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20. January 2025

Jan Vogler’s Bach suites are all the rage – live in concert halls and online in Instagram reels

From baroque to Instagram vlogs: Johann Sebastian Bach‘s suites for solo cello are not only a hit in classical concert halls. Jan Vogler‘s recording of the prélude of Bach’s first suite for cello in G major has been used over 360,000 times (status 13.01.2025) by users for their reels on Instagram – making it currently by far the most successful Bach recording on the social media channel.

The topics and types of content that are combined with Bach’s famous composition in the digital world are as diverse as the 360,000 Instagram channels themselves. Whether in Asia, Europe or America, there are virtually no limits to its creative use. Bach’s music prevails and works as background music for content about designer fashion, babies, vacation vlogs, tutorials or animals, proving how timeless his music still is today.

“Bach’s music is simple and complicated at the same time. It is so brilliantly composed that you get the impression that it clears your head and makes everything easy – so it gets you through your everyday life and conveys emotions, and yet it is incredibly ingeniously constructed. This combination is unique in the history of music,” says cellist Jan Vogler about the six cello suites by Johann Sebastian Bach.

The six cello suites are considered the supreme discipline for all cellists. Jan Vogler has spent his career intensively exploring the work and influence of Johann Sebastian Bach, recording and rediscovering the suites for SONY Classical in 2013 based on the manuscript by Bach’s wife Anna Magdalena and presenting them several times on the world’s major stages, including such prominent duo partners as US poet Amanda Gorman and Hollywood actor Bill Murray. In the Bach Year 2025, Jan Vogler will now bring all six suites to the stage in Germany and present them at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg (March 8) and the Philharmonie Berlin (April 26).

March 4, 2025 Schloss Elmau, 5 pm (Suite 1-3)

March 6, 2025 Schloss Elmau, 5 pm (Suite 4-6)

March 8, 2025 Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Großer Saal, 11 am (Suite 1-6)

April 26, 2025 Philharmonie Berlin, Kammermusiksaal, 7 pm (Suite 1-6)

www.janvogler.com

For a higher resolution of the image material, please contact office@pr2classic.de.

14. January 2025

Mari Kodama (January 2025)

At the end of 2024, Mari Kodama released a nuanced Bruckner portrait with rarely recorded piano works on Pentatone which has received a great amount of international attention (Mari Kodama’s discography).

Mari Kodama‘s season 2024/25 included an opening concert with Le Cercle de l’Harmonie in Paris (Jérémie Rhorer) with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 on the fortepiano as well as concerts with the Würth Philharmonic Orchestra (with Veronika Eberle and Jan Vogler under the direction of Kent Nagano) and the Filarmonica de Stat Transilvania (Larry Forster). Mari Kodama also gave a duo recital with Julian Prégardien and in June 2025 she will return to the Konzerthaus Blaibach to continue her series with all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas and new works by Rodolphe Bruneau-Boulmier.

marikodama.com

14. January 2025

Jan Vogler presents Bach Cello Suites in Hamburg and Berlin (January 2025)

A highlight of cellist and intendant of the Dresdener Musikfestspiele Jan Vogler in 2024 was a special concert he presented with US poet Amanda Gorman. Together they created a concert evening with Bach’s cello suites matching Gorman’s poetry which was presented in 2024 at Carnegie Hall in New York City and later that year on Stephen Colbert’s Late Night Show. The label Capriccio also released Miloslav Kabeláč’s complete chamber music oeuvre on CD for the first time, with the participation of Jan Vogler.

In January 2025, Jan Vogler will be a guest at the Classicameri Festival in Eilat, Israel, of which Omer Meir Wellber is Artistic Director. Following his focus on Bach in 2024, Jan Vogler will present two special solo concerts in March and April 2025 in Germany: on March 8 at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and on April 26 at the Berlin Philharmonie, Jan Vogler will play all six of Bach’s cello suites. Performances with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Brass and the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra will follow in May.

janvogler.com

14. January 2025

Omer Meir Wellber conducts his creation “KaiserRequiem” at Volksoper Wien (January 2024)

Omer Meir Wellber concludes his time as music director at the Teatro Massio in Palermo with the New Year’s Concert. However, he will return to the house as a guest conductor in April and May to conduct a new production of Strauss’ Salome.

