Opus Klassik: Five-time nomination for David Philip Hefti (June 2022)

Composer and conductor Philip Hefti has been nominated for the OPUS Klassik for his new CD “Light and Shade” (NEOS 2021) in five categories: Composer of the Year (05), Ensemble/Orchestra of the Year (08), Chamber Music Recording (12), World Premiere Recording (17) and New Classical Music (24).

More information can be found here:

https://opusklassik.de/kategorien-nominierte/

https://www.hefti.net/de/medien/cds/#cds

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra appoints David McCarroll as Concertmaster (June 2022)

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Music Director Manfred Honeck with President and CEO Melia Tourangeau are thrilled to announce that David McCarroll has been appointed concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, holding the Rachel Mellon Walton Concertmaster Chair, beginning with the 2022-2023 season. McCarroll will join the Orchestra as concertmaster for its European tour in August 2022 and will first appear in Pittsburgh as concertmaster at the Orchestra’s gala concert in September that opens the 2022-2023 season.

https://www.pittsburghsymphony.org/

https://www.davidmccarroll.com/

 

The Dresden Music Festival hit the ground running with a dazzling 45th season (June 2022)

The »MAGIC« of the Dresden Music Festival has unfolded its full charm in the past four and a half weeks. Musical highlights, standing ovations, and dancing guests in the concert halls: With the first full-scale edition since the start of the pandemic, director Jan Vogler and his team managed to send audiences home in a euphoric mood. Since May 11, around 42,000 guests have flocked to 65 concerts in 25 venues in Dresden. Despite a late start to the ticket pre-sales and the decision to open venues to full capacity at short notice, seat utilization reached 85 percent. The success of the Dresden Music Festival is also reflected in ticket revenue, which amounted to near 1,4 million Euros.

… read more here.

New recording with Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (June 2022)

Das Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra und Manfred Honeck präsentieren auf der neuen SACD bei Reference Recordings Live-Aufnahmen von Beethovens Symphonie Nr. 6 “Pastorale und Steven Stucky Silent Spring. Die Aufnahme ist ab dem 10. Juni weltweit erhältlich.

“Obwohl die Kompositionen 200 Jahre auseinanderliegen, stehen die bleibenden Qualitäten von Schönheit, Ruhe und Vitalität, die Natur und Musik verbinden, im Mittelpunkt von Beethovens Symphonie Nr. 6, “Pastorale”, und Steven Stuckys Silent Spring – zwei Werke, die sich in ihrer musikalischen Qualität wunderbar ergänzen und dazu anregen, Erfahrungen mit der Natur in unserer Welt zu suchen.”, so Music Director Manfred Honeck. Welche besondere Verbindung das Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras zu dem literarischen und muskialischen Werk Silent Spring hat, sehen Sie hier.

Steven Stuckys Silent Spring wurde vom Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra anlässlich des 50. Jahrestages der Veröffentlichung des gleichnamigen Buches der in Pittsburgh geborenen Biologin Rachel Carson in Auftrag gegeben. Die Uraufführung fand im Februar 2012 statt. Im Booklet der CD sind Steven Stucky Gedanken zu seinem Werk zu finden. Die Aufnahme wird zudem erneut durch Manfred Honecks ausführliche Anmerkungen zu Beethovens Symphonie Nr. 6 ergänzt, welche Einblicke in seine Interpretation und die musikalische Struktur des Werks geben.

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Ella Milch-Sheriff receives ACUM Award (June 2022)

The Paul Ben-Haim ACUM Award 2022 for Lifetime Achievement is given to composer Ella Milch-Sheriff.

She is one of the most significant and exciting composers in Israeli music. She composes wonderful works and does not refrain from coping with complicated and thrilling subjects. Ella’s collaboration with great poets and authors as well as her extraordinary fruitfulness led to musical masterpieces and tremendous success in Israel and around the world.“, says the statement of the Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers in Israel ACUM.

More information can be found here: https://acum.org.il/

Long Night of the Cello on ARTE Concert (June 2022)

Starting tonight, the Long Night of the Cello from this year’s Dresden Music Festival will be available across Europe on ARTE Concert. Divided into three parts, Nicolas Altstaedt, Santiago Cañón-Valencia, Pablo Ferrández, Zlatomir Fung, David Geringas, Marie-Elisabeth Hecker, ShekuKanneh-Mason, Anastasia Kobekina present, Harriet Krijgh, Mischa Maisky, Ivan Monighetti, Edgar Moreau, Johannes Moser, Daniel Müller-Schott, Miklós Perényi, Kian Soltani, Jan Vogler, and Pieter Wispelwey showcase the multifaceted nature of the instrument.

The streams as well as the program of the individual parts can be found here:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

New recording Pop Songs with Jan Vogler, Omer Meir Wellber and the BBC Philharmonic (May 2022)

Cellist Jan Vogler explores hits of the past four centuries together with Omer Meir Wellber and the BBC Philharmonic on the new CD Pop Songs which will be released by Sony on 6 May. The idea of a recording to tell the story of the “pop song” came to Jan Vogler

during the pandemic, when every day – deprived of the daily live encounter with great music – we were all singing and whistling to ourselves catchy tunes from the last four centuries. Realizing the project with the creative Omer Meir Wellber and the fabulous BBC Philharmonic was an intense reminder of the intensity and radiance these ‘hits’ have retained over decades and centuries. The cello – with its vocal range from baritone to coloratura soprano – is a versatile narrator of this thrilling story.

The new arrangements for cello and orchestra range from Monteverdi to Michael Jackson, from Mozart to the Beatles. The second force behind the recording is conductor Omer Meir Wellber, with whom Jan Vogler had long discussions about the right arrangement and approach to each piece. The two sought the specific expression for each song and asked themselves what actually made the numbers so popular.

Further insights can be found in the booklet.

New CD release – Omer Meir Wellber, Jacob Reuven, Sinfonietta Leipzig (May 2022)

With the CD release The Mandolin Seasons, Omer Meir Wellber and mandolinist Jacob Reuven fulfill a long-held wish.

Jacob Reuven and Omer Meir Wellber grew up together in the Israeli desert city of Be’er Sheva – Reuven with Iraqi Jewish roots and Wellber coming from a western Jewish community. United since childhood by an irrepressible joie de vivre, they have a shared passion for music and, more specifically, for the instruments of their homeland, learned as schoolboys: mandolin and accordion… (more in the booklet)

And it is with these instruments that the two musicians together with the Sinfonietta Leipzig (musicians of the Gewandhausorchester) completely rediscover the seasons of Vivaldi and Piazzolla in The Mandolin Seasons.

With Omer Meir Wellber in the role of conductor and continuo player on harpsichord and accordion – meaning he is improvising in both “Seasons” – and Jacob Reuven’s desire to reshape the works for mandolin, both explore and create a new exotic sound world with it.

The recording will be released by Hyperion on 6 May.

Jacob Reuven– mandolin Omer Meir Wellber – accordion, harpsichord, conductor Sinfonietta Leipzig Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in F minor “Winter” RV297 Piazzolla: Invierno porteño (No. 2, “Winter for the people of Buenos Aires” from Las cuatro estaciones porteñas) Vivaldi: Violin concerto in E major “Spring” RV269 Piazzolla: Primavera porteña (No. 3, “Springtime for the people of Buenos Aires“) Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in G minor “Summer” RV315 Piazzolla: Verano porteño (No. 4, “Summer for the people of Buenos Aires“) Vivaldi: Violin concerto in F major “Autumn” RV293 Piazzolla: Otoño porteño (No. 1, “Autumn for the people of Buenos Aires“)

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