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.
Following the 20th anniversary edition last year, established and young musicians will meet again from 9-24 August 2014 to rehearse and perform together in a variety of venues – the Baroque Moritzburg castle, the Transparent Factory of Volkswagen in Dresden, the Frauenkirche Dresden, Saxony’s oldest and biggest vineyard estate Schloss Proschwitz, as well as a hangar of the Elbe aircraft factory Dresden.
You can browse the complete programme here.
This year’s composer-in-residence will be Swiss Siemens Prize winner David Philip Hefti, who has been commissioned with a string sextet for the festival. His orchestral work Adagio was premiered by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Kent Nagano in March 2014. Furthermore, musicians such as violinists Baiba Skride and Mira Wang, violist Hartmut Rohde, cellist Guy Johnston, pianists Martin Stadtfeld and Lise de la Salle, baritone Peter Schöne and actress Marie Bäumer will follow artistic director Jan Vogler’s invitation in 2014.
For the ninth time, 38 music students from around the world will form the Moritzburg Festival Orchestra to rehearse and perform orchestral works and chamber music – this year under the direction of cellist and conductor Heinrich Schiff.
A focus of the 2014 festival program will be on compositions of past centuries which were inspired by folk music, including works by Brahms, Martinů, Kodály and Haydn. The performance of Bach’s “Art of the Fugue” in Dresden’s Frauenkirche, commented by German actress Marie Bäumer from the perspective of Anna Magdalena Bach promises an extraordinary experience. The 2014 festival repertoire also includes Shostakovich’s and Mendelsohn’s string octets and Dvorak’s and Brahms’ string sextets.
Please visit www.moritzburgfestival.de.
Gramophone Magazine picked the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s recent recording of Strauss’s tone poems as one of its “Editor’s Choice” recordings for March 2014. The CD was released in November 2013 on Reference Recordings Fresh! label.
Reviewer Ivan March said of the recording, “This is one of the outstanding Strauss CDs of the year; the quality of playing and recording makes it very recommendable indeed.” He also credited Music Director Manfred Honeck for his interpretations, “which vividly bring out the music’s emotional and pictorial detail.”
In July 2014, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra will release its next CD featuring works by Dvořák and Janáček.
On 10 May the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Manfred Honeck will appear at the Carnegie Hall New York. The concert is part of the Spring For Music festival and will feature works by Bruckner, Poulenc and MacMillan as well as Manfred Honeck’s version of Mozart’s Requiem – “Mozart and Death in Words and Music” – incorporating selections from the Requiem, and other chants, music for mourning and readings.
10 May, New York, Carnegie Hall
Bruckner: Ave Maria
Poulenc: Final Scene from “Dialogues des Carmélites”
MacMillan: Woman of the Apocalypse
Mozart: Requiem (in a version by Manfred Honeck “Mozart and Death in Words and Music”)
Sunhae Im – Soprano, Elizabeth DeShong – Mezzo-Soprano, Benjamin Bruns – Tenor, Liang Li – Bass
F. Murray Abraham – Speaker
The Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh (Betsy Burleigh, Music Director)
New CD | Beethoven: Symphonies No. 1 & 7
Just in time for their European tour in March, Kent Nagano and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal will be releasing a CD with Beethoven’s Symphonies No. 1 & 7 on Sony. The CD “Departure – Utopia” is part of a recording of all the Symphonies by Beethoven by the orchestra and its Music Director. The Symphonies No. 3, 5, 6, 8 & 9 have already been released.
European Tour | 11 to 25 March 2014
From 11 to 25 March 2014 the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and Kent Nagano embark on a major European tour with concerts in Zurich, Bern, Geneva, Vienna, Madrid, Oviedo, Cologne, Essen and Munich.
Three of the tour concerts will be broadcast free of charge as online video streams and on the radio:
Vienna: Medici.TV – Video live stream on 17 March, 19:30 CET – available for 3 months
Cologne: Philharmonie.TV – Video live stream on 23 March, 20:00 CET
Deutschlandfunk – Radio broadcast on 6 April, 21:05 CET
Geneva: Radio Espace 2 – Radio broadcast on 9 April, 20:00 CET
As a preview of the tour the OSM’s concert on 5 March in Montréal – featuring the Swiss tour programme – will be streamed live and free of charge by Medici.TV (6 March, 2.00 am CET) and will stay available online for 3 months. The programme includes the World premiere of a new work by Swiss composer David Philip Hefti “Adagio – Beziehungsweisen für Orchester”.
