Ruzicka’s Portrait Of A Philosopher More Of A Selfie
By Rebecca Schmid
BERLIN - At the annual modernist festival Ultraschall Berlin, German composer Peter Ruzicka's FLUCHT. Sechs Passagen for orchestra, said to depict philosopher Walter Benjamin, seemed more reflective of Ruzicka himself.
Debussy’s Light Shines In ‘Pelléas’ By Sellars, Berlin
By Rebecca Schmid
BERLIN – In an age of hyperactive productions, it is sobering to see director Peter Sellars capture the musical essence of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande in a semi-staging with the Berlin Philharmonic under Simon Rattle.
Bartoli-Villazón Road Show: Bel Canto Con Brio
By Sarah Hucal
BERLIN – Flush with success from the Salzburg Fest, where they were paired as Iphigénie and Pylade, Cecilia Bartoli and Rolando Villazón are in the middle of a bel canto concert tour of European capitals, with Bartoli as the undeniable star.
Goldmark’s Exotic ‘Sheba’ Is A Once And Future Queen
By Arthur Kaptainis
BUDAPEST – Hungarian State Opera's Die Königin von Saba (The Queen of Sheba) is a reminder that Goldmark's lavish and accomplished blend of Biblical spectacle and Wagnerian passion was a hit in its day and could be again.
‘AIM’ Premieres, Flanked By Icons Of Avante-Garde
By Rebecca Schmid
BERLIN – In AIM - Ich gehe, a new work by Nik Bärtsch for speaker, mixed choir, and piano duo, the Swiss composer intermingles the philosophical and childlike in his exploration of the “departure or awakening into both death and life.”
Ruptures, Restarts At German Festival Where New Reigns
By Rebecca Schmid
DONAUESCHINGEN — In the 2015 iteration of the venerable contemporary showcase, the borders between performance and installation, musical and non-musical, remained fluid, continuing tradition in a time of difficult changes.
Tokyo’s Big Eight Orchestras Flash Bigtime Qualities
By Robert Markow
TOKYO – The best of Japan's 1,600 symphony orchestras – one for every 90 square miles in this island nation – showed their virtuosic stuff to a visiting critic, though success often seemed to depend on who was waving the baton.
‘Vasco Da Gama’ (Or ‘L’Africaine’) Under Full Sail In Berlin
By Rebecca Schmid
BERLIN – The Deutsche Oper opened its season with a new edition of Meyerbeer's opera known as L'Africaine, but under the original title, "Vasco da Gama," and with a new power in the passion between queen and adventurer.
Barenboim Hails Schoenberg At Musikfest Berlin
By Rebecca Schmid
BERLIN - Leading the Staatskapelle Berlin, Daniel Barenboim led a grand prelude to the festival’s emphasis on the father of 12-tone music, tracing his evolution from brooding post-Romantic to experimentalist.
Lucerne Festival Embraces Beloved And Newest Fare
By Rebecca Schmid
LUCERNE - Works by Jürg Wyttenbach rubbed shoulders with music by Schubert, Prokofiev, Stravinsky and others during this year's Lucerne Festival, which also celebrated Lucerne favorite Pierre Boulez's 90th birthday.
Spirit Of Protest Spun From Blues And Avant-garde
By Rebecca Schmid
SALZBURG – Composer Olga Neuwirth honors "those who have dared to voice criticism" in Eleanor Suite, a chamber work with a role for a singer much like Billie Holiday. Martin Luther King's words also figure in the loose collage.
‘Ring’ At Bayreuth: Video Cameras, Crocodiles And Oil
By Jens F. Laurson
BAYREUTH – Much like Shakespeare, Wagner’s work prefigures psychoanalysis and cries out for brainy handling. For Frank Castorf’s no longer booed production of the Ring cycle, “Regietheater” is absolutely the mot juste.
Early Music Group Gives Tobias Hume A Tenuous Charm
By David Gordon Duke
VANCOUVER - Composer Tobias Hume (1580-1645) was a mercenary soldier with a passion for the viol. Montréal-based Les Voix Humaines devoted an evening to his novel output at the summer Early Music Festival.
Dancers Sing And Singers Dance In Sasha Waltz ‘Orfeo’
By Rebecca Schmid
BERLIN – In what she last summer declared would be the final opera produced by her company, the choreographer Sasha Waltz has fulfilled a long-time dream by giving Monteverdi's Orfeo a danced staging at the Staatsoper.
Festival Reveals Piano Gems From A Siberian Prison
By Rebecca Schmid
GOHRISCH, Germany – The last music teacher to the Tsar's family, Vsevolod Zaderatsky, was sent to a Gulag, where he used telegram forms to scratch out 24 preludes and fugues, heard at International Shostakovich Days in full.
In Tokyo’s Garden Of Chamber Music, Bouquets Abound
By Robert Markow
TOKYO - There's a great hunger for classical music in Japan, but less taste for chamber forms. Suntory Hall's two-week festival in a salon setting is designed to nurture young Japanese musicians alongside international stars.
From ‘Liebesverbot’ To ‘Ring,’ Wagner Echoes in Leipzig
By James Paulk
LEIPZIG - Oper Leipzig, in the composer's home town, presented the first three installments of its new Ring cycle, along with performances of Parsifal, Tannhäuser, and from Wagner at age 23, the rarely done Das Liebesverbot.
Dresden Fest’s Varied Programs Sizzle And Chill
By Rodney Punt
DRESDEN - "Fire Ice" is the theme of the 2015 Dresden Music Festival, an extravaganza of eclectic offerings devised by German cellist Jan Vogler, who has transformed the event since taking over in 2009.
Twist Upon Twist, ‘Elektra’ Reshaped At Bavarian Opera
By Jason Victor Serinus
MUNICH - In a revival of Herbert Wernicke’s 1997 production, Iréne Theorin, at the top of her game as Elektra, stared straight ahead into space, axe in hand, less mad than fixated on revenge for her father Agamemnon's murder.
