony and Symphony No. 5 by the Danish composer Carl Nielsen with concentrated intensity, honouring Nielsen in his 150th anniversary year.
Nelsons conducts Mahler No. 5
Almost no other orchestra has been so involved with Gustav Mahler and established such an outstanding Mahler sound as the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. This tradition was continued in the summer of 2015. In his concerts with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, the renowned 37-year-old Andris Nelsons conducted Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, a work whose emotional spectrum ranges from the opening movement’s funeral march, through the declaration of love in the famous Adagietto – which Nelsons interpreted as an “intense chamber music love song in the passionate dimensions of Tristan” (Neue Zürcher Zeitung) – to the jubilant hymn of the finale.
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.
Chailly conducts Mahler No. 1
Gustav Mahler was 28 when he wrote his First Symphony in Leipzig in 1888. For a long time, he was uncertain whether the work was a symphonic poem or a symphony and finally abandoned the first version and later also the work’s subtitle, Titan. A few years later, Mahler went on to revise the symphony into the four-movement work we know today, which was premiered in 1896. Riccardo Chailly and the Gewandhausorchester continue their Leipzig Mahler cycle by bringing Mahler’s First Symphony to life in a riveting performance, paying homage to the composer.
3 Stars in Munich
The superstars of classical music are together for the first time at the Königsplatz, Munich for one night only. With this rare meeting of opera superstars, the square transforms into an opera house under the open sky, and creates an atmospheric setting for its 15 000 strong audience. Anna Netrebko joins Jonas Kaufmann and Thomas Hampson at the cultural heart of Munich for an open-air evening of celebrated arias, duets and opera scenes by Verdi, Puccini, Giordano, Leoncavallo, Bizet, Offenbach, Lehár, and more. Special guests: Elena Zhidkova and Ildar Abdrazakov.