The tour dates and programmes at a glance:
11 March, Zurich, Tonhalle
12 March, Bern, Kulturcasino
13 March, Geneva, Victoria Hall
Wagner: Parsifal – Prelude
David Philip Hefti: Adagio – Beziehungsweisen für Orchester European premiere
Liszt: Piano concerto No. 2
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique
Marc-André Hamelin – Piano
16 March, Vienna, Konzerthaus
Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin
Chin: Snags and Snarls (from: Alice in Wonderland)
Stravinsky: Petrushka
Ekaterina Lekhina – Soprano
17 March, Vienna, Konzerthaus
Mahler: Symphony No. 7
19 March, Madrid, Auditorio Nacional de Musica
Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin
Chin: Snags and Snarls (from: Alice in Wonderland)
Stravinsky: Petrushka
Ekaterina Lekhina, Soprano
20 March, Madrid, Auditorio Nacional de Musica
22 March, Oviedo, Principe Felipe Hall
Mahler: Symphony No. 7
23 March, Cologne, Philharmonie
Ravel: Mother Goose, Ballet
Chin: Snags and Snarls (from: Alice in Wonderland)
Ravel: Daphnis and Chloe, Suite No. 1
Stravinsky: Petrushka
Ekaterina Lekhina – Soprano
24 March, Essen, Philharmonie
Vivier: Orion
Liszt: Piano concerto No. 2
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique op. 14
Kit Armstrong – Piano
25 March, Munich, Philharmonie im Gasteig
Debussy: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
Liszt: Piano concerto No. 2
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique op. 14
Marc-André Hamelin – Piano
In the late summer of 1884 – 130 years ago – King Ludwig II fulfilled a dream that had long fascinated him. He decided to use the park of his castle on Herrenchiemsee Island as a setting of a mesmerising gesamtkunstwerk of music, architecture, nature, illumination and water: the huge construction site around the castle was concealed behind the backdrop of a painted park, a freight train from Holland brought bushes and flowers and the electrical engineer Alois Zettler designed what was presumably the first open air show lighting system in world history, installing a myriad of synchronised coloured lights. Karl Lautenschläger, the head technician of the Munich Court Theatre, wrote sophisticated stage directions for light and sound for the installation.
With this year’s motto ‘Son et lumière’, the Herrenchiemsee Festival would like to commemorate the anniversary of this event. The Festival will use musical means to reflect all the aspects that once fired the king’s imagination: serenades and night musics, acoustic images of nature from Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’ to Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ and landscape impressions from Berlioz’s symphony ‘Harold in Italy’ to Schumann’s ‘Rhenish’ symphony. And in terms of music drama, the range spans from the celebration of light and freedom in Beethoven’s ‘Fidelio’ to the enchantments of fairies and goblins in Mendelssohn’s ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’.
This year the festival will welcome the Venice Baroque Orchestra & Giuliano Carmignola (violin & conductor), the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Joseph Swensen, the Sofia Symphonics under Ljubka Biagioni, Le Concert des Nations conducted by Jordi Savall as well as the Chamber Orchestras Munich and Basel & Christian Zacharias (piano & conductor). Intendant Enoch zu Guttenberg leads his Orchester der KlangVerwaltung and the Chorgemeinschaft Neubeuern in several concerts.
