Schedule

At the beginning of the 19th century, Europe was set alight by a shocking new dance craze: the waltz. The story of the waltz is inseparable from the story of the Strauss family. This docudrama, entertainingly presented by Lesley Garrett, tells their story. Composers Strauss Sr. and Strauss Jr., who both held the public title of "The Waltz King", were uneasy rivals in their private life. Strauss Sr., born in 1804, was a hugely popular composer, who transformed the waltz from a simple dance into a Viennese cultural phenomenon. Yet his reputation was entirely eclipsed by his eldest son, who took the waltz to a whole new musical level, writing The Blue Danube and several other pieces. However, in his own mind, Strauss Jr. never quite escaped the shadow of his father. Lesley Garrett explores the origins of the waltz - the music, the dance steps, the ballrooms, and the costumes, while narrating the bitter conflict between a father and a son. This rich and compelling story is lavishly illustrated with the music and dancing of the time, recreated at Vienna's sumptuous Hofburg Palace.

This concert may be called a meeting of musical giants: Manfred Honeck conducts the Berlin Philharmonic while cellist Yo-Yo Ma features as soloist. Success guaranteed when these artists take the stage at the 2016 Easter Concert from the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden! Honeck, musical director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, made his successful debut with the Berlin Philharmonic in 2013. Yo-Yo Ma has played regularly with the orchestra since 1978. The concert opens with Brahms' Tragic Overture, Op. 81, followed by Schumann's Concerto for Cello, Op. 129. The orchestra concludes with a performance of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 “Pathétique.” While Schumann’s Cello Concerto was never played during his lifetime, Tchaikovsky died just nine days after the premiere of his Symphony No. 6.

At the age of eleven, Italian pianist Andrea Bacchetti (*1977) debuted with Italian chamber orchestra I Solisti Veneti under the baton of Claudio Scimone. He performed on international festivals and in prestigious concert halls worldwide. Besides, he appeared with several renowned orchestras such as Lucerne Festival Strings, Camerata Salzburg, and Prague Chamber Orchestra. In the current recital, Bacchetti performs J. S. Bach’s celebrated Goldberg Variations, BWV 988. Completed in 1741, the work is named after German harpsichordist Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, who might have been the first to have performed the work. Bach’s masterpiece consists of an aria and a set of thirty variations. Rather than writing variations on the aria’s melody, Bach used the accompanying bass line as his starting point. This performance was recorded at Theater Carlo Felice in Genoa, Italy, on April 13, 2015.

The third part of the Ring Cycle focuses on Siegfried, the child of Sieglinde and Siegmund. His upbringing wild and free, he has never learned the meaning of fear. As he struggles to break free from his past and to forge his own destiny, the fateful possession of the Ring passes to him. He acquires his father's sword, kills the dragon Fafner, and wakes the sleeping Brünnhilde. As the Wanderer (Wotan in disguise) tries to bar his way, he brushes him aside and breaks his spear, thereby destroying his power. "Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito turned out the funniest Siegfried I have ever experienced. Lisa Gasteen's voice was lovely and communicative… Wolfgang Schöne made a marvelous Wanderer while Heinz Göhrig created a more sympathetic Mime than usual. His singing was excellent." (Seattle Opera Magazine. The Staatsorchester Stuttgart is conducted by Lother Zagrosek. Soloists of the evening are Jon Frederic West, Wolfgang Schöne, Björn Waag, Attila Jun, Gabreila Herrera, Helene Ranada and Lisa Gasteen. This rendition took place in the Staatsoper in Stuttgart in 2003 and was directed by Jossi Wieler.

Les Dissonances is a collective of artists founded by violinist David Grimal in 2004. The conductorless ensemble consists of musicians from the most prestigious European orchestras, international soloists, and young talents. In this performance, Les Dissonances perform Johannes Brahms’ String Sextet No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 18. The work is scored for two violins, two violas, and two cellos. Brahms wrote his only two string sextets at the very beginning of his career. String Sextet No. 1 was written in 1860. Brahms was one of the first to compose for this ensemble, blazing a trail for Antonín Dvořák, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Arnold Schoenberg, and others. This performance was recorded at Opéra de Dijon, France, in 2013.