On January 25, 2025, a new production of the KaiserRequiem will premiere at the Vienna Volksoper, his own creation of Mozart’s Requiem and Viktor Ullmann’s The Emperor of Atlantis, with the Vienna State Ballet (choreography and direction Andreas Heise). In 2024, Omer Meir Wellber conducted a very special world premiere at the Volksoper: the new opera by composer Ella Milch-Sheriff ALMA which was a big success. In May, the KaiserRequiem will be presented in a semi-staged performance at the Philharmonie de Paris under the direction of Omer Meir Wellber with the Orchestre de Paris.

The spring will take Omer Meir Wellber first to London to the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and then to Leipzig to the Gewandhaus Orchestra. From September 2025, he will begin his first season as General Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Hamburg State Opera and Hamburg General Music Director of the Philharmonic State Orchestra.

omermeirwellber.com

7. January 2025

Max Volbers: Foreign Masters nominated for German Record Critic’s Award (January 2025)

The new CD by recorder player Max Volbers, Foreign Masters, has been nominated for the German Record Critics’ Award. On Foreign Masters, Max Volbers, together with Alexander von Heißen (harpsichord), sheds light on the diverse international influences that shaped the London music scene of the 18th century. The album, released by Berlin Classics, has been nominated in the Early Music category (longlist 01/25).

More information can be found at schallplattenkritik.de and maxvolbers.de

22. December 2024

Omer Meir Wellber with a special New Year’s concert at the Teatro Massimo (December 2024)

For Omer Meir Wellber, the new year begins with a very special program at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo. Together with Guy Mintus and the orchestra and choir of the Teatro Massimo, he presents a concert program that combines Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony with improvisations on Neapolitan songs.

1 January 2025, 6 pm | Sala Grande, Teatro Massimo
Omer Meir Wellber – conductor and accordion
Guy Mintus – piano and orchestrations
Orchestra and choir of the Teatro Massimo
Felix Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4 in A major op. 90 (arrangement by Guy Mintus with improvisations on Neapolitan songs)

Further information on the evening’s program at teatromassimo.it

19. December 2024

Kent Nagano announced Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España, starting September 2026 (December 2024)

December 19, 2024

As announced yesterday evening by the Instituto Nacional de las Artes Escénicas y la Música (INAEM) of the Ministry of Culture in Madrid, Kent Nagano will be the next Chief conductor and Artistic Director (Director Titular y Artístico) of the Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España (OCNE) in Madrid starting in September 2026, for an initial period of 5 years.

Kent Nagano comments: “The richness of Spain, reflected in its language, culture, history and the profound influence of its arts over time, represents a far-reaching cultural resonance that continues to inspire audiences around the world. I am honored to have received the OCNE’s invitation to collaborate with them in building the next chapter of this important musical tradition, connecting today’s generation to Spain’s vibrant cultural relevance, nurtured by its renowned literature, poetry, visual arts and dance. Together with the OCNE as a cultural ambassador we will look to the future with the purpose of bringing this great tradition into the 21st century.”

Previously Kent Nagano has guest conducted the Orquesta Nacional de España and the Coro Nacional de España on three occasions: in June 2018, with Hans Werner Henze’s Die Bassariden; in June 2021, with works by Gabriel Fauré and Olivier Messiaen; and in April 2024, when he conducted Haydn’s The Creation.

ocne.mcu.es

kentnagano.com

12. December 2024

The Wagner Cycles on the New York Times best-of list (December 2024)

The Dresden Music Festival’s project “The Wagner Cycles” has been included on the New York Times Best Of list: the concert performance of Richard Wagner’s “Die Walküre” with the Dresden Festival Orchestra and Concerto Köln under the direction of Kent Nagano was included on the list of the world’s best performances in 2024. On March 16, 2024 at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the opera was performed in concert and on original instruments.