15 July, 7.00 p.m. Denn es will Abend werden
Münster Frauenchiemsee
Bach: Four Cantatas
Bleib bei uns, denn es will Abend werden, BWV 6
Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats, BWV 42
Halt im Gedächtnis Jesum Christ, BWV 67
Der Himmel lacht! Die Erde jubilieret, BWV 31
Sibylla Rubens – Soprano, Olivia Vermeulen – Alto
Daniel Johannsen – Tenor, Klaus Mertens – Bass
Chamber Choir and Orchestra KlangVerwaltung, Conductor: Enoch zu Guttenberg
16 July, 7.00 p.m. Vesperae solennes
Münster Frauenchiemsee
Lechner: Magnificat primi toni
Vivaldi: Dixit Dominus “di Praga” RV 595
Mangon: Salve Regina
Mozart: Vesperae solennes de confessore KV 339
Augsburger Domsingknaben
Münchener Kammerorchester
17 July, 7.00 p.m. A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Spiegelsaal Schloss Herrenchiemsee
Beethoven: Symphony No 7 in A major
Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Klaus Maria Brandauer – Speaker
Susanne Bernhard – Soprano, Sarah Ferede – Mezzosoprano
Women’s choir of Chorgemeinschaft Neubeuern
Orchestra KlangVerwaltung, Conductor: Enoch zu Guttenberg
18 July, 7.00 p.m. Fidelio
19 July, 7.00 p.m. Fidelio
Spiegelsaal Schloss Herrenchiemsee
Beethoven: Fidelio, Opera in Two Acts (semi-staged)
Jochen Kupfer – Don Pizarro, Moritz Gogg – Don Fernando
Jörg Dürmüller – Florestan, Susanne Bernhard – Leonore
Sibylla Rubens – Marzelline, Daniel Johannsen – Jaquino
Chorgemeinschaft Neubeuern – Orchestra KlangVerwaltung
Conductor: Enoch zu Guttenberg
20 July, 7.00 p.m. Rhenish Symphony
Spiegelsaal Schloss Herrenchiemsee
Honegger: Pastorale d’été
Wieniawski: Violin Concerto No. 1
Schumann: Symphony No. 3, “Rhenish”
Henry Raudales – Violin
Orchestra KlangVerwaltung, Conductor: Dirk Joeres
21 July, 7.00 p.m. The Four Seasons
Spiegelsaal Schloss Herrenchiemsee
Vivaldi: Sinfonia for Strings in G major
Vivaldi: Concerto for Strings in G major “Alla Rustica”
Vivaldi: Concerto for Violin and Strings in E minor
Vivaldi: Concerto for Violin and Strings in E flat major “La Tempesta di Mare”
Vivaldi: Four Concertos for Violin and Orchestra, op. 8 “The Four Seasons”
Venice Baroque Orchestra, Conductor and Violin: Giuliano Carmignola
22 July, 7.00 p.m. Eine kleine Nachtmusik
Unvollendetes Treppenhaus Schloss Herrenchiemsee
Boccherini: “La musica notturna delle strade di Madrid” op. 30/6
Haydn: String Quartet in F major, op. 3/5 “Serenade Quartet”
Holliger: String Quartet No 2
Mozart: Serenade in G major, KV 525 “Eine kleine Nachtmusik”
Selected texts from “Nachtwachen von Bonaventura”
Gerd Anthoff – Speaker
Members of the KlangVerwaltung
23 July, 7.00 p.m. Pastoral
Spiegelsaal Schloss Herrenchiemsee
Mozart: Serenade in D major, “Posthorn Serenade”
Bach: Violin Concerto in A minor
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F major, op. 68 “Pastoral”
Alexander Janiczek – Violin
Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Conductor: Joseph Swensen
24 July, 7.00 p.m. Harold in Italy
Spiegelsaal Schloss Herrenchiemsee
Berlioz: “Harold in Italy”, op. 16
Strauss: Selected Songs for Orchestra & Suite from “Der Rosenkavalier”
Sofia Symphonics, Conductor: Ljubka Biagioni
25 July, 7.00 p.m. Tempest, Night and Celebration
Spiegelsaal Schloss Herrenchiemsee
Locke: Music for “The Tempest”
Lully: La Feste Marine (from “Alceste”)
Marais: Airs pour les Matelots et les Tritons, Tempête (from “Alcione”)
Rebel: Les Eléments
Vivaldi: Concerto in G minor “La Notte” RV 439
Rameau: Orage, tonnerre et tremblement de terre (from “Les Boréades”)
Le Concert des Nations, Conductor: Jordi Savall
26 July, 7.00 p.m. L‘Arlésienne
Spiegelsaal Schloss Herrenchiemsee
Rameau: Les Indes Galantes
Mozart: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No 24 in C minor, KV 491
Bizet: Incidental music for “L’Arlésienne” (original version,) op. 23
Kammerorchester Basel, Piano and musical direction: Christian Zacharias
27 July, 7.00 p.m. Dem lieben Gott gewidmet
Spiegelsaal Schloss Herrenchiemsee
Bruckner: Symphony No 9 in D minor
Bruckner: Ave Maria
Bruckner: Te Deum in C major
Susanne Bernhard – Soprano, Sarah Ferede – Mezzosoprano
Jörg Dürmüller – Tenor, Andreas Bauer – Bass
Chorgemeinschaft Neubeuern – Orchestra KlangVerwaltung
Conductor: Enoch zu Guttenberg
www.herrenchiemsee-festspiele.de
Mussorgsky’s opera „Boris Godunov“ was Kent Nagano’s final new production in his last season as Music Director at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. The label Bel Air will now release a DVD of the performance beginning of February. “If there was a live recording, one would have to get it immediately“, wrote Helmut Mauró on 14 February 2013 at the Süddeutsche Zeitung on the occasion of the premiere.
