"Réveil des oiseaux" is also a virtuoso piano concerto, for which we have Pierre-Laurent Aimard, a master pianist who was influenced by his encounter with Messiaen as a child. The work is based on faithful transcriptions of birdsong, which Messiaen revered as divine messages. These enigmatic sounds, which were heard on our planet long before [...]
Three masterpieces of "absolute music" that do not tell a "programme" story and yet appear highly exciting and emotional: they express pain, conflict, grief as well as the longing for reconciliation. Each work represents a cosmos of its own, particularly evident in Friedrich Cerha's music, which spreads out a soundscape on over 300 percussion instruments. The energetic young exceptional virtuoso Vivi Vassileva [...]
Three masterpieces of "absolute music" that do not tell a "programme" story and yet appear highly exciting and emotional: they express pain, conflict, grief as well as the longing for reconciliation. Each work represents a cosmos of its own, particularly evident in the case of Cerha, who spreads out a soundscape on over 300 percussion instruments. The energetic young exceptional virtuoso Vivi Vassileva is [...]
Compositions of tragic topicality. A concert in times of war. The Symphony Orchestra of Berlin University of the Arts, together with the Kammerchor der Künste Berlin and mezzo-soprano Marina Prudenskaya under the direction of Steven Sloane, will set an example for peace on november 20 in the Berlin Philharmonie. Valentin Silvestrov's Prayer for Ukraine, Gustav Mahler's Kindertotenlieder, [...]
"You can hardly play the violin more expressively and uncompromisingly than Gringolts", writes Harald Eggebrecht in the Süddeutsche Zeitung about this exceptional musician. Ilya Gringolts won the renowned Paganini Competition at the age of 16. Since then, he has put his virtuosity at the service of subtle interpretations. Together with the Camerata Bern, he presents a programme from the end of the 17th [...]
The MDR Symphony Orchestra has a new chief conductor: the American Dennis Russell Davies, who enjoys an excellent reputation as a Haydn and Bruckner conductor. As an advocate of contemporary music, he has also worked with important composers such as John Cage, Philip Glass and Hans Werner Henze. Modernism is also a focal point of his work in Leipzig. Ergo, the joint [...]
Dennis Russell Davies is regarded as the leading conductor of American music. In this concert, together with the MDR Symphony Orchestra and a total of almost 200 performers, he presents three very personal works by composers who have left their mark on American music of the 20th century. Decoration Day is the day on which the fallen are remembered and their graves decorated in the USA [...]
"The Gaechinger Cantorey is ... an experience. There was a special highlight in the Great Hall" wrote Marcus Stäbler in the Hamburger Abendblatt about the Elbphilharmonie debut a year ago: "The performers are magical, and the Great Hall is magical too... Hans-Christoph Rademann models the mood changes of the mass vividly and grippingly. With the 36 singers of his wide-awake choir, [...]
Although Henri Dutilleux was a contemporary and colleague of the avant-garde composer Pierre Boulez, his musical language was always too dogmatic for him. Instead, Dutilleux loved the musical "fragrance" and richness of sound that connected him with his great compatriot Debussy. With his Second Symphony, Dutilleux wrote a work in 1959 that is a distant link to the music of the 18th century. [...]
"I am delighted whenever I hear a new work of yours and take a greater interest in it than in my own. In short, I honor and love you," Ludwig van Beethoven once wrote to Luigi Cherubini. His admiration for his fellow composer went so far that he even wished for Cherubini's Requiem to be played at his own funeral [...].
