The world out there on stages is a man’s world. Or is that just what they want us to believe? What if the true King of Rock and Roll is a Queen? Listen closely and you hear Memphis Minnie’s guitar in Chuck Berry and Eric Clapton, Sister Rosetta’s unbridled spirit in Jerry Lee Lewis, Big Mama Thornton’s growl in Elvis. Still the fact that women rocked the stages from the1950s on has been successfully pushed out of the collective memory. Time to pull out the roots and tell the other side of the story. The women we meet on our journey devote their lifes to rock music, each of them is an icebreaker and they are as inspiring as different. ‘You have to be like a man. But I can do it, I am a woman with balls’, is Linda Gail Lewis’ Credo, while Kathy Valentine of The Go-Go’s considers herself a ‘rare bird’. Suzi Quatro proclaims that she doesn’t do gender at all, while Rosie Flores emphasizes her female qualities when playing the guitar. And Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses decided to leave the sexist music business to be listener-supported, because: ‘What would my kids think if I looked at every camera like I wanted to fuck it – as they tell you to do?’ Rock Chicks – I am not female to you is a film about music as an inner need, about fighting for your dreams and daring to be yourself.
Bayreuth Festival 2022: Die Walküre
This new production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival was the opera event of the 2022 festival season. Young director Valentin Schwarz reimagines the mythical story in the present day and tells a gripping family saga in the world of the rich and powerful. The musical direction is in the hands of Cornelius Meister. In the second part of the tetralogy, Schwarz delves in particular into the relationship between Wotan, the father of the gods, and his “favorite daughter” Brünnhilde, showing it as especially unhappy and traumatic. Lise Davidsen and Klaus Florian Vogt prove themselves audience favourites for their portrayal of the siblings and lovers Sieglinde and Siegmund.
Bayreuth Festival 2022: Siegfried
This new production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival was the opera event of the 2022 festival season. Young director Valentin Schwarz reimagines the mythical story in the present day and tells a gripping family saga in the world of the rich and powerful. The musical direction is in the hands of Cornelius Meister. In Siegfried, Schwarz underlines the tragicomic elements in the relationship between the title hero and his foster father, Mime. The production also finds original and novel images for Siegfried’s encounter with the dragon and Brünnhilde’s liberation from the circle of fire. As Siegfried, Andreas Schager makes light of the role’s legendary challenges.
Bayreuth Festival 2022: Götterdämmerung
This new production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival was the opera event of the 2022 festival season. Young director Valentin Schwarz reimagines the mythical story in the present day and tells a gripping family saga in the world of the rich and powerful. The musical direction is in the hands of Cornelius Meister. The final part of the tetralogy sees Siegfried abandon his beloved Brünnhilde, allowing himself to be taken in by the Gibichungen and the unscrupulous Hagen and succumbing to the advances of Gutrune. Schwarz once more features the powerful symbol of a child and turns the horse Grane into a human companion of Brünnhilde, who also plays a central role in the shocking final image.
Marin Alsop conducts Bernstein’s Kaddish
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Marin Alsop and the Chicago Symphony Chorus are to perform Leonard Bernstein’s ‘Kaddish’ Symphony, where women’s voices are the tether to the highest powers, examining the essential, eternal questions of humanity and faith. PROGRAM Golijov: Rose of the Winds; Bernstein: Symphony No. 3 (Kaddish)
RCO Opening Night 2022: Alain Altinoglu & Vikingur Olafsson and Martin Fröst
The Concertgebouw Orchestra celebrates the new concert season in Westerpark with conductor Alain Altinoglu, clarinettist Martin Fröst, pianist Víkingur Ólafsson and music by Adams, Grieg and Bernstein. The evening gets off to an energetic start with John Adams’s Short Ride in a Fast Machine. The programme continues with Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto, followed by a selection of dances for clarinet and orchestra, in which clarinet virtuoso Martin Fröst can truly shine. The evening concludes with Bernstein’s popular Symphonic Dances from West Side Story.
RCO: Luisi conducts Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky
Fabio Luisi conducts two intensely romantic Russian works: Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony and Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto with master pianist Yefim Bronfman, artist in residence with the Concertgebouworkest. The soloist performing this compelling piano concerto is the star turn of the programme. Yefim Bronfman has been a popular guest with the Concertgebouworkest for twenty years, but has never before performed Rachmaninoff at Concertgebouworkest! Now at last we had the chance to hear how this connoisseur of the Russian repertoire approaches this marvellous work. PROGRAM Tchaikovsky; Symphony No. 6; Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3.
RCO: Gardiner conducts Brahms Symphony No. 2
Who was Johannes Brahms? In a new cycle of four concerts, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, is investigating Brahms’s œuvre through the lens of the four symphonies performed over two seasons and accompanied by other works by the composer. The Second Symphony is juxtaposed with the First Piano Concerto with soloist Stephen Hough. Under the baton of Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Brahms is instilled with a new radiance and vitality. PROGRAM Brahms: Symphony No. 2, Piano Concerto No. 1
Magic Moments of Music – Hélène Grimaud 9/11 in London
On 11 September 2001, the world paused. This concert at the Royal Albert Hall shows how grief and horror can be transformed into a musical moment of glory, and how music can be a means of consolation in these tragic moments. Hélène Grimaud makes her Proms debut with the Orchestre de Paris under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach. The musicians enter the stage visibly affected and discharge their anger and sadness in their playing. Hélène Grimaud succeeds in a deeply emotional interpretation of Beethoven’s 4th Piano Concerto. Her playing alternates between intensity and clarity. The wordless communication with the maestro is moving, not least after the first movement: the moved audience partially breaks into applause – Grimaud and Eschenbach cast emotional and assuring glances at each other. They know at that moment: This evening gets under your skin and will not soon be forgotten.
Magic Moments of Music – Barenboim and WEDO in Ramallah
Music under extreme conditions: Only six years after its founding, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra gave what is probably its most legendary concert: the orchestra founded by Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said with young Israeli and Arab musicians gave a concert in the Darwish Palace of Culture in Ramallah in 2005. A historic event and a musical moment of glory at the same time. In Israel, Barenboim was attacked. But the orchestra set an example with its concert, underlined by the choice of programme: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 (‘Fate Symphony’). Beethoven’s vision of the reconciliation of people – that was what moved Barenboim. The “peace concert” – Barenboim himself did not call it that – attracted international attention and was broadcast worldwide. This star hour shows the concert and makes musical history tangible in short documentary passages. Contemporary witnesses and prominent interview partners put the concert into perspective from today’s point of view.