Even if the music world is often dominated by rivalry, examples of genuine friendships can certainly be found. Take Johannes Brahms and Antonín Dvorák: a pair whose friendship was free of self-interest. And sure enough, his first publication, the spirited Slavonic Dances, enjoyed a sensational success. The Berlin Philharmonic paid homage to this musical friendship by pairing Dvorák’s bravura Slavonic Dances with the Second Symphony of Brahms, also composed in 1877. And as an “appetizer” Sir Simon Rattle has commissioned a new work from his compatriot Julian Anderson. PROGRAM: Julian Anderson: Incantesimi for Orchestra; Dvorák: Slavonic Dances, Op. 46; Brahms: Symphony No. 2
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.
Rudolstadt Festival 2016 – Anoushka Shankar
Anoushka Shankar was born in London but mainly raised in San Diego, California. She was seven when she first got lessons on the sitar from her prominent father, Ravi Shankar. She grew up with Indian classical music but also but western pop and youth culture which today results in her wish to cross borders and to free the sitar from its alleged limitations as an instrument for Hindustani classical music.
Bartabas in Salzburg 2016 – Mozart: Davide Penitente
For this spectacular production of Mozart’s Davide penitente on the vast stage of the Salzburg Felsenreitschule at the Mozart Week 2015, Marc Minkowski and the equestrian choreographer Bartabas used dancing horses and thus restored the former riding school to its original function. Horses, riders from the Académie équestre de Versailles and Bartabas himself, whose successful productions are unique in the world of art, perform their elegant dressage arabesques within this exceptional setting. Soloists, chorus and orchestra are ranged over three levels on galleries cut from the bare rock. The result is a unique synthesis of the arts.
LSO: Rattle conducts Haydn “The Seasons”
The London Symphony Chorus celebrate its 50th anniversary with Haydn’s ‘nature’ oratorio The Seasons, a stellar cast of international singers and Sir Simon Rattle. The Seasons is divided in to four sections: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter charting a musical year with rousing choruses, a riotous wine tasting with dancing peasants, a loud thunderstorm, even the croaking of frogs. In his old age Haydn achieved fame and fortune in London following visits here in the 1790s. ‘Papa Haydn’ was encouraged to write The Seasons by the great success of his previous oratorio The Creation, which was performed all over Europe.
Lucerne Festival 2016: Inaugural Concert of Riccardo Chailly – Mahler 8
“To be responsible for this outstanding artistic project that Claudio Abbado has initiated is not only a privilege but it has touched me deeply.” These are the very words Riccardo Chailly uses to describe his new job in Lucerne. The conductor, who left his post as music director of the Gewandhaus Leipzig and became principal conductor at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan last year, follows in this new position Arturo Toscanini and Claudio Abbado, thus becoming the third chief conductor of this unique orchestra. On August 12, 2016, Riccardo Chailly premiered as conductor of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra with an opening concert: The orchestra and its principal conductor paid their respects to the late Abbado with Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8. An inaugural concert that with its superb cast of musicians became a memorable event!
Requiem for Hieronymus Bosch
s-Hertogenbosch’s most famous son, the famed painter Hieronymus Bosch lived and worked at the town marketplace, portraying medieval life in his paintings brimming with symbolism, fantasy and riddles. With the international event Bosch 500, ’s-Hertogenbosch is commemorating the five hundredth anniversary of the artist’s death in a spectacular way. The RCO’s house composer Detlev Glanert has been commissioned by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Bosch 500 to write a requiem for soloists, choir, organ and orchestra. The composition translates the demonic nature of Bosch’s paintings with textual counterparts into music. Glanert combines traditional requiem texts with excerpts from the manuscript collection Carmina Burana – each movement of the Requiem is accompanied by a poem about the seven deadly sins.
The Three Tenors – The Lost Concerts
The Three Tenors began their collaboration with a performance at the ancient Baths of Caracalla in Rome, the eve of the 1990 FIFA World Cup Final. Following the big success of the 1990/1994 concerts, The Three Tenors opened a world tour of 31 concerts, the last one in 2003. Seven of these 31 concerts had been recorded for TV but disappeared somewhere in London. All attempts to bring back these invaluable recordings to the audience failed. Now, after all these years, C Major in cooperation with Three Tenors Ltd. managed to assemble the most beautiful moments of six lost concerts in Munich, Tokyo, London, Vienna, New York and Pretoria.
Ludovico Einaudi – Elements Live
London’s Royal Festival Hall was sold out to the last seat on July 30, 2016. The occasion was the performance of an Italian pianist who has been enchanting people for some time with his dreamy and reduced music: Ludovico Einaudi. For four consecutive days, the concert, during which the composer presented pieces from his album “Elements”, was played each time to a sold-out audience.
LSO: Noseda conducts Verdi: Requiem
Gianandrea Noseda gathers together an outstanding cast of Italian stars for this searing performance of Verdi’s Requiem. PROGRAM Verdi: Requiem