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Two new novels exploring the lives of classical musicians living under Nazi rule in WWII-era Germany are raising eyebrows in the dual worlds of music and literature. At the heart of both books is the chilling conflict of great art in the face of great evil, and the inescapably human decisions that must be made in such situations. ...MORE NYTimes “The Savior” (Simon & Schuster), Eugene Drucker
“Variations on the Beast” (Dragon Press), Henry Grinberg
Not all the news from this year's Verbier Festival is about cancellations and substitutions. In conjunction with the classical new media company Medici Arts, the Festival has created a website dedicated to webcasting Verbier's concerts in high-definition audio and video.
At http://www.medici-arts.tv at least one concert will be streamed live each day.
Who will be the next to take the throne at the world-famous Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, which starts Wedensday? DW spoke with the most likely candidate, Richard Wagner's great-granddaughter Katharina. Ever since Wolfgang Wagner, director of the Bayreuth Festival and the composer's grandson, announced in 1999 that the search for a worthy successor was underway, festival fans and classical music connoisseurs have been hotly speculating on the lucky heir. ...MORE
American opera singer Teresa Stich-Randall, a soprano praised by Arturo Toscanini as "the find of the century," has died 17 JUL 2007 in Vienna, Austria's Bundestheater said Tuesday without specifying the cause of death. Acclaimed for her interpretations of Mozart's greatest works, Stich-Randall shuttled between the United States and Europe, where she spent most of her professional career singing in the world's great opera houses. She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1961 in Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte" and was a regular at the Salzburg Festival and the Vienna State Opera, where she performed on 355 separate occasions before retiring in 1972. See all stories on this topic | ...more | BIOGRAPHY
Originally produced by German TV in 2006, the six-part Arthaus "Classical Masterpieces" DVD se ries centers on core Austro-German symphonic repertoire, starting with Mozart's Symphony No. 41, "Jupiter." The programs feature a 52-minute documentary plus a full live performance, with the California-born Kent Nagano conducting the Deutsches Symphonie-Orches ter Berlin. The performance of this symphony balances richness and crispness in the modern Mozart style, attractive if not particularly charismatic. The sound is full- blooded, but the filming, while de tailed, is edited in such a ridiculously busy way that it leaves a viewer with vertigo.
This DVD features a half-hour film tracing the context and content of Dvorák's ever-popular Sym phony No. 9 (nicknamed "From the New World"), as the preface to a full live performance. And what a performance it is -- Claudio Ab bado conducting the Berlin Philharmonic, recorded in true sur round sound. Beyond the exalted playing -- the conductor yielding sounds like a conjurer of spirits in the symphony's Largo -- the musicians were beautifully shot in Palermo, Italy's Teatro Massimo. (This performance, plus Brahms' Violin Concerto with Gil Shaham, is also available on a DVD with the full 2002 Palermo concert.)
Dutch maestro Edo de Waart, who made his US debut at the Santa Fe Opera back in 1971, has been appointed the company's chief conductor...Edo de Waart (b. June 1, 1941) is a Dutch conductor of opera and symphony orchestras, particularly well-known as an orchestra builder havings elevated the status of a number of orchestras to top-notch ensembles. WIKI BIO
Another premiere recording, of Henryk Górecki's String Quartet No. 3, subtitled ... songs are sung and played by the Kronos Quartet, has been on and off the classical chart every couple of weeks since its debut in late March. It is now back on the chart at no. 17. ...CONSUMER INFO Henryk Mikolaj Górecki's String Quartet No. 3, Piesni Spiewaja ("...Songs Are Sung"), Op. 67--like its predecessors--was especially commissioned for and dedicated to the Kronos Quartet, whose impassioned, sympathetic performance burnishes it to a fare-thee-well. Approximately a decade of fits and starts separated the work's completion from its premiere, which finally took place in the composer's native Poland on October 15, 2005. Fans of his elegiac, incongruously popular Third Symphony likely somewhat startled by the spiky, dissonant virility that informs so much of Górecki's output. But the present piece would be an ideal follow-up for admirers of his more mystical, minimalist style.
The new Strauss recording, entering the chart at no. 20, is of the world premiere performance of the Four Last Songs, recorded live in concert at London's Royal Albert Hall in 1950. Kirsten Flagstad is the soprano soloist, with Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra. The disc also includes orchestral excerpts from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and Götterdämmerung, along with Brünnhilde's Immolation from the latter opera. ...CONSUMER INFO
The Boston Globe..."Osvaldo Golijov has made his name by shaking up the classical-music landscape and disturbing its boundaries... He has become the composer of the moment." Oceana, arriving on the chart at no. 4, is the third disc of Golijov's music to be recorded by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and conductor Robert Spano for the Deutsche Grammophon label. In addition to the title work, which features Brazilian vocalist Luciana Souza, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and the ASO Chamber Chorus, the disc includes the string quartet Tenebrae (performed by the Kronos Quartet) and three songs for soprano and orchestra (sung by Dawn Upshaw). ...CONSUMER INFO
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