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10. February 2024

Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra live from Warsaw to be released on CD (February 2024)

The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra was founded in 2022 by conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson in collaboration with the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture, the New York Metropolitan Opera and the Polish National Opera in Warsaw. The highlight of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra’s 2023 European tour was an emotionally charged performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with Schiller’s great poem “Ode to Joy”, sung in Ukrainian. The Warsaw concert, captured on this recording, was the first time that the text of the symphony was presented in translation outside Ukraine. Further information from Deutsche Grammophon can be found here.

This project was also a special highlight of the past year for us at PR² classic! It also included the orchestra’s concert in Berlin on September 24, Ukraine’s Independence Day. You can find a report on this concert here.

Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, Keri-Lynn Wilson
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D minor op. 125

Vladyslav Buialskyi
Olga Kulchynska
Nicole Chirka
Dmytro Popov
The Choir of the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic in Białystok

9. February 2024

Kent Nagano’s Honorary Memory of Maestro Seiji Ozawa (February 2024)

“With Maestro Seiji Ozawa’s passing the world has lost not only an exceptional artist, we have lost one of music’s greatest pioneers and ambassadors of his generation. Personally, I have lost a close mentor, trusted friend and perpetual source of inspiration. His legacy will live on through his tireless investment in the young generation and the many cultural institutions he built during his lifetime. The music community has been deeply fortunate to have known such a formidable artist and we send a heartfelt note of condolence to the Ozawa family.”

– Kent Nagano, February 2024

9. February 2024

Peter Grimes premiere with Kent Nagano in Hamburg (February 2024)

On Sunday, February 11, 2024, General Music Director Kent Nagano will conduct the premiere of Benjamin Britten’s opera Peter Grimes at the Hamburg State Opera.

In February, Kent Nagano will also devote himself to preparations for the premiere of “Die Walküre”, which will take place on March 9 at the Prague State Opera. “Die Walküre” will continue the Dresden Music Festival’s “The Wagner Cycles” project, in which “Die Walküre” will be performed in concert with the Dresden Festival Orchestra and Concerto Köln under the direction of Kent Nagano.

Sunday, February 11, 2024, Hamburg, State Opera Premiere
Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra
Benjamin Britten: Peter Grimes
Gregory Kunde (Peter Grimes)
Jennifer Holloway (Ellen Orford)
Katja Pieweck (Auntie)
Iain Paterson (Balstrode)
Kent Nagano (conductor)
Sabine Hartmansshenn (director)

Further performances:
February 14, 18 & 21, 2024

Further information can be found at staatsoper-hamburg.de

7. February 2024

Mari Kodama and “Living the Classical Life” interview (February 2024)

“A zone of ease by being yourself”: pianist Mari Kodama was interviewed by “Living the Classical Life”. In the interview she describes her life on stage and her studies with her legendary mentors Alfred Brendel and Tatyana Nikolayeva, as well as finding balance in life and on stage.

“Living the Classical Life” is an award-winning series of one-of-a-kind conversations with musicians from around the world, hosted by pianist Zsolt Bognár.

5. February 2024

Manfred Honeck & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (February 2024)

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and its Music Director, Manfred Honeck, will be touring Europe again in 2024, including the concert dates on August 22 in Salzburg with Yefim Bronfman (piano) and on August 25 in Grafenegg with Maria Dueñas (violin). Further dates will follow.

In Pittsburgh, Manfred Honeck will conduct 10 programs this season, including all four world premieres and commissioned works of the season. The world premieres and commissioned works are: Yizkor by Boris Pigovat (already performed in November 2023); a new work by Katherine Balch in February; a new work by Samy Moussa in April; and a double concerto for oboe and horn by Michael Daugherty in June.

The most recent recording by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 and Schulhoff’s Five Pieces, was listed as one of the best recordings of 2023 by the New York Times, the New Yorker and Gramophone magazine.

Manfred Honeck was a guest on the American music magazine Fanfare Magazine‘s podcast “Fanfare Talks”, this latest episode can be found here.

Find out more about the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck in the video here:

5. February 2024

Max Volber’s new CD “Scenes of Horror” (February 2024)

In 2023, Max Volbers was awarded the OPUS KLASSIK 2023 in the Young Artist of the Year category for his debut CD “Whispers of Tradition”.

“For the concerto and consort pieces, Volbers invited like-minded colleagues, and solo he delivers circus-ready virtuoso artistry. The joyful way his legato playing in the Purcell Variations transforms into glissando, with all the intermediate stages, is the height of mastery.” – Eleonore Büning (RONDO)

On February 9, his next CD “Scenes of Horror” will be released on the Perfect Noise label with soprano Laila Salome Fischer and the ensemble Il Giratempo under Max Volbers’ direction.

Find out more about the CD “Whispers of Tradition” on GENUIN in the following video:

5. February 2024

Omer Meir Wellber’s concerts at the beginning of 2024 (February 2024)

After his New Year’s Eve and New Year’s concerts at the Vienna Konzerthaus, Omer Meir Wellber will be devoting January to the Vienna Volksoper and “his” Ranaana Symphonette in Israel, with which he spent a three-day-festival in Eilat. At the end of January and beginning of February, Omer Meir Wellber will return to Paris to the Orchestre National de France with a special program of Bach/Webern, Aziza Sadikova and Beethoven’s 7th Symphony.

This will be followed in early February by a symphony concert with L’Orchestra del Teatro dell’Opera di Roma in Rome and performances of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, before he then goes on tour with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra in Japan, Korea and Taiwan in March. In April, Omer Meir Wellber will perform with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg.

Omer Meir Wellber and the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini can be experienced on the YouTube channel of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele:

5. February 2024

Jan Vogler: Concerts with Amanda Gorman and at the Dresdner Musikfestspielen (February 2024)

After cellist and director of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele Jan Vogler has devoted himself very much to contemporary composers in recent years (including Three Continents by Nico Muhly, Sven Helbig, Zhou Long and the world premiere of Sean Sheperd’s On a clear day in New York), he is embarking on a new musical journey: on February 17th with a special concert format with inaugural-poet Amanda Gorman. Together they will perform a concert evening with Bach’s cello suites and spoken word at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

In May, Jan Vogler will perform a program with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under the direction of Anna Rakitina with works by Miklós Rózsa, an important Hungarian-American film composer. On June 4, Jan Vogler will play Anna Clyne’s cello concerto Dance with the London Philharmonia Orchestra and Santtu-Matias Rouvali. Both concerts belong to this year’s program of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele.

5. February 2024

Mari Kodama’s new CD “Mozart & Poulenc: Double and Triple Concertos” (February 2024)

Mari Kodama’s successful start to the 23/24 season began at the Hamburg City Hall Open Air concert with the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra under the direction of Kent Nagano performing Beethoven’s Concerto No.2. This year begins with Mari Kodama performing two piano concertos (Colin Mcphee’s Tabuh – Tabuhan for two pianos and orchestra and Poulenc’s Concerto for two pianos) with her sister Momo Kodama and the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra in Tokyo.

Her collaboration with the CD label Pentatone will see her recording piano pieces by Bruckner in April and the release of her newest CD “Mozart & Poulenc: Double and Triple Concertos” together with Momo Kodama, Karin Kei Nagano and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under the direction of Kent Nagano. One focus of Mari Kodama’s discography is the complete recording of piano works including the sonatas and concerti of Ludwig van Beethoven.
Her complete discography can be seen here.

Here you can listen to Mari Kodama at the Chopin Festival Hamburg in 2021 with Ravel’s Sonatine on Erard:

5. February 2024

Midori’s concert at the beginning of 2024 (February 2024)

Midori begins the new year with two performances of Detlef Glanert’s Violin Concerto No. 2 An die Unsterbliche Geliebte: in January with the NDR Radiophilharmonie and Andrew Manze and in February with the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, which co-commissioned the work. You can listen to the concert with the NDR Radiophilharmonie here for a year.

Other highlights in spring 2024 include concerts with the KBS Symphony in Seoul, with the Solistes Européens Luxembourg at the Luxembourg Philharmonie, a Schumann Violin Concerto recording at the KKL with the Festival Strings Lucerne, duo recitals in the USA and South America and guest appearances in Amsterdam, Prague, Wiesbaden and Dresden.

Midori’s recording of Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade for violin, strings, harp and percussion with the WDR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Constantinos Carydis is still available to listen to and watch on YouTube:

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