Munich’s Odeonsplatz Concert is one of the openair highlights of the year. Nestled in the historic city centre, between the magnificent Residenz Palace, the towering Theatinerkirche and the Feldherrnhalle, the Odeonsplatz provides the appropriate setting for an exceptional performer such as Martin Grubinger. The Austrian multi-percussionist is credited for turning classical solo percussion into an event. He demonstrates his versatility with works by Bruno Hartl, John Corigliano and Tan Dun, who wrote The Tears of Nature specifically for him. Performing at a breakneck pace, Grubinger, “a virtuoso beyond believe” (Süddeutsche Zeitung), challenges the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Manfred Honeck to a percussion duel at the highest level. Pieces by Antonin Dvorák and Dmitri Shostakovitch complete the programme.
Odeonsplatz Concert 2017: Gergiev & Wang
Munich’s Odeonsplatz Concert is one of the open-air highlights of the year. The magnificent Residenz Palace on one side and the serene, towering Theatinerkirche on the other provide the ideal backdrop for exceptional performances of classical music. In this setting, Chinese star pianist Yuja Wang, Valery Gergiev and the Münchner Philharmoniker present a popular yet demanding concert programme. Wang performs Brahms’s First Piano Concerto “with vertiginous virtuosity, somnambulistic sovereignty, a fine sense of dramaturgy and rhythmic perfection” (Münchner Merkur). With “a secure sense for creating effects without gimmickry” (Süddeutsche Zeitung), Gergiev conducts Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, before closing with popular encores from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker and Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila. PROGRAM: Brahms: First Piano Concerto; Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition
Markus Hinterhäuser – An artist runs the Salzburg Festival
He is one of them: Markus Hinterhäuser, the new director of the Salzburg Festival, is an artist himself. That might be the reason why he communicates so effortless with the protagonists of the festival. To create an in-depth portrait of Hinterhäuser, Bettina Ehrhardt followed the Austrian around the clock, compiling snap-shots of his life. The film accompanies him to the rehearsals for Jedermann, meets renowned artists such as Peter Sellars, Shirin Neshat and William Kentridge and observes how the director solves problems and how he celebrates with his team. On a stroll through Salzburg’s picturesque alleys, Markus Hinterhäuser delivers insight into his past; archive footage brings the flashbacks to life. In the rapid alternation of the documentary scenes, which are punctuated by moments of reflection, the artist and the human Markus Hinterhäuser, reveals himself.
The Belcea Quartet performs Haydn, Ligeti & Dvorák
The Belcea Quartet, one of the world’s leading chamber music ensembles, lights up the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin with their exciting programme consisting of three string quartets from three different centuries. The hall with its perfect acoustics specifically caters to the needs of performers of chamber music and provides an intimate setting for the multinational quartet, here beautifully captured on film. Haydn’s 18th century masterpiece is followed by Ligeti’s String Quartet No. 1 and an atmospheric rendition of Dvorák’s so-called “American Quartet”. The musicians’ journey through the history of string quartets is rounded off by the encore “O Albion”, the sixth movement of contemporary English composer Thomas Adès’s String Quartet Op. 12 “Arcadiana”. “The Belcea Quartet searches and finds the essence of this music” (Der Tagesspiegel).
Short Rides with John Adams
John Adams is one of the most influential and at the same time most popular US composers of the post-war period, known for his irresistible music in which minimalism is mixed with imaginative orchestration and jazzy verve. The Film accompanied the composer for a year on his explorations and “Short Rides” in Berlin. The film documents both on and off stage encounters with musicians of the Berliner Philharmoniker, old friends and associates such as Sir Simon Rattle, Peter Sellars, Gustavo Dudamel and star violinist Leila
Josefowicz (“I call him Johnny”). A film which is both entertaining and serious, and which features jazz-inspired symphonic and poignant Passion music. A film not only for connaisseurs and admirers – just like the music of John Adams.
