General Music Director of Hamburg State Opera, Kent Nagano will conduct all performances of Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen, a production staged by Claus Guth, from 30 October.
Find here all information and further performances dates of all four operas:
Omer Meir Wellber will conduct performances of Bizet’s Carmen from 30 October at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. With those he will give his debut at the MET.
Find here further information on those performances.
Achim Freyer’s new production of Robert Schumann’s “Szenen aus Goethes Faust” opens at the Hamburg Staatsoper on 28 October. General Music Director, Kent Nagano will conduct the Philharmonic State Orchestra with leading soloists, including Christian Gerhaher singing the title role. The production will run until 17th Nov 2018.
Find here further information on the piece and all further performance dates.
On 26 October 2018, David Philip Hefti’s String Quartet No. 5 Concubia nocte – Music for the second nocturnal vigil will be premiered by the Merel Quartett at the Kammermusikfestival Engelberg. It was the Merel Quartett, who commissioned David Philip Hefti’s first piece of this genre in 2007, the String Quartet Ph(r)asen, which they also recorded for CD.
Concubia nocte is the continuation of David Philip Hefti’s “nocturnal vigils”: Prima nocte – Music for the first nocturnal vigil, for chamber orchestra was premiered this February by the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne on the occasion of the orchestra’s 75th anniversary, and in spring 2019, the “vigils” will be continued with the world premier of David Philip Hefti’s flute concert Media nox – Music for the third nocturnal vigil at the Heidelberger Frühling, performed by the Deutsche Radiophilharmonie under Jamie Phillips and with flutist Tatjana Ruhland.
Overview on the concert in Engelberg:
26 October, 19.00
Engelberg (CH), Kloster
Zwischentöne – Kammermusikfestival Engelberg
Hefti: Concubia nocte – Music for the second nocturnal vigil (String quartet No. 5) World Premier
Merel Quartett
You can find further information on the concert here.
On Sunday, 21 October, Kent Nagano will conduct Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in the Berlin Philharmonie. Since 2006 Kent Nagano is Honorary Conductor of the orchestra.
Find here further information on this concert.
The concert will be live broadcast on Deutschlandfunk Kultur at 20.03 (CET). Find here further information on this live broadcast.
Omer Meir Wellber has recently arrived in New York, where he will conduct performances of Bizet’s Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera from 30 October. With those he will give his debut at the MET.
Find here further information on those performances.
On 12 and 14 October, Kent Nagano and pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin will perform concerts with the OSM. On the program will be Chopin’s piano concertos No. 1 and 2 as well as the Serenade in e flat major by Richard Strauss.
The concert on Sunday, 14 October will be streamed as Facebook live on the Facebook page of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, streamed and presented by Medici.tv. Find here a link with further information. The stream will start at 20.30 CET (19.30 GMT)
Kent Nagano and the Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg release their first CD together: the live recording of the oratorio ARCHE by composer Jörg Widmann, whose world premiere was presented on the occasion of the opening festivities of the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg in January 2017 – commissioned by the Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg, supported by ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius.
The CD will be released on 5 October 2018 by the label ECM Records.
Find here more information by the label ECM.
Israeli conductor Omer Meir Wellber has been appointed as the BBC Philharmonic’s new Chief Conductor. He takes up the post in September 2019 and his initial contract is for four years.
Omer Meir Wellber, 36, will conduct the orchestra in its concert series at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester as well as at the BBC Proms in London and on international tours. All the concerts are recorded or broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. He will also give concerts around the North and beyond including in Leeds, Stoke on Trent and Nottingham.
His first appearance at the helm of the BBC Philharmonic will also be his debut at the 2019 season of the BBC Proms in London, and his first Manchester concert as Chief Conductor will be in September 2019.
Commenting on the appointment Simon Webb, General Manager of the BBC Philharmonic says: “Having seen Omer conducting a number of orchestras over the last year I have been fortunate to have experienced his brilliance first hand in a wide range of repertoire. His immediate connection with the BBC Philharmonic was evident in his first concert and we are now delighted to have secured one of the most sought after young conductors of his generation.”
Omer Meir Wellber adds: “I first worked with the BBC Philharmonic in March and knew straight away that they were a very special group of people and exceptional musicians. Manchester and the whole region is an incredibly rich area culturally, so I can hardly wait to start planning seasons to come.”
The BBC Philharmonic is one of the UK’s finest orchestras. It performs its main concert series at the prestigious Bridgewater Hall in Manchester as well as giving live, free concerts in its own international standard recording studio at MediaCityUK in Salford as part of the BBC’s Northern headquarters.
Manfred Honeck, Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra since 2008, has extended his contract with the PSO through season 2021/22.
Over the last quarter century, Manfred Honeck has firmly established himself as one of the world’s leading conductors, renowned for his distinctive interpretations and arrangements of a wide-range of repertoire. He has led the PSO to great musical heights including a GRAMMY ® this year and being named the 2018 Artist of the Year by the International Classical Music Awards. Manfred Honeck and the orchestra regularly perform in major European music capitals and at leading festivals. Through regular residencies they have built a close relationship to the Musikverein in Vienna.
“It continues to be my distinct pleasure and honor to serve as Music Director of this great orchestra,” said Manfred Honeck. “I have tremendous admiration and respect for the wonderful musicians of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and a deep affection for Pittsburgh, as well. Each year, our relationship grows stronger and stronger and in the coming years, we will have two very special celebrations—the 125th anniversary season of the PSO and the 50th anniversary season of Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts as the symphony’s home. I look forward to continuing to tour and record with this orchestra and more music and outstanding performances that we will share with our city of Pittsburgh and around the world.”