On 3 February cellist Jan Vogler will be guest at Esplanade Concert Hall in Singapore, performing Shostakovich’s cello concert No. 2 op. 126 with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Carlos Kalmar.
Find more information on the concert here.
The latest CD by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck with Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 and Barber’s Adagio (Reference Recordings) has won two Grammy Awards 2018: the Grammy for “Best Orchestra Performance” as well as for “Best engineered classical album”.
Find more information on this on the Grammy’s website.
Kent Nagano, General Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera, will conduct the revival performances of Alban Berg’s Lulu and of Tosho Hosokawa’s Stilles Meer.
In 2016 (Stilles Meer) and 2017 (Lulu) Nagano premiered both new productions.
The performance dates this season are the following:
Lulu:
27, 30, January, 3, 8 February
Stilles Meer:
31 January, 2, 7 February
Find further information on the webpage of the Hamburg State Opera.
On 17 March 2018 the debut CD “Through the lens of time“ by violinist Francisco Fullana will be presented in the Rose Studio in Lincoln Centre, New York, on the occasion of its release in March 2018 by Orchid Classics.
At the recital Francisco Fullana will perform together with the renowned Metropolis Ensemble, conducted by Andrew Cyr.
Find more information on the event here.
On 25, 27 and 28 January 2018 conductor Omer Meir Wellber will give his debut concerts with the Houston Symphony Orchestra. Together will violinist Simone Lamsma they will perform Britten’s violin concerto. Also on the program will be Mozart’s Ouverture of Idomeneo as well as Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.
Find here further information on the concerts.
On Sunday, 21 January 2018 at 21:05 the concert with cellist Jan Vogler, conductor Manfred Honeck and Deutsches Symphony Orchestra Berlin (from 10 January 2018) at Berlin Philharmonie will be broadcast at Deutschlandfunk.
Among others, the world premiere of Daj Fujikura’s cello concerto was on the program.
Find here more information.
American tenor Gregory Kunde is currently rehearsing Benjamin Britten’s opera Peter Grimes at Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia. He performs the title role. The revival performance will take place on 1 February. Further performances are on 4, 7, 10 and 13 February.
Find here more information about this production.
Gregory Kunde as Peter Grimes in Valencia.
(c) Miguel Lorenzo / Mikel Ponce
Conductor and Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Manfred Honeck has been awarded the International Classical Music Award 2018 “Artist of the Year“. This has been officially announced today, 18 January 2018 by the ICMA.
Manfred Honeck: “It is a great honour for me to receive this prestigious award from leading international music journalists. I am very grateful that my work is being appreciated and distinguished in this particular way.”
Find here more information about the ICMA 2018.
The orchestra and its Music Director have released three SACDs with the audiophile label Reference Recordings in the years 2016 and 2017: Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 & Barber’s Adagio (2017), Richard Strauss‘ Suites (2016) as well as Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 & Dvorak’s Rusalka Suite (2016).
Find here a detailed list of all SACDs that have so far been released by the PSO, Manfred Honeck and Reference Recordings.
German cellist Jan Vogler and conductor Manfred Honeck will be guest at the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin on 10 January 2018 in the Philharmonie Berlin. Jan Vogler will perform the world premiere of Dai Fujikura’s cello concerto.
Further works by Debussy and Beethoven will be on the program.
Find here more information on the concert.
Young Spanish violinist Francisco Fullana will release his debut recording in March 2018 (Orchid Classics). Entitled Through the Lens of Time, the recording brings together four modern perspectives reimagining the Baroque tradition: a dialogue that prompts both composers and performers to explore musical giants of the past and place them in their own lives. Francisco Fullana has recorded the CD together with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Carlos Izcaray as well as with pianist David Fung.
The recording begins with Max Richter’s daring reworking of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, which Fullana first performed in 2016 under Venezuelan conductor Carlos Izcaray, who also conducts this debut recording. Fullana comments: “Richter’s The Four Seasons Recomposed awoke a renewed commitment to my musical approach focused on instinct and emotion. It brought me back to my own beginnings, as The Four Seasons was one of the few cassettes that my family would play in the car when I was a young boy. During the performance, Carlos Izcaray and I found that we both shared the same energetic approach to music making. It became clear that we both loved performing this piece too much not to do so again.”
The recording continues with three other works that provide unique takes on the Baroque tradition. The Korean-German Isang Yun’s Königliches Thema pays homage to Bach’s Musical Offering, conflating Baroque and modern styles in one densely rich composition that magically surveys Western musical tradition through the lens of Eastern philosophies. Meanwhile, Schnittke’s Suite in the Old Style presents a combination of different aspects of the Western tradition from Baroque onward, and is heavily influenced by the musical aesthetic of the composers’ own time. As such, the writing represents a sort of time capsule, portraying what “Baroque style” meant to performers in the 1970s, with exaggerated gestures, verticality, and highlighting the sense of drama to the point of becoming ceremonial. Finally, Salvador Brotons’ Variations on a Baroque Theme hearken to the roots of Fullana’s career, and to his first performance before the public as a nine-year-old prodigy soloing in Mozart’s Turkish A Major Concerto, under Brotons’ baton. The one-time mentor composed his set of variations specifically for this project, completing a circle by basing the work on a popular aria from the zarzuela, Acis Y Galatea, by a third Spaniard, the 18th Century Mallorcan composer Antoni Lliteres.
Find here the trailer of the recording of The Four Seasons Recomposed by Max Richter with the CBSO and Carlos Izcaray in Birmingham.