Moving in three acts – A building site opera
Now shining with its sensational sound, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden had to wait a long time for its reopening. All in all, it took seven years to refurbish the opera – just a blink of an eye in the history of the house, but a long period of insecurity for the Staatsoper family, the people who work there. Film maker Anne Osterloh documented the works over the years, her film Moving in three acts – a building site opera follows the people involved in the emotional transformation process. The legendary house was much loved by star tenor, tailors, musicians and stage cleaners alike. For them, working at the opera, is much more than just a job: it’s a passion, a life, a home. A film about a construction site where hopes and desires meet and a moving tribute to the fine arts.
Mariss Jansons and Daniel Barenboim perform Beethoven & Prokofiev
Daniel Barenboim returns to Mariss Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (BRSO) for a very special collaboration – ten years after his first performance as piano soloist with them. Together they present a stunning rendition of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto. Hardly any other musician has studied the works of Beethoven as thoroughly as Barenboim and he turns the second movement into something special indeed: the calmness and intimacy of the Adagio is second to none. “No other piano player creates such a magical atmosphere in the quiet passages; no other is capable of stopping time hypnotically like this.” (Abendzeitung) The second part of the night is devoted to Sergei Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony. Here, the BRSO soars to great achievements in sound, creating a finale “with vertiginous vehemence and power of sound” (Bachtrack). PROGRAM: Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5; Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5
Festive Gala from the Semperoper Dresden – 100th Anniversary of UFA
The Festive Gala at the Semperoper Dresden brings back the splendour of UFA Film for one scintillating night full of famous melodies. Christian Thielemann and his Staatskapelle Dresden together with outstanding singers Angela Denoke, Elisabeth Kulman und Daniel Behle pay homage to the hit songs of the so-called dream factory, which dominated the German film industry from 1917 to 1945, and produced classics like “Metropolis”, “The Three from the Filling Station” and “The Blue Angel”. Created in the first half of the 20th century, the UFA productions are marked by the ambivalence of culture and politics that is characteristic for this part of German history. For ZDF and the artists, the concert offers the chance for a deliberate, critical review of the “film dreams” of the past and the undeniable “dissonances” of the nation’s history.
Daniel Barenboim: The Complete Schubert Sonatas
Star pianist Daniel Barenboim embarks on a survey of Schubert’s completed piano sonatas. In each of the four recitals in the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, Barenboim offers a journey through Schubert’s creative life, from the youthful sonatas of the earlier years to the great masterworks written during his final months. Universally recognized as supreme expressions of the Romantic spirit, these works, ignored after the composer’s death for more than a century, today stand at the centre of the piano repertoire, side by side with the piano works of Beethoven, Schubert’s admired predecessor and contemporary. The press raves about the Maestro’s Schubert interpretation: “Superb Schubert from
an Old Master.” (Bachtrack) “This is Schubert at his most intense. Breathtaking!” (Guardian) // Concert I: 83′; Concert II: 97′; Concert III: 88′; Concert IV: 87′;
Gergiev conducts the complete Prokofiev Symphonies
As the highlight of the MPHIL 360° festival, Valery Gergiev performs all seven symphonies by Sergei Prokofiev with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and the Mariinsky Orchestra in the Philharmonie Munich. In this “grandiose exhibition of the composer’s oeuvre” (BR Klassik), Gergiev delivers a stunning rendition of Prokofiev’s symphonic cycle 1-7, from the first symphony, which Prokofiev himself named the “Classical”, as ist style is very close to that of Joseph Haydn, to the much-loved Symphony No. 5 and the composer’s beautiful last symphony with its lyrical qualities. The Russian star conductor leads his musicians with minimal movements through Prokofiev’s phantasmagoria of sound. He excels in bringing the little details of the compositions to life – it is nothing short of an “intoxication which Gergiev so irresistibly generates!” (Süddeutsche Zeitung)