“We live in a moment with no shortage of opportunities to hear Wagner’s “Ring”; new productions are being rolled out in London, Munich, Milan, Brussels and Paris, with New York to follow in a few years. The freshest take on this four-opera epic, however, is the conductor Kent Nagano’s enormous project to research, rehearse, perform and record a version based on a historically informed approach. I caught thesecond installment, “Die Walküre,” at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the sound was often wonderfully shocking: There is less vibrato, singers declaim their lines, historical timbres shade the score anew, and, above all, the music has the clarity of spoken drama.”, the New York Times article reads.

You can find more information on the large-scale, multi-year project to perform Wagner’s Ring in its entirety historically informed and in concertante performances by 2026 on the Dresden Music Festival website: musikfestspiele.com

6. December 2024

Recorder player Max Volbers in the Essen Philharmonie (December 2024)

Under the title “Dance and Firework”, recorder player Max Volbers and harpsichordist Alexander von Heißen will present works by Arcangelo Corelli, Georg Friedrich Händel, Giovanni Stefano Carbonelli and others at the Philharmonie Essen on December 8.

This program has already been released on CD by Berlin Classics under the title “Foreign Masters” and can now be heard in a pre-Christmas setting under the title “Dance and Firework”. Here in the YouTube video you will find a small preview of the program.

Max Volbers, who was awarded the Opus Klassik as Young Artist of the Year in 2023, was a guest on the ZDF Morgenmagazin with Alexander von Heißen in September 2024, where they presented “Foreign Masters”. You can watch the performance on the morning show here.

Sunday, December 8, 11 a.m., Philharmonie Essen
George Frideric Handel: Overture from “Fireworks Music”, HWV 351
Giuseppe Sammartini: Sonata in G minor for flute and harpsichord, op. 13 no. 5
“Traditional”: ‘The Lass of Patie’s Mill’ (Scottish folk song) from ”A Collection af Old Scots Tunes”
“Traditional”: ‘Cease your funning’ (Scottish folk song) from ”Collection of the most favorite Old Songs Tunes in the Beggars opera”
George Frideric Handel: Prelude to “Vo’ far guerra”, Aria Armida from “Rinaldo”, HWV 7 (Act 2, Scene 10)
Giuseppe Matteo Alberti: Sonata in A minor for violin and harpsichord, op. 3 no. 4
Giovanni Stefano Carbonelli: “Aria con Variazioni” from Sonata da Camera No. 6 in A major for violin and basso continuo
George Frideric Handel: “Pifa” from the oratorio “The Messiah”, HWV 56
Arcangelo Corelli: Sonata in D minor for violin and basso continuo, op. 5 no. 12 “La Follia”

Max Volbers, recorder
Alexander von Heißen, harpsichord

Further information can be found at theater-essen.de/programm

1. December 2024

CD “Bruckner / Bates” by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra with Manfred Honeck wins MWI Award of the Year (December 2024))

The CD of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra with Manfred Honeck with the recordings of Bruckner’s 7th Symphony and Mason Bates’ Resurexit was voted CD of the Year 2024 by Music Web International!

Even without checking the archive of the previous 21 years, it is fairly safe to say that it is a first for these awards that a single recording has been nominated by six reviewers. Therefore, the choice of this year’s MWI Recording of the Year was made rather simple. Quoting our three reviewers (all of whom made it a Recommended recording), Honeck’s Bruckner (and Bates) was described as “truly unmissable”, “as successful on the technical side as it is on the musical side”, “persuasively interpreted and marvellously played” and the “prime recommendation”, says the team of music critics, consisting of 28 members and 70 different labels.

Further information and the reviews can be found at:

musicwebinternational.com

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