French conductor Adrien Perruchon leads the Flanders Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Maurice Ravel’s famous Boléro. The Boléro, one of the world’s most popular classical pieces, was commissioned by Russian dancer Ida Rubinstein. She asked the composer to create ballet music of a Spanish character. Ravel’s 1928 composition is inspired by the bolero, a Spanish dance in 3/4 time that originated from the 18th century. Ravel’s piece is characterized by a prominent, unchanging rhythm played on the snare drum, which continues throughout the piece. This performance was recorded in Belgium at Concertgebouw Brugge on March 1, 2017.

Conductor Mariss Jansons, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Mussorgsky's “Pictures at an Exhibition” were predestined to come together. The lavish colors of Ravel's orchestration of the Russian work, the breathtaking inventiveness of the wildly different movements that are all interconnected through a recurring “Promenade” – few conductors are as adept as Jansons to savor all the richness and colorfulness of the paintings and sketches by Victor Hartmann. Today, the work is universally celebrated in its dazzling orchestral transcription by Maurice Ravel. It was the great conductor Serge Koussevitzky who commissioned the orchestration by Ravel in 1922. Recorded at Herkulessaal, Munich in 2014.

American conductor Leonard Slatkin leads the Orchestre National de Lyon in a concert recorded at the Auditorium de Lyon in 2014. The concert opens with William Bolcom´s Circus Ouverture, which was specially composed for Slatkin's 70th birthday. The concert continues with a performance of Beethoven's Triple Concerto in C, Op. 56 performed by three female soloists: Olga Kern (piano), Baibe Skride (violin) and Sol Gabetta (cello). The work is the only concerto which Beethoven ever completed for more than one solo instrument. The concert closes with Ravel's beloved orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

In 2012, Norwegian opera director Stefan Herheim brought Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème to the stage of the Norwegian National Opera in Oslo. About his choice for this updated version, Herheim explained: “In bringing La bohème into a present-day setting with this new production we hope to revive the immediate power of suggestion and importance that this work at one time revelled in.” The opera about the Bohemian lifestyle of the poor seamstress Mimì and her artist friends is a fast-moving story, and offers some of the greatest arias Puccini ever wrote. Norwegian conductor Eivind Gullberg Jensen leads the Orchestra and Chorus of the National Opera Oslo. Among the soloists are Marita Sølberg (Mimì), Diego Torre (Rodolfo), Vasily Ladyuk (Marcello), and Jennifer Rowley (Musetta).

Under the direction of Conrad van Alphen, the Sinfonia Rotterdam Orchestra performs Haydn's Symphony No. 45 at the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) in The Hague. This piece is nicknamed "Farewell" because of a funny anecdote. Haydn and his musicians stayed every year from May to October at the magnificent Esterháazy Palace, at the request of Prince Nicholas. In early November 1772, the prince announced his intention to remain at the palace for two more months. The musicians then told Kapellmeister Haydn their disagreement with this forced extension of their stay. The solution proposed by Haydn was to compose a piece delivering a clear message: at the end of the last movement of the Symphony, the musicians were called to blow the candles on their lectern and leave the room one after the other. Prince Nicholas understood the message; the next day a car was waiting for the musicians to take them home.

Baritone Geng Lee (China, 1994) and pianist Nils Basters (Germany, 1989) perform Henri Duparc’s Chanson triste; ‘Ein Jüngling liebt ein Mädchen’ and ‘Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen’ from Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe, Op. 48; ‘Litany’ from John Musto’s Shadow of the Blues; Bart Visman’s Vermeer’s Gold; ‘Hôtel’ from Francis Poulenc’s Banalités, FP 107; and ‘Ging heut’ Morgen über’s Feld’ from Gustav Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, during the semi-finals of the International Vocal Competition 2021 – Lied Duo. This performance was recorded at Het Noordbrabants Museum in ’s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands.