Our artists have recorded various CDs that will be released over the upcoming months.
Omer Meir Wellber starts into the new season 2014/15 with several performances at the Semperoper Dresden. On 17 September he will conduct a symphonic concert at the rostrum of the Sächsische Staatskapelle with works by Dvořák and Haydn.
Shortly before, he leads revival performances of Così fan tutte und Daphne at the opera house. Così fan tutte is the first part of a Mozart/Da Ponte trilogy that Wellber conducts over three consecutive years. The premiere was in March 2014. Daphne was Omer Meir Wellber’s debut production at the Semperoper in 2010 what lead to a profound relationship with the opera house.
All of Omer Meir Wellber conducting dates at the Semperoper Dresden at a glance:
4, 8, 28 September & 25 October, Dresden, Semperoper
Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden
Mozart: Così fan tutte
14 & 16 September, Dresden, Semperoper
Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden
Strauss: Daphne
17 September, Dresden, Semperoper
Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden
Dvořák: Serenade for strings, op.22
Haydn: Cello concerto No. 4
Haydn: Symphony No. 103 „The Drumroll “
Norbert Anger, Cello
Kent Nagano and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal will be hosting the third edition of their succesful “Virée classique” from 14 to 16 August: This grand Montréal classical-music festival is a true celebration of classical music and will feature more than 30 concerts taking place in four venues, including the Maison symphonique de Montréal. The opening concert on 14 August presents Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana with a chorus of 1,000, a large-scale free concert on the Olympic Park’s Esplanade Financière Sun Life. On 15 and 16 August Kent Nagano and the orchestra welcome artists such as violinist Vadim Repin, pianists Rafał Blechacz, Andreas Haefliger and Marc-André Hamelin, soprano Erin Wall and many others. Together they will present a splendid variety of solo recitals, chamber music and orchestral concerts. As a special concert-event, the festival is staging Leonard Bernstein’s A Quiet Place.
Kent Nagano comments: “Offering musical experiences to a broad and diverse audience is a special role that the OSM takes very much to heart. As musical ambassadors for all Montrealers, we deeply value the opportunity to reach an ever-growing audience of experienced and potential music lovers.”
Midori, named a UN Messenger of Peace by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2007, visited United Nations headquarters on 3 June 2014. Her chief mission that day was to play a concert for UN dignitaries and staff members, to raise awareness of the important work of the Messengers of Peace program within the UN, and to extend the network of communication and cooperation from the program to other divisions of the organization.
Midori brought with her to the UN three young musicians – GaHyun Cho (violin), William Frampton (viola), and Michael Katz (cello) – who had traveled with her to Myanmar in December 2013 as part of the International Community Engagement Program (ICEP). They were met at the UN that morning by Jeffrey Brez and Jon Herbertsson, two executives of the UN’s Messenger of Peace division, and were escorted to the Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium, where they played string quartet music (excerpts) for the assembled dignitaries.
Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, welcomed Midori and the other quartet members and introduced Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who explained the crucial importance of the Messengers of Peace program and expressed his appreciation for Midori’s ongoing commitment to the UN and to her community engagement work worldwide. Midori thanked Secretary-General Ban, spoke of their shared belief in the advancement of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, and introduced the music from the stage. The quartet performed a brief concert.
Next Midori was ushered to the UN’s onsite television studio, where she made two public service announcements – each shot in both English and Japanese – to be used by the UN in multiple contexts at conferences, summits, in social media, and for public broadcast. The first of these “PSAs” was in behalf of the UN’s Every Woman Every Child program, which works to prevent maternal and infant illness and death worldwide. The second PSA was made for UN Women, a division of the UN devoted to abolishing violence against women and girls.
Midori then met with Mr. Brez and Megan Gemmell, Advocacy and Communications Officer of Every Woman Every Child, and Nanette Braun, Chief of Communications and Advocacy for UN Women, to strategize their efforts going forward.
Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra have recorded a new CD that will be published by Reference Recordings at the beginning of July, featuring Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 and Janáček’s Symphonic Suite from Jenůfa, arranged by Czech composer Tomáš Ille and conceptualised by Manfred Honeck. This release is the second in a series of multi-channel hybrid SACD recordings on the FRESH! label by Reference Recordings with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under Manfred Honeck.
At the beginning of the 2014-15 season, Manfred Honeck will conduct the NDR-Sinfonieorchester, the Vienna and Bamberg Symphony Orchestras, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In Pittsburgh, he opens the new season on 13 September with a gala concert featuring Anne-Sophie Mutter.
Manfred Honeck’s concert dates at the beginning of the 14-15 season at a glance:
13 September, Pittsburgh, Heinz Hall – Gala
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Bruch: Violin concerto
Anne-Sophie Mutter, Violin
19-21 September, Pittsburgh, Heinz Hall
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Bates: Rusty Air in Carolina
Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini op. 43
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique op. 14a
Valentina Lisitsa, Piano
8-10 October, Prag, Rudolfinum
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Janacek: Suite from Jenůfa
Strauss: Death and Transfiguration
Mahler: Lieder from “Des Knaben Wunderhorn”
Matthias Goerne, Bariton
16/19 October, Hamburg, Laeiszhalle
NDR-Sinfonieorchester
MacMillan: Woman of the Apocalypse
Mozart: Piano concerto C Major KV 503
Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks
Martin Helmchen, Piano
17 October, Luebeck, Musik- und Kongresshalle
s. 16 October
30/31 October, Vienna, Musikverein
Wiener Symphoniker
Prokofieff: Piano concerto No. 3
Mahler: Symphony No. 1 “Titan”
Yuja Wang, Piano
16 November, Bamberg, Konzerthalle
Bamberger Symphoniker
Widmann: “Con brio” – Concert Overture for orchestra
Weber: Clarinet concerto No. 1
Brahms: Symphony No. 4
Jörg Widmann, Clarinet
17 November, Erlangen, Stadthalle
s. 16 November
28/30 November, Pittsburgh, Heinz Hall
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Thanksgiving
Alexskey Igudesman – Violin, Hyung-Ki Joo – Piano
5-7 December, Pittsburgh, Heinz Hall
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7
11/12/13/16 December, Chicago, Symphony Hall
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Haydn: Symphony No. 93
Strauss: Don Juan
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7
This summer, for the 21st time, young and established musicians such as Martin Stadtfeld, Lise de la Salle, Iskandar Widjaja, Daniel Ottensamer, Heinrich Schiff and many more will meet for the Moritzburg Festival to rehearse and perform chamber music near Dresden; initiated and directed by cellist Jan Vogler. Venues are the Baroque castle of Moritzburg, the famous Frauenkirche, but also a hangar of the Elbe aircraft factory.
This year’s composer-in-residence is Swiss Siemens Prize winner David Philip Hefti who wrote the Monumentum string sextet for the festival, a joint commission by the Moritzburg Festival, New York’s Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and the Käthe Kollwitz-Haus in Moritzburg.
“The composition ends with an extended Lamento on “Seed Fruit is not to be ground down”, a quote from Goethe’s “Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship”. Käthe Kollwitz occasionally employed these words as an argument for peace in this world, and furthermore created a litography with that title. I very much look forward to working with the festival artists around cellist Jan Vogler because due to its political and pacifist statement, my string sextet Monumentum is of special significance to me.”, said Hefti. The work will be premiered on 19 August.
You can find the festival program HERE.
Up until 2016 inclusive, conductor Kent Nagano will be leading the “Vorsprung Festival” as part of the Audi Summer Concerts. In its first year, the new series comprises five concerts.
The “Vorsprung Festival” will focus on the Audi Youth Choir Academy with two concerts on 10 and 13 July together with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Kent Nagano. Kent Nagano has already worked with the Audi Youth Choir Academy on several occasions in the past.
The “festival within a festival” also provides a platform for renowned musicians such as pianist Rudolf Buchbinder (16 July), tenor Ian Bostridge (11 July) and the ChorWerk Ruhr ensemble (12 July). Following the evening of Lieder by Ian Bostridge, the members of the Youth Choir Academy will have an opportunity to chat with the singer as well as with Kent Nagano. This – along with the performance by the young award-winning cellist Raphaela Gromes in the same concert as Rudolf Buchbinder – reflects Nagano’s desire that the “Vorsprung Festival” should provide a platform for talented young people to meet internationally renowned artists.
Kent Nagano and his Orchestre symphonique de Montréal await with excitement the inauguration of their new Grand Organ Pierre Béique on 28 May 2014. The organ – named after the founder and first manager of the orchestra – was built by the Canadian organ maker Casavant in cooperation with the architects of the concert hall Diamond Schmitt+Ædifica. The concert on 29 May with two world premieres of organ works by composers Kaija Saariaho and Samy Moussa will be broadcast live and for free on Medici.tv (CEST: 30 May, 2.00 am) and will be available online for three months. Please click here for the Webcast.
Kent Nagano – whose contract was recently extended until 2020 – opens the 2014-15 season on 10 and 11 September with Belioz’s dramatic symphony Romeo and Juliet. In March 2015, Kent Nagano presents two rarely performed compositions: Amériques by Varèse on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death and the musical drama L’Aiglon – a joint composition by Arthur Honegger (Acts II, III and IV) and Jacques Ibert (Acts I and V) on Napoleon II.
For further details on the season’s programme please have a look at the brochure which you can access as a PDF: http://www.osm.ca/pdf/Brochure_OSM_saison14_15_An.pdf.
Kent Nagano and the OSM just returned from a tremendously successful European tour. The concerts in Zurich, Bern, Geneva, Vienna, Madrid, Oviedo, Cologne, Essen and Munich were received with much acclaim by both, audience and press. The orchestra and Kent Nagano presented an unusually broad repertoire with works by Berlioz, Stravinsky, Ravel, Debussy, Vivier, Unsuk Chin, Liszt’s Piano concerto, Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 as well as a world premiere by David Philip Hefti.
You can still watch two of the orchestra’s recent concerts on Medici.tv for free:
Concert from Montréal 5 March 2014
Tour concert from Wiener Konzerthaus 17 March 2014
From 5 June until 7 June Midori will play Peter Eötvös’ “DoReMi” in the Avery Fisher Hall in New York together with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Alan Gilbert. The Hungarian composer wrote this piece especially for her.
You can find an interview with Midori about that piece here..
UK debut at Glyndebourne Festival
Israeli conductor Omer Meir Wellber makes his UK debut at the Glyndebourne Festival on 18 May 2014 with the musical direction of Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” at the rostrum of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The opera is a revival of Graham Vick’s production from 1994.
Omer Meir Wellber comments: “I am very excited making my debut at the Glyndebourne festival and I am especially happy to conduct ‘Eugene Onegin’ – an opera that is very dear to me. The message of this opera is very modern. Everything that happens unfolds in front of other people, so that none of the characters ever has a moment of intimacy. People are not quite free to say what they really mean as the judgement of society is determinant. When you start to read the opera in those terms, you begin to see its musical characteristics in a different light. I love Graham Vick’s production – one of the first opera DVDs that I saw – and I look forward to becoming part of it and working closely with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the singers and everyone else involved.”
Performance dates of “Eugene Onegin” at Glyndebourne
18, 22, 25, 28, 31 May
3, 6, 13, 17, 20, 24, 29 June
5, 8, 11 July
Please click here for more information.
DVD release of “Aida” | Arena di Verona | La Fura dels Baus
Beginning of May 2014, Bel Air will release a DVD with Verdi’s “Aida” from the Arena di Verona under the musical direction of Omer Meir Wellber and staged by La Fura dels Baus. The recording of the jubilee performance from June 2013 – celebrating the first century of the Arena di Verona Opera Festival and Verdi’s 200th birthday – was a huge success; the broadcast by German public TV ZDF alone reached 1,4 million viewers. Please click here for a trailer of the performance.
Please visit www.omermeirwellber.com for more information on Omer Meir Wellber and his recent success at the Semperoper Dresden.