Child murder, scheming monks and a tsar lapsing into madness – Modest Mussorgsky spreads the thematic arc wide in his choral opera, with which he attempted to awaken an awareness of his own time through the indirect route of a historic story.
Kent Nagano and stage director Calixto Bieito put the less often performed and much shorter first version of the opera on stage – this way the spotlight is turned on the inner life of Godunov who is beset with hallucinations and feelings of guilt.
For a trailer of the performance please visit Kent Nagano’s website.
BORIS GODUNOV
Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881)
Opera in four parts and seven scenes
First version (1868/1869)
Libretto: Modest Mussorgsky after Alexander Pushkin and Nikolai Karamsins
Boris Godunov – Alexander Tsymbalyuk
Fyodor – Yulia Sokolik
Xenia – Eri Nakamura
Xenia’s nurse – Heike Grötzinger
Schuisky – Gerhard Siegel
Andrey Chelkalov – Markus Eiche
Pimen – Anatoli Kotscherga
Grigory Otropyev – Sergey Skorokhodov
Varlaam – Vladimir Matorin
Missail – Ulrich Reß
Hostess – Okka von der Damerau
Simpleton – Kevin Conners
Nikititch – Goran Jurić
The Boyar – Dean Power
Mityucha – Tareq Nazmi
Captain – Christian Rieger
Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Conductor Kent Nagano
Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper, Chorus master Sören Eckhoff
Stage direction – Calixto Bieito
Set design – Rebecca Ringst
Costume design – Ingo Krügler
Lighting – Michael Bauer
Dramaturgie/Dramaturgy – Andrea Schönhofer
HD recording: Bayerische Staatsoper (Munich), February 2013
Produced by François Duplat
Directed by Andy Sommer
Jan Vogler begins the new year with his debut with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, with whom he will perform a showpiece of the cello repertoire, Dvořák’s cello concerto:
30 January, 19:30 h, Fürth, Stadttheater
Bamberg Symphony, Pietari Inkinen
Dvořák: Cello concerto
31 January, 20 h, Bamberg, Konzerthalle
Bamberg Symphony, Pietari Inkinen
Dvořák: Cello concerto
1 February, 20 h, Bamberg, Konzerthalle
Bamberg Symphony, Pietari Inkinen
Dvořák: Cello concerto
In January and February 2014, Omer Meir Wellber conducts the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in a series of eight philharmonic concerts in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa featuring cellist Mischa Maisky. Omer Meir Wellber presents a varied program with works by Tchaikovsky, Haydn, Schumann, Ravel, Shostakovitch, Bizet and others:
24 January, 11.00 am, Jerusalem, Theatre
Mozart: Symphony No. 1
Tchaikovsky: Lensky’s Aria, from: Eugene Onegin (arr. for cello)
Respighi: Adagio con Variazioni for Cello
Haydn: Symphony No. 103
Mischa Maisky, Cello
27 January, 8.30 pm, Haifa, Auditorium
Michael Wolpe: Releasing of Vows, Symphonic Poem no. 7
Schumann: Cello concerto
Shostakovitch: Symphony No. 5
Mischa Maisky, Cello
30 January, Tel Aviv, 10.00 pm, Bronfman Auditorium
Bizet: L’Arlesienne
Saint Saens: Cello concerto
Gounod: Waltz from “Faust”
Ravel: Bolero
Mischa Maisky, Cello
Ran Danker, Singer & presenter
31 January, Tel Aviv, 11.00 am, Bronfman Auditorium
Mozart: Symphony No. 1
Tchaikovsky: Lensky’s Aria, from: Eugene Onegin (arr. for cello)
Respighi: Adagio con Variazioni for Cello
Haydn: Symphony No. 103
Mischa Maisky, Cello
1 February, 8.30 pm, Tel Aviv, Bronfman Auditorium
