W.A. Mozart’s famous and moving Requiem was performed for the first time in the 2000-year old Arena in Verona. The concert on the impressively designed stage set in the middle of the Arena with the choir standing in a circle around the arena became a collective prayer in an open-air cathedral. Marco Armiliato conducts four excellent soloists and Chorus & Orchestra of the Arena di Verona. The performance of great symbolic impact is dedicated to the victims of the Coronavirus. “An event of great symbolic impact” connessidellopera.it
Quatuor pour la fin du temps
With Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Jörg Widmann, four outstanding soloists dedicated themselves to Olivier Messiaen’s “Quatuor pour la fin du temps”, a unique work of music history, and performed it together at the “Meetingpoint Music Messiaen” that was built on the site of the former prisoner of war camp just outside of German-Polish town Görlitz/Zgorzelec, exactly where the camp’s so-called “theater barrack” once stood. It was there that Messiaen composed the quartet and on January 15, 1941 performed it for the first time in front of fellow prisoners.
Lucerne Festival 2020: Blomstedt conducts Beethoven
In 1949, at only seven years old, Martha Argerich made her debut with Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto and the piece has accompanied her throughout her career. Naturally, Argerich has discovered new facets of this work over the decades. And she surely did so when she performed this signature piece with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and Herbert Blomstedt who gave his debut with the orchestra thanks to a very special festival edition in August 2020. Beethoven’s music plays a very important role in Blomstedt’s career and thus the concert featured another work of the composer: his Symphony No. 2. PROGRAM Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1, Symphony No. 2
Mary Bauermeister: one and one is three
Mary Bauermeister is the ‘mother of Fluxus’ and was Stockausen’s muse. At the beginning of the 1960s, the who-is-who of the avant-garde met in her attic apartment in Cologne’s Lintgasse, among them John Cage, Hans G Helms, Nam June Paik, to only name a few. Today, at the age of 84, retirement is far from her mind. As long as her strength allows, she works in her studio near Cologne, the scene of the first feature-length documentary film about Mary Bauermeister and her extraordinary biography. “Mary Bauermeister – one and one is three” is a film about society, about the finiteness of life and the beauty of the world.
Lea Salonga: Live at Sydney Opera House
Captured in peak performance from the Sydney Opera House with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Salonga performs the beloved songs she made famous throughout her Broadway career as well as her signature songs from the animated movie blockbusters, “Aladdin” and “Mulan”. Renowned worldwide for her powerhouse voice and perfect pitch, Salonga entered the Broadway musical scene with her 1991 Tony-winning performance as Kim in “Miss Saigon” and most recently starred in the Tony-winning 2017 revival of “Once on This Island.” She was the first Asian cast member to play Eponine in the musical “Les Misérables” on Broadway and later returned to the beloved show as Fantine in the 2006 revival. Including songs from movies and musicals like Aladdin, Mulan, Anastasia, Miss Saigon, Les Misérables, The Greatest Showman …
Angela Hewitt plays the Goldberg Variations
Since she was young, the Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt dedicated herself to the oeuvre of Johann Sebastian Bach with great passion and conviction. She has recorded all of his piano pieces on CD and performed them to audiences around the world in countless concerts. For her merits for this great composer, Hewitt is the first ever female recipient of the renowned Leipzig Bach Medal. On this occasion, she played Bach’s Goldberg Variations at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, at the authentic place where Bach served as Thomas Cantor and is buried.
Blomstedt conducts Voríšek & Mozart
With this concert, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Herbert Blomstedt embarked on a musical journey to the Czech Republic in memory of the orchestra’s former conductor Václav Neumann. It was there that Jan Václav Voríšek was born in 1791, the manuscript of his D Major Symphony sharing the fate of the symphonies of his friend Franz Schubert in neither being published nor performed during his lifetime. Prague was also the place of a short, late, and rare happy chapter in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s moving biography and his D major Symphony K. 504 was premiered there. PROGRAM Voríšek: Symphony D major, op. 23; Mozart: Symphony D major, K 504 “Prague”
Beethoven Celebration Berlin
In 2020, Ludwig van Beethoven is the focus of the Staatskapelle Berlin’s suberb open-air concert. With star violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter playing Beethoven’s Violin Romances Nos. 1 & 2, the composer anticipated the romantic genre of the „song without words“. In capturing the expressive „singing on the instrument“, the virtuoso talent and remarkable art of Anne-Sophie Mutter are once again demonstrated. Daniel Barenboim has devoted his life to Beethoven‘s work and mentality. The musical director, pianist and cultural activist conducts the Staatskapelle Berlin and the State Opera Chorus in this concert. Giving justice to the 9th Symphony with its insistent appeal to humanity and its forward-looking utopian character, are the high calibre artists: Julia Kleiter, Waltraud Meier, Andreas Schager and René Pape.
Jan Lisiecki plays Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Chopin
Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki has won acclaim for his extraordinary interpretive maturity, distinctive sound, and poetic sensibility. The New York Times has called him “a pianist who makes every note count”. Lisiecki’s insightful interpretations, refined technique, and natural affinity for art give him a musical voice that belies his age. The concert halls in Germany opened their doors during difficult times: Jan Lisiecki played a classic-romantic program on June 9th, 2020 in the Philharmonie Essen at the Ruhr Piano Festival with sensitivity and strength. “Perhaps the most ‘complete’ pianist of his age” BBC Music Magazine
HAUSER: Alone, Together – Pula, Krka Waterfalls, Dubrovnik
HAUSER: Alone, Together – special performance events from his home country of Croatia. Performing solo at the iconic Arena Pula without a live audience. Dedicated to frontline workers across the globe, Alone, Together – From Arena Pula is the latest effort in HAUSER’s continued goal to provide audiences everywhere a much-needed musical escape and solace in these troubling times of coronavirus pandemic. The event features the acclaimed cellist performing his renditions of classic compositions. HAUSER: Alone, Together – Krka Waterfalls, a special birthday performance – HAUSER turned 34 that day – in the stunning Krka National Park, Croatia. Celebrate with him alongside the most beautiful music and breathtaking surroundings and his renditions of classic compositions like Swan Lake, Nutcracker Suite, River Flows In You and The Lonely Shepherd. Of the performance, HAUSER says, „While visiting some of Croatia’s most stunning locations for the ‘Alone Together’ series, I had to include one of the country’s most well-known destinations – Dubrovnik. This beautiful city, with its unique location and stunning architecture, has been shaped by events throughout history – it is little wonder why it was chosen as one of the locations for Game of Thrones. I obviously had to include that title theme in the set list!