2 February, Jerusalem, 8.30 pm, International Convention Center
Michael Wolpe: Releasing of Vows, Symphonic Poem no. 7
Schumann: Cello concerto
Shostakovitch: Symphony No. 5
Mischa Maisky, Cello
3 February, Tel Aviv, 8.30 pm, Bronfman Auditorium
Bizet: L’Arlesienne
Saint Saens: Cello concerto
Gounod: Waltz from “Faust”
Ravel: Bolero
Mischa Maisky, Cello
Ran Danker, Singer & presenter
4 February, Tel Aviv, 8.30 pm, Bronfman Auditorium
Mozart: Symphony No. 1
Tchaikovsky: Lensky’s Aria, from: Eugene Onegin (arr. for cello)
Respighi: Adagio con Variazioni for Cello
Haydn: Symphony No. 103
Mischa Maisky, Cello
On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Richard Strauss‘s birth, Omer Meir Wellber conducts two operas by the composer at the Semperoper Dresden: a concert performance of the rarely performed opera “Guntram” and a revival of “Ariadne auf Naxos”.
„Guntram“ is Strauss‘ first stagework. He himself called it “an apprentice piece by a fully fledged Wagnerian, seeking out his own path to full musical independence”. It is easy to detect the influence of Richard Wagner in “Guntram”, even while the young composer is striving to step out from under his idol’s enormous shadow. The first performance on 23 February will be broadcast by radio MDR Figaro and can be listened to over their online live stream (delayed broadcast: 23 February, at 19.30 CET).
23 February, Dresden, Semperoper
Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden
Strauss: Guntram (concert performance)
Georg Zeppenfeld – Der alte Herzog, Marjorie Owens – Freihild, Markus Butter – Herzog Robert, Frank van Aken – Guntram, Simon Neal – Friedhold, Aaron Pegram – Des Herzogs Narr
Men of the Sächsische Staatsopernchor Dresden
Further performances: 28 February, 2 March
9 March, Dresden, Semperoper
Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden
Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos
Marjorie Owens – Ariadne, Romy Petrick – Zerbinetta, Barbara Senator – Komponist, Emily Dorn – Najade, Julia Mintzen – Dryade
Staging and set design: Marco Arturo Marelli
Further performances: 16 March, 15, 18 April
On 22 March, Omer Meir Wellber conducts the premiere of „Così fan tutte“ staged by Andreas Kriegenburg. The opera is the first work of a Mozart/Da Ponte trilogy at the Semperoper Dresden that will continue in 2015 and 2016 under Wellber’s direction.
22 March, Dresden, Semperoper
Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden
Mozart: Così fan tutte
Rachel Willis-Sørensen/Emily Dorn – Fiordiligi, Rachel Frenkel/Barbara Senator – Dorabella, Ute Selbig/Carolina Ullrich – Despina, Christopher Tiesi/Mert Süngü – Ferrando, Christoph Pohl/Zachary Nelson – Guglielmo, Georg Zeppenfeld/Evan Hughes – Don Alfonso
Sächsischer Staatsopernchor Dresden
Staging: Andreas Kriegenburg
Set design: Harald Thor
Further performances: 24, 26, 30 March, 3, 5, 6, 8 April, 6, 11, 16, 27 May, 2, 12 June
Omer Meir Wellber made his debut at the Semperoper in 2010 with Strauss‘s “Daphne” that was received with great acclaim by audience and critics. During his upcoming engagement in Dresden, Omer Meir Wellber will also get involved with educational projects of the opera house and work with pupils and students.
In 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 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.